Road Trip, Part 1: Chowdah and Lobstah

What comes to mind when you think "New England"? I think of clam chowder (chowdah). But there's got to be more to New England than chowdah, muskets, Paul Revere, and Red Sox baseball, right? For our big "summer vacation" this year, we took a week-long road trip to find out, hitting up Boston, Cape Cod, and Newport. 

I think it's a testament to Boston that I still enjoyed the city even though it RAINED.EVERY.DAY we were there. Three days straight of rain! I had any number of cute summery outfits planned (floral tank! pretty skirt!) that never got used because the high was 60 degrees. Instead, I wore my only pair of jeans every day. But no matter! All you can see in pictures are my raincoat and wellies anyway! 

Boston uniform: red raincoat, black wellies.

Boston uniform: blue raincoat, sneakers.

We stayed at the Newbury Guest House on Newbury St., around the corner from the Boston Public Library.  This library is amazing.  A cavernous marble entrance with a beautifully painted ceiling and tons of Georgian architecture - oh, the symmetry!  I could have wandered its halls forever.

 

We specifically chose to walk the Freedom Trail on Tuesday because the weatherman said it would rain lightly in the morning and clear up as the day went on. PREDICTION FAIL. It rained lightly in the morning and then rained harder like it was hell bent on drenching us. By noon, we were assaulted by gales of umbrella-inverting winds. But we ventured on!  

Massachusetts State House

King's Chapel

 

It was built on a graveyard because no one would sell land to a non-Puritan church. Inside are family box pews, which I'd never seen before. Each pew is located inside a box to preserve warmth in colonial days. The family dog was even welcome in the winter to add warmth! It's still a functioning church today (although I doubt Fido is allowed anymore.)

USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides")

I'm gonna geek out a bit here. I had no idea the USS Constitution was a marvel of naval engineering. We pause for a brief naval jargon explanation, courtesy of Jody and paraphrased by me:

British frigate = small and fast. Weaker firepower. go boom.

British ship of the line = big and clumsy. Lots o' firepower. GO BOOM.

The USS Constitution was part of a new American group of frigates designed to be smaller and lighter than a ship of the line (and therefore faster) but still strong enough to carry lots of cannons (GO BOOM). Over the years, she whooped up on Barbary pirates, English pig dogs, scurvy knaves, and other sons of biscuit eaters, never losing a single battle. America, ___ yeah!

Next time, Fenway!

We had tickets to a Red Sox game that night but it was rained out! My first trip to Boston and I didn't even get to see Fenway. How disappointing! We consoled ourselves with dinner and trivia night at Whiskey's, a local sports bar. We arrived too late to form our own team but somehow wheedled ourselves onto The Blazers. (I think it's because we correctly blurted out (whoops) the answer to "Who was the first scientist to pose a theory that the sun was the center of the universe?"*) 

Jody is uncannily good at trivia. (What is the only country whose capitol city starts with the letter Q?**) We boosted The Blazers from 13th place to 6th! At least until the last round. 

"Three of the top 10 albums in the 90s were soundtracks. Name 2 out of 3."*** Our teammates thought The Crow and Reality Bites. We let them go with it (The Blazers is their team, after all) but we were pretty sure they weren't right.  They weren't.

"This TV drama is the second most Emmy nominated series after Saturday Night Live."**** We answered Law & Order. That wasn't right either.

Next up, Cape Cod!

*Nicolaus Copernicus

**Quito, Ecuador

***The Bodyguard, Titanic, The Lion King

****ER