We were all very excited on Monday as we were booked onto a whale watching trip. Dougal had his first day in doggy day care at our local pet shop and we headed to Boston's waterfront to board our boat. It was a beautiful day and we had some stunning views of the Boston skyline as we headed out to sea along with the slightly unnerving experience of sailing directly underneath the airport flight path just a couple of hundred metres from the runway!

It took us about an hour and a half to reach the whale watching destination, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. It's supposed to be one of the best whale watching areas on the east coast of the USA and the tour operators are so confident of seeing some whale action that they promise another trip for free if no whales are sighted. What they don't legislate for is a crew member being taken ill just as the passengers are told to start watching for whales. Yes - we sailed for an hour and a half for the pleasure of turning around and heading straight back to Boston with the number of whales seen standing at zero. Ah well - it was a nice day and a relaxing trip, if somewhat windy (see photos below!) and we were offered a refund or a repeat trip on another day.

So we tried again on Wednesday. Dougal had another day in doggy day care and we sailed off once again into the sunshine towards the horizon. This time we were lucky - after about half an hour of sailing around aimlessly and thinking every slight ripple in the sea was a whale about to surface we saw what we had come for - a humpback whale who was happy to put on a show for us. He was identified by the New England Aquarium expert on board with us as "Mogul" and he hung around for about 20 minutes, surfacing, spouting, breaching and diving under before we had to say our goodbyes and turn towards home. Suffice to say we sailed home rather more satisfied with our day!

 

 

 

 

In between our whale watching efforts we had a night out at the theatre. Boston has a theatre district much like a mini Broadway or West End and it seems to host many major touring Broadway productions. Before the girls and I arrived in Boston Barry booked tickets for us all to see Wicked, which the girls have been desperate to see after learning many of the songs for their singing lessons and listening to the CD in the car over and over (and over) again. So there was much excitement and anticipation on Tuesday evening as we girls put on our glad rags ready for our night out. The show was outstanding and the girls loved every minute of it. Rachel just about restrained herself from singing along and they were both transfixed throughout the show, claiming it was the best show they had ever seen. Isabel spent an enormous amount of her pocket money on a Wicked beach towel which I'm sure shall make several appearances at Rest Bay on our return to Porthcawl.

 

 

We visited Boston's Museum of Science on Friday which is one of the city's major attractions. It has elements of Techniquest and the Natural History Museum along with a Planetarium and IMAX cinema. I think it's fair to say that we only scratched the surface in the few hours that we were there but we decided to buy an annual membership so we shall have plenty of opportunity to explore it properly. The girls enjoyed lying on a bed of nails and creating animation effects as well as tackling a variety of maths problems (Barry's favourite bit) and eating astronaut ice cream. As Arnie would say, "we'll be back".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry it's been so long since you last heard from us. We're in the midst of Barry's two weeks leave between finishing his Havard course and starting at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and we've been sooooooooooooo busy having fun there's been no time to write!!

I'm writing today from our cabin in the woods in Vermont and we've got loads to tell you. I'm sure I won't get through it all on this sitting so it may take a few blog entries to bring you up to date. So, here we go ...

Starting on Saturday August 17th:
Barry's first day off. He'd been desperate for an adrenaline hit so we booked ourselves onto a speedboat trip around Boston harbour. However, it was a speedboat trip with a difference, riding on a mutant codfish named Codzilla created by a chemical accident on one of the harbour islands ... Needless to say, we got very wet and as the Bostonians say, it was WICKED AWESOME!!

 

 

 

On Sunday we went to the Skywalk Observatory at the top of the Prudential Tower, the second tallest building in Boston. It's in the Copley area of Boston (where the Boston marathon ends and thus where the bomb went off earlier this year) and the Observatory offers 360 degree views around Boston and its environs as well as many displays outlining the history of Boston, particularly immigration. We had great views to the west across the harbour to the island; to the north across the Charles River to Cambridge, Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); to the south to South Boston and to the west to Fenway, Fenway Park (Red Sox ball park), Brookline (our suburb) and a beautiful open square which we had not seen before but which we identified as the Christian Science Square. We went down to the square afterwards having fitted in the obligatory ice cream first) and had a wander round. There was a huge Christian Science temple in one corner with a large, shallow infinity pool in the centre and a few dodgy, oriental-style statues at one end. It was wonderfully calm and peaceful and is one of my favourite parts of Boston so far.

