Breaking Bread in Boston

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We arrived in Boston and again the Rain Gods appeared to be threatening, but at least the pervasive fog of Bar Harbor had relented. I had some more Swiss muesli for breakfast, and Sharon had some French Toast. We were seated in a sort of enclosed enclave of the Lido, I’m not sure but that might be where those dining in the Canaletto dine. There was one gentleman seated by himself at the window when the steward asked him if he could get him anything else, after having poured him some hot coffee. “Well yes he said, “I would like one of those croissants; but not from this side because someone was going through and touching all of them, you’ll have to go around to the far side.” And the steward obligingly started off to do his bidding with a smile, when the man gave out a harrumph to let the steward know that he wasn’t done yet. “I would like some fruit to… an apple.” The steward paused, then started off again. But evidently the man hadn’t dismissed him yet and called him back again with what definitely seemed like an annoyed harrumph. “And…” he continued, “a bowl of oatmeal.” He nodded for the steward to be off, and rolled his eyes, I guess because the steward wasn’t back yet with what he’d asked for. Sharon and I rolled our eyes as well. Sharon observed later that if he wanted that kind of service he should eat in the dining room. And it wasn’t like he needed crutches, a walker or scooter to get around. We had one more set of Sudoku puzzles to do, so we took the time to do our challenge while we waited for Dennis and Erin to call. Sharon was just a few squares behind me on the Easy puzzle. The Hard puzzle required a lot of annotation, and we’d been at it a while, when I realized that I’d made a mistake from which I couldn’t recover, at least not without a new sheet. So I’m afraid I got a DNF and Sharon struggled through to sort out her many annotations, ultimately prevailing and completing the challenge. Happy Girl!

The HOHO rep wasn’t at their kiosk in the terminal, and we had to walk out into the wetness and down several blocks to get to the outside kiosk which was also vacant, beneath a somewhat sheltering tent, or at least it would have been once we got there if it wasn’t for all of those other people standing beneath it waiting for the HOHO bus to come. When it did, it quickly filled without us. But another bus arrived within minutes. A sign on the vacant kiosk did assure us that a bus would come; but, we later learned that the HOHO company had not planned to service the pier today, perhaps thinking the cruising season was over. This bus only took us to the main HOHO terminal where we had to buy our tickets, something that took over half an hour. We didn’t get onto the HOHO bus until 10 AM and it takes 2 hours to make the loop around Boston. Ultimately, we were supposed to be back at the starting point by 11:45 to meet Sharon and Erin’s cousins for lunch. Erin texted and coordinated with her cousin Mary to get the reservation pushed back one-half hour but they ended up just waiting for us at the restaurant.

The HOHO driver, whose handle evidently is “Big Wheel”, was quite entertaining and informative in his distinctly Bostonian accent. He covered the history of Boston from Old Ironsides, to the Green Monster of Fenway Park to Bunker Hill and back again. He told us about growing up in Boston and never imagining living to see “The Sox” win the series; and, now they’ve done it three times. From the Boston Tea Party to the Boston Massacre the early American history seemed to come alive in the streets of Boston. We were surprised to hear that the oldest brewery in Boston actually dates back to the seventies (and yes, that would be the 1970’s). The most recognized brewery today of course is the one that adopted the name of one of Boston’s favorite sons, Samuel Adams. We caught a glimpse of the North Tower down one alleyway, where the “One if by land; and, two if by sea” has permanently etched its way into the American lexicon. Big Wheel noted that there were two other night riders that famous night besides Paul Revere; but, it seems that Paul had a better press agent (or as a rhyme of convenience, his last name happened to rhyme with “hear”). Those other two names are now largely lost to most of us, and ironically, it was one of them who completed the journey to Concord. The other two were William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, with Prescott completing the trip after escaping from the British when the three of them were detained en route.

