Day 14 - Boston Freedom Trail and general exploring

No alarm this morning - yay, a big treat. We wandered down to our favourite diner, Thorntons, which was packed so we had a short wait before we got a table. It is always busy with a line up of people waiting - a sure sign of a great establishment! Looking for more "normal" food today, we both went for some oatmeal with fruit (bananas, strawberries and blueberries) and it was yummy. To ensure the perfect cup of tea I even brought my own Lipton tea bags - ha ha.

We did a bit of make-up shopping for ourselves and those who had put in orders, dropped it back at the rooms and then set out to walk to the Boston Common - about 35 minutes away. Did I mention that it was really cold, blowing a gale, overcast, and generally freezing? It reached a top of 6 degrees today but I believe the wind chill brought it down to 3 (or so my ap told me). We were rugged up but had to hang onto our beanies to stop them from blowing away. Regardless, if is still a lovely place to walk around and we enjoyed our walk.

When we got to the common we grabbed a map of the Boston Freedom Trail (thanks for the tip Joan!) There is a trail of red bricks to follow and, with the help of the printed guide, we followed the trail and stopped at many of the various historical monuments, buildings, and sites. Carly walked, I talked, and we explored and examined the pioneer history of the mighty USA. 

When we reached Faneuil Hall (an old meeting house that has now become a market), we paused for lunch (almost linner) at a restaurant recommended by our guide from yesterday, Frankie. I forgot to tell you about Frankie. He often spoke in the first person. When we got on the bus he told us Frankie would not be using the microphone as there was only a small group. We kept waiting for some other guide to come on the bus...until we realised he was Frankie. Carly loved the way he said "forget about it" in his Boston accent. Anyway, back to our lunch. Frankie recommended this restaurant for their pot roast and as we were in search of "normal", pot roast sounded good to us...and it was...actually it was better than good, it was amazing.

We continued on the trail and found ourselves in Little Italy, the neighbourhood where you can find Mike's Pastry, the most popular cake shop you've ever seen. It was packed...I'm talking at least 80 people lined up inside with more outside. Well, we lined up and we were rewarded - we bought a Boston Cream Pie (actually it is cake with a custard layer inside and chocolate icing) and a Pecan Caramel Cannoli (after all Mikes is the "Home of the Cannoli"). They were dinner and they were awesome!

Our last subway ride back to the hotel and it was another early night with a couple of TV movies, a final pack of the suitcases, all ready to head off to the Big Apple tomorrow.

Day 13 - Historic Boston, Harvard, Wahlbergers & Fenway Park

The day dawned sunny yet windy and cool. We set off to a neighbourhood diner (that Carly had researched, of course), and had a great brekky of "normal" food - oatmeal and poached eggs...yep, we are now craving normal food a bit more.

The morning was spent on a tour. We went to Harvard and then the historic towns of Lexington and Concord as we learnt about the American Revolution / War of Independence. So we heard a bit about the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's ride, and the early battles between the colonists and the British soldiers. Although the tour was interesting, both Carly and I agreed, the best bit of the tour was driving around the very pretty Boston and surrounds. It is a lovely place. We also saw houses where some noted American authors lived including Louisa May Alcott's which was pretty cool. I always loved Little Women!

We only stopped briefly at Harvard, but at least now I can say I've been to Harvard lol

We caught a train from our drop off point to go to Wahlbergers, something I had never heard of, but apparently a TV show is based on the family and their restaurant and Carly assured me it was a must to visit. While we were eating our (very nice) lunch Carly spotted some guy from the show...and the next thing I knew photos were being taken. Apparently his name is Nacho...

As you can see I was somewhat stunned...the food was great though! 

Our other reason for being in this vicinity was to do the Fenway Park (home of the Red Sox baseball team) tour. It was fantastic. Joe, our guide gave us a wonderful overview of the ballpark and the team.  Unfortunately the ground was set up for a college football game so it didn't look as "basebally " as it would normally. It was a very interesting tour and we're really glad we did it. 

By this stage we had experienced rain on and off and it was still pretty cold...and getting dark...so we walked back towards the hotel, grabbed some salad and fruit for dinner and decided to spend a quiet night watching movies in the room. All the better to prepare for whatever tomorrow may hold.

Day 12 - Boston Bruins Ice Hockey

Big travel day today with an early start to arrive at the airport in Nashville before 7:30am and then fly to New York, change to another plane and fly on to Boston. It was a bit bumpy both in the air and landing today but nevertheless we arrived safe and sound in Boston at about 2:20pm (having lost another hour).

