Boston Trip: Day Five... well, Five, Six, Seven, blah blah blah.

I had to give up on my hope of being all organized and posting daily or even every other day -- just too much to do and not enough time to get the laptop out. The week has flown by, and now we're at Dave's sister's home in Leominster, MA. After spending Monday on Martha's Vineyard we then headed to Provincetown, at the tip of the Cape, on Tuesday. It was about 60 miles from where we were staying, and a nice mid-day ride in the convertible.

P-town, as it is called, is very quaint, and is well-known for the alternative lifestyle, kind of a Eureka Springs on the east coast. Lots of beautiful cottages, and neat stores, art galleries, and trendy eateries. We had lunch on the back porch of a restaurant, right on the beach. It certainly hasn't been a cheap trip as far as eating goes -- I think we have spent $40-50 on most evening meals, and even some lunches. Ack!

The Cape Cod beaches were beautiful, but the water was COLD! There were lots of people swimming, but we just walked in the water each time, no getting all the way in.

On Wednesday we left the Cape and headed to the waterfront in Boston, where we were staying Wednesday night. We spent the afternoon walking around the waterfront, went to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where we bought some t-shirts (and a green Boston ball cap with a red clover for me) to take home to the kids.



Then we ended the afternoon at the New England Aquarium which was absolutely beautiful and very interesting. I hope we will bring back Jace and Neil in the next few years to visit some of the city and surrounding areas.









Wednesday night we met up for drinks and dinner with Scott, a work colleague of Dave's, who lives in the Boston area. Dave and Scott have worked together via email and phone for the last few years but haven't met until now. They caught up over a few beers (and wine for me, of course) and we enjoyed a fun evening.



Paige was flying into Boston on Thursday afternoon, so we took a short half-day trip north of Boston to visit Salem and Gloucester. We didn't stay long in either place, but did see a few of the sights in both; I really wanted to see Gloucester and the memorial to the fishermen. First we drove through Salem; the picture below is one of the original houses that was there during the time of the Salem Witch Hunt. It was neat to see many of these buildings and know that they have been there for hundreds of years. The city hall in Salem is the second oldest city hall in the nation.





I remembered Gloucester from the movie The Perfect Storm, depicting the true story of a ship that went down in 1991. And now with the popularity of the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch series, we all have the opportunity to see the harrowing jobs of the fishermen on the crab boats.

But to be there in Gloucester and see the memorial itself was so touching, and really sobering, to see the thousands of fishermen who have lost their lives... some of the stats on the memorial behind Dave:

• Men known to be lost at sea and honored here: 5,368
• Of the nearly 1,000 ships lost, those lost with all hands: 265
• Thousands of widows sturggled to survive and raise their children. Many of those fatherless children entered the trade of their lost fathers.
• Between 1860-1906, a staggering 660 ships sank. Many of the fishermen were saved, 3,880 men were lost.
• A single storm in 1862 claimed 15 schooners and 120 men, while another devastating storm in 1879 took the lives of 159 men.

On the bottom of the memorial is a verse from Psalms: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. Psalms 107, 23-24.

This was one of my favorite places we have visited on our trip; I would've liked to have spent more time in Gloucester, but we had to head back to the city and get Paige, and start the second half of our vacation with Dave's family. We've already been here a couple of days, but I'll have to post more on that later.