"Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh!"

Yesterday I took the train. It's kind of like going back to another era. I had to travel from Philadelphia to Boston for a work conference and there was just no way I was going to get on a flight, the domestic airlines are horrible. So I took the train, and it was just lovely. I had a seat in business class, the seats were roomy, there was a TON of legroom, I was able to sit right below my luggage, and it left and arrived on time.

What more could you ask? It did take me 6 1/2 hours, I didn't take an acela because there wasn't one when I wanted to leave, but hey, I didn't have to get to the station 2 hours ahead of time just to be delayed.

I was excited to see what Connecticut would look like since I had never seen it and I have so much family history there. It pretty much looked like pennsylvania, except up here in new england, they do still have the little towns with the church steeple sticking up through the trees. Amazing. Plus, I also saw crazy people going into the freezing cold atlantic ocean. All I could think of as we zipped by the beaches was "you're gonna need a bigger boat". The scene from the train window looked just like the movie.

When I arrived at the station here I went to get a cab to the hotel and the guy out front pauses for a second and then tells me my hotel is really in walking distance, just over the bridge and he points down the street. I was so pleased and thanked him. So I started walking.....

and walking....

and walking....

up hill,

through the snow storm

and the hurricane

but eventually I made it.

Okay okay, so it was only .71 miles (yes, I mapquested it), but you roll your suitcase behind you for .71 miles and trust me, it feels like a lot more.

But it's a Westin hotel and they have nice rooms and nice bedding. Just missing a safe. What happened to in-room safes? Am I supposed to carry my jewels and furs with me wherever I go? Come on hotels, but back the laptop sized in-room safes, what's wrong with you?

Had a wonderful dinner with everyone last night at Rabia's in North Boston, and then some of us walked a bit and saw Paul Revere's house. It was really green. I somehow don't think that it was an authentic 18th century green. I mean, the whole house was green. What's up with that? But it was on an authentic cobblestone street, so it looked old and history-ish. Below is a picture, you will have to trust me when I tell you it really is green....



There was also this guy going on loudly to his disinterested friends about the history here, and isn't it great to see the history and this is real history and blah blah blah.

Then we made the interesting decision to walk from Paul Revere's house in North Boston back to our hotel.....in South Boston.

So we walked, and walked, and then for good measure, we walked a little bit longer. Eventually we saw a giant milk bottle, and knew we were near home. Yay Westin bedding!

And no I'm not kidding about the giant milk bottle...if I weren't so tired, I would have checked out exactly what it was. Was it a milk bar? Some post-apocalyptic watering hole where I meet up with some friends to get ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence oh my brothers.

Okay time to sign off!!

and by the way, here's the milk bottle, no I wasn't hallucinating: