The Grand Holiday – Part 2

I continue with the American leg of the trip. Getting into New York City from JFK was a breeze. The temps weren’t too bad, and we were early for our coach ride to Boston. That’s when it got a little silly and we were traipsing around midtown Manhattan with our oversized bags looking for a cafe to while away the time. Eventually we settled on Borders.

BoltBus was a good choice, given the comfy seats and free wifi connection. It meant that the 4 hour journey wasn’t going to be that awful, bearing in mind we just got off a 13 hour flight from Asia. Met up with the gang in Boston and we had dinner at a Jewish restaurant. They had this very delicious appetiser platter, unfortunately I have forgotten what the 4 different types of appetisers were, that made up the platter. Scrumptious! So were the bread.

I think the weight gain on the holiday is pretty considerable, given that a number of people have commented on it. But I’m not going to worry too much about it, for the food was so good.

On 3 Dec, we explored Boston, visiting the MIT and Harvard campus. The Natural History museum at Harvard was pretty neat, with its glass flowers collection. Glass was used to create plant specimens as a tool to teach botany during the early 20th century when it would have been difficult to obtain fresh / pressed specimens. You have to see it to believe that glass can be used to create something so organic and lifelike.

4 Dec = shopping extravaganza. We went to the Wrentham Premium Outlets for a full day of shopping. Yes. Full day. From 10 to 7. Had lunch at a great Southern-style restaurant just off the Outlets, and returned for more shopping. The end result wasn’t too damaging on the wallet, because I wasn’t too crazy with the shopping. Haha….some restraint was exercised. Hot on the heels of Southern comfort food, we had Korean BBQ for dinner. Seriously good stuff when the people you see in the entire restaurant were East Asian.

5 Dec, we headed south to Newport, Rhode Island, which was the summer playground of the rich and famous at the turn of the last century. Visited the Vanderbilts mansion and learnt a little bit of American history. Quite enjoy this pace of a holiday, where we take in 1 or 2 sights a day. Lunch was at a New England sort of touristy pub, and dinner was at a Mexican place in Cambridge, MA.

6 Dec, we returned to NYC via Boltbus. Took the Staten Island Ferry on the 7th to zip past Statue of Liberty. Explored the Financial District and SoHo. Did more shopping… and ended up in Times Square. 8 Dec, walked around Central Park. Went to MoMA. Caught ‘The 39 Steps’, an off-Broadway play based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name.

9 Dec, zipped off to Toronto on a very small plane. It’s my first experience on a passenger jet that sits only 4 passengers in a row, with 12 rows in total. The flight was very empty, there were only about 10 of us on the flight and the stewardess was able to get all of our drink orders at one go, without having to push the trolley down the aisle. Felt like a private jet, even though it was just a 1 hour flight.

Next up, Toronto!

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