Boston Vacation, Day Two: Lexington and Concord

OK, wrapping up the day (continued from the last post). So we finished up the walking tour clear across town from where we started, much less where we parked.

(Side note: The heroic Paul Revere, only made famous because of a hugely inaccurate poem written many years later by a man whose research consisted of one conversation with a tourguide, and neglected the one man who actually made it to Concord, is seen here riding a male warhorse. Yet he rode a mare into Lexington. As our tourguide stated, they just can't seem to get any statues correct in the town...)

Donna and the girls went up into the Old North Church and onto the nearby playground and park, while I trekked back across town (navigating with only a street map, what kind of geek am I without a GPS handy) to fetch the car.



After coughing up the $31 to extract my ride (ugh) I managed to make my way back to where my family was waiting. Well, somehow from the opposite direction than I was trying for. But hey, I got there, right?

We then headed for Lexington and Concord. Missed the tour bus, somehow found the two spots we wanted (Lexington Green and the Concord North Bridge). Got to hear a good story by a ranger about that day in Concord.



And yet, the best memory of those two towns for my daughters (possibly for Donna and I as well, when all was said and done) is playing Pooh Sticks off of the wooden bridge.

It was a long day by the end, only made longer by our getting lost several times on the way home, and the fact that the local Girl Scout store did not post their summer hours on their web site and so were closed by the time we got there (grrr). And after all, we spent time together as a family, and that's the important thing. I'm hoping that tomorrow we will spend more time relaxing and enjoying things, rather than get so worn out as we did today.


Got the whale watching tour tomorrow morning, and the Duck tour tomorrow afternoon. To be continued once again.

Boston Vacation, Day Two: The Freedom Trail

So the bulk of today's activities revolved around the Freedom Trail. The local Girl Scout troop has a special patch for this, so we were working off of some activities to accommodate that as well as enjoy some of Boston's sights and history. Today was to be a walking tour. Well, ok so I didn't really think a walking tour of Boston would entail actually walking across the entire city. On foot. Yes, walking with a six and nine year old. More like dragging the six-year-old to keep up with the nine-year-old who couldn't stay with her parents no matter the threat or physical restraint. Did I mention we were on foot the whole time?

Anyways, we started out at the Commons once again, with a delightful lady by the anachronistic name of Freelove Bliss (yes that was her tour guide name, but this was an authentic historical figure):

Donna did a much better rendition of Freelove's personage than I could with my wholly holey memory (yep, like a steel sieve, that's me):

Freelove Bliss was born in Connecticut, and was wanted in at least 5 states, not including Massachusetts where she is currently hiding out and counterfeiting currency for Virginia and other colonies.
One of her favorite people is in the Granary burying ground- he was a goldsmith and invented the metal copper plates used to print money, making her job easier.
She was very familiar with the back alleys of Boston, and thought we should slum through them like part of the south mob instead of follow the red line like "tourists"
She knew lots of history about the north end mob and the south mob and their joining to become the Sons of Liberty, as well as their runnings with Sam Adams.

Back in her day, while it was frowned upon to create the currency of the state in which you were a resident of, there was nothing illegal in creating another state's currency. Nice loopholes for independent colonies (I know, I keep mixing colonies and states, see this is why I never finished my history degree...).

So we walked a goodly amount (I think I already covered my viewpoint on this) and hit some landmarks with extremely colorful and dry commentary by our tourguide.

Only John Hancock (of the ostentatious signature's fame) could have such a huge monument overshadowing all others in the graveyard, according to Freelove. And phallic to boot.

Amusing story on how much John hated George (well yes, he did hate the King, but also the Washington): When the time came to pick a leader for the rebel rabble, John seemed the obvious choice - handsome and rich (half of Boston worked for him) - yet he lacked any military experience. Washington did, however the fact that he kept losing the battles he fought was of small import, that could be worked with. John was so humiliated by Washington getting the job over him, he never forgave him. And of course, who was the guy that ended up with the top job? Not John, who always wanted to be a king himself, oh no... When Washington went around for his inaugural speeches and ceremonies, all the colonies turned out for him. Yet when he came to Boston, no-one lined the streets or came to meet him. See, the governor of Boston (guess who?) neglected to inform the populace that Washington was coming at all. And who said petty politics were a recent trend...

