---

Taking Stan and Cindy to the Boston airport for their flight home went smoothly as we missed the Boston morning traffic. I do have to credit “Waze”, the popular GPS app that my sons told me about, for successfully guiding us to the airport as it gets somewhat confusing as you approach downtown Boston.

After saying our goodbyes, we found our hotel and were able to check in early, which was nice. After lunch I decided to turn in the car as I did not want to get up extra early and struggle with transferring the luggage to the airport terminal on the rental car location bus. A simple call to the hotel and their shuttle picked me up at the rental car terminal and brought me back to the hotel.

We used Uber (I am finally getting good at using the app properly) to visit Al and Pauline Medice at their condo located on the waterfront, a short distance from the USS Constitution in Charlestown.  Al was a fellow executive at A.O. Smith who retired about the same time I did. We have not seen each other in 10 years. It was fun catching up on our respective lives since going on Medicare and Social Security!  Pauline served us a lovely meal and Al plied us with wine. It was a lovely evening that went all too quickly. We learned they now have a son living in Portland so we are hopeful they will include us on one of their west coast swings so we can reciprocate their hospitality.

We returned to Seattle Thursday morning, where a gloomy, rainy day welcomed us back home. We were home by 3 PM and all was well at the homestead.

Reflections on our trip:

-Boston is a great city- easy to get around, modern, good local transportation, excellent restaurants (especially Italian in the North End and seafood) and tons of wonderful history.  I had forgotten how nice of a city it is.

-New England is a lovely part of our country and certainly worthy of a repeat visit. My next goal is to do a land trip during the autumn to take in all the fall colors.

-I was somewhat surprised about how close all those small towns (Marblehead, Salem, Rockport, Gloucester) are to Boston. Thirty miles north and you are in a totally different world.

-I relearned a bit of US history on the trip which is certainly worthwhile. I really should read up more about the path we took to gain our independence. That might be a good goal when I get too old to travel!

-I ate more lobster in the two plus weeks we were there than I had in my 75 years of living! My headache did not come back so I am blaming the lobster for it!  I do have to admit it sure was tasty.

-Although the ports we visited on the cruise were delightful, the cruise line was a big disappointment, given what we paid and what we have come to expect from other higher end (which American Cruise Lines claim they are) cruise ships we have sailed on.  I would not sail with them again,  given their current price structure.

We are now home for the summer. I hope you enjoyed taking this trip with us.