Sail away with me to Boston…

Today we decided to ride Hop On/Hop Off to the USS Constitution.  It was rainy outside but that did not deter us from exploring the city.   After all, it does rain in Boston, at least it was not cold!  Our tour bus took us to the front gate of the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) and the Maritime Museum which was fascinating.   Security was tight but not intrusive, as this is a working military base.    The massive size is only surpassed by the beauty of the inside of the ship with its gorgeous hardwood.

The rain stopped and we hopped back on the tour bus to explore more history of Boston. We were hungry and we killed two birds with one stone and went to the historic Quincy Market.  There we had the famous clam “chowda” and crab rolls.  This was one thing we all were looking forward to and it did not disappoint any of us!

Now to walk off some of the yummy food we just consumed.   We took a walking tour of downtown. We were particularly impressed with the pay bathroom/pay phone combo downtown!

We got back to the pick up site for Hop On/Hop Off which was the last stop for the bus of the day and we met the most authentic Bostonian EVER!!  His name was Sonny.  He seemed very gruff at first but we won him over with our southern “accents.”   He asked where we were going, which was Legal Seafood at the harbor.  He informed us that that he could not go that far but he would get us as close as he could.   We ran into 5:00 o’clock traffic which did not make Sonny happy.   A car almost hit us and he yelled, “Where’d ya get ya license?…aww, Fa git abot it.”    Next thing you now we were pulling up right in front of Legal Seafood,  We went on about how appreciative we were and again he said, “aww fa git abot it.”   We actually looked for him in the following days.   We loved to ride on Sonny’s tour!  He was a very colorful character.

Our dinner that night was at Legal Seafood, seated at the window facing the harbor watching the boats, pelicans and a beautiful sunset.   Our view was great, food was wonderful… but the service was possibly the worst ever!

We had been complaining all through our lovely meal about the poor service from our server.  He had been very attentive to everyone around us but treated us as if we were invisible.  We never got water and he did not bring our meal which was brought by a different server because she saw we had been there a while and did not have our food. Normally we are very considerate of the servers and what they go through to make patrons happy.   We tip very well as we consider it part of the meal cost… until this meal. Our server did decide however that he would bring us the check.   Deb put her money on the table for the meal including a tip and excused herself to the ladies room.   It is at this point that Lee and Cathy had had enough and a note was written with Lee leaving him a “tip.”  It stated, “if you had served us at all your tip would have been more than a note on a piece of paper…have a good day.”   Lee and Cathy then retrieved Deb’s tip money and her bags and headed for the door. Unfortunately, Deb was not in on the event which had just occurred so she showed back up at the table, but luckily we were able to get her attention from across the room before she was confronted with “the server” who was in the process of reading Lee’s “tip.”

We went several blocks down the street before calling the Uber.   By the way.. the scariest Uber ride we have ever had which was in a car purchased in a police auction.  Debbie and Lee had never been in the back of a police car before!  But they still had it better than Cathy who was in the front seat with a woman who never watched the road.   She had a lot to say and was looking at Cathy the whole time she was talking (NOT THE ROAD).

Our nerves shot, we finally made it home to our beloved historic Charlestown for a good nights rest because tomorrow is another busy day in Boston.

Goodnight Lee, goodnight Debbie, goodnight Cathy…..

Goodnight Boston.