Aug 13 2008
The getaway
For all my trip photos, check out the Photo gallery
I took a short vacation last week to Boston and New York for no other reason other than to get away for a few days. My friends Cheryl and Joe, their daughter Katherine, and another friend of ours, Tess, were taking a car vacation through the northeast and I joined them in Boston for a few days. Another friend of ours, Jim, was to have joined us in Boston, and then Jim and I were going to take the train from Boston to New York where Jim lives. The plan was for me to stay with him in his apartment in Astoria, Queens. However, Jim’s work schedule clobbered that idea and he wound up in Michigan the week I was in Boston and New York. But, Jim graciously gave me the keys to his apartment before I left so I didn’t have to sleep under a bridge or someplace when I got to NYC.
This was the first time I had been to Boston and had some time to properly see it as previous visits were business trips with no time for anything but work. A couple of things stood out. First, it is fairly compact and easy to get around either on foot or by public transit. Second, the city has made a real effort to preserve old buildings and architecture while adapting them for modern uses with things like air conditioning, good lighting, etc. I liked Boston a lot.
I flew in to the city and arrived before the others, so I had time to explore on my own. One rather, um, interesting experience happened when I stopped at the Beantown Pub, across from the Boston Commons, for a beer. I fell into a conversation with someone who looked like a fat aging biker, but he told me that while he once was a biker, he now restores antique Bibles and Christian artifacts from the 16th and 17th centuries and sells them. He is not with a university or anything, he does it a private businessman. He went on to tell me that he stopped being a biker and took up this trade after becoming a born-again Christian. He told me that God was coming soon, but He will come a lot sooner if we elect “that shoeshine Obama”. He threatened to go on that vein, but I suddenly remembered an urgent appointment and made my escape. I have encountered blatant racism many times in my life, but this guy was unique.
The next day Tess, Cheryl, Joe, Katherine and I took the Freedom Trail. This is well worth doing - there is an awful lot of history packed into a small area. The different burial yards, Paul Revere’s house and the USS Constitution were especially interesting.
The next day we went on a whale watch tour. This was a total blast and more than worth the $38 ticket. Each boat has a naturalist narrating what you are seeing. We saw a number of whales and even a pod of porpoises. See the photo gallery for a lot of whale pictures.
Friday I took Amtrak - the Acela Express - from Boston to New York. What a great way to travel compared to the airlines. You get on the train in downtown Boston. No security lines, no removing your shoes, you just get on the train. I had a seat in the “Quiet Car”, in which cell phone conversations, boom boxes, loud conversations, or anything else which would disturb others, was banned. Each seat had an outlet in which one could plug a laptop computer, or one could simply read a book or view the incredibly scenic New England countryside. One arrived in New York three and a half hours later perfectly relaxed, calm, unstressed. Of course, one detrained at Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, which is anything but relaxed, calm, unstressed. But it was nice while it lasted.
I stayed in Jim’s apartment in Astoria, in the borough of Queens. It was a really interesting neighborhood. A large Greek immigrant population lives there, so there was a great variety of Greek restaurants, groceries and other kinds of shops. Almost everything you needed was within walking distance, including a terrific fruit and vegetable market, a couple of small grocery stores, several dry cleaners, a bunch of coffee shops, party stores, bars, restaurants and other shops. The subway stop was a couple of blocks away, ready to whisk you to anywhere in New York you wanted to go. On the other hand, Jim’s tiny one bedroom apartment costs him $1,700/month.
The highlight of this part of the trip was The Cloisters, a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art located in the beautiful Fort Tryon Park in the northern tip of Manhattan. The Cloisters was specially built to display works of medieval art and architecture, and it does it extremely well.
– Update 15 August: Fixed the caption on the photo of the plaque commemorating the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. My sister Laurel wrote:
The plaque was made by the noted sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. The Massachusetts 54th Regiment, the 1st African American regiment raised in the North, was also memorialized in a poem by Robert Lowell, “For the Union Dead.” Amazing poem.
See, as weird as it sounds, I can deal better with the outward asshole racists. When I’m out and about on a field trip or something with my students (I am white and teach in DPS), I just get women pulling their purses in closer, “those people” comments (yep, got a few in A2!) and subtle things. It was almost refreshing when someone once said something outwardly racist to me once. I did tell her to go fuck herself and my husband had to gently pull me away, but at least it was out there–woman didn’t like black people! What do I say to the folks who just give us “looks”?
On a positive note, I do like the “Quiet Car” idea. Good lookin’ out, Amtrak!