Scouts Vacation: Boston Road trip.

Hello everyone.
Starting tomorrow I will be on vacation, and I thought I would I do something fun.
Instead of making a huge thread about my travels at the end, Ill make is as I go.
Here is what you should expect while im on vacation.
Status updates:
Ill update it frequently, and I will hope to make this interesting.
Location Changes:
My location has been changed from my useal. It will now tell you where I am, within reason. For example I dont live In Des Moines, I live NEAR Des Moines, but its close enough you know where I am. When I can; Ill update it regularly. Tomorrow We will be making the big trek form Des Monies to Buffalo, New York by car. Ill update at each state line. This is not meant for stalking purposes, but for more of a fun thing, if it proves it to be a problem Ill remove it.
Daily entry
At the end of each day Ill put a journal entry about my day, basically kind of like what @ImNotOkayy did about his concert experiences. Because Ill never do it if I make write it in a big chunk, Ill do it daily. It will very each day, based on how tired I am, but Ill try to make it more then one, but less the for paragraphs. Unless it will require double posts, Ill most likely make it into one post each day, but I have not not figured that out yet. These entry will be completed on my iPhone, so grammar and spelling will be bad. When I get home Ill polish it.
Photo Albums:
Ill take lots of pictures while Im on vacation. Ill make daily imgur albums and upload them, data permitting. Hopefully, those will accompany my daily entry's.
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With this I encourage you all to leave comments on this thread, and ask me (appropriate) questions.

 

Entry one: 7/2/15
The Trek.

It's the first day. My alarm goes off at 4:45 am. One hour later we pack our 2012 Chrysler Town&Country. I jump in my car, and we are off to my grandma's house, to pick her up. We drop my car at her house. And set off, to make the 14 hour car ride. The time is 7am. My dad takes the wheel first, Eventuly we poped a movie in and continued on. Our first stop belongs in a town in Illinois. We hit the road, more sitting, more movies. My parents got "The Adam's Family" for us to watch. We are hitting the southern part of Chicago, and heading to Gary Indiana. We cross well into Indiana, and make our second stop: lunch time. Indiana has these travel plazas, that have a gas station, a burger chain, and maybe something else. They are more less a fancy rest stop, designed to avoid the toll. Anyway off all the places we could go; McDonalds.
After that we continue on, the long and boring state off Indiana. We eventuly get into Ohio, the hump. On the route, Ohio is notorious for being the long state to get through. The brake down is this more less: From DesMoines to the Illinois state border is 2.5 hours. Across Illinois is 3, and across Indiana is 3. Indiana is also the most flat boring-ass state to go through. Ohio takes 5 hours. You also have to deal with Cleveland, which can be a pain. After Ohio its only two more tell our destination. As you can tell Ohio is the longest state to go through. Anyway we get dinner at the Ohio/Pennsylvania line. Eventually we got to our destination, at 9:45pm.
We are staying the next couple days at my Uncle's house.
Today is not the best thing, but its needed to get there, and Im looking forward to this trip. Attached is the view I had for 14 hours today.

 

Il is not the worst, We have been through Il lots of times, Im used to it, and we know all the areas up till Chicago, and then Chicago it self is an adventure. Indiana is literatly a streight shot through, and flat.

The shed is really cool, be prepared to stand in line for a while. Willis tower is not impressive, its like any other big tower. It does have one hell of a view.
The biggest pain is still Ohio.

 

Entry two: 7/3/15.
The Family meets again.
I have always loved the first day out of the van, its like the first real day. Anyway I woke up at 8:30 today. I put some clothes on, grabbed my glasses, phone and wallet, and headed down to start my fay. For breakfast we had one of my favorites: Tim Hortans. I actualy had the pleasure of driving, in my uncles 2003 Nisan SUV. After that we sat around and talked. My uncle has this pond out on his property, and the dogs went swimming. Eventualy everyone set out with there activities. My dad, grandmother, sister, uncle, and my self stayed at the house. By this it was lunch time. We went to a favorite sub shop of ours: John and Marry's. I got the chicken finger sub. Amazing. After more sitting around the house, setting up a party tent, and a run to the grocery store, people started returning from the activities. By this time alot of my dads side family was here. Its dinner time now. In Buffalo Friday nights are dominated by one thing at all resturants: Fish fry. Everyone had there own. I had Beer batered Haddic with fries, Cloeslaw, Mac salad, and rye bread. Delicious. After that we watched the dogs (we have three labs, two golden retrievers, one small dog, and a mutt) swim around in the pond. Eventually It got dark, we finsihed up, and went to bed.
I know today was boring, but there is not much to talk about. There should be more tomorrow.








