I took a 3-day whirlwind bus trip to Boston last weekend. I had the chance to meet up with my friend Tammy briefly at Quincy Market on the first day, then took a whale-watching excursion in Cape Ann on the second day. On the way home on the last day, we stopped by Waterloo Premium Outlets to do some shopping before heading back across the border.

I think this trip was one of the quickest and most fast-paced trips I’ve ever been on. It was also grueling to plan, since the tour company kept changing the dates based on the availability of the tour. I almost gave up altogether because it was a mess trying to figure out which days I needed off from work. (Just ask my supervisor how many emails I had to send her with ‘Sorry’ in the title.)

Usually when I plan a vacation I set up a fairly rigorous schedule. However, Chinese bus tours are probably 10x worse than anything I can conceive. Our morning wake up calls were at 5, 6 a.m., which meant we were on the move from the crack of dawn. We usually had around 45 minutes or less to eat and do any sort of sight seeing. It was seriously intense. I had forgotten the feeling of riding on a bus for 2-3hr stretches at a time (not to mention not knowing when the next washroom break will be). If it wasn’t for the fact that I have no money Chinese bus tours are so cheap, I probably would have never considered it.

With that aside, the actual sight-seeing portion was really good. They really packed a lot into our itinerary for three days. On the first day we took the bus towards Niagara Falls to cross the border at Rainbow Bridge. The bus had gotten there early, but it still took us THREE HOURS to get across. I was so hungry by the time we finally stopped for lunch!

Our first real stop was at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY. Since it was a Saturday, most of the offices were closed. We didn’t make it in time to go up to the observation deck, but I did snap some photos of the New York State Capitol, the Cultural Education Center and the EGG Center. They also had quite a bit of art on display inside the plaza itself. It was a short stop, but at least we got to stretch our legs for a bit.

It took another three hours to reach Boston. Originally we were planning on having dinner in Chinatown, but because the restaurant was overbooked, the bus ended up dropping us off at Quincy Market. (Quite a relief for you, right Tammy? Hehe.)

Quincy Market was very lively and there were lots of people gathered around watching the street performers. Since I got there early, I ended up grabbing a table outside at Wagamama with a great view of the nighttime crowd. Tammy came a short while later and we both ordered our food. Everything was really yummy! Great choice Tammy. (^_-)

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The second day we started our morning in Cape Ann. Our whale watching tour was suppose to start at 9 a.m., so we were already on the boat a half hour earlier. I don”t usually get seasick, but I was a little apprehensive since the whole ride would take four hours. Luckily the boat wasn”t very rocky and we had great weather that morning.

We saw our first whale, a Minke whale, about an hour and a half into the trip. Later on when we reached the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary, there were a lot more sightings. We saw a baby Humpback whale flapping its flipper about 2 meters away from the boat, then we saw a group of 4-5 whales in the distance. It was pretty amazing seeing all these animals out in the wild. By the time we started heading back, I was beginning to feel a little seasick, so I spent the rest of the time napping it off in the cabin on the lower deck.

After we returned, we had our lunch nearby. My mom and I went to a diner across the street from the harbour. In case anyone ever goes to this diner in the future:

Keep in mind they give you huuuuuge portions. I wish I took a picture of the food, but it didn’t occur to me till afterwards. We ordered two meals (one chicken caesar salad, one chicken and broccoli pasta) and ended up with two trays FULL OF FOOD. My pasta alone could have easily fed the two of us, much less having an additional side salad, a stick of garlic bread and a pita wrap. We ended up sharing our food with other members of our tour group because we didn’t want to waste it. I was really stuffed from lunch and it put me straight to sleep on the bus ride to Salem.

I was kind of groggy when we arrived in Salem, so I think I missed some of the introduction from the tour guide when the bus pulled up. I wasn’t really sure what to expect out of Salem except for the handful of episodes I’ve watched of Days of Our Lives. (Note: I don”t think their Salem is that Salem. LOL.) I didn’t really find that there was a lot of see in Salem. There was your typical Wiccan/Witchcraft kitschy souvenir shops. The only store that was really cool was the costumes shop. Aside from that, it was a pretty quiet area. I”m sure the town is much more livelier when it’s closer to Halloween.

After leaving Salem, we went back to Quincy Market to do some shopping, as we only had time for dinner the night before. There was so much food inside the market I wanted to try, but I decided to settle on a scoop of gelato. It was an astounding $6 US!! I couldn’t believe how expensive it was. The crowd was starting to thin out closer to 6 p.m., so I grabbed some souvenirs before we hopped back onto the bus.

Later on, the bus took us to Harvard and we did a mini tour of the campus. Everyone on the tour immediately beelined towards the statue of John Harvard. His statue seemed pretty ordinary until you take a closer look at his feet – his shoes are just gleeming from the shine! Afterwards, the bus strolled through MIT and passed along Harvard Bridge and Beacon Street before finally stopping at Chinatown for our lobster dinner.

Our dinner was at Hei La Moon Restaurant. I can probably summarize dinner in one word: messy.

We had to eat at a round table with other people from our tour group. There were ten of us squeezed into one table. The waiters instantly served us with soup and lobster. With ten lobsters at the table and ten pairs of dirty hands, it got messy fairly quickly. For some reason they decided to serve all the dishes at once, so there was absolutely no room on the table with dishes piled in the centre and the lobster shells overfilling our plates. It was so difficult trying to eat neatly!

Dinner overall was pretty average. The dessert at the end was probably the worst I had ever eaten. Soooo watery!! After we left, my mom and I decided to follow these two girls from our group to hunt for dessert. We ended up at ‘The Juice Bar’ and got take out to bring back to the hotel. Nothing like having a late night snack. =P

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Day 3 was another long one on the bus. Our wake up call that morning was set for 5 a.m., however the bus wouldn”t be stopping for breakfast until close to 9 a.m. Thank goodness I always have an emergency food stash. Hehe.

There wasn’t much to do on the bus except to doze off. We finally made a stop at Waterloo Premium Outlet close to noon and had a couple hours to eat lunch and shop. Later on we got back into the bus and drove for another two hours to the duty free shop before heading back across the border. The wait was much shorter and we were back home around dinner time.

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I guess in short, I really enjoyed Boston. Three days really wasn’t enough time to see everything. I wish I had flown instead taking the bus! I felt like I only caught a small glimpse of everything I wanted to see. It’s a city I”ll definitely visit again when I can travel on my own. =)