Trip To Boston

Well… I don’t know whether you all missed reading my posts…. But I surely missed sending them… Yes I took a long break…. Before I could experience something new again …. I thought I should tell you all about the my trip to Boston, which I don’t know for some reason kept getting delayed…Anyways here it goes…

Though Praveena did give a guest appearance in my wedding, we were going to virtually meet each other after 11 years. Eleven years is a pretty long time …I always wished and hoped that I would definitely visit and meet her one day… some day! Thanks to our all powerful Internet, through which we were in constant touch with each other in spite of our geographical gulf.

We planned to visit her on a weekend in the mid of April….just after the week Rohit gave his third exam. Both Praveena and myself were as excited as kids and were looking forward to meet each other. At last we met during the Easter weekend of (April 14-16) 2006.

We drove to her place Framingham on a Friday afternoon passing yet another beautiful state, Connecticut . I was more than happy cutting through the heart and soul of Connecticut , one of the six states comprising New England . New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. All these states are bountiful with Nature and are marvelous. Connecticut , southernmost of the six New England states presented itself as very picturesque, with all the hilly areas, wild greenery and the beginning of a new spring. The drive was more than wonderful as it rained all through our journey. Enjoyed it, even though we’d missed an exit in the start itself…we had to drive an extra hour! It was awesome! We passed the cities like Danbury , Waterbury , Hartford ( its Capital), Stafford etc. Its like it gets darker at around 8 O’ clock over here. Till then, there is a feel of a good day all long and I could not get enough of neither the rains nor Connecticut !

Praveena and Siddharth said we got the rains along with us to Boston too as it was pretty much dry before we reached their place…. There was a surprise packet, Maya…a very sweet adorable puppy, waiting and jumping at us out of excitement of having visitors at her place… To talk on Maya is to write another long mail…I will just restrict myself and say that she was as cute as a baby, as playful and as adorable as a child and we were introduced to her as Rohit uncle and Manasi aunty by her own Mom and Dad! Praveena owned a big beautiful condominium made real ethnic. We had an early dinner. And after that we started with our nonstop babble… Praveena and myself ran our flashback memories on the roller coaster ride one after another laughing…giggling…making fun…and driving Siddharth, Rohit and Maya all crazy at the same time….Poor guys had to simply listen and behave like dumbs as we hardly gave them any chance to speak….My God! The way we had been… mads!!…They were like… enough now!…Maya kept giving mad looks at us! We had a very good time yapping and recalling our childhood memories right from pav-bhaji eating to watching movies together to classroom fun and all the school time stories. It was such a nice night! A toast to our friendship in Boston .

We decided to wake up early to go to Cape Cod but as usual we made it only after nine. The weather was like cloudy and foggy… anyways we hoped the sun to show up by noon and it kept shying on and off all the time. Cape Cod is a large and an arm-shaped peninsula extending 60 miles into the Atlantic ocean from the coast of Massachusetts. It is generally flat, with sand dunes, low hills, and numerous lakes. Parts of Cape Cod constitute Cape Cod National Seashore. Primary features of this Cape Cod National Seashore include 40 miles of pristine sandy beach, a variety of salt marshes, swamps, groves of pine, maple, oak, and cedar, nature trails, picnic areas and dozens of sparkling saltwater and freshwater kettle ponds. We went near the Cape Cod Canal RR Bridge which spans the south western end of the canal and is one of the largest vertical lift bridges in the world with a lift. Bay Colony uses the bridge in its daily operations, as it is the only means of traversing the Cape Cod Canal by rail. Cape Cod comprises of 15 diversely populated small and beautiful towns…Each town, while very much a part of the greater Cape Cod Community, has a unique character, appearance and flavor of its own.

We visited Provincetown by lunch time… had a good lunch at a small local restaurant. Provincetown sits in the sheltered bay that is formed by the spiral twisting of Cape Cod . Provincetown is a resort town on the tip of Cape Cod , with a harbor on Cape Cod Bay . The colorful town with beaches, fancy novelty stores, shopping arcades, vibrant art colony, eateries offered visitors a different air to visit the place. We could see a lot of gays in that town! No one who spends some time in Provincetown can fail to notice the Pilgrim Monument . A granite tower of 252-feet that juts proudly upwards into the sky, the Pilgrim Monument can be seen from almost every spot in town. Pilgrim Monument commemorates the Pilgrims’ first landing in Provincetown in 1620…. We then went to a beach on the Cape Cod Bay called ‘Herring Cove Beach’ at the very tip of the Cape, a narrow ocean beach maintained by the Cape Cod National Seashore…We spent some time on beach…Maya had fun with some kids playing ball. Later we drove passing through almost all the towns of Cape Cod , a very scenic drive covering beautiful houses, historic architectures, lush greenery, blossoms of the spring, beaches, small ponds. From Provincetown at the tip of the Cape to Chatham at the "elbow" to Bourne at the Bridge, each town has its own unique character and is beautiful. No doubt Cape Cod allures visitors as it has attractions, sites and umpteen activities for visitors to enjoy during a vacation.

We retired early that night… Next day was reserved for sight seeing in Boston . We had a nice Sunday breakfast of Bagels and set out to see Boston . We drove on the Memorial Drive to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We moved around the place, the pavement was aligned with lovely cherry blossoms. We spent sometime on the drive viewing the boating activities going on in the Charles river marked with Boston ’s skyline on its other side. The John Hancock tower and the Prudential building being tallest of the skyscrapers.

Boston is storied for its role in the American revolution. But there is far more to Boston than just Revolutionary history. From museums to sports, from fresh seafood to Italian cuisine, Boston has something for everyone. It's also a great place to start your exploration of New England . One of America 's oldest cities (founded in 1630), Boston remains one of its most European in feel. Like many European cities, Boston is best explored on foot. The Freedom Trail in Boston , Massachusetts , was conceived with an idea that the historic sites of Boston could be made more accessible to residents and visitors. Besides the small boats in the Charles river of Boston …the Freedom Trail is what I really liked about Boston . The trail is marked by a red line painted on the sidewalk or, in some places, red brick to mark the way to key historic sites. Following the 2.5-mile trail one can visit 16 historic sites. It begins at the Boston Common and winds its way through downtown Boston , the North End and Charlestown ending at the Bunker Hill Monument . We walked the other way round starting with the Bunker Hill Monument . We walked the trail and visited U.S.S. Constitution, Old North Church , Paul Revere’s Statue, Faneuil Hall…where in we halted for food at the North end area… Its like a huge market place with an arcade of stores, eateries, and myriad cuisines to choose from. Later continued on the trail hitting the Boston Massacre Site, Old State House, Old South Meeting House, Old Corner Book Store, First Public School Site, Massachusetts State House and the Boston Common omitting the burial grounds in the trail. We later went to the subway station which happens to be America ’s first subway station to catch a subway to the place we had parked the car. Siddharth then drove us to the Cambridge to visit the Harvard University Campus area….A very huge Campus with lots of beautiful buildings like the Memorial Church, the Schools, the library all with the famous logo of ‘VERITAS’ meaning Truth on them. The John Harvard Statue, "statue of three lies" located in front of University Hall is an immensely popular draw for tourists and thousands of visitors rub John Harvard's shoe for luck. There ends our trip to Boston with lots of Boston ’s history yet to be explored! May be next time.

We then drove home …freshened up and were all set to drive back home to Florham Park , New Jersey . We hit the rush hour…slow moving traffic after a weekend…and by the time we reached home it was 11.30 at night.

That’s it till now with me here….

Will catch you in my next mail…

Till then….

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them! For at the end of history lies the undiscovered country.