I emptied the cat’s litter box
and packed some more before we went to the airport. We got on the airplane and took off to
Boston, Massachusetts. We took a bus to
our hotel where there was a jar of chocolate and macadamia nut cookies for
visitors. Mom, Dave, and I each took one
then took the elevator up to our room. It had a living room with a foldout couch, a television that hung on the
wall, a dark wood desk with steel legs with wheels, and a lamp in the
corner. There was a microwave and a sink
in the corner facing a dark wooden framed mirror and a trash can. The floor had rectangular ceramic tiles a
carpet with orange and gray waves on one side and dark gray and light gray
waves on another. The only other rooms
were the bathroom and the bedroom.
Mom and Dave looked up
restaurants and decided on the Garden of the Cellar. We took a taxi and reached Harvard
College. Mom and Dave liked its gothic
architecture, but I thought it was kind of ugly.
We made it to the Garden of the
Cellar where we sat at a small table. Mom sat next to Dave and I sat across from them. I drank a glass of water then had a keg beer. The appetizer included bread with olive oil
and for dinner I ordered a cellar burger, medium, with mustard on the
side. The burger was huge and came with
rosemary fries. The mustard was rather
spicy but that was good and I shared a small round donut with Mom, which came
with several dipping sauces. After we
paid and left, we walked through the neighborhood where I saw several
bookstores until we hailed a taxi and rode back to our hotel. We each had a chocolate and macadamia nut
cookie before we took the elevator up to our room.
The next day I got up, took a
shower, and then went down to breakfast. I had two cinnamon rolls which tasted very fresh, a cup of orange juice,
and a sausage patty. On the television
was a man talking to a fortune-teller in Morocco then to a man in Mali.
After breakfast we brought our
stuff down to the lobby and walked up the street from our hotel. We passed an antique shop with a brightly
painted sign and after a taxi ride we passed several old-fashioned colonial neighborhoods
and saw the obelisk, which was nearly thirty stories tall. I climbed the steep spiral staircase up the
building occasionally holding onto the wall to let families go down and use the
railing. I made it to the top where I
could see Boston below through rectangular windows. The walk down was considerably easier than
the walk up.
After that we saw Freedom Park
and made it to where we could see the U. S. S. Constitution and a World War II
destroyer in addition to a magnificent suspension bridge. In the distance I could see a tall clock
tower. We followed a brick line known as
the Freedom Trail until we reached an old cemetery, which was a great way for
me to contemplate our own mortality. After passing several shops and old colonial buildings, we reached the Old
North Church, where one lamp was lit to warn of a British attack on ground, and
two lamps were lit to warn of a naval assault. I looked in the gift shop then went back to it so I could get some water
from the vending machine for which I bought a homemade cherry lollipop, a blue
and white candy cane stick, and while I was at it, a pocket owl as a
souvenir. Then I bought bottled water
from the vending machine before we went on a guided tour of the church.
We went into the foyer through a
side door up a steep wooden staircase into a room then up another steep wooden
staircase into the bell room. Our
tour-guide, a short, dark-haired young woman, led our group back down the
stairs and through an underground charnel room, explaining that parishioners
wanted to be buried where they worshipped, before the city of Boston cracked
down on it, proving to me that religious freedom is not absolute and does not
cover practices that are harmful to the welfare of others.
We went through a door into
low-ceilinged charnel halls one containing the tomb of a British general when
the British seized the church. It
twisted and turned every so often until we made it outside and the tour was
over.
After the tour was over we saw
the churches Garden of Assisi. Then we
left through the back way and saw a giant statue of Paul Revere. We walked farther along and saw the house of
Paul Revere before we went to a seafood restaurant, where I got a shrimp roll
and some lemon tea. We ate lunch by a
fountain where Mom shared with me some lobster from her sandwich and then we
took a taxi back to the hotel, got our stuff, and drove to New Hampshire.
We
passed peaceful country road, coming across a bearded man sitting on his front
lawn wearing only shorts and then we reached our house, a quaint little cottage
next to the lake. We went a few houses
down where I saw my grandmother, Uncle Andy, Aunt Marge, Uncle Kurt, Aunt Barb,
and my little cousins, Kyley and Hunter. After dinner Uncle Andy and Aunt Marge drove me back to our cabin and my mom and Dave came back a while later.
The next day we went to see a
waterfall and Castle in the Clouds, the mansion of Thomas Gustave Plant, who
made his fortune in the steel industry. After dinner tonight we went out for ice cream. I got raspberry sorbet with gummie
bears. We looked at the docks, which had
several boats and one great yacht. We
looked in a shop selling shirts before we went back to our cabin.
The next day I woke up and later
I went down to the beach where I kayaked while taking pictures with my newly
charged camera. I picked out several
reeds, which I took to our cabin and laid them out to dry and then give them to
people as gifts. For dinner we went to a
seafood restaurant where I drank a Samuel Adams Summer and ordered some pan
seared swordfish. After dinner, my mom,
Dave, Uncle Andy, Aunt Marge, and I drove down to an ice cream shop where I
ordered a two scoop Denali Chocolate Moose Tracks, which turned out to be much
bigger than I expected.
The next day Mom and I went to
the Libby Museum and then had lunch with my grandmom, Uncle Kurt, Aunt Barb,
Kyley and Hunter. I ate a delicious
grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and then Mom and I explored the town. After we looked in a jewelry store, I went to
the bookstore where I had been hoping to go. I saw one book that really interested me called In the Shadows of the Buddha about an American Buddhist pilgrim in
Tibet who saw the atrocities the Chinese are committing and went to great
personal risk to smuggle out evidence.
That
night I had dinner over at Uncle Kurt’s, Aunt Barb’s, Kyley’s, Hunter’s, and
Nannies cabin. After dinner Kyley and I
drew on this portable sketch board she owned which you can erase when you’re
done and start over. That night I felt I
really bonded with her.
The next day Mom, Dave, and I
climbed Mt. Washington. When we got to
the top we took the train down and then went back to our cabin. That night we ate out at the town. I had a hamburger, which was rather big with
some fries.
On the last day Mom, Dave, Uncle
Kurt, Aunt Barb, Kyley, Hunter, and I ate steak Florentine, mangoes, potatoes,
and tomatoes. The next day we dropped
Cam and Graham off at an airport at Manchester, New Hampshire, then Mom, Dave,
and I flew to Memphis, then to Kansas City. When I got home I called Hen House and found out I work on Monday from 7
to 10.