 

 

Here are some photos of the Freedom Trail, with Dougal leading the way!

 

 

The gold-domed building is the State House, the seat of the Massachusetts State Government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A typical Bostonian!

 

 

 

Boston Common: once upon a time cows walked across the Common on their way to market. Nowadays it's mostly Bostonians and tourists.

 

 

 

Paul Revere is a hero to Bostonians for his middle of the night horseback dash to warn the American soldiers of the advancing Brits.

 

 

Samual Adams, early politician and, perhaps more importantly, legendary brewer, is one of many prominent Bostonians who have their grave in the Old Burying Ground.

 

 

The Old State House, historically the seat of the Governor appointed by the British to rule this colonial region. The Governor would sit in his office high in the building with a view out to the harbour so he could see all the comings and goings.  

 

 

 

 





We've had a relatively quiet week this week, building up to the end of Barry's Harvard course tomorrow, after which he has two weeks off. He needs it, bless him - I don't think he's worked this hard for years!

We enjoyed a barbecue at our new friends' house last Sunday evening. Apart from the great food and enjoyable conversation there was a simple pleasure in sitting outside to eat barbecued food. Having no garden to sit out in and no barbecue to cook on is proving a little frustrating. Never mind, we can't have everything and it is only for a year. Anyway, we all had a great evening and as we have seen more of these friends this week it all bodes well for building a good relationship through the year.

Peggy and the kids (new friends) took the girls and I shopping on Monday to an extensive outdoor mall in Dedham, a Greater Boston suburb. We watched with disbelief and some horror as Taylor (going into senior year) and Megan (first year middle school) filled a trolley in Staples with required stationery for the forthcoming year - the list they were working from was very long and prescriptive. If the girls' school has a similar list it's going to cost us a small fortune to get them stocked up! After that we found the clothes shops. Say no more. Suffice to say the girls have been told they are not getting any more new clothes until the Winter.

Yesterday the girls and I went to our local cinema which is proving a regular temptation due to its ease of access (just two stops along the T). We saw Smurfs 2 which was entertaining enough - certainly nowhere near as annoying as Alvin and the Chipmunks - and the girls enjoyed it a lot.

In the meantime we have booked our first New England holiday! The week after next  we're going on a road trip through Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. We're staying two nights in Williamstown in the Berkshires (NW Mass, rolling hill and mountain country); two nights in Killington (Vermont ski resort in the Winter, mountain town with gondola rides in the summer); three nights in Waterbury (also in Vermont, home of Ben & Jerry's ice cream so factory visit a must, and close to Stowe, another Winter ski resort and summer base for the mountains and gondola rides, and also the US home of the Von Trapp family of The Sound of Music fame) with the final night in Hanover (New Hampshire, site of Ivy League Dartmouth College) before driving home through New Hampshire. Dougal is coming with us and we're all very much looking forward to it.

It's the end of yet another beautiful sunny day here in Boston. I can't say it's been wall to wall sunshine as we have had a few rainy days (eg yesterday - rained all day so we all got very soggy) but the majority of the time the weather is sunny and hot and it seems to be on average 5 - 10C hotter than back home in the UK.

We have had a low key week this week, settling down into our new life. The girls and I had a lovely day shopping on Tuesday, in Macy's no less! It made us feel very American. We discovered that Macy's has a fantastic children's wear department which is enormous, full of sale offers on designer clothing and has clothes in sizes up to age 16, which Isabel can still just about get into. We came away with several bags full of Ralph Lauren denim shorts and DKNY t-shirts for an absolute steal. Good job Barry wasn't there to confiscate the credit card!

On Thursday morning we were invited round to visit our new friends. Yes - we have made some friends!! We met Peggy, Dion, Megan and Jacob whilst out dog walking last Sunday. They stopped us to make a fuss of Dougal, explaining that they had had a border terrier when they lived in the UK. They have been living in Boston for four years following 17 years in the UK and a year in Hong Kong. Peggy and Dion are from South Africa originally, so a truly international family. Megan is an extremely friendly 11-year-old so great for the girls. Their house is a 10-minute walk from where we live and is rather nicer than our apartment! The girls and I had a thoroughly enjoyable few hours with Peggy, Megan and toddler Jacob (eldest sister Taylor kept out of the way) and the girls went back on Friday afternoon to finish off a game of Monopoly started on Thursday. The girls are so happy to have made a friend (as am I!). We've been invited to a barbecue at their house tomorrow and we gather that Dion is very much looking forward to continuing with the brief cricket chat he had with Barry when we first met. Peggy says he suffers greatly as he has no-one to talk cricket with here in Boston. Bearing in mind Barry has spent many of his lectures so far using his computer to keep an eye on the Ashes then I suspect the two of them will have plenty to talk about.

