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Background:  We are boarding our ship, “Constellation” today. It is the newest ship in the American Cruise Line fleet, launched earlier this year. It is my understanding that our trip is the fourth trip since it was launched so it should have that “new car smell” to it. Hopefully the “bugs” will have been worked out on the last trip! The ship only holds 175 passengers so it will be the smallest ocean-going ship we have traveled on. Yvonne says it will seem more like the river boats we have sailed on in Europe. None of us have traveled with American Cruise Lines before. They focus on cruises on the east coast, Mississippi river, Puget Sound and the Columbia River out our way.  Interestingly one of their ships stops in our town (Poulsbo) during its summer cruise around Puget Sound.

Real time:  We were able to sleep in this morning as we plan to check out of the hotel at 10AM and head directly to our home for the next ten days, the “American Constellation”, the brand new ship of American Cruise Lines. We will be boarding any time after 10:30 which is early for cruise ships. The reason is we plan to leave Boston at 1:30 PM.

This will be a totally new adventure for all of us as neither of us have sailed with this company and we do not know what to expect in terms of accommodations, service, and quality of food and tours. Stan selected it because of its itinerary, exploring the coastline of Maine, something none of us have done.

Our boarding pier was at a small local marina rather than the normal big cruise terminal. Once on-board we quickly learned that the staff was quite young and for many this was their first experience working on a cruise ship. Even the cruise director looked like he was 25 years old. What they lacked in experience they made up with enthusiasm to make sure our every need was met. I certainly hope this attitude continues throughout the trip. We did learn that we only have 110 passengers on this particular trip, a fairly light load.

Our rooms were not quite ready and they invited us to go to the lounge where there were snacks, soft drinks and even Sangria. We decided to wander around the ship to explore our new surroundings. Everything was new and shiny, as you would expect. A very pleasant surprise was an upper deck lounge that had lovely “Florida” type furniture and color schemes. On the same deck was an outside patio with more of the rattan furniture with bright colored cushions. We all felt it was dramatic. The top sun deck sported some lounge chairs and a small putting green. There is a small but well equipped exercise room and a free laundry area. There are several small lounges available for games and/or reading and a “tiny” library with a few books. There are also two computers available for use in one of the lounges. There is NO gift shop! When it comes to amenities this ship resembles a river cruise ship more than an ocean liner.

Our rooms are quite large by cruise ship standards with a nice balcony with chairs and a table. There is wireless on-board BUT I soon found it difficult to log in and the staff did say they are still modifying it to give proper coverage and service. Oh oh! Blog entries may become sporadic. In fact I am composing this entry off-line hoping I can publish it when we get to our first port of call-Bar Harbor.

There was a brief safety drill, shown on the TVs in our room so we did not have to muster as we do on bigger ships. Before we knew it it was time for lunch which is served every day at 12:30. Breakfast is at 7:30-9:00, cocktail hour at 5:30, and dinner at 6:30. At 10AM the crew wanders around the ship with fresh cookies and there is tea time at 3:30 if you get hungry before dinner. Lunch today offered two appetizers, three choices of entrée and two desserts. All were deemed very good. An interesting approach to lunch and dinner is we will be given a menu for both at breakfast and asked to make choices so the chef can prepare the proper number of dishes. Another interesting touch is that they offer 1/2 portions for dinner if you wish. This makes a lot of sense to us as it saves food from being wasted.

We attended a briefing at 3:30 where we met the heads of the various departments and the tour director explained the tours that are being offered this trip. Surprisingly, even though this is an expensive trip there is an additional charge for tours. Some high-end cruise lines include tours at no additional cost.

By the time we unpacked and grabbed a quick nap it was time for cocktails. After leaving Boston we ran into some 6 foot seas and fog and some people reacted to the conditions, including Cindy who chose to skip both the cocktails and later dinner.

Dinner was excellent. I chose the seafood platter which include a 1 pound+ lobster, shrimp, boiled potatoes and corn. After two days of Lobster in Boston, Yvonne chose a tenderloin medallion with a lobster cake side. Cheesecake and red velvet cake were offered for dessert. Ample selections of wine and beer were offered with the meal. Both lunch and dinner were an excellent food start to the trip!