Mrs. Hancock did not share her husband's misgivings about Washington. In fact, she didn't really get along with John at all. And when their first son was born, can you guess what she named him? George Washington Hancock.

To be continued...

Boston Vacation, Day Two: Bostonian Drivers

I learned to drive around the DC beltway, which has traffic that make midwesterners quiver with fear. I have driven for years around the Hampton Roads area, where the military personnel and families hail from all over the nation, again traffic which truly make a driver into sterner stuff than seen elsewhere. I have ridden a rickshaw through Bangalore, India, which completely revised my definition of the word "congestion". All this< I believe, lends me some degree of credence and experience with which I can authoritavely state the following:

Bostonians can't drive worth a damn.

Granted, it's not altogether their fault. The byzantine labyrinth of streets in Boston and the surrounding areas are enough to confuse someone skilled in navigating the streets of DC, no mean feat in and of itself. And there are numerous places where (most likely during hairpin curves and merging of intersections) the lane dividing lines will disappear altogether, leaving you to wonder where exactly you are supposed to be driving. And let us not forget the Big Dig, created to ease congestion and make traffic flow through Boston with the grace of a ballerina. Even with the closure of parts of the road (fortunately beyond where we needed to go, towards the airport) I cannot imagine what things were like to convince the powers-that-be such measures were required.

As it stands now, things might be better with either gas prices of $15/gallon, or tolls on every road in & out of the city. Or hell, just ban cars altolgether and make the use of public transportation mandatory. (That being said, in all fairness it would seem that the Boston metro area gets far more use out of their public trans system than the DC metro area does. IMHO, of course.)

OK, enough about the traffic. I'm still a little stressed after spending an extra hour on the road, all locally, trying to figure out my freaking way back to the bloody hotel. So, next post: Why my feet hate me right now...

Boston Vacation, Day One Dot One

(Post continued...) Here's Trinity Church (I've gleaned through the pics we've uploaded onto our family pics site, you should have a login if you think you do, otherwise why would you think so, eh?):

Also got to see the actual bar from Cheers:

In between we got off at one end of the Boston Common, a huge and beautiful park in the middle of downtown, ate some lunch at Bennegin's and took a swan boat ride (basically a big pontoon boat driven by one guy on a paddlewheel).

Lots and lots of ducks proliferated:

But by far the highlight of the day was a walking tour included with the trolley ticket through the elite Beacon Hill residences (as the trolleys were not permitted down those streets. Gorgeous houses, from $1.5-5 million apiece (and not a lot of house to go with that either, we're talking maybe 2000 sq. ft. for the expensive ones). Got to see John Kerry's residence when he's in Boston:

And we met up with some enterprising young Beacon Hill residents who decided to set up a lemonade stand along the walking route, which was most welcome:

Carrie, as usual, tried to grab a cameo in each shot:

At the end of the walking tour we ended up at the other side of the Commons, where there existed a great wading pool called the Frog Pond. For once Carrie decided to avoid the camera, but failed to take into account Donna's new camera with it's action-setting:

We finally dragged our sorry rears into the cafe across the street for dinner and retired for the evening. Though we had a full day, we're going to try to accomplish even more tomorrow - a walking tour of the freedom trail, and then a bus tour of Lexington and Concord. Somewhere we will try to hit the Girl Scout shop up here as it is close to Lexington, and the girls will hopefully have completed the work they need to do towards the Freedom Trail badge.

Stay tuned, more details as events warrant.

And no, we have seen no flying concrete debris as of yet, but thanks for asking.