We all went into Boston today (including Dougal, who is becoming addicted to the T - he pulls every time we pass a T station on dog walks, which is frequently, and looks very doleful when he gets dragged away) with the plan of walking most of the Freedom Trail, a walk which takes in many of Boston's historic sights, and finishing with lunch in the Italian North End. We managed about a quarter of the Freedom Trail before getting fed up with the crowds and instead took our own route to the North End and had a truly delicious lunch sitting outside an otherwise deserted restaurant. We had no idea why it was deserted as the food was excellent and the setting was nice enough but we were reassured whilst wandering around afterwards to see that most of the restaurants were very quiet. Maybe the Bostonians do dinner rather than lunch.

On the way back Izzy and I diverted to get Isabel a new mobile phone. It's galling to have to do it as she has a perfectly functional phone already but as it would have cost us $70 to have it unlocked so we could get it onto a US network and would then cost us another $30 to buy a SIM card we've gone the reluctant route of a new phone. If anyone is reading this with a smart phone please download the Viber app so Isabel and I can text and call you for free. I will try to e-mail as many people as I can with our new US numbers but if in the meantime you get onto Viber it should come up on our contacts and we can text you.

That's it for now. I'll try to update again soon and put some photos on.

Today's Duck Tour was great fun! Our vessel was bright pink with purple spots and was named Dorchester Dottie (Dorchester is a Boston suburb) and our driver was Captain Blackeye Mac the pirate (otherwise known as Mac the fisherman with lots of black eye make-up!). Our tour took in Boston's waterfront, downtown area, the North End (the Italian enclave) and Charlestown amongst others and we enjoyed a trip along the Charles River too, partly driven by Isabel (who almost took out a passing canoeist).

Below are some photos of our aquarium visit yesterday and today's Duck Tour including some general shots of Boston. Enjoy!

 

Sunday morning and we've had a busy few days.

Firstly, Thursday and the Red Sox game. The girls and I visited the Red Sox Team Store on Thursday afternoon to get kitted out for the game. It was a cavern of a shop with a dizzying array of t-shirts and other souvenirs and we had a great time selecting our supporters gear. Rachel chose a t-shirt sporting the name of her new favourite player Dustin Pedroia (he's her favourite because she's seen his face on a few advertising posters so now recognises him), Izzy chose a glitzy orange t-shirt with sparkly socks on it and I was brow beaten by the girls to choose t-shirts for Barry and I which involved equal measures of amusement and humiliation, as you will see from the photos below.

The game itself was AWESOME!! Fenway Park stadium is an impressive building and is beautiful inside (at least as far as sports grounds go). It looks like a Playmobil model of a sports stadium it's so perfect. It is in fact the oldest major league baseball stadium in the US, built in 1912. There were proposals some years ago to demolish it and replace it with a more modern stadium but there was uproar and the plans were abandoned. We were with a group from the IHI and had a roof box area perched on the top of the stadium with a bird's eye view of the action which was great for getting a good overview of the game. The Red Sox were playing the Seattle Mariners and the two teams are apparently fiercely competitive. Matches tend to be played as part of a series over a few days, presumably to minimise travelling, and Wednesday night's match against the Mariners had by all accounts been an epic encounter with the usual nine innings, three hour match turning into a 15 innings, five hour marathon which the Red Sox managed to win eventually. Therefore, expectations were high amongst the 40,000 capacity crowd but it looked like it was going to be a disastrous result for the Red Sox. At the end of the 8th innings it was 7 runs to 2 to the Mariners and many people in the crowd started to leave. We had heard from other supporters who were long standing fans that the Mariners' pitcher was one of the best in the league and the Red Sox were without their best pitcher which seemed to be the primary reason for the one-sided game. So far as we could see it would have helped if the batsmen could have a) hit the ball b) hit it in the correct part of the field and c) not then get caught out. It surprised us how few balls are hit with scoring runs.

