So yesterday we had two, and only two real objectives. A whale watching boat tour at 10am, and then a ride on the Duck boats (old WWII amphibious craft) at 4:30pm. Lots of time in between, so no worries, right? Hahahahaaaaa.....
Our first mistake, admittedly, was in following the directions from the boat tours website blindly. They never seemed to have updated it since the Big Dig (more on that later) changed everything around. So the exit they told us to get off on didn't exist anymore, and we ended up waaaaay south of the city. Called them, they said they'd put us on a later boat as they couldn't hold it. Fine, so we managed to find our way back again, to the right spot, grabbed a lunch at a very nice French bakery (I had a lovely cold-cut with Brie cheese on a baguette, which came back to haunt me the next morning... from about 4am onward... ugh...) and got our tickets. Boarded the Aurora, a double-hulled pontoon boat with three decks (two covered). Seemed like a nice, stable craft... So both Donna and Carrie got seasick (can't blame them the boat was rolling so badly) and I got a headache eventually from it all, but it was a beautiful day for being out in the bay. Way, way out in the bay. Really, past the bay and into the ocean. Did I mention it was supposed to last from noon to 3pm? Sing with me, people:
But there were whales! We saw one humpback, named "Teapot" around 1:20 or so, and other named "Baja" with her new calf around 2pm!! Very cool, got some nice pics of those tho I missed the tail fins, they were too quick for me...
The mama and baby were very playful and ran right alongside the ship for awhile. In fact, we all had such a grand time looking at the whales... that we got back to port a half-hour late. So where we were supposed to have had three and a half hours between the whale and the duck tours, we now had an hour to trek back, get the car, hop back across town... I dropped Donna off at the line and parked the car. Got back to find that our Duck had already pulled out, but they found us some room on the 5pm one. Ah, well.
It was worth the wait. Our driver, Ensign Ex (shortened from his first name of Excellent) was a trip and a half. Very entertaining.
Didn't learn much new, but he did have lots of little tidbits, and gave us a long and detailed history on the Big Dig and where all the news reports seem to be blowing this way out of proportion... Seems that the sensationalist reports of budget overruns from $3bn to $15bn are a tab inflated. Considering the $3bn is in NINETEEN EIGHTY-SEVEN DOLLARS when the project was first introduced. So yeah, that's a bit of difference. Also on a government funded project, only construction costs are estimated. Litigation and law enforcement are not, that can account for a third of total construction costs. And we also learned that the Boston roads were nonstop jammed with traffic, no exception. Roads that were created to handle 60K cars a day were handling 170K. Now it seems much better. (Ha. After my rants about the roads and drivers, I cannot imagine it before the Big Dig...)
Both Katie and Carrie got to drive the Duck on the river, that was a lot of fun as well...
So we finished up our tour, made our way back to where we originally parked for our whale watching trip and ate at the Barking Crab. With a name like that, ya gotta eat there at least once... Had me some awesome black bean and crab soup, and a Lobster Roll. (Lahbstah?) Sat outside on a covered deck with good music, my family around me and eating some damn fine seafood, sipping on a Twisted Tea (a hard tea, got the Peach, very nice). I think that was my best memory of Boston right there, even after the day we had.
So, the next morning we check out and head to Plymouth (changed our reservations so we could spend a little time in Cape Cod and Plymouth). But that's for another tale...
Our first mistake, admittedly, was in following the directions from the boat tours website blindly. They never seemed to have updated it since the Big Dig (more on that later) changed everything around. So the exit they told us to get off on didn't exist anymore, and we ended up waaaaay south of the city. Called them, they said they'd put us on a later boat as they couldn't hold it. Fine, so we managed to find our way back again, to the right spot, grabbed a lunch at a very nice French bakery (I had a lovely cold-cut with Brie cheese on a baguette, which came back to haunt me the next morning... from about 4am onward... ugh...) and got our tickets. Boarded the Aurora, a double-hulled pontoon boat with three decks (two covered). Seemed like a nice, stable craft... So both Donna and Carrie got seasick (can't blame them the boat was rolling so badly) and I got a headache eventually from it all, but it was a beautiful day for being out in the bay. Way, way out in the bay. Really, past the bay and into the ocean. Did I mention it was supposed to last from noon to 3pm? Sing with me, people:
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,All together now!
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny Ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
The Skipper brave and sure,
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour.
A threeeee hour tour...Yeah I got that song stuck in my head for the whole trip.
But there were whales! We saw one humpback, named "Teapot" around 1:20 or so, and other named "Baja" with her new calf around 2pm!! Very cool, got some nice pics of those tho I missed the tail fins, they were too quick for me...
The mama and baby were very playful and ran right alongside the ship for awhile. In fact, we all had such a grand time looking at the whales... that we got back to port a half-hour late. So where we were supposed to have had three and a half hours between the whale and the duck tours, we now had an hour to trek back, get the car, hop back across town... I dropped Donna off at the line and parked the car. Got back to find that our Duck had already pulled out, but they found us some room on the 5pm one. Ah, well.
It was worth the wait. Our driver, Ensign Ex (shortened from his first name of Excellent) was a trip and a half. Very entertaining.
Didn't learn much new, but he did have lots of little tidbits, and gave us a long and detailed history on the Big Dig and where all the news reports seem to be blowing this way out of proportion... Seems that the sensationalist reports of budget overruns from $3bn to $15bn are a tab inflated. Considering the $3bn is in NINETEEN EIGHTY-SEVEN DOLLARS when the project was first introduced. So yeah, that's a bit of difference. Also on a government funded project, only construction costs are estimated. Litigation and law enforcement are not, that can account for a third of total construction costs. And we also learned that the Boston roads were nonstop jammed with traffic, no exception. Roads that were created to handle 60K cars a day were handling 170K. Now it seems much better. (Ha. After my rants about the roads and drivers, I cannot imagine it before the Big Dig...)
Both Katie and Carrie got to drive the Duck on the river, that was a lot of fun as well...
So we finished up our tour, made our way back to where we originally parked for our whale watching trip and ate at the Barking Crab. With a name like that, ya gotta eat there at least once... Had me some awesome black bean and crab soup, and a Lobster Roll. (Lahbstah?) Sat outside on a covered deck with good music, my family around me and eating some damn fine seafood, sipping on a Twisted Tea (a hard tea, got the Peach, very nice). I think that was my best memory of Boston right there, even after the day we had.
So, the next morning we check out and head to Plymouth (changed our reservations so we could spend a little time in Cape Cod and Plymouth). But that's for another tale...
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