If you go to New York for New Years in the US, you go to Boston to celebrate the 4th of July - and we weren't disappointed.
Before recounting the fireworks spectacular later in the night, I'll tell you first about our whirl wind tour of Boston. Taking the advice of the lovely Cindy Currier (sister in law's mother) we decided to take a tram tour of Boston to learn as much as we could about the city and visit as many places as possible in 2 hours. The tour stopped at about 20 odd places and the first stop on the tour just happened to be the Cheers Bar! One of three Cheers bars in Boston, but this one is home of the famous outside shot of the Cheers sign and the stairs that lead down to the bar (at least in the TV series it did). In reality the stairs lead down to a restaurant and bar that look nothing like the one in the TV series. TV magic!
Cheers!
Upstairs though they have recently built a tribute bar to the bar you see in the show, albeit much smaller. But it's nice to reminisce about the show and see all the cast/characters in photos that look as old now as those sepia ones that they have showing at the start of every episode. We're getting old people!
After exploring Cheers and sifting through myriad of Cheers merchandise we hop back on to the tram (it's a hop on hop off) and head through the rest of Boston. The city is stooped in US history and some of it went over our heads, but it was still interesting to hear about such famous times in US history as the Boston Tea Party and the start of US Independence itself. We passed by the infamous Fenway Park where a Boston Red Socks baseball game was actually under way. We were tempted to forget the tour, grab a beer and a giant pretzel and get tickets to the game, but we soon heard from people boarding the tram that the game was a sell out. Shame!
After more touring and historical sites we ended up somehow ... at O'Malley's, the oldest sports bar in the country, watching the Red Socks game and knocking down a couple of cold brewski's.
Done with the tour of Boston (we fast forward 2.5 hours folks) and we head out to track down some infamous New England Clam Chowder. We're tempted by Legal Seafood's chowder, but ultimately choose to try out the food at the Atlantic Fish Company. Not the most tres chic name sure, but the place looked awesome and the menu delish. We'd not booked at table, so the wait was till 10pm. It was about 6pm. We could try our luck at the bar. Again, lady luck was on our side - as we approached the bar two people hopped up and we slid into their seats. BONUS!
What can I say, although it was the first New England Clam Chowder we'd both ever had, we could tell that it was gold. Velvety smooth and served in a crusty bread bowl, we both polished off the soup eagerly and enjoyed the chunks of fresh clam. Was heavenly. For mains I ordered a seared swordfish which unfortunately came completely over cooked. But Terry ordered a Lobster ravioli in creamy white wine sauce with a sprinkle of fresh Basil and that was magic. Top choice.
Having ticked off another box on our list we headed down to the Esplanade to join the throngs of people waiting for the July 4th fireworks spectacular. Supported by the Boston POPS (symphony orchestra) conducted by none other than John Williams (of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ET, Jaws fame), but lacking the pizazz of Lionel Richie (problems with his vocal chords at the last minute - BAH!) we joined the 800,000 crowd and sang along to yanky doodle, the star spangled banner and other such American anthems.
The big crowd eagerly awaits.
Boom!
We waited about 1.5 hours for the fireworks show (CBS stretching out the coverage as much as possible) and weren't disappointed. MASSIVE and LOUD. Probably the most loudest fireworks I've ever heard and with the Boston POPS playing in time to the explosions (think 1810 Overture), we had a fantastic time as foreigners celebrating Independence Day with the locals.
Says it all.
Once the fireworks had finished and we'd dusted ourselves off, we headed off to a gay bar near our hotel. It happened to be Bingo night led by the friendly and funny drag queen called Constance. After the 2nd round of Bingo it was my time to shine and I called BINGO to win a $30 voucher. It's amazing to find out that you have a strong Aussie accent because the one word I spoke, after being asked what my name was, was "Mark". Which she couldn't understand, so had to repeat a couple of times. "Where are you from? You're not obviously from around here!". Sounds like I'm more bogan than I think I am... ??
After chugging down $30 worth of drinks (the voucher expired that night) we thanked Boston for it's 4th of July hospitality and headed back to our hotel, ready to make the most of the half day we had left the next day.
Feeling incredibly hung over and seedy the next morning, I wasn't capable of much. So we ended up heading to the Cheers Bar again for more shopping and to have a photo take at the mock Cheers Bar. Tez sat in Norm's chair and had a beer and I had a diet coke. I know, I know, a sin to be at Cheers Bar and not have a beer - but vomiting on the Cheers Bar due to having said beer I calculated as being a worse faux pas.
Cheers Norm!
After spending far too much money on Cheers merch, we boarded our coach back to Sunapee for our final night in New Hampshire, bound for Miami.
Stepping off the bus from Boston, Shawn picks us up and we get driven into nearby woods. What is going on? Where are we going? This is it, dropped off in the woods and hunted by red necks for sport - the most dangerous game of all (Zodiac killer, San Fran coming up serial killer fans). We're relieved to find out that
I've got my boomstick!
We've got video, but just need some down time to setup a YouTube account. Coming soon. Is fun to watch! But til then, this is kind of what it was like....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7n5mEmXJo
Arriving back at the Currier-Walkinshaw house and recovered from my hangover, I joined Shawn, Lindsay and Terry for some cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon (and two bottles of white wine for the girls) and feasted on local scallops, fresh lobster and home made chocolate trifle (not like our Aussie version, but actually much nicer than our Aussie version). It was a great night out on the deck eating delicious seafood, drinking cold beer (or goblets of white wine) and having a laugh with family.
Now this is living ...
Alas poor Pinchy. We knew him well.
MB
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