Day 1 - 5/4/13 (Off To Boston!):
Danny and Aly (gamer girl we met at Gemini Arcade Palace that Danny's been hanging with lately) dropped us off at McCarran airport just before midnight to catch our 12:42am United Airlines flight to Boston (transfer in Houston). We were running a little late but made it through security and onto our plane just fine! It was our first flight together EVER, which is kinda crazy considering all the other things we've done with each other and how much each of us travel. It was really nice to be at an airport together and not saying goodbyes to one another like we'd had to do every time last year!
Sean & me at our local McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV:
We got to Houston just after 4am Vegas time (6am local time) and explored the airport, or at least the C gate area where our flights were arriving and departing from. We looked around the various shops and restaurants until we found a place I had coupons for: Einstein Bros. Bagels! We found 2 Einstein Bros. Bagels locations actually and the 1st wouldn't accept the coupons but the 2nd did PLUS the prices at the 2nd were so much better! We needed some energy so we got a large iced coffee for $2.19 plus tax and a large hot tea (Sean picked the British Breakfast flavor XD) for $2.41 plus tax BUT got a free breakfast bagel sandwich with egg, spinach, mushroom, and Swiss ($5.99 value) and a free blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese (3.19 value)! I love coupons.
Coffee, tea, & free food at Einstein Bros. Bagels:
Our previous flight had gotten us to Houston late but we didn't realize just how late and got a bit confused with the time change so we ended up missing our connection. Luckily, we spoke with customer service and made it seem like United's fault we'd missed the flight, though we were nice about it, so they put us on another flight that left about 2.5 hours later than our original one and got to Boston at 3pm instead of 12:30pm or so FOR FREE! That was perfectly fine with us too because the way our flight was originally scheduled we were gonna have to wait around in the Boston airport for a few hours after arrival in order to pick up our rental car without having to pay for an extra day. May as well wait around the Houston airport instead and have our rental car waiting when we got to our destination! On top of that, there weren't any 2 seats together in economy on our new flight so instead they upgraded us to economy plus for free - more leg room and seats closer to the door!
On the flight, I got a $7 margarita to share with Sean. It was the first in-flight alcohol I'd ever had! We got some hot tea and other free drinks too.
Margarita & more!:
Economy Plus had outlets! First flight I'd been on with outlets at my seat.
We landed in Boston at 2:30pm and were ready to start our adventures!
We went out to ground transportation to get the Hertz shuttle to the rental car area. As soon as we left the airport exit to the outdoors though, the cold air hit us. It was such a shock to the system. I couldn't believe how weirdly chilly the air felt on my legs! I think it was over 80 degrees in Vegas when we left and 52 degrees in Boston when we arrived. O_O
The car we got was a silver Chevy Aveo. It looked so small from the outside but the inside, aside from the trunk, was surprisingly spacious.
Our Hertz rental car:
We were really hungry by the time we left the airport so we decided to start knocking things off the checklist and find somewhere to try some New England clam chowder! We wound up at Legal Harborside (a Legal Sea Foods location) at 1 Seafood Way. The nearby parking was really expensive so we parked a ways away in the parking lot for a place called au bon pain next to what appeared to be a really, rusty, old factory or ship yard. I don't think I'd ever seen anything like it aside from in movies! We looked inside but it was almost completely empty. Still an awesome place to check out, maybe after food!
On the walk over to Legal Harborside, we came across a family of geese - 2 adults and a bunch of little yellow babies (goslings)! They were so freakin cute! We managed to catch a baby and play with it for a couple of minutes but it was so scared! It kept crying and the parents kept hissing. I was surprised at how much they wanted their little one back! We finally let the baby go and continued on.
Adorable gosling (baby goose) we encountered:
At Legal Harborside, we had a quick look around, found some seats, and ordered our New England clam chowder. It was $6.50 for a cup of it with one little bag of oyster crackers but it was some damn good chowder and the waitress brought us a couple of free bread rolls and butter! We thought we may as well knock 2 things of the list at once so we ordered Boston cream pie for dessert. That was really good too though I wouldn't say it'd quite make my top 10 desserts list.
