Wheels...

Today we picked up our hire car...with Californian plates for some reason. Always a fraught experience...so many pitfalls and irritating extra charges.

Anyway we drove away, with only a slight detour when we took a wrong exit from the Boston tunnel and ended up in a concrete road section with all exits saying buses only ...it looked like a scene from a dystopian film after the apocalypse...fortunately we found a way to turn around and rejoin the highway. We drove through some lovely wooded hills and valleys, beautiful blue skies and very hot. We found a lovely lunch spot at Shelburne Falls, and a short stroll across the Flower Bridge...a converted old tram way (turned into a flowery walkway 100 years ago. Drove on to our Motel at Lennox for 2 nights..amid much grumbling about the frequency of speed limit changes from Shiny. A swim in the Motel was good, though our meal ended up being a microwaved one cooked in our rooms.

MIT and beyond

We caught the 'T' out to MIT on a glorious sunny morning. Campus is massive but so impressive. A mixture of old traditional and massive stone edifices along with some quirky odd buildings and more traditional modern ones, including a beautiful Chapel. From there we walked over the bridge across the Charles River and into Back Bay. One of the main roads was closed off and was full of street food, performers, restaurants and much general jollyness...fantastic atmosphere. From there we went to the massive public library building then back to pack. In the evening we went down to Boston Harbour (of tea fame) for a meal in Serafina's Italian restaurant followed by drinks on the rooftop bar of a nearby hotel...fabulous views.

Boston City Walking...

Walking around the Freedom Trail with a few diversions. Louise B Alcott's House, followed by a fabulous coffee/breakfast stop below a book shop. Seemed to be a known destination and well booked up, but we walked almost straight in, fabulous pear on sourdough toast with maple butter and fresh tarragon. A lovely park area with grown up swing seats, ridiculous  length of time finding somewhere to eat, ended up back close to home...where we all ate too much. Paul Revere's house visited. Grey day but no rain!

Much dampness..

So breakfast at a local traditional diner...the boys had all sorts of fried things...I had cinnamon toast. We then decided to visit the JFK Presidential Library, we walked on some boring busy roads but then on nice green shoreline path. Impressive building and interesting exhibition. Everyone very friendly. However the weather turned from slight occasional drizzle to the sort persistent wetness usually associated with summer holidays Scotland.  We  discovered a very useful App (SplitWise) for keeping track of expenses, so we can have a GRAND RECKONING  at the end. Minor panic when we heard the final Airbnb of the trip in Providence would have to be cancelled as they have a flood, fortunately T'Other One found another place.

Road crossing takes ages here as the pedestrian sequence is obviously the least important and often an unseemly dash has to take place to get to the other side in time. When you press the button at a crossing it shouts 'wait' at you.....Shiny and T'Other One find it hilarious and impossible not to repeat the word each time!  Sigh...

We caught a tube train back successfully so stayed slightly drier.

Off out to eat Chinese tonight (we are on edge of China Town).

Arrived...

So all arrangements for travel went smoothly and on time. Last minute panics: 

Curly nearly leaving behind her bag containing the Kindle (!) due to a 'spider incident' the previous evening

Shiny forgetting to set the door alarms...thank goodness for remote locking.

T'Other One (we discovered later) nearly arriving at the airport with a passport cover...the passport being securely located in his scanner...necessitating a round trip to retrieve it.

Iceland's Airport is full of vikings, puffins, trolls, scratchy knitware and lava salt (?).

T'Other One's flight was delayed so we all met up at the airport and shared a scarey taxi ride to Airbnb. Driver ran red lights, nearly mowed down an elderly Chinese gentleman, swore blind to us that the road name we wanted didn't exist (it did), overtook traffic queuing to turn down a slip road...then shouted and honked at the drivers who were angry with him. Welcome to Boston!

Airbnb successfully entered, a short foray out to buy milk and have a coffee in a diner.

Pace picking up...

Getting closer, I do like crossing things off a list. Managed to set codes on new cases...despite the instructions being for a different model...and the QR code leading to a video in French. We will be accompanied on this trip by T'Other One, whose language skills are legendary, but as he isn't in my spare room at the moment, that was was no help.  This trip will be tinged with sadness as T'Other One's wife (Better Half) was also part of the planning and meant to be with us but sadly she died unexpectedly earlier this year. We will eat pancakes and lobster and raise a glass or two to her.

Another Adventure

 Well after many delays and inconveniences my 60th birthday trip wish (a trip to New England) is going to happen in 5 days.

Getting excited now...