Boston: 111 hours

Here's the highlights from the sibling shenanigans...  This post is crammed packed with a total of 111 hours from start to finish.  It details how my brother and I spent our time in Boston. 

Thursday, May 4, 2017
3:30 a.m. - boarded a very full Coach USA bus to O'Hare

4:20 a.m. - arrived at Terminal A where I promptly checked-in and got through security rather quickly...which HELLO, it was before 5 a.m. so why this surprised me is beyond me.  Waited at my gate until my 7 a.m. departure for Detroit Metropolitan Airport (Metro). 

8:45 a.m. (Eastern) - arrived at Metro.  No Bryan.  Took my cellphone off of airplane mode and chime-chime-chime texts from my brother arrived.  He was stuck in security.  Nice.

9:40 a.m. - Delta has started boarding our zone and where, oh where, is my brother?  I remember glancing at my watch and saying to myself, "If he's not here in 5 minutes, I'm going to go talk to the Delta crew and see what flight they can put him on."  Something like 4 minutes 50 seconds later, he arrives.  He shared his adventures of missing the extended parking lot and having to circle the airport and then security took forever.  

9:50 a.m. - we were seated in 24A & B and buckled.  Let the shenanigans begin!!!

11:50 a.m. - arrived at Logan International Airport.  Now what?  Thankfully a co-worker of mine had been to Boston and told me to save money by navigating the city traveling the T.  He said, "It will make the experience more East Coast!"  We managed to get from the airport to the red line train to the green line train.  Google maps lead us to believe that were only a few minute walk to our lodging...however what we failed to realize is we were staying in Brighton, Massachusetts not a Boston address.  A 30 minute walk is fine on a nice spring day...a 30 minute walk with your luggage and being hangry is not quite ideal.  After realizing our error and that we would've had to walk 60 minutes back to our destination, Bryan checked in with Uber and in 3 minutes, we were in a car and moving much faster to our place of lodging.

2:00 p.m. - Uber-ed to the grocery store where we got breakfast food and snacks for the rest of the trip and some food for lunch. 

We used the website www.airbnb.com to find lodging.  Kudos to my brother for researching and selecting where we stayed.  It was a lovely apartment over a garage.  We had the whole place to ourselves which was nice because there was no one above us or below us.  When we watched a movie, we did not have to worry about our neighbors.  

Around 5 p.m. Bryan and I changed and headed to the bus stop where we boarded the #57 bus taking us in the opposite direction of where we needed to go.  If you get on the #57 bus on the Tremont Circle side of the street, it will take you about 5 miles away from the city.  We did not realize this until the bus driver said that it was the last stop and we had to get off the bus and the bus yards was not, let me just say, "inviting."  I will leave it at that.  Thankfully the bus driver could tell that we were totally tourists and she gave us some direction.  "Walk across the street, I'm going to circle this bus around and pick you up and take you to Kenmore Station.  It's the last stop in the city.  From there, you can walk to Fenway."  Sooooo $2.00 times two and 30 minutes later, we were at Kenmore and almost to Fenway.  When we got off the bus, the driver said, "Just follow the crowd."  We hiked to Fenway where we were told we had to buy our tickets at Gate E like Elephant.  Funny that the person manning Gate A said to walk to the left...so we walked and walked and walked and walked.  We passed Wahlburgers (took a picture for Shawna and Tanya).  We walked on some more.  For the love of baseball, where was Gate E like Elephant?  After circling the ENTIRE baseball stadium, we found Gate E....which funny, would've been one gate to the RIGHT had the person at Gate A just said, "Go to Gate E like Elephant - it's to the right one gate."  Maybe the Gate A gal was tired of baseball lovin' crazies...but I'm not a crazy, I say outloud and sometimes to myself.  

We opted for okay seats.  Not the bleacher nose-bleed section...which their bleachers are a bit strange...and I attribute that to the age of the baseball stadium.  They can't really expand where it's located and it does give it a charming feel...  Our seats were behind home plate.  We had a pretty good view of the game.  

