Boston, Mass

Freedom Trail, originally uploaded by quimerizar.

Friday October 18

It was Friday and we were at our last port of the trip - it all seemed to have gone by too fast. Dad and I got off the ship and took a cab into the heart of Boston. I wanted to go to the office for my job there to meet some of the people I had never met before but had worked with on a daily basis. Plus, I got one of my friends to interoffice my laptop charger to me there.

After meeting up with my coworkers, Dad and I met up with the rest of our group at Quincy Market. I had been to Boston several times and really like the Freedom Trail and I wanted the others to see some parts of it. So, I was the tour guide for the day. We headed to Boston Commons (I got us lost along the way - true credit to the numerous times I had been to Boston!). We went to several cool spots on the trail and then got hungry. Denise had mentioned earlier that she wanted to go to Little Italy and have food. So, we headed over there. It began to rain and we chose to eat at a nice restaurant called Fiore. We ate outside, but then the rain became too much (even under the canvas) that we had to go inside. We had a few bottles of wine. Ron and Gloria wanted to check out. But we had another bottle of wine on the way. So, they left. The place was one of those restaurants where the front windows are in panels from the floor to the cieling. They were opened up into the street and there was sidewalk seating available. Ron and Gloria stopped at the rail and looked in...Ron grabbed his camera and pointed at me and said to Gloria "Look Honey, look who it is!" and started taking pictures as if I was someone famous. A bunch of people in the restaurant turned around and were looking at us. I grabbed my shades and threw them on, grabbed my glass of wine and pretended to be famous. It was absolutely fabulous. The older couple across from us kept staring at me for the next 10 minutes. I know they were trying to figure out who I was.

It was here that Deinse imparted her wisdom to us about hand washing in public bathrooms. She stated that when she washes her hands in public places, she sings the Happy Birthday song to herself while washing to make sure she washes long enough. Funny but ever since she told me that, I can't stop doing it myself. "Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear Rebecca, Happy Birthday to me". Grab towel, then dry.

After lunch, we wandered (slightly drunk) around little Italy and ended up getting cookies in an Italian bakery. Then we headed back to the ship to get ready for our formal dinner.

This was the mother of all formal dinners - the lobster dinner. However, most of our group was so turned off by lobster after the Lobster Shack Ron experience that no one really wanted to order it - well, I guess I should say Gloria and Denise didn't want it. I think the rest of us Masochists ordered it. We were all a little sad when Kenny and Denise didn't show up. After all, it was FORMAL night, and Lobster dinner - and Kenny HAD promised to show up wearing his Lobster hat. But, never fear, halfway into the dinner they showed up - hat on head and looking goofy. I guess he just needed a few drinks to get up the gumption to come in. All eyes were on Kenny and Denise when they came in.

I had several drinks and decided it would be a good idea to borrow Kenny's lobster hat and go get formal pictures taken at the photography studio. Very nice.

Later that night, it was pretty foggy and the fog horn kept going off. Ron and Gloria were in their room hanging out when all of the sudden their phone rang. Gloria picks up the phone and it is the ships captain. He asked them to turn off their light - their porthole faced the front of the ship and the captain explained that he couldn't see where he was going because of the glare from their light.