Legal Harborside:
New England clam chowder at Legal Harborside:
Boston cream pie at Legal Harborside:
We walked back towards the car after food but couldn't resist going in the old ship yard/factory there so we spent maybe 1.5 hours looking around and taking lots of pics and vids of the creepy remains of the place. There were a lot of strange and crazy things in there but some of the most noteworthy were a door we found sticking out of a hole in the floor at a weird angle and a bunch of bird remains arranged for what looked like some kind of demonic ritual sacrifice or something.
Abandoned ship yard or factory:
THE DOOR (<-Charlie the Unicorn reference):
One of the many dead birds we found arranged near one another for who knows what awful purpose:
Our next destination was Boston's highest public lookout point, the Skywalk Observatory on the 50th floor of Prudential Tower (aka "The Pru"). Normally, admission was $15 per person but Sean saved us a few dollars by using something called Go Select and paying for that and the Salem Witch Museum online in advance for my birthday!!
We had to park really far from Prudential as the nearer parking not only cost a lot or was for residents of the area only but was also completely taken. I didn't mind at all though, especially since it was all new to me and the architecture was so different from home plus we got to park by M.I.T. and walk over the Harvard Bridge!
On the walk over, we passed lots of red brick buildings. It seemed like a lot of the city was red brick or colonial style, I think it's called. I guess a lot of the east coast is like that. It's beautiful!
We stopped at a little convenience store corner shop (Sean's used to calling these news agents or paper shops) and they had several chocolate bars Sean was used to seeing back in the U.K. that you definitely don't find most places in Vegas, though Fresh and Easy has them. Sean picked up some salt and vinegar chips, or crisps as he calls them, to tide us over til food later.
We passed what appeared to be a yard sale a few moments later. Only difference was that it was right in front of a Bank of America and located in the middle of Boston!
When we got to Prudential Center, up the tower elevator to the 50th floor, and through admissions, they offered us audio guides for the major attractions around the city that were visible from the lookout. It was just before sunset then but we must've stayed up there a good couple of hours. There were so many landmarks and so much to learn! By the time we were done taking pics and vids, reading the plaques and signs, listening to the audio guides, and exploring the gift shop, where I bought an awesome Harvard shot glass, it was dark outside and nearly 10pm.
View of Prudential Tower (tall building on left) from ground floor:
Sean and me 50 floors up!:
One gorgeous view you can see from the Skywalk Observatory:
We started back to the car but made a quick stop inside a restaurant called b.good where we managed to get 2 free orders of fries (normally $2.59 each) just for signing up to their "family".
We left Boston after that, headed for Needham, MA (birthplace of my favorite celebrity, Joey McIntyre) where we parked right by the start of the Great Bear Run race we'd be doing in morning. Then we curled up together in the ridiculously cold back seat of the car and went to sleep. It was tough sleeping since we were shivering, covered in goosebumps, and we hadn't managed to pack a blanket and hadn't remembered to obtain one during the day. We made it work though, mostly because we were too exhausted to keep our eyelids open anyway.
Halfway through the night, a cop showed up, shined his lights on us, and knocked on our window. He asked where we were from and what we were doing there and said we seemed suspicious, parked there with Connecticut plates. I explained that the car was a rental from Boston that they'd probably gotten from another Hertz in Connecticut and that we were parked there because we'd just gotten into Boston that day (technically the prior day by this time), gotten into Needham late, would be doing the race there in a matter of hours, and didn't see the point in wasting money on a hotel we'd only be in for a few hours. He seemed fine with that response but said he didn't understand why we'd come all the way from Vegas to Needham, MA for a race let alone how we would've heard about it. I told him about runnersworld.com and other websites you can look races up worldwide on, that we were in MA for other things as well, and that Great Bear Run was just many of the things on our agenda. Then he apologized for disturbing us, said we were welcome to stay, and wished us luck in the race!
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