Boston Aug 2
Travel/Hotel
Four-twenty came early today but the adrenalin was better than coffee to get it going. I had actually packed the night before so Karen and I jumped in the baby Caddy at 5:03 for Newport News. Airtran treated us well and we landed at Logan at 8:15. A quick bus trip on the Silver Line "T" bus got us to the World Trader Center stop, only 2 blocks from the Renaissance.
The hotel is great- only 5 months old. We're on the 16th floor and we can see the harbor. They have a 42in Plasma that plays ESPN 24x7 (shhh...that's what I told Karen).
We timed sightseeing departure to hit the "No Name" restaurant at 11am at the fishing pier which is right across the street. This no-frills seasfood restaurant has been operating in the same family since the early 1900's. The seafood chowder was good. We then cabbed to Faneuil Hall and bought a couple of gifts, including a signed picture of Yaz that's going in the Red Sox sanctum at 1205 Hanna Rose Court once it is shipped there. We grabbed at beer at Cheers (so we could use the facilities) and bought some wine at a corner store based on advice from brother Fridrichsen in Alabama. A nap was waiting for us at the hotel (sweet).
At 5:30, John and Diane arrived. My uncle John was 2 years younger than my Mom. He and Diane have been married 45 years. We have not been close recently, But I expect that to change.
John drove us across the Zakim Bridge so we could see it up close (man after my own heart).
Because of the detour over the bridge, we got to see the "T" maintenance yard and some other industrial properties :) We made our way to the Prudential building and parked in the garage below. A nice stroll through the shopping corridors later saw us at the Hub restaurant at the top of the building.
Dinner was fabulous. We caught up about our families and the server was unobtrusive. Karen was funny, with the right mix of sincerity and irreverance. I learned a lot of details about John and my Mom's childhood (lousy). Their 2 older siblings had died of childhood disease and their mom and another sibling died in childbirth. Their stepmom was not loving and their dad, my grandfather Oscar, had problems with the grape. But John had 
moved on to become very successful as a salesman and an entrepreneur. We shared stories about failure and renaissance. We found out both Diane and Karen are Christmas-aholics. John and I discovered that our disconnectedness over the last 20 years was more about focusing on our own families to nuture them in contrast to our childhood experience and less about not wanting to know one another.
Here's the view of Fenway from the Prudential building and a picture of the 4 of us after dinner. It was a great first day in Boston, capped by the Red Sox beating the A's 12-2 with Tek hitting 4 doubles and Bay hitting his first dinger. Tomorrow we'll see the Sox in person if the weather cooperates.
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