The
trip from Onset thru the Cape Cod Canal to Plymouth was done in perfect
weather.
 |
| Entrance to Plymouth Harbor |
Plymouth
as one can imagine is all about the landing of the pilgrims and the establishment
of the colony. We saw the Rock (more
like an overgrown pebble), toured the Mayflower and took a trolley tour of the
town. In retrospect it was a mistake not
to visit Plimouth Plantation, a reproduction of the original settlement. It is unimaginable how 110 colonists, 30 crew
along with all provisions and live stock fit on the Mayflower for the 66 day
journey. The boat was only about 90’
long on deck. The colonists were
restricted to below decks most of the time to avoid interfering with the crew. They encountered several bad storms along the
way so one can only imagine how things smelled below decks with all the sick
people. Two babies were born enroute.
 |
| Mayflower Reproduction |
We
pushed on to Boston on August 2; again in very pleasant weather. Docked in Charlestown, a short walk to
Northend, all of Boston is very convenient.
The Northend is a long established Italtian neighborhood. Naturally, we had to go to Regina’s for pizza
the night we arrived. They have been
serving pizza in the same small spot since 1926. We waited in line outside for 30 minutes
which apparently goes on all day. Jim’s
pizza was great. Debby ordered wrong and
did not like hers. When the waitress
found out she offered to have another pizza made of any variety for us to take
home. Great service!
 |
| Boston Skyline |
August
3 we toured Beacon Hill on foot. Of
course you cannot visit this area without a stop at Cheers.
 |
| Cheers |
 |
| Typical Beacon Hill |
Our
foot tour continued to Back Bay’s shopping area of Newbury St. and Boylston
St. all the way down to the Prudential
Center where we rode the elevator to the 52nd floor and had a drink
at the Top of the Hub. In between we had
lunch at the Parish Café which was excellent.
On
the 4th we continued our exploration of the city by going to the
Southend to see the townhouse Jim rehabbed in 1969. During that era these row houses which were
built in the 1850s were in a very bad neighborhood. Many of the buildings had become rooming
houses for derelicts . They had at one
time all been elegant homes and the late 60s early 70s saw a renaissance as
people began to restore the homes to their original charm. Jim and his partner Bob Shupe did most of the
renovation themselves making the former rooming house into two apartments . Jim lived there during the renovation and
after completion for a year while he did his Masters at MIT. Purchased for $10k, after over a year of
sweat equity and another year of comfortable living the place was sold for
$45K. Now for the interesting part. The realtor that was used occupied an office
one block away. As it turns out it is
still there under the same name, but the original realtor is now dead. The current realtor told us that house has
been converted again into a single family unit and is now worth $3.6Mil !!!
On
the 5th we rented a car. Jim
drove to Quincy to get a new alternator for the port engine then we drove to
the North Shore so Jim could revisit some of his other old residences. For the first few months upon arrival at GE
in Lynn in 1963 Jim had a 3rd floor apartment across the street from
the beach in Swampscott (House 1). He then
moved to a one bedroom basement apartment shared with 2 other engineers in House
2 in Lynn for a year. The following 4
years were spent on the island of Nahant in a 2 bedroom apartment shared with 2
other engineers. (House 3, red brick).
 |
House 1 Swampscott
|
 |
| House 2 Lynn |
 |
| House 3 Nahant |
On
the 6th we drove to the Berkshire Mountains to visit our good
friends Dan and Madeline Hajjar. They
have a lovely cottage on Laurel Lake that has been in the family since the 50s.
 |
| Madeline, Dan, Debby, Jim |
 |
| The Cottage |
 |
| Lake View |
On
Friday the 7th we toured “The Mount” former home of the famous
author, Edith Wharton. She was the first
woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature.
The house was built in 1903 with interesting architectural features and outstanding
views of the mountains and the lake. She
had interesting house guests such as Henry James and led an exciting life with
frequent trips to Europe.
That
evening we had a wonderful Asian style dinner at JAE’s followed by a pre-opening
of a play “My Girl Friday.” The dinner
was definitely better than the play, but the nightcap at the Gateway Inn
(former home of the Proctors of Proctor and Gamble) rounded out an altogether enjoyable
evening.
 |
| Jazz Group at Gateway Inn |
The
next morning Dan and Jim got some exercise kayaking on the lake prior to
departure back to Boston.
 |
| The Kayakers |
On
the 9th Jim installed the new alternator then we went to the
Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum of Fine Art for our cultural fix. No stay near the North End would be complete
without going to a local Italian restaurant.
A 10 minute walk away was Massimono’s
a small neighborhood place where we enjoyed veal scaloppini and linguini
carbonara. Our host Paolo DiGiovani, was
the archetypical Italian restauranteur.
 |
| Gardener Museum |
 |
| Gardener Museum |
 |
Paolo DiGiovanni
Massimono's |
