My Travels: September 2016

Boston-Toronto-Philadelphia 2016

Company sent me on a 2 week mission to Boston, Toronto, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Boston 25 Sept to 29 Sept

Landed late Saturday Night in Boston Logan International. A 40min taxi ride to the hotel to find out that citibank had disallowed my card from overseas use, even after I had personally called them before I left to tell them that I was travelling AND to increase my credit limit. 2 hours and a 20min International call later, my credit card gets swiped and I get into my room to sleep for the night.

5am wake-up and a nice cold morning stroll down to the bus-stop to get the first bus to the train station. An hour later, I find out that buses don't run on Sundays. Righto, I get the hotel to call me a taxi to the train station. Obviously my exciting morning is not over. I get to the train station at 7.05am to find out that the train just left (7am) AND the next train is at 9am. Wait...I thought I checked the schedules and the next train was supposed to be at 7.15? Oh yeah. I checked the weekday schedule. The trains only run every 2 hours on weekends. So I sit and wait. Not a great start to the weekend.

First stop, Fenway. Never in my life would I have thought I would one day visit Fenway. At least I never would have paid to go. Too bad they were away. No game. At least I got a ticket for the stadium tour. Boy was the tour guide a redsox fanatic. Boy did I have to bite my lip whenever she talked about the redsox.

The plan was to stay awake as long as possible to reset my clock. So next stop after Fenway was to explore the Boston Common, walk the Heritage Trail and see the sights. I must say, lots of old buildings.

ALWHI (As Luck Would Have It), there was a car showing going on at the Boston Common, The Boston Classic Car Show. I saw some really beautiful cars that I've only ever seen on Top Gear. Awesome.

Strolled down towards the port and found Quincy Market. Best Hot Buttered Lobster Roll I've ever had in my life (also my first Hot Buttered Lobster Roll I've had in my life)

Pretty much lasted till about 5pm and I needed to head back. I checked the train schedules this time, so I managed to catch the right train. Even signed up for an Uber account and took my first uber right from the train station back to the hotel.

Monday - Office.

Tuesday - Office

Wednesday - Office

Thursday - Flying to Toronto

Derek Jeter sat in those chairs.

The oldest seats in baseball

The Pesci Pole

View from the press box

Green monster

The Red Seat. There's a story to it. Google is your friend

Some old building

Another old building

My first hotdog in Boston. Yummy

Bugatti Veyron

Ferrari F40

Ferrari Enzo

Old Bugatti

Ferrari La Ferrari

Some old bike

Ariel Nomad

Old cars

Old Mustang

Quincy Market

Seems like these roaches are all over the world

Hot Buttered Lobster Roll. So so so good.

NORM!!!

Boston Harbour

The 12 animals of the zodiac

Good morning Boston, Good bye Boston

Toronto 29 Sept to 30 Sept

Thursday - Office. Tim Horton's sucks.

Friday - Office

My colleague's had afternoon flights, so we headed to Toronto Airport at about noon. I had the afternoon to myself, so grabbed the UP train from the airport to town. Planned to see Rogers Centre and at least see the stadium. The Blue Jays were away that day.

Missed the 1pm tour, and had two hours to kill, so decided to try going to see the CN tower.Awesome view. And made it down just in time for the 3pm tour.

From the stadium, it was back to the airport to catch the flight to Philly.

And the flight was delayed because of bad weather along the flight route. Turns out my colleagues had been stuck on the runway since afternoon. Thank goodness, it was being periodically cleared over the hours, and my flight was only an hour and a half late. Another late night, and late late arrival in Newark.

Thank goodness that the driver waited (I gave him a big tip) for me, and I made it to the hotel in Philly in one piece, albeit, very late.

CN Tower

Ripley's, yes, that Ripley's, Aquarium. I didn't have time to go.

View from the Top

I looked down

View from the Bottom

Rogers Centre. And that's the right spelling.

Those are hotel rooms. And they aren't that expensive (depending on the opponent and situation)

View from Centerfield

Centerfield is 400ft

Philly 1 Oct to 7 Oct

I honestly never expected to get sent back to Philly again. It was a wonderful and pleasant surprise that I was asked to go. And even better that I had a weekend to spend. Of course the best part was getting invited to stay at the Ruiz's instead of making that hour long drive on 2 days.

Having arrived late Friday night/early Sat morning, I was still up early, and went down to the car rental place to pick up the car. Drove straight to Ryan's place, and this time, I did not need any time to get accustomed to driving on the wrong side of the road. The muscle memory from 3 years ago kicked in, and it was easy. I even remembered the route to their place, and even made the same wrong turn that I've always made the last 3 times I drove there.

The baseball schedule kind of messed up our schedule. I had actually made reservations to Peter Lugers on Saturday, and then we would catch the game on sunday, but we had to scrap that idea and settle for a Saturday game instead. It was supposed to be a night game so we planned lunch in the city, but they changed it last minute, and it became a day game. It all worked out perfectly, cos we caught the game, got to see Ryan Howard's last homerun, drove back and then went out for a nice dinner.

Dinner was at this quaint little spot called 'Craft Ale House'. I'd recently discovered a love of sour beers, and this place had 'Victory Sour Monkey', which was delicious. I really do like sour beers.

The Ruiz's had really put out the red carpet for me. I even got star wars sheets to rest my weary body.

Sunday morning, bright and early, we headed to Anne Marie's for breakfast. Ryan has been talking up this place for years, but last trip, by the time we got there, there was a long line (and it was raining), so we went someplace else. This time, since I had stayed at their place, I didn't need to make the early morning drive, and we managed to make it to Anne Marie's before the long lines.

Breakfast was fantastic. A Giant pancake filled with onions, jalepenos and eggs, with home made hash browns. Sooooo good.

After breakfast, we dropped off Kristin at the airport, and we headed down to Reading Terminal Market, downtown in Philly. Last trip, Ryan had wanted to bring me here as well, but it was closed when we got there. This time, with kids in tow, we managed to make it and we grabbed some takeaway as well for lunch.

Spent the rest of sunday at the outlet mall getting the shopping done for the family.

Monday - Office

Tuesday - Office

Wednesday - Office

Went shooting with Terry on Wednesday after work. I must admit, I was a little rusty. I definitely think I shot better last trip. Also Terry has gotten a whole lot better. Dinner at Five Guys. Been waiting for that forever.