8 days in New England

tonight's our last night in Boston. In the last 8 days, I've been to Massachussetts , Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In no particular order: I've driven along the length of Cape Cod in a convertible and visited Provincetown. I've been to Nantucket and seen all the rich people's summer homes. I've been to two whaling museums--New Bedford and Nantucket. I've walked the "Freedom Trail" and visited Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church where he hung lanterns and even his grave. I've sailed in Boston Harbor, dumped tea leaves in said Boston harbor, docked near the USS Constitution, and visited the Constitution, along with the Mayflower II and the Charles Morgan whaling ship. I saw Plymouth Rock. I visited a cheesy witch museum in Salem. I've had several excellent meals--italian, italian, and italian...sandwiches, pizza, pasta, risotto, ice cream ice cream ice cream! I've made a four-year-old friend. I've been lost, read lots of maps, steered a sailboat, gone to a yacht club, and hung out in Boston's North End which is basically Little Italy. I've seen model boats on sale for thousands of dollars. I've stood directly under the mouth of a whale skeleton. I've learned all about whaling, getting oil from whales, making that oil into candles, and getting rich. I've hung out with my family, sometimes fun and sometimes stressful. I've visited Walden Pond and seen where Thoreau's house used to be. I've stood on the green where the "Shot heard round the world" was fired in Lexington. I've sat on the "neck" of Marblehead and looked at the big houses. I've witnessed my brother's first visit to the Atlantic.

less fun:
At Plimoth Plantation I bought some cranberry scone mix. I made the scones yesterday morning before we went sailing, put them in a bag and into the food bag. By the time we arrived at the boat, though, they'd been crushed by the fruit into crumbs. I am so sad! I worked hard on those things--the dough was really sticky--and no one even got to eat them except me. boo.

cool souvenirs:
I bought a cool pen today--a glass pen with six colors of ink. The kind of pen you dip into the ink and write with, old style. neat.

on the Freedom Trail I got a "Disappearing Civil Liberties" mug where the Bill of Rights disappears when you put a hot beverage in, and also authentic "Boston Tea Party Tea" imported from the same company that sold the tea for that famous day.

I have keychains from everywhere except Rhode Island.

Funny moments:
My brother reads really fast and when he reads signs out loud he often misreads--it's hilarious. We pulled up at Friendlys, which had a special on "Featured Chicken Entrees" and he said "Feathered chicken entrys?" At Mystic Seaport there's a little boat on an exhibit and it's called the "Patsy Green" and he said "Pasty green? what kind of name is that?" We are still talking about these and laughing like crazy!

kinda scary:
We've been driving through the "Big Dig" tunnel where a ceiling panel fell down and crushed a woman recently.

Sailboats tip really far to one side, and while I never thought the boat would tip, there were moments when I thought I might fall out--especially when I was using both hands to eat and had none free to hold on.

we were lost coming home from Nantucket when dad realized that we had forgotten to get gas in Hyannis. Between Hyannis and...well...somewhere far away from there, there's no town. So we drove all around looking for a town with a gas station, with the car beeping telling us we'd better hurry up and get gas already, for about 40 minutes. We ended up back in Hyannis.

News:
my counter to the seller's counter offer for my condo was accepted and it's now under contract. Woohoo! Now we're down to some formalities about the inspection and the paperwork for a mortgage.

the Blackhawk Presbytery meeting I have to be examined at is Tuesday. I'm totally anxious and a little creeped out.

Assuming the Presbytery meeting goes well, I'll be preaching next weekend and the congregational meeting will be Sunday the 17th. Hopefully that'll go well too!

it's my bedtime. :-)