The Red Sox did not play so hot.  A loyal Red Sox fan got a little hammered and was standing up stating that a particular Baltimore Oriole's player named Joe sucked.  Poor Joe.  He was actually a well dressed man with one of those East Coast trendy hats and to meet him on the street, I would not think to myself, "I bet this man has an issue with poor Joe."  I wish I would've figured out which player he was talking about...but I had been up since 2 a.m. so all I really remember is the guy's hat and the fact that he took issue with Joe-someone.

10:00 p.m. - We left in the bottom of the 6th inning.  PRAISE THE LORD...my pajamas were calling my name!!!!  I believe I fell into a mini-coma that evening.

We walked 7.84 miles.

Friday, May 5, 2017
We arose from our slumber and had a leisure breakfast before boarding bus #57 heading IN TO the city.  After arriving at Kenmore, we meandered into Barnes and Noble to checkout their postcard selection.  I like mailing random postcards.  We met a lovely sort-of Bostonian who gave us some insight in to the post office location.  Bryan bought me the coolest souvenir.  It's a waterproof smallish backpack.  Secretly - I think he bought it cause he knew it would hold all of our traveling crap...oh and snacks.  He knew snacks would fit perfectly inside this fun bag.  

We boarded the green line bus and took that to the red line bus.  The stop on the red line train said, "Quincy East."  I assumed this meant Quincy Market in downtown Boston.  The red line train "Quincy East" does NOT infact mean Quincy Market in downtown Boston.  Quincy East means you will head about 30 minutes outside of Boston to Quincy, Massachusetts.  You will be cold and wet because it will be drizzly and by the time you realize the error of your way, you will also realize it's another 30 minutes train ride back in to the city.

After exiting the red train to the green train to Park Street, we walked along a portion of the Freedom Trail until we found a CVS where Bryan bought a blue poncho.  It was at this point that I stopped caring about looking like a tourist with a map out.  

I would like to stop right now and say a huge THANK YOU to my parents for teaching me how to read a map.  I love that I can read maps and I can navigate around the city...let's not revisit the Great Quincy, Mass mistake of this trip.  

1:00 p.m. - Had fish tacos at Anthem's at Quincy Market.  DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELISH!  For a gal who has never had fish tacos, to have them on Cinco de Mayo in Boston was just incredible.  I could've eaten another plate of them but I didn't want to be known as "that one girl from Illinois who ate her body weight in our fish tacos."  

After meandering through Quincy Market, we decided to venture away from that area and head to a cute little coffeeshop called "Espresso Love."  This place was on the Find Me Gluten-Free app and they had reviews about the most amazing gluten-free cookies.  Sold.  I would walk for miles to find a good mocha and a gluten-free treat. True story.  

Well, we did not have to walk for miles...just a couple of blocks.  On our way there, I said to Bryan, "Check out their sewer manhole lids.  They say 'Boston Sewer.'  Wouldn't it be cool if the Ninja Turtles popped-out of the manhole?"  Bryan just stared at me like I had gone completely bonkers but I swear to you on the Bible, no less than 4 minutes later, a group of young adults walked by dressed-up like the Ninja Turtles.  I cannot even make this up.  Bryan and I were both awed by the timing...we were so in shock from it that neither of us snapped a picture and once we regained our senses, we both commented on how we should've asked them if we could take a selfie.  COW-A-BUNGA, DUDE!!!!!

6:00 - We were done walking sight-seeing for the day.  We boarded the train to the bus to "home."  We stopped off at a Goodwill and CVS.  I mean, we were only done walking.  Surely one can thrift...and what better place to thrift than a hipster place like Boston.  Bryan won the Spent the most cash at Goodwill award.  (It could be a real award.  I bet it is.)  He got really nice khaki pants ("khaki" is how Bostonians say "car keys") and several shirts.  I was a little concerned if his thrift purchases would fit in his one suitcase.  I found 2 summer skirts - one is a Talbot's skirt with lemons.  It's lovely.  The other has white and royal blue...and since I already have a royal blue shirt with no bottoms, I opted to get it.