We grabbed a shared ride (a kind of shuttle) to our hotel, checked in, and then set out to explore. It was raining but we really enjoyed the walk and finally reached our destination - Joe's Restaurant for linner at about 4pm. Carly had done her research and once again we were not disappointed - she had ribs and I had some yummy pasta (mainly as it had broccoli and I was craving vegetables).

We then decided to see whether we could get tickets for the ice hockey game that was on tonight so started walking towards the venue. By this time it was raining fairly heavily so we decided to try out the subway - what an adventure! After some false starts we finally found a lovely subway employee who explained how the ticketing works. They have a Charlie Card which is a bit like an Opal card, so we bought one and set out once again. 

We found the venue, grabbed some tickets, but we still had time to kill so we took off walking again to a marketplace which had some interesting shops and a replica Cheers bar. It was dark and still raining so we might go back tomorrow to check it in the daylight.

We decided walking was easier so back we went again and headed up into the nosebleed section to watch the Boston Bruins take on the Colarado Avalanche. 

The Bruins got off to a great start, leading 2-0 early in the first period and we felt that maybe our hoodoo and jinx wasn't going to be on display. But sure enough, the Colorado team scored 3 goals to ensure defeat for the poor Bruins.

The atmosphere was fantastic regardless. It seems that the main aim is to get drunk and rowdy in the crowd so that the camera shows you on the big screen - very entertaining to watch. I did have to restrain Carly who suggested we start a chant of "quack, quack, quack" and also stop her from yelling out that they should use the "flyingV" (for all you Mighty Ducks fans) but all in all it was a great night. Once again, as in the 49ers game the other day, there was a lot of mention of veterans due to it being Veterans Day yesterday. Heaps of uniformed personnel were there for free and there was a lot of focus on their sacrifice and service.

We decided it would be too crowded on the subway after the game so walked back to the hotel - it only took an hour! Boston seems like a great city to walk around in, so I guess we might be doing a bit of that over the next few days. Back in the room by 11pm and the in bed by midnight. Another big day tomorrow.

Day 11 - Franklin and he Civil War Tour

Today was all about history, history, history.

After a good night's sleep and a quick buffet breakfast at the hotel, we were in the lobby at 8:30am, ready to be picked up for our Civil War Tour. After collecting our small group of travellers from downtown (there were 10 of us), Bill, our driver and tour guide, set off toward the town of Franklin, some 30 minutes or so from Nashville. Our fellow travellers all hailed from various parts of the US and were very friendly and we all spent a pleasant day together.

The whole tour was about the Battle of Franklin which took place in the town of Franklin on 30 November 1864. There were approx. 10,000 casualties that day in the space of 5 hours and we visited 3 different sites to hear the stories of the families who were in the firing line that day. First was Carter House (that is one of their slave cabins above and the house below) where 28 people (family, neighbours and slaves) sheltered in their basement during the battle. 

The house was well preserved and set up as it would have looked then - and it was peppered with bullet holes. 

Next stop (above) was not far away where the Lotz family lived. They sheltered in the Carter's basement which was just as well as their house was totally shot up and hit with cannon balls - it took Mr Lotz 4 years to fix it up and rebuild. 

The final stop was the Carnton Plantation (above) which was turned into a hospital on the day of the battle and remained one for the next 7 months. The blood stains remain all over the floorboards. The stories of these 3 families were fascinating and we certainly got a great picture of the battle and the Civil War. All in all it was a good day.

On the way back Bill called in to show us the Opreyland Hotel and Convention Centre - the largest non gambling hotel in the US - it was pretty spectacular.

Carly had done some research on trip advisor and chosen our dinner spot - Monell's - and it was fantastic! Typical southern home cooking complete with fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potato, green beans, corn pudding, coleslaw, apple cobbler...and heaps more! It is what they call "family style dining" which means people are seated together at a large dining table and they just keep bringing the food out as you pass it around, boarding house style. This means you interact with random strangers at your table, and that was very pleasant too.

After this massive feast we walked back in to town (about 30 min), did a bit of last minute souvenir shopping, caught the shuttle back to the hotel, and settled in to pack and prepare for our next part of the adventure. Tomorrow it's off to Boston...

Day 10 - Explore Nashville, Bluebird Cafe, Duelling Pianos

Wow, what a day! Hard to know where to start...maybe at the beginning...

