Delayed Report from Boston

Boston was quite an adventure. There was so much to do and oh so very little time to do it in.

Apologies for leaving you hanging, but Comcast in Boston is no more efficient than it is anywhere else. Bridgete is still without cable and internet and I've only been home a few days. I finally got my laundry done tonight. So here's a quick recap and some pictures.

The movers arrived Saturday morning and unloaded the truck in about 90 minutes. Then Bridgete's poor little apartment looked like this.

Then we had the 2 hour adventure of trying to find where in hell we were to return the truck to. We couldn't find the address on any maps online. Bridgete kept trying to call the Budget truck office number and getting no answer. She finally called the 800 number for Budget and got someone who thought he could tell us where it was, but we ended up in Dorchester. We tried to go to the library, but it was closed. So we went into a pharmacy and met a lovely man who found us a map and showed us where he thought it was. But the street wasn't clearly marked on the map. And the streets are not clearly marked in Boston. Perhaps this is what makes Boston drivers so cranky.

We drove around and around and around - looking in vain for some sign that we were in the right place. We finally found the street - which only exists for about 2 blocks - and couldn't see any signs of a Budget place. Then we saw another Budget truck and drove madly around the block to go where we had seen it. But it was only a parking lot - and on Saturday it was used as free parking for a Chinese grocery. Somehow, we knew we were close and went around the block again - finally finding the truck rental attached to a storage facility.

Once that task was accomplished, we gots some eats at a nice little deli, where a couple of true Southie's came in and harrased the Asian store owner. He looked a lot like Apu. But he just kind of shrugged off the abuse and made us some great sandwiches which we could only eat half of.

Then we found a cab and a shopping mall and went to Target. Little did we know it was Tax Free weekend in Mass. No sales tax. The store was crazy and the shelves were quickly emptied. But we got what we needed and got back to Bridgete's with no loss of life. We got a little exposure to Boston cabbies and to the pirate cabs that operate in the city. We met a lovely lady whose name I will not mention. She lives near Northeastern where Bridgete will be going to school and gave her phone number to B. So I feel like she'll have a surrogate mom there - of a sort.

Sunday we unpacked and assembled and arranged things. Monday we decided to explore downtown and see some history and then do some more shopping. Boston is amazing. So much of what we are as a country happened there -and there is so much to see and do and enjoy.
Here's a few pictures - including ones of B and I on the site of the Boston Massacre.

Monday night we treated ourselves to a movie at the Coolidge Theatre. A fabulous place to see a movie if you are in the Brookline area. We happened to go to a big screen showing of WEST SIDE STORY. I haven't seen it on a big screen in years and it was so fun - and cool. The weather in Boston was changeable. Rainy and cool one minute. Hot and muggy the next. And they say Portland is changeable! HA!

Tuesday was more unpacking. Wednesday was some neighborhood exploring - looking at restaurants along Harvard Ave., wine and liquor shopping, and a viewing of THE DEPARTED back at the apartment.

Thursday was supposed to be the day we got internet and cable. But that's another story. I'll let Bridgete tell that one when she finally does have internet.

Friday was - for me - the best and worst day of the trip. We went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, someplace I've wanted to go for years. And it was everything I wanted and more. I plan to go back whenever I'm in Boston. I missed the Edward Hopper exhibit, because it was sold out - but everything else I saw moved my artists soul to tears.

The MFA is a few blocks from Northeastern and we walked back to the campus - here a pictures of the law school buildings - and I finally had to face the fact that Bridgete was staying here - in this wonderful city. And I would be leaving on Saturday. That post will follow this one. I wrote it in LAX when I was waiting for my plane home to Portland.

Thanks to those of you who have commented on the blog. And thanks to all the rest of you who have been reading.