Cruisin'

Tuesday was a transition day. We had to make our way back to Boston, drop off our rental car, get checked in to our hotel, and meet up with our Road Scholar tour group for an orientation, meet-and-greet, and dinner. All went smoothly. We had thought that we'd drop off our car then make our way to the airport, where we could call our hotel for a shuttle. Instead, since the hotel and Hertz were at the same airport exit, we decided to drop off our bags first. That way, we wouldn't have to monkey with them in the Hertz-airport-hotel part of our logistics. Fortunately, the hotel allowed us to check into our room early--even better! And even better yet, they had a shuttle pick us up at Hertz, so we didn't even have to deal with the airport at all.

The Hyatt Boston Harbor sits, as it sounds, right on the harbor. We had the most amazing views of the Boston skyline. And it was a nice, mild evening. When we weren't dealing with tour specifics, it was nice to be able to stroll along the harbor, soaking in the lights and sights.





On Wednesday morning, we had a presentation on the geography and history of Boston. The next order of business was to get all the bags for 72 people into two buses and head out on a guided bus tour of Boston as we drove out of town. This was complicated enough, without the added issue of one missing bus. We had been divided into two groups before the tour ever started. Wouldn't you know it was our bus that got held up in traffic somewhere and didn't show up until 25 minutes after the first group had headed out. We eventually caught up to them in downtown Boston. After the tour, we headed to Gloucester (pronounced "Glosta"). We were treated to a traditional clambake, with chowder, cornbread, and mussels (in lieu of clams) to start. Then we were given a rather specific demonstration on exactly how to go from whole, steaming lobster to lobster meat to eat. We all lined up to get our steamed lobster, corn on the cob, and potato and BBQ chicken if we wished. Bibs and lots of napkins had been provided, and it was a good thing. Having a demonstration on lobster technique proved to be a very valuable thing, but we were still a pretty messy and comical group. The lobster was fresh and very good. Strawberry shortcake finished off our meal. It was all quite yummy.











Next we drove to Rocky Neck Art Colony. Though Jerry and I have spent time on Cape Ann during several New England trips, we have never managed to see Rocky Neck. Three artists took our parceled group on a walking tour. This was a hangout for the likes of Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer and plenty of others. An interesting, historical spot. Ideally, we'd have had enough time to visit some of the intriguing galleries, but that was not to be.








Edward Hopper's home:




Now it was time to board our ship, the M/V Yorktown--and, in fact, we were quite behind schedule for doing that. We had to go through a Customs check of passports. By the time we had been shown to our cabin, we had only 15 minutes before we had to make our way to our orientation briefing. That was lengthier and more complicated than we'd anticipated, but was nicely done. Then, of course, there was the obligatory emergency drill. We just had time to restow our life jackets and quickly change clothes and get to dinner. No minutes unaccounted for.





This morning got off to an early start as a number of us threw on some clothes and came out to watch our approach on the Kennebec River to the city of Bath, Maine. We docked walking distance to the impressive Maine Maritime Museum. After breakfast, we walked over to the museum in five groups. We then got an hour-long guided walking tour of the old buildings of the Percy & Small Boatworks, with lots of history about both this specific company and boatbuilding in general. Afterwards, we were free to wander in and out of the different buildings and displays, as well as a restored historic house and the museum proper. A very interesting and well done visit.











Shuttle buses started taking people to different destinations around midday. Some folks went to Boothbay Harbor, about an hour away by bus. Some went to the Maine Botanical Garden, enroute to Boothbay. We visited Boothbay Harbor a few years back, so instead we opted to explore Bath, which we had only driven through or past previously. The day had turned exquisite. There is not a cloud in sight and it was 78 degrees this afternoon.

We strolled Front Street, the main drag, which sported some very nice shops. We stopped for lunch at Solo Bistro and then did a little antiquing before heading back to our shuttle bus and some down time on the deck of our ship. We sail around 6pm tonight, followed by a lecture on the fishing history and arts of this area of Maine.











Tomorrow: Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. The nice weather is supposed to hold for a couple more days, so we should have a great visit.




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