We sort of closed down the Goodwill.  "Your Goodwill store will be closing in 15 minutes."  Bryan replied, "They don't know us, Sis."  That is right, my little thrift-loving brother.

9:00 p.m. - Home and relaxed

We walked 7.56 miles.

Saturday, May 6, 2017
We got up early and headed to the USS Constitution (aka:  Ironside).  This was a bit tricky to navigate because it's north of the city.  With the help of GPS and our fine map-reading skills, we were able to ride the bus to the train (red - Lechmere stop) and get kind of close to the ship...and then we just had to Uber the rest which was a short distance but it was off of a highway and we didn't want to walk over it.  

The Navy has a museum with lots of information.  I love the rich history in Boston.  We toured the museum and then toured the ship.  

We, then, went to Paul Ravere's house.  I found it completely fascinating that the structure is 90% still original.  That's just incredible to me.  Paul's house is the oldest in Boston.  Paul was married twice.  He had 8 children with EACH wife.  Of his 16 children, only 11 lived into adulthood.  He was an incredible man.  1 if by sea and 2 if by land.  His ride was epic.  His life was amazing.  

Somewhere in the city, we saw one of those walking tours being led by a guy dressed like Paul Ravere.  I nearly walked into something and Bryan asked what was wrong and I said, "I was totally smiling at that scruffy Paul Ravere."  Bryan just laughed and laughed.  Yes, that's his sister...checking out Paul Ravere.

After Paul's, we went to Quincy Market and had some chowder (CHOW-DAH).  It was lovely.  By this time, the drizzle had ceased and we sat outside and basked in the sunshine.  

Since the sun had shown its glorious-self, we walked by the ocean and people watched.

Next stop - the site of the Boston Massacre.  The site was closing in 40 minutes and the museum staff denied us entrance.  We really did not enough time to do it justice so we decided to come back in to the city in the morning.  

We headed back toward our lodging - train to bus route.

In our way back, we jumped off the bus to have Abbott's Frozen Custard.  BEST CUSTARD EVER!  I really do believe my half Caramel and half strawberry was amazing and the best I've ever had.  Maybe it was the combination of spending time with my brother IN BOSTON and the frozen yogurt yumminess, I just can't be sure.  

We needed to get some snacks for Sunday and then traveling home...as my layover in Detroit was around 30 minutes.  We Uber-ed to Whole Foods.  Good idea:  Get snacks.  Bad idea:  Go to Whole Foods when you are hungry.  

We got home and watched the first Avengers movie.  I'm not going to lie, I snoozed through most of it...and I do heart Captain America so for me to sleep through that movie, you had to know that I was zonked.

We walked 7.62 miles.

Sunday, May 7, 2017
We decided to throw caution to the wind and have a wonderful breakfast in the city.  Truth-be-told, we ran out of UDI's muffins and wanted to save our fruit and yogurt for our traveling day so we ate breakfast out this morning.  The Find Me Gluten-Free app saved the day again by directing us to Precint Kitchen.  It's in a hipster downtown hotel.  Fresh fruit, eggs, grilled potatoes was my morning treat.  Bryan had the gluten-free protein pancakes.  It was well worth the money and the experience.

After nourishment, we went to the (what I call) "The Massacre Site."  Did you know only 8 people died in the massacre?  I'm not saying that's not terrible and horrible but I was under the impression that it was more than that...which is sad that U.S. history failed me...or maybe I failed history.  It wasn't my thing when I was a kid...but the older I get, the more I appreciate it.  I'm not a history guru by any means...but I really enjoyed learning the facts about our history during this trip.

At this point we decided to use Uber to take us out to JFK's library.  It's a bit out of the city so it was a little pricey to go on this part of our adventure, but our dad had told us to go see it.  

We arrived at the library at 2:15 to find several people wearing all black and a red carpet runway.  Talk about making US feel like rockstars...oh wait, we aren't rockstars.  Turns out that former President Obama was scheduled to be at the library at 5 p.m. to collect some sort of influential award of some-sort.  Talk about a bummer for the Goods.  We, then, contacted Uber and headed to Cambridge, MA to visit Harvard Square.  This was a total Plan B sort of move.  