Boston Vacation, Day One

So today we started our vacation in Boston. Arrived late last night after a very, very loooooong 9-hour drive (possibly longer with all the stops, praise be for onboard video...) to a decent enough hotel, nice rooms with two queen-size beds, relatively clean and all. Donna seems a bit let down, but she's coming back from Texas staying at the Gaylord 5-star, me I keep fresh in my memory my stay at the little air-conditionerless one-star stop on that weekend trip over in India. All a matter of perspective...

Anyways, today we spent on a trolley tour of Boston, primarily along the freedom trail. Took us bloody well forever to find the stop at the USS Constitution (Shouldn't that have been an easier find? Big wooden ship on the water?) and after a few circles, u-turns, and finally a helpful local at a Dunkin' Donuts (according to one of the trolley conductors, they have ensured a decent police coverage in town by putting a Dunkin' Donuts on every corner - a fairly close estimate - but there is not such a readily available explanation as to the Starbucks on every other corner) we gratefully stepped aboard the orange-and-green bedecked trolley, piloted by the stalwart Peppermint Patty.

About 17 stops across Boston, and we can get off wherever we like and reboard the next one to come along (every 15-20 minutes). Got to see some beautiful buildings.

More to follow in another posting, just so I don't write for an hour and lose it all due to a freak power surge or something.

AOL Planning Move to Ad-Supported Model

Article from Slashdot on the news coming out of my employer today. As AOL is in fact my employer, I will refrain from making any comments whatsoever. Safer that way.

In recognition of the fact that its subscriber-based revenues continue to plummet, AOL is planning to shift to an ad-supported business model. AOL's subscriber base, which peaked at 30 million users, now has less than 19 million subscribers and is still dropping--over 800,000 subscribers dropped the service in this year's first quarter alone. In addition to seeing fewer AOL CDs, a shift to ad revenue also means some serious cuts in staff size, especially in the customer service and retention departments. From the article: 'Time Warner plans to announce a series of changes at AOL that analysts say will mark the end of the company's paid-subscriber model. The company will begin relying on advertising sales rather than monthly fees paid by customers, according to the Wall Street Journal. 'I don't know whether advertising will work, but my thinking is (the changes) are basically an acceptance of what is happening,' says Joseph Bonner, a media and telecommunications analyst at Argus Research. 'This is a reflection of reality, that they have to find some other source of revenue.'

Interesting times. Definitely keeping busy at work, not the least because of this... Stay tuned for AOL / Time Warner's announcement today.

Woot!

So I just Wooted for the first time today. Can't believe I'd never heard of this site before. Basically, you check in around midnight CST when they change their page to whatever the new deal is. And they have some really nice deals - like the Razer Copperhead 2000dpi Laser Gaming Mouse I just picked up for $40 including shipping (whereas Newegg carries it for around $60 + shipping). Yep, that's 2000 dots per inch. Meaning you move the mouse one inch, the cursor travels 2000 pixels. As opposed to my very awesome Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse that I have currently, which is 800dpi. I'm hoping for some seriously upgraded gaming experiences...

Pitfalls of Medical Testing

An article from Slashdot covers how "...the four TGN1412 test victims learned recently that they have no detectable t-cells, which makes it "likely" (read certain) they will suffer from numerous diseases and truncated lifespans. It has been determined that Parexel was negligent in its aftercare of the victims. The victims have already suffered severe injuries such as gangrene requiring the amputation of all toes and three fingers (without toes you cannot remain standing or walk, btw) and endured unimaginable agony. But it seems Parexel, despite having the moral responsibility for the outcome of its incompetence and the financial ability to pay proper restitution (estimated yearly revenue of $750 million) is ignoring the victims and using the legal system to avoid liability. The lessons are that $4000 is not worth risking your life over, that that is what you are doing if you are foolish enough to volunteer for medical testing whatever promises you receive not withstanding, and that if you are so foolish you will be left to die by the company responsible without legal recourse should things go wrong. In other words, only an ignorant would sign up for medical testing. I predict a decline in voluntary test subjects, and a rise in the use of prisoners and other 'disposable' human subjects." Talk about corporate arrogance run rampant...