Ipswich

Jackson and Noth Conway

Boston!!!

Boston, Day 2

Thank heaven we had a GPS.

America's Most Challenging Cities to Navigate

Getting to know a city is a big job, but getting through a city shouldn't be. Unfortunately, some of America's metropolitan areas present a navigational challenge for even the most intelligent, savvy drivers. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by "Best Places to Live" expert, Bert Sperling, Boston is America's "most challenging city to navigate", followed closely by Washington D.C. (2), San Francisco (3), Baltimore (4) and New York (5)*.
Following the national launch of Avis Assist, a mobile phone-based navigation system powered by Motorola's VIAMOTO software, Avis Rent A Car and Motorola teamed up with the city study specialists at Sperling's Best Places to analyze how difficult America's largest 75 cities are to navigate. Many popular business travel destinations ranked high on the roster, including Los Angeles (7), Seattle (8), Chicago (12) and Orlando (15), while other business travel hot spots such as Salt Lake City (61), San Antonio (64) and Las Vegas (65) were dubbed "driver-friendly."


Sperling evaluated the nation's top metro areas according to the following criteria:

-- street layouts (grids, diagonals, windiness, one-way streets); 

-- overall design and layout (how spread out the market is);
-- travel time index; -- percent of congested freeway and street lane miles;
-- bodies of water (rivers, lakes, oceans, bridges);
-- complexity of directions needed to travel from major airports to city center;
-- annual delay per person (person hours);
-- days of snow exceeding one-and-one-half inches; and
-- days of rain exceeding half an inch

Bert Sperling's Top 10 Most Difficult Cities to Navigate

1. Boston, MA
2. Washington, DC
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Baltimore, MD
5. New York, NY-Northeastern NJ
6. Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood-Pompano Beach, FL
7. Los Angeles, CA
8. Seattle-Everett, WA
9. Providence, Pawtucket RI-MA
10. Norfolk-Newport News-Virginia Beach, VA

Additional Consumer Survey Findings -- When it comes to asking for directions, the age-old gender divide still holds true. 64 percent of women report that they are the ones who have to stop and ask for directions compared to 41 percent of men. -- 68 percent of Americans agree that getting lost causes tension with other passengers in the car. -- Women (71%) are more likely then men (56%) to feel stressed when they don't know where they are.


 I feel a bit too tired to relate our driving mishaps, but they were realy quite amusing. More to come...

Boston, Day 1

After bidding Tennisfiend goodbye at 4:00 am this morning, I managed to get a touch of rest before setting off to Boston.   We left around 2pm with Mom perched in the backseat to entertain Tyoma as I drove. An hour later, when traffic and off-ramps started to multiply, I realized that the sound from the back seat becomes amplified by a factor of four when I don’t know where I am going. The normally quiet clicking of his Monkey Speller sounded like a tiny ball peen hammer rapping on the windshield behind me. My grumpy complaints clued Tyoma into the excitement of whizzing cars and precipitous exits and he began repeating his interpretation of everything the GPS says. Mom, a bit anxious and trying to be helpful also piped up, adding to my distraction and frustration. Mom I can ask to be quiet, but Tyoma has to be stuffed with cheesy-poofs to ensure silence. We ran out of cheesy-poofs.

 

Our hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, looked surprisingly worn and shabby. I had forgotten the difference between big city and suburban accommodations. We could have been in an unlovely segment of France specifically built for budget-minded Americans. The narrow sooty streets, ancient misshapen pavement and clunky undersized elevators were much the same. Our third floor room was hot, close and dark. After partially unpacking, we discovered that the air conditioner was missing its dials and segments of paneling. It did not work. The only window was sealed closed and painted over at the bottom. To circulate the air, we turned on a dilapidated desk fan which creaked halfheartedly, tipped precariously to the left and ceased to function.

 

I fumed down the heaving elevator, ready for a fight if they did not give us a new room. The girl at the front desk cheerfully gave us a new room, as if we were expected to refuse our room, but had to be sent there anyway--for procedure’s sake.

 

What a difference the change made! For the same price we got double the room and six times the windows—a spacious corner room overlooking an athletic center and the adjacent building. It was difficult to believe that the two rooms existed in the same hotel. True, our light and airy room was a bit neglected but it was far lovelier than the tumbledown closet they sent us to first. After a hasty unpacking, we took off for a nearby pub which prided itself as the “Best Sports Bar in America.” Exhausted, I did not savor my delicious meal of ribs as I should have, but the red wine was incredibly tasty.  Tyoma was nodding off by the time we strolled back to our room. He conked out immediately while mom and I giggled and packed away leftover dinner.

 

Agreeing that an early bedtime was best, we crawled into our respective beds at a reasonable 8:30. A half an hour later we discovered that dance studio directly across from us had rehearsals. They practiced a jazzy West Side Story musical that made the windows vibrate. With the lights out we watched the sharks and jets fight it out. Mom commented that at last, it felt like an east coast city. I fell asleep marveling, amazed to be in Boston and excited about our upcoming trip to the aquarium tomorrow.

What! It's Easter?! (AKA: Getting Ready For Our Trips)

Tennisfiend and I spent our day preparing for our trips--his to Florida for a laser-hoober-joob conference and mine to Boston with Mom and Tyoma. E's job was fairly simple, his clothes were ready and toiletries packed. A quick zip, and he's good to go. On my end, I feel things are a bit more complicated. Pack the scooter and charger. Pack Tyoma's playpen, stroller and accessories. Pack Tyoma food, toys books clothes, diapers, and so on. Pack my load of stuff. Sheesh!  As if we were going on a 10 day safari in Africa. I guess I' m really apprehensive about driving in Boston. Even with the GPS, I can imagine trying to find my way around the historic center of town. Everything will be pubs, shoe stores and coffee shops. No corner Walgreen's. Better bring everything I can conceive of! Anyway, I'm mostly packed and pretty organized. During Tyoma's "nap" I helped mom color her  hair and then we are going to do an Easter Egg Hunt. We filled plastic eggs with little candies, treats and written clues. If he can follow the clues, he will get a special surprise (bananagrams). It'll be fun!!!

Ogunquit Vacation

We took an overnight vacation to Ogunquit, Maine while Mom was here to sit with Tyoma overnight. I can't tell you how very nice it was to have some quality time together. I do have a little write up to go with this, but I'll post it later. For now, here's some pics...

Vacation: Avoiding the Crowd

Day One, After Dinner*
I love the intimacy of a bed and breakfast. The monstrous sameness and corporate efficiency of major hotels is depersonalizing and often the only choice for travel. When available, I prefer someone’s quaint residence to a decorated industrial cubicle, especially when prices are comparable.
However, drawbacks exist. I noticed that many people use bed and breakfasts as social vehicles. When I entered the living room to connect my laptop to the only available phone line, a wall of eyes greeted me. Glistening with anticipation, eight eyes followed me across the room. No one spoke, but I could feel that a few pairs of eyes were ready to have their owners re-arrange furniture so I could sit in on the "Hello, where are you from?" conversation.
On occasion, I love to hang out, be chatty, goofy and sociable with like-minded folk. Nevertheless, my internal introvert clock eventually sounds and I must escape and do about twelve crossword puzzles. I don’t dislike people; I just prefer them in limited doses. After a six-hour drive, I sought the comforting remoteness of the Internet, not in-your-face pleasantries. I imagine I will avoid the living room for the rest of our stay.
* Since we had no Internet hook up, and my entries are backlogged on paper I’ll post my trip entries in a screwed up chronology until I get caught up.