Cambridge was lovely.  More walking and cool building viewing.  At one point I said to Bryan, "It's a shame Rory did not go to Harvard."  Bryan replied, "Yeah, she went to Yale.  So unfortunate."  He's not a GG fan or junkie but he does know key points about the show.  He's a good brother.

By the time we had enough of Cambridge, it was 5ish and stuff was closing.  We were tired of walking so we went to the Regal Fenway movie theater and watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2.   I've never watched the first one...but Marvel does this thing where you can watch the 2nd and not really miss out on too much...I mean there were little things that I did not know until I watched the first movie...which you will be happy to know that we watched the first movie as soon as we returned to our place of lodging.  Groot, the tree, dies...but not really dries as a small tree-clipping is planted and baby Groot is "born."  Born.  Are trees born?  They don't hatch.  Maybe he grew.  Groot grew.  Say that 10 times fast.

After the movie, we returned to our jammies and the tedious task of re-packing our suitcases.

We walked 7.83 miles. 

Monday, May 8, 2017
Travel day back home.
We had a leisure breakfast before tidying up and hitting the road.  We bus-ed one final time to Kenmore.  We grabbed coffee and Boston coffee mugs.  We headed to the green line train which took us to the red line which took us to Silver #1 bus (a free airport shuttle - so not even kidding...free and easy!).  

We arrived at the airport about 90 minutes before our flight but by the time we checked-in and went through security, we had a little over an hour.  Bryan decided to splurge and buy himself a baseball hat.  I picked-up a fabulous summery Boston shirt.  

We snacked and chatted and rated our Air B-N-B lodging.  We enjoyed some down-time before flight time.

It was at this point that I got a little panicky about my layover...layover-shmayover.  I had a whole 28 minutes to go from whatever gate I was going to be deposited at to my next gate...and let's take a moment and pray it's nothing like gate 30 to 76 (which was how it was on the way TO Boston).  

We arrived at gate 77 and a quick glance at the screen-thingy said I had to get to gate 17.  Sixty gates.  And then I checked the clock, I had less than 20 minutes...and then there was that stupid speech playing overhead, "Delta boarding doors lock 15 minutes before take-off.  Make sure you're at your gate atleast 20 minutes to departure."  Time was ticking by faster than time ticks by during a work day.  How does this happen?

I did not run but our walking would be called POWER WALKING...  There was no time for a big hug and tears and goodbyes.  It was me ripping Bryan's digital camera, Ziplock baggy of liquids, and his Boston mug out of my carryon and shoving those items into one of our Whole Foods cloth bags and hugging him quickly, telling him, "I love ya, Chunk, and I love Boston!  Thanks for the memories."  I was the second-to-the-last to board.  

I arrived at O'Hare safe and sound.  I managed to follow the signs to the bus transportation center where my wait was approximately 20 minutes.  I boarded the bus and headed home.

I arrived at the Rockford bus terminal 111 hours after leaving.  Paid my park-----wait, someone else very sweetly paid my parking fees and I headed home before heading to Woodman's to get groceries.  

It was at this point - this grocery-buying point - that I remembered that I actually volunteered to go in to work at 7 a.m. the next day.  When I say 7 a.m., I mean BE THERE at 7 a.m. which means leave my casa 20 minutes before 7 a.m.  WHAT KIND OF NUTCASE DOES THIS TO HERSELF?  IT IS NOT LIKE I WAS VOLUN-TOLD TO COME IN EARLY!!!!!!  

The 7 a.m. volunteering is further proof that I, Angie Good, needed a vacation.  

What a blessing it was to spend 5 days on a fun adventure with my brother...and now that he knows that he really, really loves traveling adventures with his crazy elder sister, LOOK OUT WORLD!!!!!

Oh...and on this day, I only walked 4.78 miles.  Hahahahahaha...ONLY!!!! Gates 77 to 17 were power walking.

Total miles walked:  35.63