Day two at the Hyatt Harborside hotel in Boston. I wrote a trip advisor article about the
hotel. It’s not the most luxurious place we’ve ever stayed, but the people
working here bend over backwards to make sure you’re happy. That type of service can make all of the
difference.
As we were checking in, the foyer was full of people and
there was a bride in the background for a photo shoot. The manager checking us in told us that the
hotel was fully booked and they had three weddings over the weekend. We’ve been there and done that. I immediately conjured up a weekend we stayed
in Dallas at the Mansion on Turtle Creek – drunks singing and running up and
down the hallways all night.
He offered us free breakfast during our stay to compensate
for any inconvenience (which we hadn’t had yet… and didn’t subsequently either).
The staff courtesies and friendliness continued to add
up. Later, after we check into our room,
My wife didn’t like the fragrance of the bath soap so after she unwrapped it she
set it outside of the door on a small tray that we had eaten a snack from earlier. When a maid brought up some extra towels, she
noticed the discarded soap and volunteered to bring us some of the (whispering)
“BETTER soap”….. which she did -WHAT is
that all about. ONLY SPECIAL PEOPLE GET
THE GOOD SMELLING SOAP. Well that’s
okay, we’re special now we have the GOOD soap.
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| View from the window at the Hyatt Harborside, Boston |
There is a small dock immediately outside of the hotel where
you can catch a “water taxi” across the bay to downtown Boston. Since that is where all of the restaurants
and interesting things ARE, transportation across is a necessity unless you
wish to veg out in your room. HOWEVER,
the water taxi cost $39 round trip and I am essentially frugal (cheap). I calculated that would get pretty pricy with
one or two trips daily. So I looked over
a map app on my i-pad and saw a subway station at the airport. This hotel is built right on the end of a
runway, luckily our room is at the far end away from the runway, so if a plane
stalls on takeoff it will only destroy the closest rooms (see the photo).
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| Runway immediately outside the hotel elevator - yet surprisingly quiet in the hotel |
Interestingly, there has been NO noise from
planes. Haven’t heard a single jet
engine yet. So we took the free, on
demand, shuttle bus to the airport subway station (5 minutes) then bought a
week pass for $18 each. The pass allows
unlimited access to all subways, buses and water ferries.
Yesterday, Sunday, we went across and they were having a
giant fair with booths of food etc going on in the center of the
waterfront. Lots of great looking food,
but we had already eaten at our favorite restaurant in Boston, Legal Seafood.
Monday (today) as you know, is a holiday, Columbus day. We
discovered that we missed the big Columbus day parade by a couple of hours on
Sunday. They did it a day early.
So we took a Double-Decker tour bus around the city today
and observed all of the sights from a distance, ate again at Legal Seafoods
then came back to the hotel. Overall, a
fairly mundane tourist day.
The tour bus driver (a twenty something kid who talked with
a serious Boston accent and talked about coming down to Cambridge and beating
up the smart kids – Boston entertainment for the lower classes I guess) took us
through Cambridge where MIT (massachusettes institute of technology) is
located. It is surrounded by huge
buildings with names like Microsoft, Amgen etc.
We discovered that MIT generates its own power via a private nuclear
generator that is run by STUDENTS….. that must make the residents a bit
nervous. Haven’t heard a word from
Israel about what would happen if MIT got a nuclear weapon. They’d probably drop it on Harvard, right
down the street.
I was unable to do much photography as the bus was moving
fairly steadily and every time I lined up a shot, a tree or another bus pulled
up and blocked my shot. So I took 85
pictures and 7 survived. Most of the
tourists didn’t appear to be much interested in the history he was talking
about. Most were as old or older than us
for the most part, so they weren’t much interested in the Drivers ongoing
dialogue of all of the best night clubs and drinking holes that stayed open all
night and where you can eat at 2:30 in the morning and this bar here is where
you can bury two sam adams (beer) while standing next to the actual cemetery
where SAM ADAMS is buried. He was
really very good and quite funny (the driver, not Sam Adams).
We board the ship tomorrow afternoon and are stymied with
what to do with ourselves tomorrow morning.
I foolishly gave away the subway passes, which still had five days
remaining, now I am looking at longingly at the water taxi…..
