Boston, MA Troy, and Niagara NY

Me and the American Falls

Boston streets
to the left is Paul Revere's House

We left Springfield Mass. and said goodbye to Noah, Chiala, and a comfortable bed. We spent about 5 days straight where we got to stay in comfy beds (3 nights in NYC and 2 days at Noah/Chiala's place). We did not want to go back to the way we have been living :).

Some of the streets of the North End

Driving over to Boston wasn't too bad though we did have to deal with some mellow rain. We started our stay in Boston by just going to a Starbuck's kinda by Harvard and just chilling recuperating and figuring out where we can do. We worked on our blogs and ate some subway. Unfortunately, As the day progressed I became more and more sick. Seems that NYC had some diseases I couldn't escape. By the time we were done and we needed to go find a place to camp for the night I was feeling horrible. Deep in the city there were no Wal-Marts so we had to embark on a longer than desired lame drive avoiding Toll roads, which by the way are wayyyy too many in New England and the roads still suck. We got out to a suburb and rolled on in. I hated the feel of the neighborhood.

Scenery of Upstate New York

Didn't get a pic of this before

The Walmart wasn't 24 hour so after 10pm we wouldn't be able to go inside for the bathroom and there is a certain amount of safety you get when the place is 24 hours. I told Anna I had zero desire to spend the night there and I suspect she eagerly looked for a hotel/motel. We found a cheapish Hotel and I went to go take a warm shower to try and clear up my sinuses. Well the place didn't have what one would call, "hot" water. The inability to have an enjoyable shower really put a damper on the stay. I then spent the rest of the night attempting to go sleep but I was unable to breath and my nose was like a faucet. After tossing and turning till about 4 am I passed out for about 3 hours then we went to Church because it was Easter!! Wow a major holiday and we would not spend it with family. We were already incredibly homesick and here we are at a church we have never been to with everyone dressed especially nice and us in jeans and t-shirts. It was a nice church, traditional, hymns, OK message but nothing stuck out and soon we were out of the door.

Driving and more driving

Lots of these along the way

We headed to the North End, where all the historical stuff is and shops and restaurants. It was hell trying to find parking but finally did and started to meander. Almost all the places are cash only and we didn't have cash nor a chase ATM anywhere. We weren't wanting to pay a fee and this ended up making our lunch a bit more complicated. We did however end up at this open mall type place and they had a food stand where they had chowder, lobster roll, and soda. We both got ours and it was quite delicious. We sat at our table for awhile and we were basically sulking not really loving Boston all that much either. The plan was 3 days in Boston then Portland, Maine then start making our way to Niagara. Thinking about going in the opposite direction as Sacramento, CA really created sadness in us. I told Anna, "You know I really am OK with not going to Portland, its a place I would like to go but really don't care that much if we don't make it there."

Weather got crazy while we drived

looking over the falls

She said she wasn't all that attached to Portland either and it felt like we would only get to colder places going in the direction of Maine. I said you know lets just stay in Boston for a day then put in some big driving hours in and go to Niagara then get to Pittsburgh early and just chill till it was time to get on the plane. We decided this was the best idea.



Here are my observations about Boston. Bostonians are very proud to be Bostonians, there is an insane number of Red Sox fans. People stare, especially at people with big beards. There are a lot of Italians there and they are Very proud of being Italian, they put little reflector stickers on their cars of the Italian flag. In our travel book it describes Boston as a labyrinth of streets, I agree. The cityscape that looks so beautiful in the movie The Town looks nothing close to as good from the ground/inside the city. If you go out to eat it is either, Italian, Pizza, or Subs.

Still some snow surrounding the falls though
it was hot outside

Horseshoe falls which is the more
famous of the falls
supposedly you can see them much better from the
Canada side
the mist makes it almost impossible to see the base though

Alright I will get on with it. Put in some big miles going from Worcester where we spent the night at a Walmart and took a scenic route to get to Albany, NY. We actually ended up driving through the town of Troy which had a cool feel to it and I had a slight inclination to check it out but we were eyes on the prize lets get on with it. Shockingly, the sickness that I had began to recover from was spread to Anna. She began feeling horrible and expressed the desire to stay at a Hotel. I complied thinking about how nice it could have been if I stayed at a nice place in Boston. We booked this very nicely priced hotel that ended up being a good stay with some very good breakfast.

up above the Horse shoe falls this is where
the crazies launch their vessels to go over the falls

More Horse shoe

Yesterday was basically just driving more and more and more. We took yet another scenic route, why you ask? well because we would have driven over 300 miles on a Toll road and we didn't want to pay that and we wanted to see the country off the beaten path. Turned out upstate New York is quite beautiful. There were tons of old buildings and barns. Some stuff was really pretty and there were quite a few deteriorating barns or homes which were actually pretty interesting. I was wondering if we would drive around the Appalachian mountains. Don't know if we went over them exactly but Maander did have to tackle some big hills. The whole east coast is pretty inhabited and for a long while we have felt close to civilization for the most part. There have been stretches that seem pretty rural.

From the observatory
now I notice that this is
out of focus a bit meh ;\

Basically as soon as we rolled into Buffalo the scenery took a nose dive and has looked like a combination south sac/Stockton look to it. We drove through some ghettos that were way bigger than I expected. I thought for sure that if you get close to the falls there would be a nice neighborhood or something. Nope everything we have seen has been pretty gross. We spent the night at Walmart and today we visited the falls. I'm tired of writing so I will say Niagara falls was huge, awesome, surreal. We walked around and just experienced it. We knew that half a mile away was a very ugly town but right here right now this, this was nice  :) On the Canada side Niagara looked really nice. Lots of Casinos and touristy stuff. We debating walking or driving over there but decided meh not that interested and were off.

So now we are laying low and some really big storms are supposed to roll in so I'm at a Barnes and Nobles hanging out. We plan on heading on down to Pittsburgh when the weather seems to be stabilized and just staying there till the time to fly to Sacramento!! wooo hooo bye bye enjoy the pics...