"Ya Wanna Have a Refreshaah?"

The Swan Boats

So reads the blackboard in the Copley Center Starbucks whence I post. So I will provide a refreshaah of our day.  Just in case you do not encounter the authentic spoken Boston accent, the menus do the job for you-- at lunch at I was forced to order "clam chowdah." Ok we get it. We are in Boston. We had a full-on Day of the Cliche when it came to touring. In a city as steeped in tradition as my Calm tea is now, there is no reason to go rogue. So we backed out of Back Bay and strode down Newbury Street and before we knew it we were in the Boston Gardens (Gahdens) taking a ride on the swan boats, and bearing witness to the scene that spawned what our tour guide referred to "that non-stop thriller" Make Way For Ducklings.

Cheers-where nobody knew our names

From there through the Boston Common to follow the red brick road, The Freedom Trail, a two and half mile tour through Boston's historical high points. The Trail was lacking in freedom from hordes of tourists, campers, group tours. We ended up at Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market, ate at "Cheers" where nobody knew our names. A performance artist did a great job of finding two balding men in the audience to use as his foils and capped one with a road cone and the other with a toilet plunger and declared the Tin Man had met Teletubby.

Duck Tour led by man in tights

Best of all the Duck Tour, where our tour guide, named Will Shakespeare, ran onto the bus/boat saying he was wearing tights, but they were really leggings and there is a distinction. I learned more about Boston than I'd ever known despite numerous visits here. We crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Wait until I tell my running group.  I learned that Boston was the first in chocolate, jelly beans, the Boston Creme Pie, and the Parker Roll. Oh, and a lot of historical facts too. Best was that you can have a cold Sam Adams at the Beantown Pub across from the cold Sam Adams buried in a cemetery across the street. As we disembarked, Will cranked up Monty Python's Men in Tights, forever endearing himself to me.