There was a special presentation made by the activities director featuring a film on Maine. She also told us about several book selections that we might consider reading about the area, promising to give us copies of her suggestions. The video does promise that Maine will indeed be spectacular when it comes to scenery. There was another cute twist to the entertainment. The staff offered root beer floats, ice cream sundaes and popcorn to keep us occupied while we watched the film.

Thick fog, fog horns and a night time lightening and thunder storm ended our first day of this new adventure. Hopefully you will read this blog tomorrow when we land at Bar Harbor, Maine where we will be visiting Acadia National Park.

At the suggestion of Stan and Cindy we decided to visit the John F. Kennedy presidential library here in the Boston area. Yvonne and I have never seen it and it has been many years since Stan and Cindy last took their children there. We had enjoyed visiting the Lyndon B. Johnson library in Texas last year and thought we would also enjoy seeing this one as we were big fans of Jack Kennedy and were saddened at losing him in 1963.

His Presidential library is located in Dorchester, MA,  basically a suburb of Boston. I suggested we “Uber” there as Stan and Cindy had never used the service. We are also novices but have used them several times in Seattle. It worked flawlessly. Most regular Uber cars are now small vehicles like a Prius, I decided to try getting the larger Uber XL so the four of us could be more easily accommodated. We ended up with a minivan and a Honda pilot for our two trips which was great.

We arrived at the Presidential library about the same time as a bus load of high schoolers on a field trip-great!  The good news is we joined them for the initial 20 minute movie describing JFK’s life from birth to the run for the presidency. Prior to the viewing the head of the educational component of the library gave a verbal briefing about the library which turned out to be educational for us. We learned that there are now 13 Presidential libraries. The first was established  by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to save important papers generated by the office. Because of its significance Congress later mandated that all Presidents had to relinquish their documents for prosperity and we now have Presidential libraries scattered around the country. Surprisingly while visiting this one Yvonne suggested we should try to see the other 11 libraries-another bucket list for me to complete!  To be honest both of us found visiting them very fulfilling and worthwhile.

The JFK Library focuses on the time period from when he launched his presidential campaign until his death in office. It is very well done with short video clips, documents and memorabilia from the era.  Having lived through his term we felt a closeness to his story. Seeing more of the details of this period of our history gave us a better perspective of the times and the story behind the story, like the race to the moon, the famous Berlin Wall speech, the Cuban missile crisis and the civil rights issues with George Wallace.

It was fascinating to see the actual typed speeches (with scribbled mark-ups), hand scribbled notes (bad penmanship) and secretly recorded tapes during the missile crisis with Russia. I was taken aback by how close we came to a possible nuclear shoot-out during that crisis.

There was also a fair amount dedicated to Jackie, her clothing, efforts to modernize the White House, White House dinners and interaction with foreign dignitaries and the gifts presented to the Kennedys. By the way, her penmanship was really bad; I had great trouble reading it and had to rely on “translations” provided on the placards. There is also a section dedicated to Robert Kennedy, who I thought would had been a good president. I had not realized he was only 35 years old when made the Attorney General by his brother.

Yesterday was JFK’s 100th birthday and they opened a new, special exhibit called JFK100, featuring 100 different artifacts from his life including never before seen baby photos, high school report cards, passport information, military information about PT109, and other meaningful aspects of his life. It was fascinating.  These items will only be displayed for one year.

We spent over three hours at the library and enjoyed every minute of it. It is truly worth seeing it if you are in the area.

After an hour to refresh we then headed to the “North End”, home to the Italian community of Boston for some sightseeing, dinner at one of the many small family owned Italian restaurants and a visit to one of the several famous Italian bakeries for a cannoli and other Italian pastries. We revisited the area around the Old North Church where Paul Revere instructed the sexton to put two lanterns in the belfry to warn people that the British were coming by sea. Nearby was an old store front where we watched a demonstration on chocolate making in the 18th century. There was also a colonial print shop where we saw how printing was done in colonial times and heard the story of how the first Declaration of Independence was printed in Boston, not Philadelphia and that the true day of signing was July 2, 1776 not July 4 which we celebrate.

