We're in Boston! But it's really Vermont.

I'm not sure WHY I keep telling people we're in Boston this week. For some reason it just seems easier.

So here's how it went, for anyone (meaning family) who wants the boring details...

While we were at the airport, heading to our gate, my phone gets a text message from the person (bless her heart and soul) who is watching Bear while we're gone.

"Bear," she texts, "chased after a skunk on my porch as soon as we got home. Now Bear and my house smell like skunk."

Eek! Man, now I really feel badly. Sigh... Hope the weekend goes better than that for her.

The only flight that went this way non-stop was Virgin America (and I must say... wow, REALLY nice airlines) and it was a "night flight". We left SFO at about 11pm and got in to Boston Airport at 7:30am (but 4:30am to our bodies/brains).

It seemed ideal. We were saving so much time (all the other airlines were three flights and almost 24 hours of travel... ugh!).

But alas, I had five and a half hours of RLS (restless leg syndrome). Blah! It was absolute torture (well, torture for me, anyway... comparatively speaking). So I arrived in Boston with no sleep and we set off straight away for sight seeing.

Today (Saturday) is our only real "free" day, so we had to do SOMETHING.

We went to the Aquarium first (well, after stopping at one of the million Dunkin Donuts... no restaurants opened until 11:30am) and it was really cool. Gabe took a ton of photos. I took some too (and will try to upload some here tomorrow, but I don't see any photo-editing software here... I'm on the hotel computer... didn't want to lug the laptop across the states). Y'all might have to just wait until I get back home before you SEE the pix that go along with this text.

Boston is a difficult place to park in. We ended up doing a LOT of walking because we had a good parking space and a mile here and there didn't seem too far.

People were telling us the weather was unusual. Lots of rain in June.

We had nice weather (beautiful, in fact) all day. It didn't start raining (and it rains hard!) until we were all settle comfy cozy in our hotel room.

After the Aquarium, we went to the Museum of Fine Art. I was so impressed with Gabe being interested in some of the artwork. I mean, when I mentioned "museum", he actually said that sounded good to him. I couldn't believe it.

We didn't stay all day, but we saw a number of cool things, and again got tons of photos.

This must be the first time Gabe's gotten to see a Van Gogh, a Monet, a Renoir, etc. up close and in person.

After that, we were trying to find a restaurant, but the driving here is... um... not my forte. So we decided to hit the road (toward our hotel) and just find something along the way. Good thing Gabe was hungry and we stopped only barely outside of Boston... 'cause after that, well, it was pretty slim pickins.

Things we observed, noticed, or were suprised by:

There are fire hydrants ALL OVER the place in the Boston Wharf area. It is really hard to find a garbage can in the Boston Wharf area.

There are a lot of elderly people in Boston. Is this a popular place to retire? I could see myself retiring somewhere around here... er... except for that thing I have about being cold intolerant. Let me visit here in the winter and THEN ask me how I feel.

Um... what else? Oh, rainstorms here are heavy and accompanied by thunder and ligthtning.

The trip from Boston through New Hampshire and into Vermont was trees... trees, trees, and more trees. I was (I have no idea why) expecting to travel a road out in the country lined with farms and ranches and great expanses of open land. Not so. It's hills with trees on them. That's it. An occasional pond or lake... then more trees.

We didn't see houses until we got right close to our hotel. Which is very nice, by the way (Super 8).

Gabe says the people here are really nice (friendly, helpful).

We don't head over to Dartmouth until about noon tomorrow.

I'm sure there won't be TOO much for me to report regarding Gabe's hockey camp, but if anyone wants, I'll come back and blab about our trip each day.

Well, I'd better get back to the room there. I left Gabe alone with a pint of Ben and Jerry's!

Later!