We were just another couple out of Boston . . .

It’s been a while. Like many of you I’ve been busy living life while making other plans. Last weekend, though, Laurie and I were really living. We flew ourselves out to Boston for the wedding of one of her teaching pals from her Whitinsville, MA days. It gave me a chance to rack up some quality cross country hours at the controls of N218DF and gave Laurie a chance to reconnect with some very dear friends.
The plan was to leave Friday morning, but the rapid advance of a monster low pressure system bearing every conceivable hazard to a light airplane forced us to leave late Thursday night. Unfortunately, a parent teacher meeting obligated us to wait until 8 pm CST to leave. We were also going to be losing an hour shortly after crossing into Ohio, meaning there would be few fueling options open to us. We ended up holing up for the night in Youngstown, OH.
     After a 7 hour nap and a nice complimentary breakfast, we departed Youngstown around 10 with the storm we’d fled in Champaign now menacing us from just across the border of Indiana. Winds were favorable and we touched down in Worcester about 12:30 that afternoon under gorgeous late September skies. During the flight I noticed the rapidity and terseness with which air traffic controllers speak increases steadily the closer you get to the eastern seaboard. It’s hardly surprising when you consider the Philly/Boston/NY metroplex is probably the busiest patch of airspace in the country. You’d better know your stuff and be Johnny on the spot with an immediate readback or you could literally be told to go back from whence you came.
     Once we were on the ground it was Laurie’s turn to drive. “Massatushits”, as she fondly refers to it, is her stomping grounds so I deferred to her on where we went and what we did. Before we got to her friends’ house in Uxbridge, where we were to stay, she took me to Providence, RI and Apsara—home of the finest Thai food I’ve ever had. Laurie had often raved about the place during reminiscences of her wild days as a hot, single school teacher in rural Mass, so it was cool to see one of her old hang outs and stuff myself with Nime Chow in the process.
     From there we drove to Uxbridge and met up with her friends Bob and Linda who were gracious enough to give us a spare bedroom as a crash pad while we were in town. Laurie also taught with Linda. Bob was on the school board when she was hired. Both were at our wedding and both are a lot of fun to hang out with.
     The wedding was Saturday in the Park Street Church right on the Boston Common. Laurie and I got there a little late but before the ceremony started. The church, which dates back to 1809, is fascinating. It sits on the site of the Old Granary Building of 1728 in which the sails for the USS Constitution were sewn. Among the many 300 year old memorials planted in the cemetery next to the church are stones dedicated to John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Ben Franklin’s parents.
     The reception was in the Langham Hotel just a few blocks away from the church. Laurie and I walked to it as the rain Boston was supposed to get never materialized. It was kind of cool to walk through city all dressed up like we were. Naturally Laurie looked awesome and I found myself simultaneously amused and annoyed by the admiring glances she was getting from doormen and other guys on the sidewalk. I couldn’t really blame them, though. I notice many of the same glances anytime we’re gussied up for a night on the town in Chicago. She’s a city girl at heart and when she’s dressed to the nines in a town she loves, she’s hard to miss.
     Sunday we hooked up with my cousin Bob, his wife Liz and their girls for more Beantown fun. We had lunch with them then spent the afternoon exploring the city on our own while they went to a matinee of 1776. Boston really isn’t that big of a big city, so it doesn’t take long to explore it on foot. We roamed from the Back Bay to the South End and then back up to the Common and Beacon Hill. While we were in Beacon Hill we sojourned for an hour or two in Emmit’s Pub at a table with windows that opened out to the street. Later, we rendezvoused with Bob and Liz one more time for dinner at a place called Joe’s on the water next to Christopher Columbus Park.
     By the time we got back to Uxbridge it was only about 11:00, but we were both wiped out. The next morning we departed Worcester under the same gorgeous skies we arrived with. The storm that had been chasing us passed while we were on the ground in Boston. But as a parting shot, it left some nasty headwinds in its wake. The trip back took 7 hours total. The leisurely pace, though, allowed as to spend more time looking out the windows at the more scenic parts of rural New York and Pennsylvania where we could see trees starting to turn.
     I hope to get a pic or two from the flight back posted as soon I get a card reader. (we lost the transfer cord to our camera). We were so busy having fun in Boston we forgot to take pictures.

Chicago, Chicago . . .

A link to some pics of Laurie and I on the town in high style at my cousin's wedding.