It had been sprinkling during the start of our tour, but began coming down in buckets near the end of our journey in a supertall trolley like bus with open air rollup windows. We stopped to secure most of the windows; except, for the one behind Erin. She and the lady in front of her secured the one directly next to them; but, the guy behind (and slightly above her on the ramped seating in the front of the bus) was too lazy to bother to secure his window; and besides, I guess the water that was pouring in and drenched the side of Erin wasn’t bothering him much. With the weather the way it was, nobody was hopping off the bus, which is sort of necessary if the idea of a hop-on-hop-off bus is to work. We passed at least half a dozen stops where we pulled up and the driver had to open the door and apologize to hopeful borders that they must continue to wait in the deluge and hope that the next HOHO has room for them. There was one group of six twenty-something Latin Americans who wanted to board; but, there was only room for four. I thought it interesting that the four men decided to get on and leave the two women with them behind (in the rain). And who was it that said chivalry is dead? And the bus driver did communicate the situation to the bus dispatcher; and, he assured us that they would be bringing additional busses into service to support the higher than normal ridership. I guess that’s some comfort to know; but, then again, I’m not the one standing out in the rain waiting for a bus to come that has room for me. Our revised meeting time for lunch was rapidly approaching and we had a few stops yet to make. At one of the major stops with a sales kiosk, one rider hopped off, telling the driver to please wait, because he had to use the restroom. He left his wife behind to make sure the bus didn’t leave without him. Then the guy in front of us decided to do the same thing. We were held up a little, and Sharon felt that if you need to get off, then you get off, but you don’t make everyone wait for you. We got back to where we got on originally, hopped off, and made our way through the park to Joe’s Grille just around the corner. We’d spotted it when we had departed from that bus stop earlier, so at least we knew where to meet them for lunch.

They were already seated at a table by the window when we arrived. Sharon’s cousins Mary and Jack, and her boyfriend Mike already had ice teas in front of them at a long table with seven chairs. We said our hello’s, and one of the first things Jack said to me, “I see you’re wearing the red hat.” And I nodded. He noted, “We’ve read all about the red hat,” and smiled. I’m guessing that means that he also knows about what happened to the hat on the Holy Land trip. There, I’d tucked it into the back of my pants when at an Armenian restaurant and they had red fezzes for us to wear. Well, I sort of forgot about it when I went to use the rest room and the hat sort of wound up where it shouldn’t have. As Erin would chime in now, “But you did it TWICE.” Not caring to continue wearing the hat back to the hotel after that, it sort of just stayed in back there tucked into my pants. Unfortunately, first thing back at the hotel the same thing sort of happened again. A perfectly understandable mishap. I started with a cup of clam chowder, I figured if you’re going to have Boston Clam Chowder, you might as well get it in Boston. And I haven’t ever had any better. When it arrived, I opened the oyster crackers and started to take one out by hand, when Sharon said, “Be careful what you do with that oyster cracker.” Everyone at the table laughed, and Jack just shook his head and said, “He’s going to eat them the right way.” But when I then dumped them into my soup he complained, “You just did that because your wife told you to.” Clearly I was missing something, so they filled in the parts for me about years back when they were all kids, Sharon had taken the oyster crackers and poured them onto Jack’s chicken noodle soup when they were at their grandmothers. This was a traumatic experience for him at age 8 or 9 (Sharon would have been 5 or 6), because he likes oyster crackers but he doesn’t like to mix them in the bowl. He eats the crackers individually. Thus was born wonderful inside story of Jack and the Oyster Crackers which Sharon has sent to him a few times when her parents visited them in Boston. I also ordered a lobster roll, and it was indeed chock full of lobster and a nicely buttered bun. It was so big, it was difficult to hold and eat, but I managed. It reminded me of Aunt Flo (Mary and Jack’s mother) who I’d met on our arrival from a cruise to Boston four years ago. She had followed our blog and the first thing that she’d said to me when we met was, “Did you ever get a decent lobster roll?” This referred to the perfectly horrid excuse for a lobster roll that I’d had on a tour on Prince Edward Island. We had a wonderful time catching up with Sharon’s family. Unfortunately, Mary and Jack’s mother passed away a year or so ago, so Sharon’s Aunt Flo was there only in memory. Sharon ordered the fish and chips, and enjoyed them on this non-Lenten occasion. It rained mostly all the way through lunch, letting up a few times and was drizzly when it was time to leave. We said our goodbyes, and encouraged them to visit in Vegas, and they promised that they would when they’re in town.

