Hallo from Bwaston

Well as my days off + one draw to a close it is time to think of returning to reality and my next set of shifts. I am typing this from a hotel beside an interstate outside of Boston. My travel partner and I are indulging in some R&R with TV surfing for he and blogging for she before the long migration northward tomorrow. Our (hopefully) 12 hour trek will begin early. But at least I'll be in better shape than on the trip down when I snoozed my way through two provinces as my chauffeur motored along since we left after my final night shift. The evening in St. Andrews by the Sea consisted of a great seafood meal and unconsciousness by 7 pm.

Our travels down to Maine the next day were an experience due in large part to either dyslexia or ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) on the part of the life/travel partner. What it is about saying left that makes him turn right I'm not sure....Apparently the oldest daughter has experienced this phenomena as well on a previous trip to New England. There's also the 'la la la I'm not listening - sort of Charlie Brown's teacher blah blah blah' response to instructions to "turn here" where he can't hear a female voice. This was especially obvious in Calais where he traveled in circles for an hour before giving in and taking this navigators advice. However we did make it to Portland in good time. The shore captain went off to press the flesh while delivering his company caps and mugs to those he exports. I made like a tourist and wandered the rainy streets checking out the small shops. Ahhh. We headed out to Freeport (and mister had a little navigationally challenged relapse) to find LL Bean. He was surprised to find lots of hunting and camo gear with some wildlife displays in a wannabe Cabelas sort of way. I was tickled pink to find several things on my list for my 'next great adventure' with detailsto be shared later. A run back to the hotel and a great 35th anniversary meal including a lobster flat bread. And yes, this is in the plans for the house menu. The next day was a repeat of the previous, complete with a few showers and the addition of a crowd of cruise ship passengers as I shopped. A run to Cabelas was substituted for LL Bean and the life partner was correct, it was sort of a visit to a natural museum/shrine to hunting experience. I did convince him to pick up a bed for the dog as well as his own toys. Upon return, I managed to escape for a few hours of shopping at the mall around the corner - discovering JoAnns craft store and meeting the hubby for supper at AppleBees.

A run down the turnpike to Boston in the a.m. and a lunch invitation in Lynn to a great place called the Red Rock Bistro in Swampscott - here you can check it out:

http://www.redrockbistro.com

Enjoyed a wonderful meal and great conversation with our host and his assistant. I indulged in a pulled pork cubano bocadillo. Yum. A bit of a challenge to locate our hotel and on this particular day Onstar was NOT helpful. They cited an area of reduced data coverage - "malarky" I told the shore captain, "their network is down". They had no idea where we were, couldn't give us accurate directions, sent very confusing taped directions to the vehicle etc. AND they did it twice! We did eventually make it to the hotel in time to decompress and I called my firefighter cousin from Winthrop to make supper arrangements. He and his wife arrived to pick us up and we had a great Italian meal with lots of catching up all around. Nice to be safely deposited back to our home away from home as well. Today brought a trip to downtown Boston to visit the Boston Fish Pier and the No Name Pier. I managed to read a good bit of my ebook in the sun while the shore captain schmoozed at the first stop and get some modern photos of the spot where my grandfather had worked in the 1930s on the second. We opted not to stop in the downtown fearing that the rush hour traffic would defeat us. We instead headed down the shore and returned to the bistro for a second lunch, this time indulging in a cobb salad and lobster pizza (lobster, carmelized onions, fig jam, blue cheese and more) which sounds weird but tasted wonderful - with beautiful views of the bay. However when we attempted to make our way 'home' we were defeated and called upon Onstar with very good results. Apparently this is how it is supposed to work and we shortly found our way back.

The word (and photographic evidence) from the vacationing daughters is that all is going well out west so good vacations all around. But all good things must come to an end so tomorrow the road warriors will make their way home.