Today we did a trolley tour of Boston and then boarded the ship.

Trolley Tour

With our Boston Go Pass we got tickets for the trolley tour of the city. We redeemed our tickets yesterday so that we can use them today (the trolley tickets were good for two days but the Boston Go Pass was only good for three days, but Saturday would be our fourth day). We started out a bit later than the other days, and after a Bruegger’s bagel, we went to go catch the trolley. They were stopped at a light in between two stops but the driver/guide let us on anyway. We rode the tour all the way around the city and the guide explained the various sites.

Today we went whale watching, went to the New England Aquarium and the Science Museum and went up the Prudential Building to the observation deck.

Whale Watching

After breakfast we headed to the dock by subway. Our Boston Go Pass allowed us to do a Whale Watching Tour. We boarded the ship and sailed out to an area about 25 miles off the coast where whales tend to be. There were three Naturalists guiding the excursion. They took notes as we went and recorded sightings of any spouts that we saw. They did this because they are, in addition to guides, part of a research project into whales in the area. We spotted the spout of a Fin Whale. We sailed towards it and when we got near, we cut the engines because you can’t track the whales underwater and you can’t know where they will come up again. The whale stayed close to the ship for almost an hour diving up and down. I got a few bad pictures, but I mainly watched it. At times it was a few minutes between surfacing a, but sometimes it was fairly close together.

TL;DR We went to Lexington and Concord.

Starting Out

Our first order of business after we woke up was to eat breakfast. There is a Bruegger’s Babel store on the same street as our hotel. After a bagel, we rode the Red line subway to Cambridge. We walked over to the car rental place and got our car. Then mom drove up to Lexington (I would have driven, but it’s illegal). Our first stop was the Minute Man Visitor Center. We watched a short film that explained the events of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Today was primarily spent travelling by train from New York to Boston. We woke up and got ready to go on the train. Our hotel is literally across the street from Penn Station where we caught our train. We grabbed some breakfast for on the train and then waited for the track to be announced. We got on the train fine and finding seats was not a problem. The ride was fine and I was able to catch up on my blog post from yesterday.

Although it’s the 18th, I’ll be writing this as if it were yesterday.

TL;DR today we rode the Big Bus tour bus around Lower Manhattan. Then we walked to the Intrepid Museum. After that we went biked around in Central Park and went to the Rockefeller Complex.

Big Bus Tour

We started our day by getting on the Big Bus tour, the tour we got tickets for yesterday morning. The bus stopped right outside our hotel which was nice. Unfortunately we had no idea the exact location it would stop so we wandered around asking people. We managed to find the correct spot and board the bus. There was a guide who gave information about the sights we were seeing from the bus. He was a New York Native who grew up somewhere near Central Park. We drove past a bunch of interesting sites in downtown New York. Everything from museums and monuments to Wall Street and Broadway. I would elaborate on what we learned, but that would be a lot of writing so I won’t. Besides, judging by the dismal number of views I’m getting on my posts, you probably don’t care anyway.

Today seemed like a really long day because it was. We started out at 07:45 and arrived back at the hotel at 23:00 (11 PM for those of you who don’t understand 24 hour time).

TL;DR We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island then to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Then we did a bus tour/entertainment thing and then went up the Empire State Building.

Today my mom and I arrived in New York, New York. We made it through the Denver TSA Security fairly quickly, and got to our gate with plenty of time. We boarded the plane without issue, but I had the fortune of sitting in front of a baby who kicked my seat throughout the flight and screamed when she wasn’t kicking. (Maybe a slight exaggeration, but not much of one.) I was able to plug in my headphones and sleep through a lot of it.

To celebrate the end of my senior year, I am going on trip with my mom to New England. We will be going to New York City, Boston and then taking a cruise which goes to Bermuda, back to Boston, and then to Bar Harbor, Maine; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A few days of the cruise we will be cruising the St. Lawrence River. We will spend a day or two in Montreal and then fly to Atlanta where we will meet Hannah and spend time with friends and family in Georgia.

Finally, four months after my last one, I have another Reflections on Trip post. Some of these are really deep, while others are definitely not.

Multilingualism

On our trip I encountered many people from many countries. I talked to kids from Israel, France, Spain, Lebanon, Mexico, Kuwait, and a few other places. Everyone used English. Even when the Israelis were talking to the Mexicans or the French with the Spanish, they spoke in English. In some regards, I think it’s awesome that I am a native English speaker because I can communicate with a multitude of people. On the other hand, I feel like I am lacking something in not knowing another language. I would like to be able to carry a semi-sophisticated conversation in another language. I know some Spanish, but I feel that I would need to really focus on learning it to become fully conversational in it.

As I said at the end of my last post about our trip to Northern Europe I am going to write about some things that I thought about during the trip. Some of it has to do with the particular events of the trip, but some are more generic. This is the first of many of these posts, so expect more later.