Day 10 Boston, MA

---

Being Jet lagged, waking early wasn't going to be an issue, I was still in the habit of waking around 4-5am and would play around on the laptop uploading the gazillion photos I had taken on the trip so far and also responding to the messages I had been getting on the photos already up. So when the room service knocked on the door around 7am I was already awake but there was no way I was going to open the door while they were there! I was petrified still on the whole tipping thing, so was grateful I was being taken on a personal tour through the day and could hopefully be explained and made less terrified of workers in regards to tipping. Seriously I think people that were born into tipping societies dont understand the stress they then place on those that aren't.

When I thought it was safe to open the door, I must have appeared like a little rabbit, peeping out the door, grabbing the carrot then hidding safely back inside. The breakfast looked delightful. We had ordered a crossaint and blueberry muffin along with a hot chocolate and cup of tea. The food was freshly baked and just had the most delicious aroma of steaming cinnamon. There was two of each item, so we both shared and had one each. It tasted amazing, especially as we hadn't eaten the previous night, except for the Aussie packet of Tim Tams I brought along for a taste of home. I was still feeling a touch under the weather.

Now we had a local tour guide for two days to take us out and about. It was quite a bit of fun. Talk about getting a total history buff trying to talk to me about American History. When we were walking around I was just absorbing in all the sights and buildings that I really didn't pay too much attention to what he was saying, but my son seemed to get along with him, so that made it alright.

If you haven't been to Boston one amazing thing to take note of is their way of keeping history. Their buildings are amaziing, and I'm such a lines and architecture girl, so this city was a bit of a thrill for me. I was so curious how it seemed that these amazing new buildings seemed to grow out of older looking ones, and it was explained to me that when developing they are required by law to keep the frontages of the older style buildings and must incorporate this into their new ones. Wow! Now why on earth dont more people consider that. It made for an amazing new meets old look. I loved it.

We wandered over the city in such a short time frame. We had a look at Faneuil Hall, saw Larry Bird's foot (my sons didn't seem that much smaller), walked over to the frog pond, then had an amazing walk over to Paul Reveres house. Now do I admit that I had no idea who the heck this Paul Revere was, much to the distain of our guide. Something was said about the lack of history taught in Australian schools, but I'm equally sure he would have no idea Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson and why the Blue Mountains weren't easy, nor Charles Sturt and the issues with the finding of the internal sea. That being said it was very interesting.

I did have to go and see the "Old North Church". I had watched the movie "National Treasure" with my kids during every school holiday it seemed, and that was the grounds for my very limited American History, so it was a bit of a kick seeing the church, however I still dont get where Nicolas Cage could have stood for that final scene. All the little streets in the area and the homes were just too cute. It was so very different and amazing seeing how different places around the world had such uniquely differing ideas on homes and their constructions and styles.

The squirrels were the other thing. We dont have them in Australia and they just are so very funny. I loved them. To be fair I guess Australia gets possums, but they are really boring things that only come out at night, these squirrels were all over the grass running around happily. My dog would definitely love it here. I could have just sat there all day watching them run around like that. Seriously why couldn't they introduce these to Australia instead of those stupid rabbits???? At least you can't miss seeing them, and they are so much more entertaining.

The momument to the Jewish Holocaust victims was very touching. Seeing all those numbers listed was heart breaking that people could lose their name and just recognised by stale numbers. The quotes also on the glass just made you stop and think. Its amazing how something like that went on for so long. I guess when you think about it, there are so many stories from Africa that you never hear about due to the lack of weath and interest in those countries. Racisim really does suck.

For lunch we had several options suggested to us, however Joel decided that he really liked Borittos, and thats what we would eat. Now I dont think I've eaten one of them before, so wasn't necessarily looking forward to it, especially with the fact my tummy still wasn't settling down. Looking at the options in the Boloco store, it just looked all confusing and I think I just went with what I thought might be a safe option in the Teriyaki Chicken. I dont think I'm really a boritto person. I didn't like it. It also made my stomach churn.

Before long we said goodbye to the guide for the day, and then wandered back over the the Franeuil Hall area, where we grabbed a bite to eat for tea, and also bought a couple of scarves. This cold of Boston was horribly cold. Our necks decidedly needed some warming. It was also very amusing to see their huge christmas tree. At night it looked reasonable, but honestly in the day time it was seriously the saddest looking tree ever! I dont know if it was a real tree or one they had cut weeks ago, but it was definitely looking mostly dead. At least at night time the lights made it all pretty.

Due to the further jet lag we were suffering it was an early night. We just completely crashed. I wonder how long it takes to get over all this body clock time changing experience? Just only time will tell.

---