Entry Three: 7/4/15
The 4th.
Most of today was very much like yesterday, so Ill spare you that. However slowly everyone started comming in. By 4pm everyone from my dad's side of the family, minus one was here. Translation: 15 people. We had a cook out dinner, grilled chicken, smooked pulled pork, Popcorn salad, and Home made BlueBerry (inside joke) pie. All of it was REALLY good. After that we sat around and talked, and lit off fireworks (illeagly).
Inclosed are some picutres of dogs and stuff. Let me explain them;

This one is sort of our set up. All of us where in this circle, and the dogs all napping.

This was a picture took in the morning, while the dogs where hyper active.
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I know there is not alot to talk about, but we go to Boston tomorrow, and we will be more interesting.

 

Note: Due to the chararacter limit, this is on a new post, even if its not close, it might be after this monster Im about to type.
Entry three and four: 7/5/15-7/6/15
Its an Adventure.
Keep in mind that this is two entries combined into one. So it will be long.
Anyway yesterday we woke up, finished Laundry and hit the road at 10:30. Estimated time: 7 hours. A couple hours in we got hungry, so we stoped in the city of Syracuse. We pulled off saw a Blimpie, and a subway, and decided to move on. We pass alot of options, Including a mega mall. My dad (who is driving) asks my mom (navagating) on where to go. At one point she said "I dont know Im just making shit up at this point" Fantastic. Anyway we FINALY got another mall. It was called Shoopingtown mall. We got in and we soon found out it is a dieing mall. The "Food court" had two resturants; A Chinese and a Pizza place. Thats it. Besides that there was a TGI Fridays, thats all. For those that are not fimilar with American Shopping malls an avrage mall will have at least a dozen or so, often more. Anyway the pizza we had was awesome. We get back on the road. Time remaining: 4 hours. However the GPS kept at four hours for a while. We finaly get out of new york and in to massachusetts. Once we hit mass. there was alot of traffic. After a lot of stop and go we FINALY arrived in Boston. We checked into our hotel, and drop out bags. The time is 7pm, not even close to 7 hours.
After checking in, we wonder tell we find dinner. Our family is very much anti-chain on vacation, we would rather go to a local place. So it will make perfect sense that we went to Cheesecake Factory. For those that dont know CF is a fancy restaurant wannabe. Anyway after a (disappointing) meal we head back to the hotel and sleep.
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Today we woke up at 8:30. I got dressed, and headed to breakfast. Breakfast at a Holiday in has a couple of staples: Pre made cheese omelets, hard boiled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and a pancake maker. Choice hotels (brand) have a Waffle maker. Holiday Inn Express decided to counter that with a pancake maker.I personsly would take the waffle, but the pancakes are just fine. Anyway we finished getting ready and headed out to start the day. By this time it was 10am. Today we decided to do the Liberty trail. What this is, is a huge route, that connects to all the historical sites in Boston. For those that dont know, Boston has alot of historical value to the very early days of North American Colonies. Anyway after getting off the subway we started on the trail. Our first stop was the Capitol. This is one of my favroites, going to all the state capitols. The tour was awsome, and we even got to see an informal session of the House of Reps. After that we walked on hitting historic semitaries(sp) and old buildings. Eventuly we stoped for lunch at Cheeseboys. This place sells gormet grilled cheese sandwhiches, and they are GOOD. After that we hit more places. One of them was the holocaust memorial. This was one of the coolest things I saw. It had these glass pillars that had steam coming up, etched in glass was the serial numbers of each prisoner of each of the Polish concentration camps. Each pillar stood for a concentration camp. The experience was incredible.
After that we visited the Old North Church, from the 1700's. Shortly after we sampled colonial drinking choclate. That had a banana cinimon bitter flavor. It was not bad, but it was not good. After that we treked across a bridge to the USS constution. Its under renovation, and was a little disapointing. After that we went to bunker hill, the site of a famous revoultionary war battle. We then were done with the freedom trail. We headed back across the harbor twords Little Itaitly. We had Itilian for dinner, it was okay. After that we headed back to the hotel and turned in for the nite.
Entry Five 7/7/15
Disappointment
To day we woke up, ate, and headed out. Today was Whale watch day, something that (for some reason) everyone except me wanted to do. We left at 9:20, to get there at 10:30. We borded the subway (or as they call it "The T" and were susposed to get off at "Government center" However the app that we used did not tell us that gov. center is closed. So we ended up taking 5 diffrent trains, just to get to one spot. We checked in to the tour at 10:33. After checking in, the boat left. We where going out to an area that was close to the coast of Main. 90 minuetes we hit area where whales are active. When someone spots someone there was a mad dash out to the rail to see it. Granted seeing the whales was cool, we only saw 4. We got this for free as part of our package we had. Im not sure we would be happy if we paid full price. After we (finally) got off we went to lunch. I cant remember the name; but it was outstanding. Me and my sister had Fish n' chips, made with fresh Haddic. My mom had lobster roll and new england Clahm Chowah. All where out of this world amazing.
After that we took The T over to the Samual Adams Brewery, a well known, and well respected, beer company in Americia. We had hoped to get a tour, but (despite that our guide said it was open tell 8) it was closed. We went to the Sam Adams resturant, and my parents got beer, my sister had a root beer, and I had a cream soda. After that we decided to head Downtown, tworads Boylston street. We went to the Prudental Building, the talest tower in the area. 50th floors up, we could take a audio tour of there observatory. You could see alot, and it was really good. After words we got hungray, and went to dinner. We went to the Cheers bar. Cheers was a pouplar sit com that ran for a LONG time, and was based on a Boston Bar. I orderd the Mac-n-Cheese. It tasted chemicaly. We informed the manager, and she said that lots of people said the same thing. I then ordered Chicken fingers, and those where well worth our time. After that we headed back to the hotel, and went to bed.
Just a note: Due to data problems, pictures will wait.

