The Cruise: Boston,the tour bus from hell, still a history buff's delight

Boston Massacre marker

On our entire 10-day cruise and touring at ports of call, Boston Harbor will forever be an experience both interesting (my degree, after all, is in History) . . . and abysmal.

The came down the gangway to a bus, and . . . waited. Oh, our octogenarian (?) tour guide was FULL of information and (extremely) trivial comments for the next five hours -- once he allowed us to get rolling, about 45 minutes after our departure time.

The late start -- due largely in part to the guide's inability to keep the right luncheon count for "SCROD" (stands for "Special Catch Right of the Dock," and is generally one of many white fish species).

So, he took the count, of the 27 people on-board, FIVE times. Two people wanted chicken instead, if it matters . . . and apparently, it did.

The first stop was supposed to be the Old North Church, where Paul Revere and assorted rebels lit lanterns in 17575 to warn the Minutemen the British were coming to Lexington and Concord. But, remember, we were late . . . so that got moved to the last of the day's itinerary.

Lexington Green

Other stops became looking through windows of the bus as we crept by, mostly architecture. Every now and then, we'd exit for 10 minutes, snap pictures like a bunch of aged sheep (like a spot of pavement where a marker noted the Boston Massacre took place), and then here hustled back on board. Lexington and Concord came and went, with a brief stop on the Lexington Green (site of the fabled "shot heard 'round the world) . . . snap, snap, look at a monument, back on the bus.

Lunch was better, at the historic Union Oyster House in downtown Boston. We crammed into a small dining room up two flights of stairs. The Scrod was good, by the way. The bus was AWOL, however, when we were herded back onto the streets, leading to a meander through a market area until we were reunited.

Trinity Church, reflected in skyscraper glass

Harvard was next. HARVARD? Really? A HOUR there, stuck mostly on the "old" Harvard Yard (there is a "new" Harvard Yard nearby).

The guide talked about the yard's history, and then walked us over to the massive Widener Memorial  Library, an impressive structure to be sure, with its 3.5 million volumes, 57 miles of shelves on 10 levels . . . none of which we got to see, since our tour did not include access.


Finally, the Old North Church! 

But again, it turned out the tour did not include admission to the site itself, so we had to be content with taking photos from the sidewalk, trying to peer into the interior.

Old North Church. Revere, lanterns, etc.

It's too bad, really. I wanted much more from Boston's historic offerings, having crossed a continent to see them.

The Scrod was good...

One bad experience does not a cruise make, though. And it was the only bad experience we were to have. So, there's that.

. . . and did I mention, the Scrod was good? Even the coleslaw was tasty . . .

The Cruise: On countering a year of loss, with celebration of life

Death and loss had become an unwelcome companion in 2019. First my father, then three months later, my mother.

Never mind that for both -- one afflicted with severe arthritis and dementia at 96, the other with Alzheimer's and in a near vegetative status at 91 -- the end of life on this planet was a blessing.

It was still . . . death. It was emptiness, where once resided the breath of parents who had loved unconditionally for 66 of my years on Earth.

While I firmly believe we will be reunited in God's light and love, But until then,  I must live in the here and now. And now, they are gone.

So, having saved up for several years, Barbara and I booked a 10-day cruise along the Northeast Coast, from New York City to Boston, Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in Canada.

We chose to break the cycle of mourning with celebration of life, of seeing places and people we had never seen before.

New Jersey, New York and Boston were fascinating for all the usual reasons -- their mere size, density, skyscrapers, and historicity. And, they were confirmation that we would never want to live there . . . and underscored our appreciation for less crowded, more amiable and beautiful for raw outdoor variety of mountains, forests, rivers and deserts of the West.

I'm going to take my time recounting our cruise and excursions over the coming several blogs.

It is a time of life, and set of experiences, worth tasting in full.

Stay tuned.