For dinner we chose a small Italian restaurant called Panza at the recommendation of our hotel and backed up by Yelp and Travel Advisor. It was a great choice and we were extremely happy with our meals.

We purposely avoided ordering dessert as we wanted to stop at one of those awesome Italian bakeries in the area. The one we chose, Bova’s, happens to be open 24 hours a day! We left with a cannoli, a cream puff, an eclair and a pastry called  “sfogliatelle”, a delicate dough filled with ricotta, almond paste and lemon flavoring. It dates back to 17th century Italy. I will report on them tomorrow as they will be our breakfast!

On our way to the bakery we passed a small shop where we discovered William Carlton, owner of classic caps. This young man was sitting at a very old Singer sewing machine making handmade “newsboy caps”. We were intrigued and wandered in to talk to him and ended up buying a couple for gifts. He is self-taught and creates unique monogrammed hats. It was a great fun find.

It turned out to be quite an eventful day filled with both new and old adventures, capped with a delicious Italian dinner. We should sleep well tonight.

We board our ship tomorrow morning and set sail at 1:30 PM.

 

 

Memorial Day, 2017-  a day to remember all who have served and died to preserve our freedom.  Thank You!

Surprisingly cool and windy this morning (mid 50s) and showers likely later in the day. We came prepared with sweaters and rain jackets. We will not be deterred from our exploration today! Stan arranged for tickets for the Old Town Trolley Tour of Boston; their version of the hop-on, hop-off  bus tour, only on an old fashioned trolley.

We hopped a cab to the starting spot as the hotel did not know when they would likely be stopping near our hotel. They had the side plastic shades lowered because of the cold weather so I am not sure how good my pictures would be as I was shooting through plastic rather than glass. Surprisingly there were quite a few other brave souls on the trolley with us. We stayed on the bus for the entire narrated two hour tour as it wound its way through the various areas of Boston and Cambridge. It was simply too cold and windy  to walk around. Boston is a lovely city that has successfully merged the great historical aspects of the area with the new modern city it has become. It ranks right up there with the great coastal cities of the world. We were last here when the “big dig (elimination of an elevated highway through downtown)”  was still in progress and it was nice seeing the finished product. We can only hope that Seattle is smart enough to do the same as we eliminate our elevated road. I was also struck by the cleanliness of the city as we drove through it.

Our trolley ticket included a free harbor tour which we all agreed we wanted to take. We usually try to take harbor tours in cities where it is available but for some reason we had never done it here in Boston. Normally we are eager to get seats outside on the upper deck to enjoy the sun and the sea air- not today!  There was plenty of inside seating with big windows for viewing. We had a delightful Irishman acting as our narrator pointing out sights along the way, sprinkled with Irish humor. We could have disembarked where the USS Constitution (44 gun frigate) was docked but decided against it because it was in dry dock undergoing routine hull maintenance. For you history buffs:  It is the oldest commissioned ship in existence (built in 1797). Supposedly it is the only naval vessel that has never lost a battle. Also it got the nickname of “Old Ironsides” because the during the war of 1812 the enemy experienced cannonballs simply bouncing off its hull. In truth the hull is wood, but it is some 22 inches thick, giving it the ability to thwart enemy shelling.

We chose to have lunch at the famous Durgin Park restaurant located in Quincy Market. It is the second oldest restaurant in Boston and is famous for having “surly” waitresses; ours turned out to be the sweetest, nicest person. Maybe they are trying to change their image.

We walked through the area shops and Fanueil Hall (often called the cradle of independence), the site where Samuel Adams and others spoke for independence from Great Britain back in the late 1700s.

The 2.5 mile Freedom Trail( marked by a row of bricks) winds its way through this area. We did not walk it as we had done that on previous trips. However, I was again reminded of how nice this city is and all the history it offers for all to appreciate.