We made our way back to HOHO that makes the pier circuit, stopping at a couple high-end hotels before dropping us off at the pier.

Today’s trivia was held at 5PM in the Explorer’s Lounge. Sharon and I were waiting up in the Crow’s Nest, wondering where Erin and Dennis were. Other trivia players were there, including those teachers, so finally I asked Sharon to check if we were in the right place. We still had ten minutes to get to the game, and when we arrived Erin and Dennis were there with two additional teammates for us. Two questions in, several other teams filtered in, including those pesky teachers. Michael started over, noting, “I told you to check the “today ON LOCATION” for TIME and PLACE. Trivia-started out well, even coming up with the answer for the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. At first Sharon thought Dominica, but our new teammate said that was a country. Then she offered the right answer Hispaniola. Michael likes those Greek God questions. “What role does the Greek god Hermes play in Greek mythology?” I suggested “Messenger”. Dennis goes, “I thought Mercury was the messenger of the gods.” And at first he stumped me and made me second guess my original answer. But I just knew Hermes was right, but couldn’t figure out why Dennis’ answer was wrong. The reason of course is Michael likes to ask questions about “Greek” gods, not Roman ones! How many cells die every 60 seconds in the human body: (a) 10,000, (b) 175,000, (c) 15 million, or (d) 300 million. We were at the wrong end of the spectrum for this one! The answer was 300 million. In what city does the Blue Nile meet the White Nile? For whatever reason I heard “Blue” and I was thinking “Danube” and was proposing Budapest. Our teammate pointed out that I was on the wrong continent. All we could manage was Cairo. That was the right continent, but wrong country. Khartoum, Sudan, was the answer. What music group was originally composed of such unknowns as Levi Stubbs, Lawrence Payton, Abdul Fakir, Renaldo Benson. We had no idea that it was the Four Tops. For the bonus we had to name the song and artist where the song is a heartbreak story of boy leaves girl and dies in motorcycle crash. Sharon knew “Leader of the pack”, but we guessed Shirelles. The real answer does begin with “Sh”… The ShangraLas! By now I shouldn’t have to tell you who came in first with a perfect score now; and, who came in second, again.

We went directly to dinner, and already there was a line and we had to wait, and ultimately wound up at a table for six where there had been four no-shows for dinner. I had the bay shrimp cocktail, what they inevitably serve on the first night of a cruise, and then I remembered, for some, this is the first night of their cruise, embarking in Boston. Many such travelers are headed for Europe, doing an Atlantic crossing, exploring the Mediterranean before returning to this hemisphere. Theirs is something like a 45 day cruise, and the people we were dining with were doing just that. I thought tonight I’d better take advantage of an opportunity to order the “daily” French Onion Soup. I still miss the version that they once served in the Pinnacle. And this one is passable good, but there are many better. I thoroughly liked the ricotta stuffed shells that they served, and I’ve found that HAL does an excellent job with pasta. And I had to try the almond flan, it was good but the almond flavor was not as pronounced as I might have thought it would be. Sharon and Erin had the everyday chicken; but, it’s now Erin that is getting the “Special Meal”. I guess she’s making up for all of the special meals that Sharon used to enjoy as a child. Sharon got the chocolate decadence pie, or some such chocolaty delight, and it looked pretty darn good. It featured bittersweet chocolate, and Sharon let me steal a taste, and I’m thinking that maybe that would have been a better choice, but it was very rich. I could feel the calories expanding in my thighs as I consumed that single sliver of deliciousness.

Dinner finished surprisingly early, despite our late start, and we had forty-five minutes to kill before show time. Sharon went to kill some time in the casino. I thought that I would watch a little blackjack and maybe be around for some Pub Trivia at the adjacent MIX bar. They were qualifying players for the blackjack tournament, where seven players will go to head. I think it costs $20 for an entry, and with promotions that they’re running that may get you two chances. The buy-in gives you $1,500 in HAL’s special tournament chips. You can bet on blackjack; but, also the side bet that your first two cards will add up to “20”. Payoffs range from 5-to-1 all the way up to 1,000-to-1 if you are dealt two queen of hearts and the dealer has blackjack. (The payoff is 125-to-1 if the dealer doesn’t have blackjack). Some players were making this bet as well with their $100 chips. I saw one table of three players go bust by the fourth hand (in a seven hand tournament). But when the dealer gets blackjack to start, always rough because players seem to bet half of their money on this hand, it gets really tough to recover. The dealer got 20 on the next hand, after which only the player that got blackjack was left. He must have been feeling especially lucky because he bet it all on the third hand. That might not have been the best move, because it’s hard to split a hand if you have no chips to fund the bet; still, he must have been feeling pretty good about his “20” and probably kicking himself a bit for not making that side bet. The dealer had an eight showing, and I’m sure everyone was cheering for a ten to show. But a six showed, and the dealer had a chance to win, and win she did with a seven.

