A visit to Boston

Generally, the east coast isn't one of my favorite places. I'm used to warm weather, scrub covered hills, and flip-flops, there they have cold, whole forests of trees, and dress shirts. Boston though, isn't bad. ...in the spring and fall, in cleared areas... My friend swears there's good surf there, but he wears a 7mm wet suit and hood to do it.

It's interesting to me that it's so old. I'm used to a historical site being maybe 50 or 60 years old; in Boston there are 300 year old buildings, still not old by European or Asian standards, but mind boggling to a Californian.

Boston drivers are insane, matched only by Boston pedestrians. It's a contest in town, pedestrians try to make it far enough into the street that the car has to slow down or go around, the car tries to speed up enough to intimidate the pedestrian before they can block the lane. There had been something like 200 pedestrians hit that year, and I'm sure they and the drivers were both proud of their battle scars and stories of how it was the other's fault.

One really cool place we went for happy hour was the Top of the Hub restaurant on top of one of the tallest skyscrapers. It would cost a fortune to eat there, but getting dinner sized appetizers in the "lounge" has the same views of the city and there is live jazz!

Another thing that was actually pretty cool was the Duck Tour. I'd probably never think of taking it, but it was actually a good way of seeing the town if you only had a few hours. You ride in these obnoxious WWII amphibious trucks, sort of half boat - half truck through downtown, then down the river. It's kind of obnoxious hanging out the windows of the gayly painted monstrosity taking pictures, the locals shaking their fists at you for blocking up traffic, driver keeping up a continuous corny canned dialog, but you see a lot and get a boat ride out of it in the process.