My travel companions chose to go back to the hotel but I wanted to tour the Boston Tea Party Museum near our hotel. It turned out to be a great experience. Actors in period costumes portray the events leading up to and including the dumping of 342 bales of tea into the bay that occurred on December 16, 1773 by members of the Sons of Liberty who dressed as native Americans and boarded the English ship in the harbor. It took over 3 hours for the 30-130 men to complete the task. Interestingly this event not only helped lead to the War of Independence, it also caused Americans to ultimately become coffee drinkers as tea became hard to get. There were also a couple of movies describing the aftermath of the event, including the Battle at Lexington/Concord. They even have on display one of the two known remaining crates that were used to ship the tea and some documentation from the era. The whole thing was very well done and  I felt it is certainly worth seeing if you are in the area.

Late in the afternoon the showers arrived as predicted and we decided to simply have cocktails and a light dinner in the hotel as we had had a fairly late lunch.

The weather tomorrow is expected to be better and we will continue our exploration of Boston before boarding our ship on Wednesday.

 

Normally Memorial Day weekend in the Pacific Northwest can be an iffy proposition weather wise. It is more likely to be cold and damp as summer often takes its sweet time to arrive. That is why we are not concerned about scheduling trips elsewhere then. Well, this year Mother Nature really surprised us. Maybe she was feeling guilty about the extremely rainy winter we just have experienced (50 percent more rain than usual). Yesterday it was over 80 degrees and this morning we left with clear blue skies and mountains in all directions showing off their simmering white snow covered peaks. It will be another spectacular day in Seattle. In fact the weather forecast for the weekend was that it would be the best Memorial Day weekend in decades. You win some and you lose some!

Another pre-departure observation. This is the first long trip we have taken in the United States in quite a few years. I suddenly realized I did not need to worry about passports; creating a currency conversion charts to figure out what things would cost; no money conversion at the airport; no concern about running up a big bill on my cellphone; no concern about crossing 5 or more time zones and no foreign language charts. This trip should be a piece of cake!

We had a 7 AM departure so we stayed at a hotel near the airport to avoid the hassles of trying to catch an early morning ferry. Even so we got up at 4:30. One nice thing about early morning departures is the airport was really quiet and there were no lines at security or baggage check-in counters. It made getting up that early worth it.

Our flight to Boston was non-stop on our favorite airline-Alaska. They still seem to value their customers and act accordingly. The captain even stepped outside the cockpit, introduced himself to us and relayed information about our upcoming flight-definitely a nice touch. There was now a face to associate with the voice you hear from the cockpit. Even the stewardess addressed us by our names (maybe because we were elite gold members) and thanked us for our business- again a very nice personal touch in this day and age of airline herd mentality.

It was almost a 5 hour flight and we both caught up on some of that lost sleep from last night and starting to read the new books we brought. I typed up this blog entry between my naps.

We arrived 1/2 hour ahead of schedule and were met with Seattle weather-cool and cloudy with a cool (60s), showery day predicted for tomorrow. I have to assume Mother Nature did not want us to miss our usual May weather! It was a quick cab ride to our hotel for the next three nights-Seaport Boston Hotel, located on the waterfront. It is relatively new and modern. An interesting aspect is they state that no tipping was needed as it was included in the stay. The bellboy turned down my offer of a tip, restating their policy-admirable.

Stan and Cindy arrived not long after and we met for cocktails and dinner in an old time favorite seafood restaurant of Stan called ” No Name Restaurant” located on the fishermen’s wharf near our hotel. Basically it is a “hole in the wall” kind of place that first opened in 1917. Having survived that long must mean they do something right. Because this is New England we all ordered lobster in one form or another and also tried their famous seafood chowder, which was very rich and filling. Beer, wine and Boston Cream Pie  (which actually looked like a cake) completed our menu. It was all good.

 

Retiring early as tomorrow we plan an all day sightseeing tour of the major sights here in Boston.

 

 

We have not seen much of New England on earlier trips other than visits to Boston. Wisconsin friends, Stan & Cindy Jaskolski, asked us to join them for a 11 day cruise up/down the New England coastline. We decided to join them. In addition to the cruise we will spend several days visiting other famous NE landmarks by car. Come join us on this latest journey.