Our Boston Experience
April 5-9, 2011

The ride from Urban Adventours had been easier than I had thought. Terrifying, but still fairly easy. About 3/4ths of the way, I remembered I was going to be going on a Midnight Bike Ride, yet hadn't rented any lights. That's ok, because we were headed to the Boston Museum of Science, and if anyone would have lights, they would.

Everyone was getting Marathon Fever - even the T-Rex. We'd been to the Boston Museum of Science before, but they were supposed to have a great exhibit on endurance running and the human body.

SUCKER! Shame on them. They had a fantastic opportunity to really put on a good show, dispel myths, and encourage exercise. Instead they cheesed out.. They had a couple exhibits like this, and a couple signs on old exhibits, but . . . poor form, guys. Poor form.

Keely decided to have fun with it, anyway.

She was able to point out the part of the human brain that she has to shut down when she runs. You know that part, the one that says stuff like "Stop this, I'm tired." and "Oh! Is that your knee hurting? I think your knee is hurting and you should stop."

But the Boston Museum of Science is still the Boston Museum of Science, and it is pretty damn cool. That thing at the bottom is a graviton - only this one is so big it uses billiard balls instead of ball bearings.

They had an OUTSTANDING gecko exhibit. That alone was worth the price of admission.

The real star of the Boston Museum of Science is the 2-story tall Van de Graaff static electricity generator. Originally designed for studying particle physics (I think) it is now used to . . .

. . . put on lightning shows 6 times a day. Sorry for the crappy picture, but you try taking a pic of lightening with a digital camera.

Boston = Kennedy and Kennedy challenged us to go to the moon, so they have a nice space exhibit. I thought I'd check out the capsule, but there was a couple kids in there. They cleared right out when I said "Hey, I think your mom is looking for you."

The best part of the Boston Museum of Science is their gift shop. You can REALLY get your geek on. Truly one of the best science gift shops I have seen. I liked it so much, I forgot to look for some kind of flashing light for my bike ride.

This was Sunday, remember? Finding a light wasn't so easy. In desperation, I walked into a store in Chinatown and negotiated for a small LED flashlight ($2 dolla!) and batteries ($2.50! Pay Now!) Using my extensive skills learned from being a sailor, I pulled a shoelace and lashed the light under my seat with the lens pressed against the reflector. This was perfect - very bright but not shining in anyone's eyes.

I had no biking clothes, so I just wore my running clothes - the 5K shirt was the brightest thing I had with me. I stuffed the carry-bag on the handlebars with my coat, some water, and some Gu.

The ride to the hotel was terrifying enough in daylight. At 9pm at night, it was REALLY scary.

The plan was for everyone to gather at South Station for the last commuter train out at 10:30pm. The station was an absolute madhouse with bikers and bikes. Somehow, I ran into Mieke from lululemon and her friends. I can't thank her enough for telling me about this.

The train was PACKED. They'd anticipated maybe 300 riders (they'd had 250 the year before) and ended up with 597. We had to wait for over an hour while they added more train cars.

I'd been one of the first to board, and bided my time by talking to people around me. One of the last to board was Jeremy and his crew. As I had no one sitting with me, I scooted over and made room. He sat down, pulled out a bag of bacon, and started talking. (yes, you read that correctly: He pulled out a bag of bacon.)

By the end of the train ride, Jeremy and I had become best friends.

This is what it looks like when you try to take pictures while riding a bike at 1am. It had started raining lightly when we took off, but the night was very warm so it was quite pleasant. The train had taken us to the last stop, about 3 miles away from where the marathon starts in Hopkinton. The route was closed and it was very early on a Monday morning, so there was no traffic. It was fan-frigging-tastic.

These guys were the Hubway Crew. Hubways are rental bikes you can get in Boston - it is a very spiffy program and I hope it catches on. They were promoting their program so they were dressed in pajamas and tutus and the like.

And all too soon, it was over. I have to tell you, this was one of the neatest things I have ever done, and I try to do a lot of neat things. I met some great people, including this guy who just wanted to be in my picture. If Keely ever gets into the Boston Marathon again, I'm doing this again.

3am, I went back to the hotel and went to bed. Keely got up at 5 to go run the marathon. I waived good-bye and went to back to sleep.

I couldn't sleep long. I wanted to walk over to Cambridge and see what was happening over there. It's pretty cool that they painted the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere on the pedestrian part of the bridge.

Back on the Boston side, I thought I'd check out the community boat house. YEESH! That was expensive - just sailing as a visitor was really, really expensive. I don't think we are going to be able to use this model at the Toledo Community Boathouse.

It was turning into a brutal day, 88° or so. One of the hottest Boston Marathons ever. Keely finished, and did pretty well, but she said she was a Baked Bean by the time it was over.

I really can't remember what we did for the rest of the day. I know I returned the bike and we had dinner on Charles street, but that's about it. We were both pretty well worn out.

The next morning, we stopped at the Thinking Cup for breakfast. They do it right.

We did a tour of the State House. I expect this is one of the most photographed entrances in the world.

The tour was very nice - they have a lot of history and the rotunda is stunning.

I love that original seal they had, the Indian is saying something like "Please come help us" as an ad campaign to get more religious zealots over here. Anyone who thinks American was founded on religious freedom needs to read a little more history.

Oregon was very well represented at the Boston Marathon. Keely fond another Oregonian while we were looking around in the State House's bookstore.

We rounded out our visit with a ride on the Swan Boats. I think I'll do something like this with a Puddle Duck Racer when I get home.

And there we are, happy, content, sore, and tired. Just the way a person should end a vacation.