This is my sad attempt at blogging, so I apologize for any and all spelling, grammer and just plain "what was he thinking" errors. With that said, here goes nothing.......
I have known for sometime now that I am from Texas, but I was reminded of this on numerous occasions over the past weekend. I spent some "overdue" time with my middle sister who lives in Boston, and whom I have not seen in about a year or so. Although it took me over 9 hrs to get there including going to 5 airports, my first ride on an Amtrak train, 2 taxi rides and a maze of transits, it was nice to see where my sister resides and what makes her world go round. I have always been intrigued by meeting people and where better than the birthplace of our great nation. As soon as my vocals began to ring out "how are yall doing" or "howdy" or "yes mam/yes sir" every ear that caught those words would raise an eyebrow and most the time a smile and they would all say.... where are you from? {I know I have a southern draw but had I not known this before I got there I definitely know it now!} My mouth and the words that came out of it turned out to be a great ice breaker and I learned that I am not the only one who sounds funny to a virgin ear. During the short time I spent there I learned that the natives pronounce Boston as Bahstun and Charleston as Chahlston, so I was getting good at carrying my A's by the time I left.
One of the first things that caught my eyes were the buildings and houses that seem to each have a great story that went with them. This church was the first building that I saw once I walked out of the train station, which by the way was way more comfortable than my southwest airline seat! No one owns a car here either, which, the first thing I thought of is how these people sure miss out on a spur of the moment road trip. I have 5 vehicles, I admit is probably too many but each serves a purpose except for "snowball" the pickup I had in high school, its just for memories and a project later down the road. The jeep, on the other hand is so fun to just get in and hit the dirt roads....love doing that! Thats for a later blog, back to Boston. I arrived there at 6:30 and by 7 I was sitting in Fenway Park with some awesome seats. We were right next to the "green monster" and the crowd around us made the whole experience amazing.
When I was in high school I was like most kids, I didn't pay much attention to what was being taught, since then however I have become very interested in history, be it American, Texas or what have you, I'm very interested in it. New England is so rich with this history that I felt like I was part of a History Channel documentary. Although it was a monsoon the whole time I was there I was still able to get out and see a small piece of this history. I visited Bunker Hill, the U.S.S. Constitution, walked by Paul Revere's house, the Freedom Trail, the harbor where the Boston Tea Party took place. etc. you get the picture. I know that sounds so old folk like but it was cool to see these places I have only read or heard about. At bunker hill, we ran into a guy who was running up the stairs of the lookout tower, which was 246 steps straight up, who had lived there his whole life, and he gave us a very detailed explaination of everything we could see from where Boston burned to the lookout windows on top of houses where the women would look out to sea hoping to see their men coming in. It was so neat visualizing those stories.
I tried my first clam chowder ever here. I am very picky when it comes to eating and trying new foods, but this stuff was pretty good if I must say so. On the last night I had to stay in Providence, RI in order to catch my 7 hr flight back to Dallas via Pliladelphia and San Antonio. I tried to see find some history while I was there but since it was sunday most everything was closed so I ended up at a sports bar{shocking I know} called Mcfadden's and watched the Cowboys get beat. Asked around for the best steak in town, tried it, not bad but it was no Las Brisas! I did stay at a really nice hotel with a great view of the capitol as my trip came to a end.
We so often forget the sacrifices made to live in a free world. The bloodshed that our forefathers gave is immeasureable and is the backbone to who we are and will always be.
