Boston, Massachusetts

Our coaching has now finished and with about ten days spare before we fly to England we have taken the opportunity to borrow the 'A' Team van and see some of the parts of the country we would have otherwise missed.

The little snippets of the New England area we got (Newport and Roger Williams) suggested that it was perhaps a good idea to come back and have a look. On top of that we have some family friends living in Boston who had offered a bed to sleep in if we were ever in the area. With the promise of free accommodation and some beautiful surroundings we were hardly in a position to say no. So, we're now sitting in John and Travis's holiday home in Marion having spent the last two days walking and shopping our way around Boston.



















Boston was cool. It feels small in comparison to other cities we have been to but it might just be a case of it being so easy to get around. It is of course home to Harvard, Boston College, Tufts, MIT and a handful of other colleges so it is pretty user friendly for those who are too poor, lazy or drunk to use a car. We had a very brief wander around the Harvard Campus. It's slightly different to the Unitec campus......there are no public tours of the grounds at Unitec for a start.

The city itself has a couple of centres. The older part of the city is in the East and has a lot of very good old buildings. They are interspersed with a number of new buildings however. There is a real mixture of scale and material. Having said that, the older buildings are typically adapted and form an important part of the city. The Western centre has its fair share of older buildings too but there are far more newer buildings and developments.



















Tomorrow (Monday) we drive back to New Jersey and we are staying at a house near New York City until we leave. We have a lot to do with booking our European tour and generally setting ourselves up in England but we will be travelling into NYC as much as we can. We fly out on Friday (that's right, this week!) and will be in England for at least a week before we head to Europe. We're very much looking forward to catching up with our long lost friends and Sam is almost gagging for a "snakebite" at the local Walkabout pub.

We're really glad that a lot of you are checking out the site (it would make all this typing a great waste of time if no one was reading it). One of the down sides is that it's not so easy to hit "reply" and fill us in on your news. So, if you haven't been in touch for a while, drop us an e-mail and tell us what's happening. We've been keeping up to date on NZL news through websites but none of you have featured!

Catch you later from a safe and happy,

M+S

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
There were a number here! We got a tour through Liberty Jail which is being turned into a 4 star hotel (through Travis'office). The Institute for Contemporary Arts and Boston Library also ranked highly. Total museum and gallery visits = 3 (phew – I thought I might have forgotten how to do it!)














Shopping highlight (and total black strappy shoe purchases):
A new suitcase to carry all our shopping........
Total number of black strappy shoe purchases = 2 ...... well it's still one but only because Sam's newest pair of shoes don't have any straps.

Lessons learnt:
Driving 6 hours to get somewhere is nothing (as long as where you're going is worth going to).
New England is called New England because it's just like a new England.

Fear Factor:
1/10 We're slightly concerned that it might be OK to live somewhere like Boston.

Funniest moment:
It's always hard picking one out but a recent subway trip with a lady who was clearly hearing voices (and talking back to them) brought a smile to our faces when she came out with "I don't care if you are a doctor, the answer is still NO! Now go back to your wife".

Total number of Thai meals so far:
Still zero but we've decided it's a case of there being a lack of availability. The only place you can buy Thai is at a Japanese restaurant.