We slept in (for once) because when the alarm went off at 8 in Nashville our body clocks still thought it was 6 in San Fran. After getting ready it was off downstairs to the shuttle that was due to leave at 9. Luckily we were there early as it left at 8:55...this place makes Faulty Towers look like a 5 star joint!

Regardless, we were dropped downtown and found our way to Pucketts, a famous diner, where we had a more than satisfying breakfast of omelette and pancakes. We are wondering if we can ever be satisfied with weet bix again???

We then set off to explore what Nashville had to offer. After the obligatory stroll through the souvenir shops we set off for the Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame where we spent a pleasant couple of hours learning all about the history of country music. It was really good! I took heaps of photos (much to Carly's disdain) but I thought the displays were great and some of the old costumes were fantastic.

We weren't really sure what we would do next and then fate stepped in and we met Mike, the song writing tour guide who offered to drive us around town in a golf cart and show us the sights (for a fee of course). We negotiated terms and agreed to the tour if he ended the tour at the Bluebird Cafe where, as I'm sure you recall, we had tickets for the show tonight. A deal was struck - we would meet Mike at 4pm, do the tour and he would drop us at the Bluebird at 5:15 in plenty of time for the 6pm show. In the meantime we found a cafe and spent a little while drinking tea and resting up for our big adventure...little did we know...

So, sure enough, at the designated spot and time we met up with Mike and set off on our tour. He drove this funny, slightly larger than the average, golf cart type vehicle which was licensed to travel on the roads. Mike was awesome! He drove us around, admittedly in a seemingly quite dangerous fashion, but showed us some great spots we would not have otherwise seen. We viewed seedy laneways, sang together at the 90 bell carillon, saw the State Capitol building, traversed parks, explored converted warehouses, and generally saw bits of Nashville yet unknown to us. Despite his hair-raising driving antics we were thoroughly happy with our tour.

It was now time to head to the Bluebird and Mike was very generous in taking us there as it is somewhat out of the main part of town. OK, there was some irony in what happened next...and I don't want to alarm you...but...after his hair-raising driving antics, Mike (and us) were sitting stationary at lights when a women driving a massive Jeep slammed into the back of us. We were given a pretty good jolt but we're lucky (as was Mike) to say we were OK. The cart was pretty dented though and the woman admitted she was texting at the time of the accident. Let this be a lesson my friends...no texting when behind a golf cart! Mike was pretty upset. The lady was pretty upset. Carly and I were pretty upset because we weren't on our way to the Bluebird!!!! 

Mike used my phone to call 911 - that's right, 911...how exciting. Carly used her phone to call a cab to get us to the Bluebird. Mike asked if we would still pay him for the tour. We said of course we would! The cab didn't come so we called again...time was ticking...we were panicking. The cops arrived and took our details - try spelling Buttaba to a Nashville cop ha ha - the cab still hadn't arrived. Mike offered to pay for the cab. We declined. The lady kept sitting in her car texting. The cop kept taking details. Then the cab arrived! Yay! We yelled goodbye to Mike and jumped aboard to finally head to the Bluebird. We knew they would give our tickets away of we were late. We made it with 5 minutes to spare!

The show was amazing!!! I don't know how else to describe it. All the artists were fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. They each sang their own songs but the others joined in and jammed along - it was unreal. We had seats right at the front - we were so lucky. It is my highlight of the trip so far.

After the show we lucked out and grabbed a cab straight away back to the downtown area where we went to see the duelling pianos bar and that was another great show. I was onto my third wine, which is a lot for me, and so was embarrassing Carly as a mother is want to do - it was great! We were pretty much the only customers when the show started at 8:30 so there was a fair bit of pressure to sing along and participate...it would have been rude not to, don't you think??

After an eventful, yet great day, we caught the shuttle back to the hotel and settled in for the night. Another big day tomorrow...can't wait!

Day 9 - Travel to Nashville

Not much to report today. We had big plans for before we left for the airport but when we ventured out for our now regular "Joanie's" breakfast we found that it was flogging down with rain. I had planned to ride a cable car and walk up the famous crooked street - Lombard St - but the rain put paid to those plans. Instead we picked up our laundry and just hung out in the room for an hour or so until it was time to go to the airport. An uneventful shuttle ride later and we were off on our epic journey across the continent. First stop was Denver where we had 10 minutes to find our connecting flight...and we made it. It seems no-one flies to Denver to go to Denver, it is just a hub where people connect to go somewhere else. Poor Denver!

