Boston Part 2

Our second day in Boston, we decided to drive up to Salem and check out the "Witch City". We hopped in our car and headed off. We toured Salem, the witch dungeon, the witch monument, all that touristy stuff. We stopped in a little pet store in the shopping district where I got a sticker that says "Bark less, wag more" as soon as I find it, it will be going on my jeep. We asked the man running the store where to eat lunch; he reccommended this little local spot. It was fantastic. It in an old house and the food was FANTASTIC. The best clam chowder I had on the trip. Nick told our waitress "yes, mam'" at some point and she just looked at him and said, you must be from the south. Ha! After lunch we did a little shopping and then headed back to towards our hotel. On the way back I decided to take a little detour to a place called Marble Head. It is out on a 'neck' into the ocean and is the most wanted real estate in the upper coast region. Ok, no kiddin', these are the biggest houses I have ever seen! They were incredible! There is a place on the neck called Castle Rock. It is a tiny little gate between two huge houses. You just park on the street and walk through the little gate to this beatiful rock cliff overlook. I felt like we were standing in these peoples back yard. Here are a few pictures, although they don't do it justice!


So then we were really headed back to our hotel because we were going to the Red Sox game that night. Nick stopped in the lobby to check his email and I headed on up to the room. I got off the elevator and there is a luggage rack in the hallway with OUR luggage on it. The front desk guys come walking out of our room with our stuff. I said, um, that's my stuff and that's my room. Long story short, there was a mix up and they thought we had checked out. So, needless to say they gave us free meals from the resturant in the lobby the rest of our trips and made sure to do everything possible to make up happy. Good thing for them we are pretty good sports.
We cleaned up and head out to the ball game. And what an experience it was. The ball park is SO crowded. We never were sure where we were supposed to sit, so we just found seats and sat in them until someone came to sit there. It was a fun time but we were both ready to get out of the crowd, so we called it quits about the 6th inning and headed back to our hotel.
Thursday morning we ate our free breakfast in the hotel and headed out to see Plymouth Rock. It was kinda out of the way, but I wanted Nick to see it. Once in Plymouth we checked out the rock, don't be overly impressed, it's a rock. They are building this HUGE monument over it, kinda ridiculous if you ask me. We walked over and saw the Mayflower 2, the replica of the original boat and then headed back to the car to head to Rhode Island. We made it to Newport about lunch time and had lunch at a cute little outdoor place on the pier. Ok, so Newport is this pricey little town where all these rich folks summer. It was incredible. The lady at the visitor center told us we could walk to the start of the Cliff Walk. Seriously, it was like 4 miles. I was tired of walking before we even started the cliff walk, which is 3 1/2 miles. The cliff walks are fun, you are basically walking along the cliffs in the backyard of all these huge houses. The Vanderbilts have a house on the cliff and it looks like a mini Biltmore. One house had a wedding set up in the backyard, so pretty. It was a fun, but long walk. We finally made it to the end and then had a 4 mile walk BACK to our car- whew! We stopped for icecream and loaded in the car and took the scenic ocean drive through town and then headed on back to Boston and stopped and had pizza at Uno's, a Chicago pizza place. Here's some shots of the cliff walk-



We weren't sure what we wanted to do Friday, since I had to be at my conference about lunch and Nick's flight left at 3. So we just slept late and had another free breakfast before packing up and heading to the airport. I took the shuttle to my conference and Nick headed home.
My conference was good and pretty uneventful, until it was time to fly home. My direct flight was overbooked and they were offering a $400 voucher and well as a first class up grade if you would change planes, fly to New York, have a 2 1/2 hour layover, then arrive in Nashville about 9. I volunteered, I figured what did I have to loose, it would get me home about 4 hours later, but the voucher would almost pay for our girls trip tickets to Pittsburg. I had to RUN through the airport to get to the flight to NewYork, they were holding the plane for me. I relaxed in first class, even though it was only about a 45 minute flight. So once I got in NY, I had to get a ticket for my flight and went to the terminal to wait. We were scheduled to board about 7, well about 6 I decided to go grab something to eat. I get back about 6:30 and notice our flight has been delayed till 9:30! AGHHHHH. So I get my book out and start reading and talk on the phone to mom. All of a sudden I hear, last boarding call for flight whatever the number was to Nashville. I look up and my flight has boarded. I run over to the counter and give them my tickets and the lady tells me to hurry up and board. Hello, I was sitting there the whole time, how did I miss this? Apparently they moved our boarding BACK up to 7:45! Whatever, I was on board and ready to go. We taxi out to the runway and after about 30 minutes they come on and tell us we are waiting our turn to take off. We were plane #100 in line. Yes, 100..... as in there are 99 planes before us. AGHHHH! Ok, so finally we take off about 9:50. Whew, we got to Nashville about midnight I grabbed my bag, which had come on my original flight and headed home.