I had gotten a good table in the rear of the bar, and Dennis showed up. Sharon and Erin were playing the slots. Sharon came over after she cashed out; but, hadn’t done well at the slots. We asked her to stay; but, she wanted to go downstairs and save seats in the theatre. So it was just Dennis and me. “In what country was Pulitzer born?” We didn’t guess Hungary. “What Service Organization has the motto ‘Service Above Self’?” We guessed Salvation Army, which earned us one less point than Rotary would have gotten us. Sharon might have come up with the answer to the next question: “What famous person was honored at a massive public funeral in 2005 attended by five kings, four queens and seventy presidents and prime ministers?” It’s quite obvious when you hear the answer. Would it help if I told you that Sharon is our expert on all Catholic questions… and before you say it, no, it wasn’t Mother Theresa. It was of course Pope John Paul II. Our performance can only be described as “Crash and Burn”. I guess we need our girls with us to be competitive.

Mike Robinson was the comedian/ventriloquist, and we thoroughly enjoyed his performance. His rapid fire banter with his dummy was hilarious. And the dummy singled out one audience member in the front and to the left of the audience, for continued belittling. That was after the dummy tried to wager with the ventriloquist for $20 that he could get the pretty girl to come up and kiss him. The dummy then turned to the woman and offered her $10 to come up and kiss him. The act must have been good because we seemed to hang on every word for forty-five minutes.

After the show we made our way to the Explorerer’s Lounge for a game of Majority Rules. They asked the obligatory questions like “What would you be likely to find in a men’s wallet?” And we knew from the previous cruise that Driver’s License just wasn’t going to win you any points, or credit cards, or money. We went with the winner again “Condom’s”, or as Show Host Andy called them Rain Jackets. We must have forgotten about the equivalent Woman’s Purse question, and Sharon’s week answer of Cell Phone didn’t even get an honorable mention. The majority said “Lipstick”; although, you might be hard pressed to find that in Sharon’s purse. We did reasonably well, and did qualify as the runner-up (with one other). Close but no cigar. It was a free round of drinks which might have been lost on this group where half are teetotalers.

This was the second smoke free casino night on this cruise, and Sharon wanted to take advantage of it. I decided to sit down and play some blackjack; but, mostly just to pass some time. I actually had an excellent and pretty even run of cards. I won the first four hands and I never lost more than four hands in a row. I must have played for two and one-half hours. There was a lady playing first base when we started, the spot I prefer playing; but she left when the shoe was done. So I was playing first base and one other was playing third base, and it was just the two of us until I left. And he was everything I don’t like when playing blackjack. I was drunk, he was slightly obnoxious, but in a subdued sort of way, sometimes he’d play one hand, sometimes he’d play two hands; and, it had the annoying effect of seeming to make me never get a blackjack. We must have played over one and one-half hours before I got my first blackjack (and I did get three more after that, so maybe it evened out). This guy kept saying to the dealer in his slurred accented English “I don’t fear you.” And he’d double down with hands he has no business doubling; except, it seemed to work for him. Maybe God does take care of drunks and fools. Often he would stand on stiff hands that should be hit; but, the dealer would obligingly bust. These are all signs of a hot table. Despite his state, and how he was playing, not once did I see him reach into his pocket to pull out more money. He had plenty of chips to play with, and he was managing the chips well, and his pile seemed to be growing. I finally did hit a 7-hand winning streak, and checking my watch, it was eleven thirty, so I decided to call it a night. Sharon was already in bed.

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