We left Corpus Christi at 9 Tuesday morning and made the 3+ hour drive to Nick's house in Northeast Houston. We parked our car there and he took us to lunch and dropped us off at Hobby Airport for our 3:40 flight.
The Southwest Rewards program gives you free flights for traveling on Southwest Airlines. If you fly Southwest, you really must join their rewards program. This is one of the perks of Grandad working in Houston. The tickets cost us $10 each. The downside is that they restrict which flights you can take. The closer to a holiday you want to travel, the more difficult it is to book the trip. That's the explanation for our "late in the day" trip. We flew from Houston to New Orleans where we were delayed more than 30 minutes. The explanation given by the pilot is that a thunderstorm had just moved through the airport so traffic was backed-up getting to the gate. We sat on the tarmac for more than 30 minutes waiting to pull up to a gate. We later heard from another airline employee that the delay had actually been because Vice President Biden had been leaving the New Orleans airport after a trip to the Gulf Coast regarding the oil spill. I suspect it was probably a little of both. We did not have to change planes in New Orleans, but we were able to move to an exit row which gives Grandad (who is 6'5" tall) a little more leg room.
We did not go completely hungry, we had snacks. Grams always travels with snacks. Thanks to a Facebook posting from a friend who spent five hours last weekend on an airplane tarmac, I had plenty with me this time. My carry-on had beef jerky, protein bars, and mixed nuts. And when we checked into the hotel, the night clerk gave us breakfast bars, apples and bottled water.
Our hotel rooms are rewards stays from Hilton Honors. The first two nights are being spent outside of Boston in the Worcester, Massachusetts in a Hampton Inn. Tomorrow, we'll be be moving to the Homewood Suites Cambridge/Arlington.
When we checked in last night we were exhausted and cold. Temperatures last night and tonight have been in the 50s. I was dressed for South Texas when we arrived and was literally shivering by the time we got to our room. When we walked into the room, we found the thermostat set on 60 degrees. It didn't warm up until sometime around 5 this morning.
She talked exactly like Julianne Moore's character with the exaggerated Boston dialect on 30 Rock. It sounded more like "When yah pahk yah cah, be shuh to put a quahtah in he pahkin meteh or they'll give you a ticket." It was good advice; we saw several cars with parking tickets on the windshield.
We enjoyed the lady at the visitor's center. She was extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. I thought for sure she must be a retired history teacher, but she said that she had learned everything she knows about the area just from listening to other people over the years.
On her recommendation, we paid $10 each for a shuttle tour of Plymouth which turned out to be interesting. The driver/tour guide also sported his very own Boston accent and was probably the worst tour guide in the history of tour guides. He told us several times that he didn't have his notes with him or he would tell us about one place or another. There were 10-12 stops on the tour where other passengers would have gotten on and off the trolley. But we were the only two passengers for all but one leg of the trip. The guide would point out a place and tell a story about it. But he drove so fast, that by the time he finished his story we would have already passed the next place of interest. The fact that we had already passed a place did not deter him from launching into his story about the place that we had already missed. After a while it was hilarious. But is was fun anyway and we saw many things we wouldn't have found on our own.
We arrived back at the hotel around 8 o'clock and ordered a pizza from a local place called Blue Jeans Pizza. It arrived quickly and had a hand-tossed thin crust and was topped with pepperoni, meatballs, Italian sausage, onion, green peppers, mushrooms, tomato sauce and blend of cheeses. It was better than our usual chain-store pizza and we enjoyed just relaxing for a while.
A few things I've noticed since we got to Massachusetts. The first thing is how many Dunkin' Donuts they have. They are as ubiquitous here as Starbucks are in other places. Locals tell us they like Dunkin' Donuts coffee better than Starbucks. If it's better, I may never know, because there's a Starbucks right next door to my hotel and, to quote an old cigarette commercial "I'd rather fight than switch." The second thing I've noticed is that drivers actually stop for pedestrians in crosswalks here. Kudos to Massachusetts drivers!
The most amazing thing so far is how good the air smelled everywhere we went on Cape Cod ... think of all things fresh ... flowers, evergreens, salt air, and some other mysterious quality that I can't quite put my finger on. The aroma is enticing, bewitching, and intoxicating. I think I would stay just for that wonderful aroma.
Tomorrow, we're heading to Salem. I would like to visit Concord and Lexington if time allows. I'm pretty sure lobster is on tomorrow's menu, but we'll see what looks interesting as the day goes by.
I heard from a friend that Corpus Christi had six inches of rain today along with significant coastal flooding. Hurricane Alex made landfall tonight in northern Mexico. I hope that damage is minimal and everyone in the path of this storm is safe. I'm not sorry that we're missing all the excitement, but it's odd to be out of the loop. I miss Dale Nelson's "every hour on the hour" updates.
