USA

We were all pushed back from the gate this morning, and had almost made it to a runway. But then, we encountered a technical problem and had to go back to the gate. After nearly an hour of waiting for a mechanical diagnosis, they officially declared our aircraft « out of service ». This was not looking good. They told us that they were going to find us a new aircraft and we would be on our way. By some miracle, I don’t know where, I don’t know how, they found us a new plane within twenty minutes. I was amazed. Anyway, we actually only ended up being two hours late, which worked out fine for me, because it meant that Ali’s flight and my flight got into Boston around the same time. We were very very fortunate, as our purser Nick pointed out, to find an empty aircraft a) at O’Hare, b) on a weekday, and c) during the middle of the day! Luckily, it seems, the travel gods are smiling on us.

We were pleased to find that the Boston transit system is extremely easy to navigate. And, it appears to be far more efficient than the CTA. After we settled into our hotel, we checked out Cheers near Boston Common for a late dinner. Really the only thing there that reminded me of Cheers was the logo and the pictures of Norm and Cliff on the wall, but it was still a nice place to spend the evening. We were also amused by a gentleman named Yaser, who opted his way into several of our photos.

We haven’t gotten lost yet, and because of this, I’m considering the trip a success so far!

Arrival time at Lambert St. Louis: Approximately 7:30am Wednesday 18-Jul-07. It was probably a good thing that I got there that early considering the security lines were ridiculous. I went through the line instead of doing e-ticket check in because we thought there might be a possibility of my getting an earlier flight, but the attendant said that I would have to go through Chicago, or somewhere else, and I pretty much considered that a risk of actually taking longer so I decided to stick it out until 12:20p.m. I tried to go to security, but they sent me and everyone that was a couple of seconds in front of me and everyone in general behind me to the security for the “B” gate (I was leaving out of “C”) – they even sent the poor handicapped man behind me without any sympathy whatsoever. The woman pretty much just screamed (literally) that he should get himself a wheelchair and get over to the “B” security. That’s some good old St. Louis sympathy for you.

So anyway, the 5-or-so hours that I had to sit and wait for the flight to board was actually productive - it gave me a lot of good time to sit and read the Fodors for Boston, which I am going on record as saying was infinitely more helpful than my “comparable” Eyewitness book. Maybe I am easily distracted by all of the pretty pictures and just need to be forced to read the text in the Fodors.

While Maura was having challenging flight issues (see Maura’s entry for 18-Jul-07), I was waiting to board while watching the planes taxiing around, when all of a sudden I heard “oh <expletive deleted>” behind me and all of a sudden my back felt warm. I turned around and a guy had spilled his Starbucks beverage (sucked to be him because it was probably a $7.00 investment), and of course, he managed to spill it on my back and an entire row of Lambert’s classy black leather seating. He just looked at me and said in a somewhat annoyed tone (not sure why, considering he spilled it on me)“It’s just chamomile tea, it won’t stain!” and then he ran off. Woah. In any case, I found out when we landed that Maura’s plane was right behind mine, so her delays ended up working out perfectly for our timing.

After deboarding (basically into a Starbucks – gee, do you figure that’s strategically placed?), it was pretty uneventful getting to baggage and waiting. Maura met up with me at the “B” gate, we asked the nice lady with the heavy Bah-stin accent where to go, and the public transportation was fantastically self-explanatory. We got ourselves a week-long CHARLIE card (Charrrrrrrrlieeeeeee) and we were on our way. The only snag that we hit was that we took the train to the end of the line (Braintree) and the shuttle, being apparently “too big” only picks up from the second to last stop (Quincy Adams), so we took a cab and a nice English-speaking man took us to the hotel.

After taking some time figuring out what to do on Thursday, we took the T into the city and after a few “misses” on restaurants, we ended up atCheers. We walked part of the Freedom Trail through Boston Public Garden and when we saw throngs of people heading toward us with bright yellow Cheers bags, we knew we were on the right track. There was no wait AND they were still open, so pretty much all of our criteria were fulfilled. Maura was in the process of taking a picture of me with the Cheers mug, when the guy next to me leaned into the shot. It was pretty funny and made for a good picture. We paid and on our way out, I suggested to Maura that we get a shot of her with the tobacco shop Indian in the corner – I took the shot, and then the guy ran over again (he informed us his name was Yaser) and wanted to get another picture. We got a picture and the people he was with got a picture – pretty funny.

Tomorrow: Bosox!

1. No vehicular incidents. This includes any form of crashing, wrecking, smashing, towing, windshield cracking, inappropriate veering, tire popping, key-stuck-in-ignition-ing, any lack of engine turnover, ruined transmissions, snapping belts, ripping-off of rearview mirrors, break-ins, keyings, loss of antennae, cracking-off of hood ornaments (do cars have hood ornaments anymore? Am I that old?), breaking of automatic-anything, ripping of upholstery, spillage with the intent to stain, and NO CHAPPAQUIDDICKS.

2. Tea shall be thrown into the harbor. I don't care if it's a single bag of Tetley English Breakfast. It is vital to recreate history. Unless it's going to kill fish. Do fish like tea?

3. Consumption of a lobster roll. I want to know if it's that good. And I want Ina Garten to stop seeming so smug.

4. At least one bout of uncontrollable laughter.

5. One lighthouse. It doesn't even have to be functional.

6. One amazing dessert.

7. The learning of at least one new thing that I didn't know before that is really cool.

8. One really good picture of my like, totally, BFF and me.

9. Personal discovery. Is that too deep?

10. Fun!

Yes, those really are items that are on the TSA list! Apparently, transplant organs on-board are OK! But, the spear guns need to stay in the checked baggage.

It's Monday, and with less than 48 hours to go, we're busy making last-minute preparations. Ali got a car reservation squared away so that we can take a day to go to Martha's Vineyard and a day to check out Cape Cod. But it looks like we're not going to make it to Nantucket...which is unfortunate, because I bet we could come up with some damn good limericks. It looks like we might be looking at rain while we are there, but not 100-degree weather, which would be a worse alternative, in my opinion.