Psycho Chicken Crosses the Road
Created | Updated Sep 22, 2003
I've been to Boston before. Once. For a weekend. The unfortunate thing is that I drank so much that I have very patchy memories of the nights, and the days were spent in a hungover haze. Hardly the best way to see what is almost certainly the most beautiful city in America. So, I pledged when I left that time that one day I would return, and experience Boston properly. I kept my
word.
Sunday
The paracetamol were handy on Sunday morning. As was The Pour House's speciality breakfast. Dougie went across the street to the health-nazi store for a fruit and yoghurt based breakfast, but Bill and I hit the cholesterol big time. I'm sure there's some scientific reason why you crave lard when you have a hangover, and why it seems to help so much, but I'm not nearly smart enough to work it out.
Hot on my list of stuff I wanted to do was a whale watching trip. I sold the idea to the boys, and we headed down to the wharf to book up. Several companies vie for your whale-custom, but we elected to go on one which was provided by the New England Aquarium, on the basis that they may be a little more environmental than Joe Soap's Whale Prodding Tours.
A quick wander around the aquarium itself killed the time before the boat departed (it's pretty good, as city aquariums go) and we boarded the catamaran in decidedly windy conditions, where the guide spent 10 minutes trying to convince people to get off.
The weather's not too good, she told us; it'll be pretty cold and windy, she said. That morning, she assured us, had not been too successful, having only glimpsed a couple of whales and some dolphins. We, could, she pleaded, just get off and re-book for later. Honestly, they must have people expecting guarantees from these trips, so much so that they have to cover their asses big time.
On the way out to the bank, we chatted to a woman from Michigan, and exchanged tales about my trip in the mustang in 2000, my stay in Marquette, and the impossibly named 'Christmas, Michigan'. She revealed a strange tradition for town naming in Michigan, there apparently being many improbably monickered towns in the state, including 'Hell, Michigan'. Apparently Michigan also boasts the world's largest all year round Christmas store. Now, THAT'S Hell, Michigan.
We reached the bank (apparently it's a sawn-off underwater mountain, which brings up food, and hence whales. There you go.) and it seemed that the predications were accurate. When the guide started to point out different bird species, I was definitely worried. But then we saw dolphins.
Dolphins apparently follow the whales, because the whales disturb the fish, which the dolphins then mop up after the whale has fed. Then the first blow hole appeared, and the geyser of water indicated our first sighting of a fin-backed whale - the second largest in the sea after the monstrous blue whale. A brief sighting of a mother and calf feeding was better, but better again was when a huge fin-back surfaced just about 20 feet from the boat. I could tell from the tone of the guide's voice, that this was NOT a normal occurrence and we were very lucky indeed to have had such a good view. We could see the whole length of the animal under the water - it was bigger by far than the boat, which was far from titchy. The sight of that whale, with the white-sided dolphins flanking it will stay with me for a very long time indeed.
Sunday night was to be our last night in Boston, so we decided to treat ourselves to a reasonably expensive sea food restaurant, where we all enjoyed New England's speciality Chowder (shellfish soup) and other delicacies in a state less active than when we saw them in the aquarium earlier. Washed down with the local Sam Adams brew, it was a great taste of New England to finish of the trip proper..