Anyway after out two and a half hour flight to Denver we were up in the air again heading to Nashville on another two and a half hour flight. Thankfully Carly had planned our entertainment well in advance and so we double jacked into her iPad and watched the latest series of Nashville, the TV show - we managed four episodes and saved a couple for later. (Take note Gary, you don't need to save the episodes I'm missing as I have now seen them!) This passed the time really well and in no time at all it seemed we had arrived in Nashville.

We rang our hotel earlier today to enquire about their shuttle service and were told we just had to wait at the airport as the shuttle ran every 45 minutes. So, we waited...and waited...and waited. It was cold, it was raining, and it was now 9:45pm (we lost 2 hours with the new time zone). Heaps of other hotel shuttle buses kept going on by and eventually one of the drivers asked us why we had been standing there so long. He suggested we call the hotel...which we did...and they said "oh sorry we told you the wrong thing...you should have called us when you arrived - we'll send it now" grrrrr. So, the shuttle finally arrived to pick us up at 10pm and we had been waiting since 9pm!

The driver was a lovely bloke called Mac who chatted all the way to the hotel and suggested places to go and see. After check in I was extremely hangry and went in search of food. None was to be found but the guy on the front desk suggested I call room service. I said this had occurred to me but there was no menu in the room. He then suggested I walk to the restaurant to see the menu (which seems to take away somewhat from the concept of room service I thought). Eventually I went back to my room and called room service for about 10 minutes and no one answered. I was getting really hangry by this time. So I called the front desk and they eventually answered after about 5 minutes and then they put me on hold for another 5 minutes and then finally someone took my order. I must concede they were then quite efficient in getting the club sandwich to me which was just as well as it was now 11pm and I had eaten nothing but a meusli bar since breakfast and was in danger of eating my arm!

Need a good nights sleep now for tomorrow we explore!

Day 8 - 49ers v Falcons at Levi Stadium

I'd like to say that the day dawned bright and sunny, but unfortunately the weather had finally caught up with us and misty showers were falling when we answered the customary 6:30am alarm. We reprised breakfast at Joanie's Diner and were not disappointed. This truly tasted as good as it looked! Yep, that's a vegetarian omelette, a homemade hash brown, and a waffle with berries and cream...awesome! (We did share, it wasn't all for me!)

Due to the rain and Carly's cold, we decided to grab a cab down to the Ferry Building where we were to meet our pre-purchased shuttle ride to the game. While we waited we found a cafe and a tea and latte certainly helped to warm us up. By 10:30 we were on the road, heading to watch the San Francisco 49ers play the Atlanta Falcons. The 49ers have had a horrible start to the season, easily attributable to the fact that I have become a 49ers fan since Jarryd Hayne started playing for them this season. To add insult to injury, Hayne has been dumped from the game squad and relegated to the practice squad...from this game. 

So, we totally changed our trip schedule, I spent a fortune on a specially created Hayne Parramatta jersey, we bought tickets to the game, and tickets to the bus to get there...and it turns out that Hayne would not be playing. Setting all that aside, we were really excited to be going to the game - admittedly not a game we know much about, but hey, it's the NFL!

Levi Stadium is a great venue and will be hosting the next Super Bowl, so it was an experience just to be there. It is about an hour to an hour and a half from San Fran at Santa Clara, near Silicone Valley. We saw a few names we recognised as we drove down the freeway - Google, Dell, Motorola, to name a few.

Just after we arrived the rain moved from a mist to a drizzle to a light shower so we wrapped up in emergency poncho (me) and windcheater (Carly), and braved he inclement weather, all for the sake of the not to be seen Hayne. I did get many comments from people in the crowd about my jersey - they all said they loved it and hope Hayne is back in the main squad soon...they love him! 

Before the game and at half time there were many patriotic displays, particularly because it is Veterans Day on 11 Nov. It was quite spectacular, along with fireworks, even though it was daylight! The game was exciting and close (even though Carly and I were clueless most of the time) with the 49ers winning 17-16. Go Niners! We were right into it, cheering along with he enthusiastic crowd. I was a bit surprised to see that there were lots of empty seats...not sure if the rain kept people away.

After the game we were back on the bus and although the trip was a bit slower on the way back with heavy traffic, we were glad the rain had finally stopped, allowing us to walk back from the Ferry Building and remain dry, although pretty cold still. With not many restaurants open on Sunday night, we jumped into IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and shared an awesome raspberry pancake stack for supper (we had only shared a pretzel since breakfast and were a bit peckish). 

Getting ready to move on again tomorrow with our long flight to Nashville...but Carly has a plan to keep us entertained on the plane...stay tuned!