 

new post, will merge later if needed.
Entry Six. 7/8/15
Out with A Bang
It's the last day for us in Boston. We wake up, do the useal and head out. Our first stop is a Dunkin Doughnuts. My daf thinks that the DD's out by us are bad, and east coast was better. After having both, Ill stick to Krispy Kreme. After that we make the trek to Harvard, for a tour. We take the Green line to Park, then switch to the Red line to Harvard. Once we get there we take the Hahvhad Tour, the one not sponsored by Harvard. Our tour guid was fantastic, and I really enjoyed it. After that we went back to Sam Adams. Where we finaly took our Brew tour. Even though I cant drink, I still enjoyed it. After that it was 3:30. Time to go back to the hotel. We got back, droped our souvenirs and headed on The T to Downtown, to the Red Sox game. Our first order was Dinner. It was my pick, and we went to a place called BostonBurger co. This place was featured on "Diners DriveInns, and Dives" a tv show that focuses on great food where you would not expect it. Needless to say, it was good. I
had the Mac Atack, and it was REALLY good. Afterwords we walked over to Fenway Park. After we went through security, tickets, we found our seats. We sat in the grandstand. Which means really cramped, really narrow seats. The game started and we watched. At the fourth inning the Red Sox make 4 runs, with help from a Home Run by Ortiz. The Marlins would answer at the 5th with two, Boston would score two more, and the Mars would score one. The final score was 6-3. Now came the interesting part: getting back to the hotel. There where alot of people at Kenemore station, and the Subway was cramped. We finally arrived at Lechmere, where the hotel was.
Overall today was a good day. Both Harvard and the Red Sox where well worth our time.
Next stop: Rhode Island.

Entry seven and eight: 7/9/15-7/10/15
Downhill
Due to my lazines, this is another two parter. It starts with the last few hours in Boston. We wake up, do the useal, and pack out. Next stop: Newport, Rhode Island.
TBC