USA TOUR 2001

Boston, MA

We got into Boston from New York at about 7:30 pm or so, after fighting some really bad traffic in New York.  How do people do that everyday???  We got rear-ended on the New Jersey Turnpike, but there was no damage done, and we were in a ten mile stack of traffic, so all we could do was just get the guys' info, and keep going towards Boston.  We stayed at the Irish Embassy Hostel in Downtown Boston in a room with one dude from Iran, a dude from Mexico, and a couple of mystery peeps.  They were all really nice, but staying in Boston was getting expensive, it would have cost us $26 a day just to park our car, and that was in a place that it easily could have gotten broken into.  So, to save money and because we were both getting tired of the concrete and dirt of the city, we decided to stay only one night in Boston, and head for the White Mountains a day early.  We got six or seven hours of sleep and blew out of the Hostel at 5:30AM to look around the area.   Downtown Boston was completely torn up by construction, so we decided to spend most of our time in Cambridge, just outside of Boston.  During the early morning hours we walked through the Harvard campus and all around this old, old area of town.  Dozens of beautiful, old churches and town buildings are scattered all over.   There are also a bunch of artsy-fartsy cafes and tea houses for the Harvard brains to gather and talk about, whatever they talk about.  We didn't go to any of those places.   We left Cambridge and headed for Walden Pond, MA where we spent the rest of the morning before heading north into Moose Country.  We both were anxious to get away from the city and the hordes of people and get into some Nature.

Backside of Old Cambridge Baptist Church

Walden Pond, MA

We took the road less traveled at Walden Pond.   We hiked to the backside of the Pond, away from the touristy crap, and worked our way down a steep slope to the edge of the water.  It is definitely a beautiful and peaceful place, with all kinds of interesting plants, both in the water and on the land.  We really enjoyed it.

Replica of Thoreau's one room cabin, where he lived for two years, and a statue of Thoreau.