We ended up being the last family standing of the IHI group as we were still enjoying the game whatever the result and the girls didn't want to leave. We were so glad we stayed as we witnessed one of the most amazing comebacks we've ever seen, worthy of a novel or film climax! The Mariners batted first in the final innings and failed to score any further runs so the Red Sox had to score 5 runs in their final innings to draw level and therefore force another innings or score 6 or more to win. It seems that the Mariners may have one of the best major league pitchers but judging by the performance on Thursday night the rest of their pitchers must rank amongst the worst. It's physically impossible for the same pitcher to pitch throughout a baseball game so it reaches a point where the pitcher has to be changed and when the Mariners reached that point it turned the match. They tried three different pitchers through the final innings and they were all as bad as each other enabling Red Sox batsmen to walk to first base on two occasions because of too many foul pitches and allowing the Red Sox to stack all the bases with players on a couple of occasions with the result that a couple of good/lucky hits allowed all the players on the bases to get home. The crowd (and us!) got more and more hysterical as the home runs started to pile up until by some miracle the sixth batsman got to fourth base to secure the required six home runs for a remarkable win. It was apparently a record breaking comeback for the Red Sox and half the crowd missed it - ha ha!!

We are now all hooked and the girls are begging to go to another match as soon as possible. I suppose we have to have some excuse to wear the t-shirts again so I'm sure we'll make another a few games.

Barry and I have discovered that our basic cable TV package includes a channel called NESN which we assume stands for New England Sports News which seems to show live Red Sox matches every night so the last few nights after we've cleared up after tea we've been found in front of the TV with the baseball on. Trouble is the girls won't go to bed until the match is finished which is usually after 10pm! Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon.

Anyway, moving on...

Friday evening Barry and I went to a wine tasting at our local liquor and wine store. We had seen it advertised on a hand-written note on the door to the store so we weren't sure what to expect but thought we could pop in for half an hour. It turned out to be a lady from a wine suppliers company offering tastings of six wines, four of which were Californian, so we enjoyed that and worked her hard to offer other recommendations around the store which she duly did and we duly bought! However, despite Sarah, the wine representative, being lovely and helpful we found it very difficult to take her seriously as her voice was so high pitched she wasn't far off chipmunk level. High pitched voices seem to be a feature of Boston women - we have met many others with alarmingly high pitched voices but Sarah is definitely the most extreme so far. Message to our wine group in Porthcawl - we'll write down some of the recommendations and e-mail them to you!

On Saturday (yesterday) we went to the New England Aquarium at Boston's waterfront. It's a major tourist attraction with a huge central tall glass tank full of sharks, turtles and rays amongst others and surrounded by a spiral walkway. There are touch tanks, seals, penguins and a host of other exhibits as well as an IMAX cinema and whale watching trips. We've taken annual membership as we suspect we will make many visits through the year. We were glad we did as it was very very busy and I'm sure we'll get more out of it when we're out of the tourist season. We went to the IMAX cinema to watch a film about great white sharks which was very educational with Bill Nighy trying to persuade us that sharks are very misunderstood and are actually lovely and friendly as long as you keep eye contact with them. We weren't convinced! Funnily enough, Bill Nighy himself didn't seem to take to the water to test out this theory!

It's been shark week on our Xfinity cable TV so the girls have been watching lots of programmes which seem to feature numerous shark attacks rather than friendly sharks. They insisted on watching Jaws last night after we got back from the aquarium so of course Rachel had nightmares last night!!

We've booked a Duck Tour this afternoon which we're all looking forward to. I'll let you know how we get on.

Observations:
It's really expensive to have a mobile phone in the USA. We were sorting out US mobile phones for the girls and me a few days ago and I shall never again complain about the cost of phone contracts in the UK again. The only contracts available are for two years and even then you have to pay for a phone, albeit at a discounted price. As we're not here for two years we've had to go for a pay monthly option. Our predecessor in the apartment had left a basic mobile phone which we thought we could use for Rachel but as a sim card would cost $30 it was cheaper to buy a basic phone for $20 which came with a sim card. UK companies seem to hand out free sim cards willy nilly. A basic monthly contract for Rachel for unlimited texts and talk time and a small amount of internet use is $40, ie about £28 - it's the equivalent contract that we had for Isabel in the UK for £10 a month!