Boston 2005
With homesickness threatening to consume every ounce of Erich’s body, we took a trip to Boston for an early holiday getaway. We flew out on a redeye on a new airline (to us) Jet Blue. We fell in love. Nice, large leather seats and individual TV sets at each seat with over 40 channels of live satellite television. The only downside? Live coverage of a plane crash in Chicago that was caused by the very same storm we were flying over!
Luckily, we arrived in Boston just as the storm was starting to hit. As we pulled into the Dunkin Donuts right outside the airport to get a coffee (Erich) and a donut (me), you couldn’t wipe the smile off Erich’s face at the sight of his hometown being covered with falling snow. We stopped at a park over looking the city, then took a wintry stroll through Boston Common (all the while Erich issuing propaganda about how winters in Boston aren’t as cold as I thought and so there was no need to be concerned about moving there). Following our walk, we got onto the freeway and made our trek along the turnpike to see Erich’s family in Chicopee. What should have been a pleasant hour and a half drive turned into three hours of hell as we inched along ever slower towards Chicopee due to the heavily falling snow. We did, however, finally arrive after three hours passed and four feet of snow had fallen. Of course, the first thing I do when we arrive is slip on Erich’s grandmother’s stairs and fall straight down on my tailbone and elbow, causing pain and soreness that would remain for the rest of our trip.
Winter welcomes us to Boston
A nice snowy walk through Boston Common
Day two was pretty mellow. Erich’s mom and grandmother showed us how to make pierogies. Anyone watching their weight or avoiding large amounts of butter and carbs would want to avoid these polish delights, but, as we were on vacation and not interested in such things, we enjoyed them with much enthusiasm. And even though it took most of the day to make almost 60 dozen and I had to endure the smell of the cabbage filled pierogies (I prefer the potato & cheese), it was a blast.
On day two of our trip, we said goodbye to Erich’s family and went back to Boston. We met up with Erich’s friend Janet and spent the better part of the day walking along Newbury Street in Boston and having a late lunch at Uno’s Pizzeria. After lunch, we drove to Janet's house which she falsely represented as “close to the city"...in fact it was a good hour away. Once there, she gave us the tour of her new house and we got to meet her husband Jorge who graciously went out to dinner with us at about 9 pm even though he clearly needed rest after his two hour commute home from work.
A little Christmas shopping
 Erich and Janet on the T |
Janet cooked us a wonderful breakfast of french toast the next morning. We then headed back to Boston for Christmas shopping and to revel in the cold, crisp New England air in winter (the last bit was Erich’s words, not mine). But, truth be told, even though the high was 32, the cold wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. My cousin Trisha was right, you can get used to it. Heading back after our day of shopping, Janet took us through her old neighborhood in Quincy, MA and we stopped for a few photos at a snow covered beach (only someone who lived their entire life in California, or perhaps Florida, would understand the contradiction in that last statement). On this final night, Janet and Jorge took us to get a “pizza pie”, which appeared no different to me than a regular pizza, but, nonetheless was Round Table worthy (against which all pizza is compared). |
 Contrast of new and old buildings |
Us along the beach with Boston in the background