Ye Olde Magical Mystery Tour Part III

From the West Coast last week to the East Coast this week. We went to visit Celeste, Brad, and Brooklyn in Boston this weekend. We got in late Thurs night and Celeste didn’t waste a second of time to yell out in the arrival area of the airport that she is pregnant. YEAH!!! We’re thrilled to see the family grow.

We then enjoyed two wonderful days exploring the history and the roads around Boston. It was had for this Rockies fan to see all of those Red Sox hats, T-shirts, and shorts around after the 4 game sweep in the World Series last year but I got a sense of how important baseball and all their sports teams are to this city. Celeste played masterful tour guide and we rolled back the years until 1775 and relived Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride through Lexington and Concord. It was a beautiful day to stand at the very spot where we, as a country, took our first steps towards creating a government based on the principals of rights, the rule of law, and basic inalienable freedoms. I loved being able to focus the start of a government by, for, and of the people to a specific spot where liberty loving citizens stood against their tyrannical king and fired “the shot heard around the world.” You could actually breathe the sense of monumentous history that hangs in the air at the North Bridge.

Fortunately time didn’t allow us to spend more that a few seconds at the “famous author’s home.” Whewww!!! Dodged that bullet – onto battle sites.

Celeste and Brad reminded me of why we occasionally miss the east coast. It is the Pizza that is to die for and Friday night’s dinner was fantastic.

Saturday was the best as the weather was perfect and mom and I got to tour around the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston. Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, the Boston Massacre, and lots of lesser know sites made the morning so fun. We met up with the kids and lunched on Lobster Bisque at Quincy Market, watched Brooklyn play in the water fountain, visited outside the aquarium, and napped before tackling the Old North End for the afternoon tour.

I wasn’t prepared for the shuffled slices of history and ethnic flavors in the Old North End. There were pre-Revolutionary war graveyards and Revolutionary War buildings like the Paul Revere house and the Old North Church
(One if by Land and Two if by Sea). Then the wild mix of religions and nationalities – Irish Catholic, Eastern European Jews, and Italian pastry makers. We wanted to spend a few more days here just to eat our way out of the city. On the menu would be Fish & Chips at an Irish Pub, Seafood at the dock, Italian pasta, gelato and vanilla cream cannoli for dessert. We did purchase some of the best fresh fruit at the Haymarket. With all this food I don’t know why Boston isn’t heavier.

Celeste BBQ’d us some great Shish-K-Bobs that night and we celebrated the new baby and our short visit with cannoli dessert while watching Phelps secure his eight gold medal. I remember how sweet it was when Mark Spitz swam to 7 golds in Munich, but what Phelps just blows me away. There is so way he should have been able to do what he did.
Given all of his physical blessings, 90% of success is mental and he is out of this world impressive. It is great to see a sincerely good guy do what he has done.

We got up at 4 am to catch our return flight home and had a funny experience. We were schedule to fly to Chicago then Omaha and then Denver on the return leg, but the gate lady got us a connection in Washington DC instead with a couple of free tickets thrown in for good luck and we needed the luck. The flight out of Boston was delayed because the pilots slept in and we were 50 minutes late and had only a 60 minute layover in Wash. DC. We got off our plane with just 10 minutes to get on the Denver flight and it was departing from another terminal. Mom had on sandals and couldn’t run very fast, but I took off running and got to the gate as they were sending two standby passengers down the gateway and shutting the door on us. I explained the situation to the lady and she held the door open for mom shooed the standby passengers away and let us board. It was nice to make the flight.