Shelby's Life and Whatnot

I'm Back! The Boston Portion

Kevin and I are back from a 10 day vacation to Boston and New York. Sorry to leave without a warning but it feels weird to announce on my public blog that I'm going to be out of my house for 10 days. Not that I think local criminals are reading or that we have a whole lot to steal, but it just seems like a bad idea. At any rate, we have returned.

We had a wonderful trip. The reason for the trip was the wedding of David (Kevin's Best Man) and his new wife Rebecca. The wedding took place on a boat in Boston Harbor followed by a nice harbor cruise. I wore a sundress I got at Old Navy. Unfortunately, I should have worn sunscreen as well--it was a very hot day and in the direct sun I got a bad sunburn on my shoulders and chest. This sunburn would continue to plague me (primarily the itching) throughout the whole trip--and even today I'm still itching and peeling (gross). But let's talk about something more pleasant...

In Boston we stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel, an establishment I don't recommend. It suffers from the same problem many historic hotels do--great location, great lobby, crappy rooms. We had a room fiasco to start out with: the first room they gave up was dumpy with a queen sized bed. I was disappointed, but quickly became horrified when Kevin went to use the restroom and discovered a wet towel on the sink and a dirty diaper in the trash can. Oh my gawd! So we called down to report this and they sent a bellman up with keys to another room. That room was on a smoking floor and the room stank with the smoke of a thousand years. Nope, sorry. So we went downstairs again and they reported they didn't have any king sized nonsmoking rooms, but they offered us a queen suite. Fine, fine. They sent a different bellman up with us this time, no doubt to collect another tip, which we did not give (we tipped the first guy, and it's not our fault we had to run around like that). Anyway, we settled in the queen room. It wasn't great--some peeling paint, stains on the carpet, a mysterious lack of electrical outlets, but it was okay. The funny thing is, when we got there, there was a bottle of wine and a fruit and cheese platter on the desk. With a note that said "Ms. Katherine Kennedy." Hmmm. When we pointed that out, the bellman called downstairs, had a brief conversation, then snatched up the notecard and said "It's for you!" Okay, whatever.

Aside from the wedding, we got to do some exploring in Boston. Our hotel was right across the street from the Public Garden, which was gorgeous. We took a couple of walks there, and of course rode the Swan Boats. The Public Garden is the location of one of my favorite children's books, Make Way for Ducklings and we had to visit the commemorative Make Way for Ducklings statue. We even saw some live ducklings of our own!

Speaking of ducks, we also took an official Boston Duck Tour. The "duck" in this sense is a combination auto vehicle and boat used in WWII and now used in various tourist traps--er, attractions--to give tours. This was a nice view of the city.

We simply had to visit Boston's oldest jewelry store, where I drooled. We ate at Legal Seafoods, a famous Boston restaurant. Due to my fatigue, we didn't get to any museums or other sites, so we'll have to make a return trip (too bad, hunh?).