Boston 5/01
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Memorial Day weekend was upon us so Wayne, Ben and Craig took to the air Friday afternoon for a trip to Boston. Neither Ben or Craig had ever been there and it offered the promise of seeing some American history while having a good time. Mary Lou begged off because of the 5 hour flights for a short stay. Our flight from LAX had the whole Marilyn Manson (including Marilyn) group in the seats directly in front of us. We could see that they were a rock group right away but we didn't recognize them without makeup until we asked the flight attendant. We took a taxi to our hotel, the Cambridge Marriott and grabbed a late dinner in the sports bar at the hotel while we watched the Lakers win a playoff game.

Saturday May 26th

We started the day by getting our 3 day MBTA Visitor passes and headed out for the start of the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is about 2.5 miles long and passes 16 historical sites. It is marked by a red line on the sidewalk or by double red bricks embedded in the sidewalk (second picture below). It starts in Boston Common, passes the State House, the Park Street Church and the adjacent Old Granary Burying Ground. The graves of Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams (who lived to be over 80), among others are all here (last three pictures below).

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Continuing along the trail we passed the site of the first public school and the site of the Boston Massacre (first two pictures below). The Boston Massacre site is right in front of the Old State House, marked by a round cobblestone inset in the sidewalk. I had passed over this site a hundred times walking from the State Street T stop to PDC's Boston office without knowing what it was. By Faneuil Hall, we stopped at BosTix to get half price seats for the Blue Man Group show that night. We took a quick turn over to State Street to show the kids the Corporate office of my company - Product Development Consulting (third picture below). After a quick lunch at the South Market, we walked the long part of the trail past the "Big Dig" over to the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned ship still afloat (fourth and fifth pictures below).

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We took the water shuttle back from Charles Shipyard to Long Wharf (first picture below) and headed for Legal Seafoods in Cambridge by our hotel for dinner. The Kendal Square T Station has an interesting gadget that the kids discovered to make chimes in the middle of the track ring (second picture below). After dinner we took the T to the Charles Playhouse for the 10pm show of the Blue Man Group. The Blue Man Group show is a combination of techno music, humor and audience participation. It was very entertaining for adults and kids. 

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Sunday May 27th

It was raining in the morning so we brought our umbrellas and took the T to Harvard. We walked all around the campus (first two pictures below) and then through Harvard Square, stopping at some bookshops and the COOP along the way. We checked at the hotel to ensure the Red Sox game was not canceled and headed over to Fenway Park. Mary Anne, from PDC's Boston office, had arranged for tickets from a friend in the second row just behind third base. The seats were great, and even though we didn't get any foul balls, there were plenty flying around us. The third and fourth pictures below show our seats and the view from them. The large picture near the top right of this page is a picture of all three of us during the 7th inning stretch. Fog set in after the game and Ben shot the fifth picture below of the John Hancock Building with the top floors hidden by fog. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe near Copley and then headed back to Cambridge. We walked around a bit of MIT's campus before retiring for the night.

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Monday May 28th - Memorial Day

On our last morning in Boston we headed over to the Prudential Building to take the Duck Tour. The Duck Tour uses refurbished amphibious vehicles built for use in WW2 to do a combination land and sea tour. The first picture below shows the vehicle. The second picture shows Ben and Craig in their seat after the "big splash" and the third picture shows Ben driving (!) the vehicle around Boston Harbor while the tour guide did the commentary.

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Home Italy 4/00 Hawaii 11/00 Netherlands 12/00 Grand Cayman 12/00 Ireland 3/01 Australia & NZ 4/01 Austria & Cz Rep 5/01 Boston 5/01 Belgium 12/01 Pacific Northwest 4/02 Key West 12/99 Berlin & London 12/98 Paris 9/95 40th b'day Far East 4/86 Scotland 8/02