Feelin' Beany

Here's the story of one of the best trips of my life.

We left Fort Myers on Thursday around noon on JetBlue. Having never flown JetBlue before, I didn't know about the individual televisions in the back of each headrest, nor the have-as-many-as-you-like approach to snacking. We enjoyed the flight, the 36 cable channels, and variety of snacks until about 3:30 p.m. when we arrived at Logan Airport. Just before landing we opened the window shades (previously closed to prevent glare, of course) and I saw my first glimpse of autumn color!!!


We didn't check luggage so we took a bus to the T station (subway) and took the T into downtown Boston. We checked out Quincy Market (which is like a big food court) and Faneuil Hall (which is a really old meeting house) and then followed the Freedom Trail (red brick stripe in the road) over to the North End, which is Boston's Little Italy. We stopped at Paul Revere's house and went for a quick tour before closing.


Legend has it that when a certain Kathleen Horgan was about 10 her parents took her around the Freedom Trail on a hot summer's day. When they got to Paul Revere's house she exclaimed, "I'm sure glad Paul Revere had air conditioning." But I'm pretty sure a certain mother made that up.

We walked a bit through the narrow streets of the North End...


until we came to a pizza shop called Pizzeria Regina, rather famous in Boston for its authentic pies. We walked in the door and were greeted with, "How many are ya?" and after responding, "Two!", we were pointed in the direction of an open table by the surly waitress. She probably has been there since she was in her 20s. We ate an amazing pepperoni pizza and then walked up to Trani, a new dessert place that injects softserve ice cream into various baked goods-- cupcakes, brownies, turnovers, you name it-- and then runs the whole mess under a waterfall of chocolate ganache that turns into a hard shell. Yum. We had a cupcake each and then walked a bit more. I couldn't leave the North End without having a good cannoli, so I stopped at Modern Pastry and had a small one, reh-goat-ah (not ricotta) filled, with chocolate chips on the end. Yum.

At this point we were a bit weary so we took the T to our hotel in Cambridge. I pricelined a hotel and got this amazing place-- Hotel @ MIT, in the Hilton family. It's decorated all nerdy-like (remember I say nerdy with positive connotations). The pictures on the walls are of old calculating machines, old inventions of a mathematical nature, etc., and the bedspreads had equations on them!!! I loved them, but for $150 each they weren't quite worth it.


On Friday we had a full day planned. We woke up and bought breakfast at the full-size grocery store on the second floor of the hotel. Then we took a bus past MIT and past the Berklee School of Music to the Prudential Center where we caught up with our Duck Tour. DUKWs (not a typo) are amphibious military vehicles that have been refurbished and are used to cart tourists around the city. The driver tells fun facts as we drive along the streets, and then takes us into the Charles River for a view of the city from the water. We had a good time except for the stretch where we crossed the Mass. Ave bridge-- the DUKW doesn't have closeable windows and the wind took my breath away! I'm turning into a Floridian with thin blood, and I was cold to my core. But it was worth it. The tour was fun and gave us a view of the highlights of the city.

After the tour we went back to the airport to rent a car. I had wanted to get a convertible, but I waited too long and nearly every single car was sold out in Boston. We were lucky to reserve an economy car through Dollar. When we got there we had to wait a while for our car to get cleaned. After a while the lady at the counter offered to give us a minivan so we could leave right away. We declined, knowing that we would be doing quite a bit of driving and we'd rather have something smaller. We waited a few more minutes and then she said, "I just saw a convertible drive in-- would you like that?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? "Um, ok," we said nonchalantly. "YES!!!" we thought. That was my personal birthday present from God. He knew that was part of my dream and he made it come true. Thanks, God. I really appreciate it!

We drove out of the city and took Route 1A up to New Hampshire. Just outside Boston was nuts-- there are rotaries (roundabouts) aplenty and we got a little turned around in Lynn and Salem. But we found our way again and made our way up to Ipswich. After a while Brad had an idea. Since we had a convertible and all... why not put the top down and just blast the heat as needed? Great idea. So we did that and enjoyed the much bigger view. The trees are turning and the little New England towns with their 1700s houses are so darn charming. We meandered through Newburyport and made our way up to Seabrook, New Hampshire.

Seabrook is where I spent nearly every summer growing up. My dad's brother has a beach house about two blocks over the border into New Hampshire and about 300 feet from the sand. And it's about 3 blocks from the best pizza in the known universe, Pluto included. It's called,

Cristaldi's makes their pizza in a rectangular pan. The crust is soft and thin with a crispy bottom. The sauce tastes like fresh tomatoes and has little bits of mozzarella mixed in. If you like "extra cheese" they'll throw a circle of provolone on top before warming it in the oven. It's just divine. I've been pining for it for years. I think it's been six years since I've had it.

We indulged in quite a few slices and then headed to Haverhill where my dad's brother and one sister live. We visited with Kevin and Katie (Kathy was out of town) until our lungs couldn't take the cat any longer. It was great to see them and really nice to catch up.

We headed back toward Cambridge, stopping along the way to pick up inexpensive fleece blankets at Target for the drive on Saturday. We crashed at the hotel, heated up leftover Cristaldi's, and watched Click on pay-per-view.

On Saturday we woke up and ate breakfast in the hotel. We checked out and were on our merry way. We made one quick last stop in Cambridge at the Good News Garage, of Click and Clack fame. You know, the guys on that car program on NPR? One of the brothers still works at this garage.


We worked our way out of Cambridge, driving along Memorial Drive where the crew folks were rowing.


We also managed to turn the wrong way up a one way street while a cop waited at a light 100 yards from us. We quickly turned around and drove up a side street to hide for a minute. But it wasn't long enough. We came back out onto the main street just as he was passing us. And he was looking at us. But we didn't get pulled over or anything. Phew.

We drove out Route 2 through Lexington and Concord


and stopped at Walden Pond, home of Thoreau. We got out and walked down to the pond.


... where Brad pondered the meaning of life.





After about a half hour we got back onto Route 2. All along the way the trees were turning bright gold and orange. There was still some green as well, making for a really beautiful drive. After a while we came upon something I should know the name of. Basically it was a very very big valley with a big bridge over it. Just past the bridge was a parking lot off to the side so we parked and walked part way across the bridge until my knees started buckling and I was getting queasy. Damn that fear of heights. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was pretty amazing.


We kept on driving and were starting to get hungry. We passed a few mom and pop places and finally decided to stop at the Sugar House.

We just barely made it in time for lunch. We put our name in and then walked around the store, admiring the homemade maple candies and jams and jellies. We ate a quick lunch and splurged on a piece of homemade apple pie-- amazing. Then we were back on the road.

After about an hour we finally came to the place that was the inspiration for the trip. We arrived at the Berkshire mountains.

I really need to go to bed now, but I promise to edit this to finish the story very soon! Please pray for the Bressler family. Grandma Bressler has been given hours to live. We may be going to Columbus for my 30th birthday this weekend. Yay for the trip, but it's under sad conditions and it's very hard to lose a loved one. Please pray for comfort and wisdom for the family.