Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I have to say that today has been something of a disaster, we have done little of what we wanted to do due to inclement weather, commonly known as rain. We have managed to do a bus tour which allows you to jump on and off where and when you want to.
On a bright note we did visit Paul Revieux house which although small was pleasant enough and passed an hour or so. It was quite interesting to hear an American father explaining the chamber pot to his very young daughter, probably Faye's age (the daughter not the father) and then to hear her trying to explain it to her mother who's answer was to point out that in those times they didn't have pull ups!! Very endearing.
The actual tour guides on the bus were excellent, we had Jake(who was probably the best) then when we got on again later it was Maureen(very good at describing the battle for Bunker Hill) and she also explained how the main hospital here in Boston had been the first to use Ether on human patients but that was of course after they'd tested it on bunnies which had also resulted in the world coming to have the 'Ether' Bunny!! The third tour guide we had was Shiner who had a much more relaxed and informal method of delivery. They were all very good and as is the case with Americans, passionate about their history and job.
Much of our day was spent in a large shopping mall (and no Anne didn't spend a penny, well actually she did but only going to the toilet)!! Lots of shops but actually the best thing was having lunch. We had it in the food court and I had fears that it would be the sort of food we get at home, okay but that would be it. But no we were pleasantly surprised, we both had a large salad and it was lovely, everything fresh and the taste, wonderful. There were walnuts in Annes salad that tasted sweet and caramel, so much nicer than the bland tasting things we get at home.
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel for about 1640hrs and decided to have a drink, went to the bar, waited for a good five minutes to be told the bar didn't open until 1700hrs, how does that work?? Not surprisingly I was back down for 5pm sat at the bar doing the old 'cheers' thing of drinking, chatting to the barman, eating nuts and watching baseball on the TV. I was joined by Anne who for some reason ordered a Tia Maria and coke although she admitted later she intended to order Tia Maria and ginger (shakes head in a confused manner and wonders what next). As I'm not an expert on baseball I asked the barman to explain the game to me. Now for anyone who has ever watched the Abbott and Costello sketch where they are explaining the game you will realise the mistake I'd made by asking the question. I didn't understand the game at all when he started the explanation and by the time he'd finished I didn't know if it was Sunday, Wednesday or anything else. I can honestly say I'm no more aware of how to play baseball now than I was before landing in America. I probably didn't help by pointing out that the game was basically rounders. Which is a game played by children in the UK as adults don't play because it is too easy. Anglo American relations have apparently suddenly dipped, nothing to do with me honest!! Anyway three beers and two Tia Maria's later we left to get changed and go out for dinner.
Now dinner that was an experience, one that will stay with me for some time. It started badly with the choice of dinning type, fish. I'm putting this down to drink and still being a little tired from getting here. Anyway the decision made we arrived at Legal Fish Food restaurant to be told there would be a thirty minute wait for a table. Now we should have taken the opportunity to escape then but no! Anne was handed a little black box and told it would light up and vibrate when the table was ready (I noticed all the women were given these items, not sure why and I think I'll leave further investigation alone). Sure enough we got our table and were presented with the menu which appeared to be written in a foreign language as I didn't recognise many of the words. Actually it was in English and the reason I was struggling was that I had no idea there were so many fish and crustaceans in the world. The menu was something to behold, calamari, soft shelled crab, maui, lobster and shrimps to name but a few. What to have? Well a decision had to be made so I went for soft shelled crab as a starter, it came, it saw me and I was conquered, you eat the whole bloody thing, shell, legs the lot!! It's deep fried and the 'skin' goes crispy. It actually tastes like chicken (Terry Wogan you are the king)!!
Anne had some sort of crab dip it came with those big crackers you get with a Chinese, actually it was quite nice, probably, no definitely better than my fried shell!
Now the main course was something to behold the plates were the size if a small planet and there was enough food on each of our plates to feed an African country for a year. Anne had something which was called a fisherman fried plate' and basically consisted of various deep fried fish with chips and dip, me I went for the apparently safe option of surf and turf with broccoli in a blue cheese sauce. The surf turned out to be three of the largest shrimps seen by man. They'd obviously been caught in the waters near a nuclear plant. You see I think shrimp as small tiny etc but these three were gigantic in stature the sort of shrimp you would not pick a fight with and they were tough, well chewy actually. As I'm not sure what the texture of shrimp meat should be I'm assuming this was 'normal' for a king sized, fighting machine type of shrimp.
Due to the nature of the food and the amount presented we didn't clear our plates nor were we able to partake of a sweet. In fact we left quite quickly mainly because I was still worried that friends of the shrimps might call round to pick a fight. I'm never going to see shrimps in the same light again and the word 'shrimp' will forever more have a completely different meaning in my world than that generally associated with it.
Well that was the end of our first full day in Boston, we went to bed tired, happy but a little disappointed with the weather. Overall though I personally felt elated that we had escaped the clutches of the 'super shrimps'.
- comments