So much to see and do!

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So its been another busy 2 weeks, so much to see and do and time keeps ticking by!



So this update starts at the beginning of the month on the 1^st June where I arrived from Philadelphia into Boston, in the early hours of a wet Monday morning. I knew my hostel was near the train station, so I walked, and walked, and walked some more, I found the street I needed but I was on the wrong side of the huge highway with no way to cross it. So soaking wet so I decided to start over again and went back to the train station, after a nice hot coffee, I checked the hostel directions again, still was only to be a 5 minute walk from the station and then I checked the map again, and what do you know I found the tiny road I needed to take to get to the hostel. After checking in and a nice warm shower, I went exploring. I ended up in the Boston Common's at the frog pond. There I saw some people in military uniform firing cannons, so I stayed to watch for a while, once the smoke cleared I saw that there was a walking tour of part of the freedom trail about to start. As I knew very little of Boston's history except for them throwing tea overboard I found the tour was interesting and this was where I first learnt of Paul Revere, who over my stay in Boston was going to keep cropping up. Over the next few days I got to visit so many things in Boston, from the Aquarium to the Science museum, to the State House to the home of Paul Revere. I even got to go whale watching, which was an adventure as I had to try 3 times in order to see them, the first day I went down to the harbour the tours were not running as the swell was over 8 feet, the next morning it was a smaller swell of about 4.5 feet, so the boat left the harbour, however once we were out of the shelter bay, people started to feel very sick, and eventually when over 90%!o(MISSING)f the boat was sick we had to turn back, I was so crushed as we had been so close to the whale watching spot and it felt like I had wasted the day. Lots of people were wanting their money back, but the other option was change the ticket for the next day, understanding the water would be just a choppy, as I had felt fine I did this and I got to see loads of whales, we were out on the water for about 5 hours, with about 3.5 of these spent looking a whales. I got to see Humpbacks, leaping into the air and splashing back down, Minkes playing around and Finbacks gracefully surface near the boat.

On Friday I went to Lexington and Concord, to follow Paul Revere's story and hear more about the start of american liberty. Both Lexington and Concord are very picturesque towns, with lots to see including the minute man national historical park which I got to drive by, but didn't have time to explore. Louisa May Alcott's house where she set her book Little Women is also in Concord. It's a shame that everything closes about 4.30/5 pm as I after the brilliant Liberty ride, narrated by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide I only had time to visit one museum. On Saturday I went to visit the Samuel Adams brewery, before meeting up with Liz, who drove all the way from New York!. On Sunday we stayed in Boston, visited Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and got to hear some more about the history of Boston on two walking tours, which combined covered nearly all of the Freedom trial. On Monday morning, it was road trip time!. We had decided to visit Salem, I knew it was going to be a crazy place, but wow!. Unfortunately the museums we visited were terribly cheesy, and not much else but as we were their together it was still fun. Going into the "real" magic shops and eavesdropping on the customer conversations/questions was more fun. I can only imagine how much more cheesy this place is around Halloween time!. Even though it wasn't quite what I expected I still enjoyed the day and was glad I went. It was then time to leave Boston, so one last road trip with Liz back towards New York, before boarding a bus on to Chicago.

Now, the problem with booking a bus online is you never quite know what your going to get, this bus wasn't bad as buses go, there were USB charging ports and some people even had WIFI, the bad part was that this express direct bus stopped like 20 times. The bus would come off the highway and stop at a little rest stop where one or two people would get off, now because 95%!o(MISSING)f the bus seemed to be related or at least friends, this meant a long series of goodbyes, hugs and tears at every stop, which at 11pm is ok, however by 3am begins to get to be a bit much. Eventually I arrived in Chinatown Chicago and got the subway to the hostel, I could see Wrigley field from the door of the hostel. However didn't get the chance to watch a game.

Chicago was also wet and rainy, but even with that I managed to walk the entire lake front walk, I got to visit the History Museum, the Natural History museum the Science museum and the Planetarium. One night I did a Gangster tour, and got to see real bullet holes in a cathedral from one of the gang wars, as well as listening to tales about the different rival gangs. I met a new friend in Chicago, unfortunately it was on my last day, but we had a lovely sunny day, walking along the lake, and exploring Navey pier.

While I was in Chicago there was a blues festival on, so I got to listen to some live blues music in between them having to close the main stage due to lightning storms. One dry day I went to see the cloud gate, which is shaped like a bean and reflects the skyline of the city, very cool. I liked the atmosphere in Chicago, I spent most days walking around exploring the parks, visiting the free zoo and looking at the sculptures. When it started to rain there were so many museums to visit. I loved the Science museum, I spent hours there, lots of practical demonstrations that were not too childish, ok some where but who doesn't like playing with iron filings and magnets? The huge Tesla coil high up on the ceiling was very dramatic sending lightning bolts every 20 minutes, and the toy train model of Chicago was amazing. Again this is another city with so much to see and do, that there was no way I was going to get to do everything I heard about but I did make a good attempt.





So now I'm in Niagara Falls, on the US side. I'm going to spend a few days here exploring the falls and the whirlpool before crossing over into Canada and starting my Canadian adventure!





Dee

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