June 3, 2006 10:30 am

I guessed wrong :) It's 10:00am and I'm awake. It's really weird how I usually sleep until the afternoon but I haven't done that once on this trip. Anyway, I'm sitting here getting ready to update my website for the first time. If any of you are expecting updates more regular than this, you're insane. Nevertheless, I'm still alive (obviously) and things are going really well, despite the weather. It's grey outside again today, and it's raining. Eventually I have to get away from this weather. We'll see when. This should, however, make driving to Symphony Hall in dress clothes a bit interesting. Ugh. Anyway, here's the update. Enjoy!

June 3, 2006 11:26 PM

After updating my journal this morning, I finally headed down to the lobby. They have a shuttle that runs to the Airport, at which point you can hop onto the subway into town. I took the shuttle, and as I stood confused in the subway terminal (I've never ridden on a subway before), a guy came up and asked me if I wanted a free ticket. I replied "sure" and he gave me his. Apparently he was leaving and it still had one use left. I wandered down into the main area and found the train that was heading into Boston and boarded it. It was an interesting experience - subways are pretty neat, and Boston's is, in my opinion, in pretty good shape. Once I got into town I started wandering along the Freedom Trail. It has a lot of historical landmarks on it and was generally pretty interesting. I didn't pay to enter any of the exhibits, though. I made my way to the oldest restaurant in the US and had lunch there. It was delicious. I ordered a lobster sandwich of sorts - I decided, courtesy of Krysten, that I should have lobster since I hadn't eaten any in Acadia. It was worth it. I also had a bowl of great clam chowder. Lunch complete, I continued my walk through Boston and made my way to the USS Constitution - the oldest US warship still in commission. It is an impressive sight. I was a little saddened by the fact that I'd just missed the last tour that went to the lower decks, but it was still fun to go on board and look around. Parts of the ship were covered due to the rain, which by that time had picked up quite a bit. After I was done wandering the ship I headed over to the associated museum and looked around in there for a bit before heading back into town.

I then decided (it was about 5:30pm) that I should try to find Symphony Hall so I could pick up my ticket and make sure I wasn't late to the concert - which started at 8pm. I decided to ride the subway again, since I was sick of walking in the rain. I made my way to Symphony Hall in a very short amount of time. Once there I got my ticket at the Box Office (the post office had returned it when they mailed it to me for some stupid reason). At that point I realized that I had some time to kill, so I started walking along the streets. I passed the Christian Science Center, a name which intrigued me greatly, and eventually made my way to a Dunkin' Donuts. I had two donuts and a coffee, not expecting to be able to eat at the concert and then walked back to Symphony Hall to wait for the doors to open.

The doors eventually opened, and I was able to find my seat with no problem. It was a pretty good seat and I ended up sitting with two older couples. They were all four very interesting people. Both men had served in the military and had lived in the Boston area for a long time. We talked about all sorts of things. I also ordered a sandwich and pop - you can eat during the concert, which is a first for me. The atmosphere at a Pops concert is much more relaxed and informal than other concerts that I'm used to going to. Nevertheless, it did not disappoint. The Boston Pops is an amazing ensemble - the most spectacular ensemble that I have ever seen and heard. Their concert was unbelievable. They played a lot of my favorite songs, all of which I have on one CD or another, and it was just overall a great concert. They opened with "A Hymn to New England" composed by none other than John Williams himself. While they performed there was a video playing in the background showing sights from around Boston. It was really neat. Next was "Tara's Theme" from Gone with the Wind, another favorite of mine. After that there were two guest singers that performed intermittently with the Pops - Marin Mazzie (who starred in Kiss Me Kate, and her husband Jason Danieley). The Pops also played the Love Theme from Out of Africa, the Flying Theme from E.T., The Sound of Music, an Overture from Phantom of the Opera, and A Tribute to Jerome Robbins - among other songs. They were all great. I loved every minute of it, and I was really kind of sad when it ended. Seeing the Boston Pops has been a long standing desire of mine, and in the end it alone made going to Boston worth it. That's not to say there weren't other reasons, though. The city overall is a really nice place. Downtown is close together and everything is within walking distance, the people that I encountered were all really friendly, the drivers were by and large nice to pedestrians, and the city itself is just beautiful and rich with history. The Pops concert ended with Stars and Stripes Forever, and the American Flag dropped down from the ceiling. It was a great ending to a fantastic evening. Once the concert was over I hopped back on the subway all the way to the airport and got there just in time to be picked up by the shuttle back to the hotel.

And so that brings me here, in my room typing. Boston is great - I could even imagine living here. I wish I had more time to spend here. Tomorrow I plan to pack up and drive over to MIT and Harvard - I have to at least briefly visit their campuses. I also may try to see the site of the Boston Tea Party, but that's secondary on my list. Now that I've gotten the Boston Pops Concert out of the way I have a little leeway with my schedule before I reach Baltimore. That means that I'll probably spend some extra time tomorrow checking out other areas of Boston before I leave. I haven't decided if I'm going to try to make it to the Statue of Liberty tomorrow or just drive most of the way there and see it the following day. We'll see. And so that's it for now, I'm going to pack up some of my stuff, maybe do some laundry, and then head off to bed. Good night!