Bewitching Bean Town: My Visit to Boston!

This post is a lot late seeing as how I actually went to Boston at the very end of July. I wasn't sure if I wanted to put any domestic destinations on this blog, but why not? After spending a month celebrating my birthday, I decided to continue the festivities and head to Boston to visit my sister. I had been to this beautiful city many times before, but I was ready to have some key experiences worth writing about. 

 There are a couple of things that absolutely must happen while visiting, and one of them is lobster. My arthropod acquaintance came to me at the new Legal Seafood right on the Boston Harbor. This place was amazing complete with a third floor lounge area with glass walls and fireplaces. Even though we had to wait for a couple hours, the atmosphere was fantastic, and when dinner arrived, it was worth it. Not feeling very confident in my lobster cracking skills, I was assisted by our fearless lobster handler table-side. It was fun to watch an expert lobster cracker at work. The weather was less than ideal that night, so we went back to my sister Jessica's apartment in the North End. For a city apartment, it is pretty amazing.  She has a roof deck overlooking the harbor where I was happy to sit for hours and watch the party boats and the duck tours propel through the water. It was also nice to hear bits and pieces of history as the tour busses drove by. I hadn't realized how touristy this place actually was until this week. I guess it makes sense though because it is a big deal in terms of founding fathers and all. Jess actually lives across the street from one of the oldest cemeteries in the country. Copp's Hill is so old that you can't even read the tombstones anymore. They are just stone blocks leaning out of the ground. This brings me to my close encounter of the spiritual kind. I saw my first ghost. At first I thought is was my sister getting ready for work, but it happened around 3 in the morning and it didn't look like my sister. This ghost was a woman though and she was wearing a colonial type dress. I have no idea who she was or what she wanted, but just just looked at me for a while and then left. It was a pretty uneventful experience, but I'm sure she was a ghost and I saw her. While I doubt that many people will see a ghost tour that happens across the street at dusk, I now can say that I had my own spiritual encounter. 

After a couple of days it was time to get away from summer in the city to head to "The Cape," Cape Cod, Mass. This is where I would be meeting up with many extended family members including my grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. When this group gets together it is always a great time. After waiting in the bus station for a ridiculously long time, we were on the road and sitting in some traffic. That is the way the Cape is in the summer though, so you just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fact that you aren't driving. This classic New England summer affair came complete with small cottages on the bay, fresh caught oysters, and a lot of relaxation. 

A rare occasion that most of the family is together. Grandparents, sisters, four cousins, two aunts, two uncles, but mom and dad were missing.

At weekend's end, it was back on the bus, and back to Boston. No visit to this historic city would be complete without a visit to Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. The Sox have a long standing place in my family. I grew up watching games and listening to my father air his frustrations with bad calls and players not working up to their potential. Fenway has history, just like the city. The fans are of the most loyal in the country, and you can feel it as soon as you enter. Even if you don't like baseball, you can't help but get caught up in the Americana that exists within these stadium seats. I was especially enthralled with the playing of the spoons that took place in the bull pen. What a talented bunch of guys! I don't remember who won that night, but it didn't matter, it was a great time on a beautiful night!

My last day was spent wandering aimlessly in the city. It was a cloudy day with rain threatening hour by hour, but it didn't put a damper in the fun. I took a long walk by the water, watching the boats of all kinds, all the way to the Boston Aquarium. I wasn't planning on going in because I had been there many times before when I was younger. I was there to see the sea lion tank. What luck, it was feeding time and they were quite active. Once a sizable crowd had grown, I was off again in search of a nice waterside lunch. I found it at Joe's American Bar and Grill. I got a perfect little table with a stunning view of the harbor and sat and ate a lovely crab cake salad. Yummy! It was the perfect end to a really great week in  Boston.