Day 16 : Kieran, Helen and Cowboy’s place

Kieran drove us from Boston to his place in Portsmouth where we met their cool cat, Cowboy, and had some lovely BBQ’d prawns for lunch in the glorious, but very hot, sunshine. We then took a look around Portsmouth; the seaside town is a very old settlement (for the USA), established in the early 17th century, and has lots of old colonial-style buildings and a historic naval shipyard. The town is fairly small (Stroud sized) and is close to lots of nice beaches.

We had some sangria and blueberry beer on the waterfront and then went to a cafe for our first taste of clam chowder (which is really nice) and cake. We had beers at Kieran’s old house with his previous housemates then went to watch some fireworks (postponed from independence day celebrations due to weather). We met a guy called Seth who has an etsy shop selling shorts made from vintage and reclaimed trousers. He’s coming around tomorrow so that Will can choose a pair of shorts (on the house – yey!).

Bitey bitey count: Louise 7 mosquito bites Will: 9 mosquito bites.

Day 15 : Independence day

After claiming free Starbucks pastries and coffee courtesy of the Marriott check-in clerk, we walked with Kieran and Helen over to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, to soak up the atmosphere and have a quick beer before the baseball. The pre-game ceremony was, of course, very patriotic, and included music from the US Army field band and a fly past. The game itself was great fun, despite the Red Sox getting hammered early on by the Blue Jays. Baseball games can be pretty long, so after 3 hours in the sweltering 33 degree heat and diminishing prospects of a Red Sox victory, we decided to call it quits and heat back to the air-conditioned comfort of our hotel.

In the evening, there way a concert / fireworks show by the Charles river featuring the Boston Pops orchestra - a great way to cap off our few days in Boston.

Day 14 : The Freedom Trail

In the morning moved Marriotts to Boston Copley Place. The room has a great view from the 19th floor and we were charged the the cheap rate today, so a bit happier about our budget for the next few days. The check-in clerk generously gave us a free $10 starbucks voucher to spend in the hotel, so that's breakfast sorted for tomorrow! After another picnic lunch we took a guided walking tour of the Freedom Trail (well, half of it anyway), so now we have some idea what all the fuss is about on independence day tomorrow.

Kieran (whom I lived with when at university in Bristol) and his girlfriend Helen arrived in the evening and took us out to a couple of great beer bars near the hotel. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a great day as we're going to see the Boston Red Sox in the afternoon, and then there is a big fireworks display in the evening.

Day 13 : Cambridge

This morning we said goodbye to the Hyannis hostel, jumped on a bus to Boston and finally checked into the Boston Cambridge Marriott (next to MIT) about lunchtime. After some confusion about the room rate, we ended up with the “friends and family” rate which was not as cheap as we had hoped, but still half the price of the standard rate. For tomorrow and Monday we should get the full employee discount rate as Kieran (who works for Marriott) will be staying as well.

In the afternoon we had a stroll around Havard Square and tagged onto one of the walking tours for a bit. The subway (the "T") station underneath our hotel as a very fun musical interactive sculpture between the tracks (see the photo) which allowed people to ring tubular bells between the subway tracks by turning handles on the side of the platform.

We took the T to Boston Common and had a walk past the “Cheers” bar (now a tacky tourist attraction) and along Newbury street which was full of designer cloth shops and galleries. One highlight was the International Poster Gallery which showcased original vintage posters – sadly there were no postcards for sale as we couldn't afford the many thousands of dollars that the items were fetching. Once you get past all the shops, the area seemed nice; lots of al fresco bars and restaurants and good street entertainment.

In the evening we had a budget picnic in the room and had a swim in the small hotel pool. Tomorrow we’re moving to another Marriott across town and plan to walk the Freedom Trail.

Day 12 : Last day in Cape Cod

Today we enjoyed another lazy day in Hyannis, taking the opportunity to use the hostel's free internet to research and book some of our holiday in Fiji and sort out a few loose ends at home. It's been another warm day so we sauntered down to the beach in the afternoon to read and swim, although the latter was cut short by a rather close encounter with a pair of crabs!

It is the Friday night of a bank holiday (Independence day) here, and people seem to be swarming to Hyannis for the weekend - we're going to try and find a spot to have a quiet drink around the harbourside as it's our last night here. Tomorrow we're off on a relatively short coach journey to Boston (90 minutes) and the comparative luxury of the Marriott in Cambridge. We're staying in 3 different Marriotts over the holiday weekend and undoubtedly they will charge an extortionate fee for internet access, so I expect we won't have a chance to update the blog until Tuesday when we're going to stay with my university friend Kieran in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (about an hour north of Boston).

Link to ongoing photo album...

For those that are interested in the full set of our photos, you can view them here. We'll update the album as we go.

Day 11 : Whales Ahoy!

Today we caught an early bus to Provincetown - a seaside resort where the first pilgrims landed in the U.S. We went to a little museum and up a big pilgrim memorial tower.

After a budget picnic lunch we went whale watching! It was amazing - we saw minky whales, humpback whales and finback whales (the 2nd largest whales in the world; see the photo). They looked huge but we could only see probably a small proportion of them above the water.

Provincetown is like any nice seaside resort, with lots of restaurants and art galleries. It also has a doggy bakery and a doggy boutique that sells dog nail varnish! There was almost the same ratio of dog:human as in New York.

I managed to get sun burned again (not too badly) and Will has been nibbled by an insect (for once not me but there's plenty of time for that!).