Days #84-#90 - 6/5/2011 - 6/12/2011 - winding down and coming home

Lani and I spent the night at a motel near the airport and were then off to Boston...we'd be back in Gainesville in another week.  In between, we would go to Boston, Manhattan, New Jersey and Philadelphia before returning home.  Here are just a few highlights.

This was my first time to Boston...it was awesome.  American colonial history permeates the city, beginning the the Freedom Trail.

We had a great dinner in Boston's Little Italy.

 Walking around Boston, you see scores of people with carry-out boxes from Mike's Pastry.

Throngs of people gather near the entrance, vying for position.

Mike's is famous for their cannolo.

Worthy of the hype.

 The sense of history in Boston is everywhere palpable.

The Freedom Trail  takes you to the Granary Burying Ground, containing the burial site of the victims of the Boston Massacre.  Ben Franklin and Paul Revere are also buried here.  Wow.

 The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned war ship afloat, and it's floating in the harbor for you to visit.

The Constitution is most famous for her actions during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane and Levant.  It was way cool.

I met a friend from college!

Gale Toale lives in New Hampshire, but drove to Boston to meet me.  Gale meets virtually every would-be presidential candidate as they all spend time in New Hampshire, meeting people in small groups.  Gale is there.  Thanks, Gale, for coming to meet me.

The Bunker Hill Monument is not on Bunker Hill but instead on Breed's Hill, where most of the fighting in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place.  Russell and I went there.

American colonial history is everywhere in Boston.   The Bunker Hill Monument was one of the first monuments built in the United States. 

 We spent a lot of time walking around the Boston downtown.  What a great walking city.

Cool skyline.

After Lani found an apartment in Boston biking distance to Boston University, we drove to Manhattan.

If you can plan far enough ahead, Book of Mormon is awesome: hilarious, musical,  irreverent.  We were blown away.

 I'm not much of a spectator (Go Gators!  Tim Tebow!), but I've been a Yankee fan since childhood.  (I was born up that way.)

The Yankees lost, but it was still cool.

 Both my parents passed young.  My only connection to them are surviving uncles.

Henry is my dad's brother and was an important part of my childhood, always coming to the elaborate Thanksgiving dinner my mom would put together.  The residua of a jaw cancer from his youth has not stopped him from still working full-time into his late 70s.  It was great to see him.

 We stayed in a Marriott right on Times Square.

The excitement present 24/7 in Times Square is palpable, just like the history that permeates Boston.

While Venice Beach is a great place for people-watching, Times Square holds its own.

The Naked Cowgirl competes with the Naked Cowboy.  It hurt to photograph this.

It was cool to simply walk around Times Square after dark.

Does it ever sleep?

It's a short boat ride to the Statue of Liberty.

Even though I was born in NY and returned regularly for year to visits relatives, I had never visited Ms. Liberty.

There are only limited openings to take the tour inside the statue.  Plan it in advance...we didn't and were only able to walk around the outside, which was still pretty awesome.

Iconic.  Thank you, France.  (BTW, Alexander Gustave Eiffel, who designed  the eponymously named tower in Paris, helped design Ms. Liberty.)

The same boat that takes you to Ms. Liberty also takes you to nearby Ellis Island, the gateway for millions of immigrants.

The National Park Service, as usual, has their act together and  the displays inside tell the story of this monument of America's attraction to the world.

 We dined out.

Dinner at Daniel's.  Classy.

 From Manhattan, we drove to Egg Harbor, NJ to hang out with my brother and his wife.  The next morning, we drove to Philadelphia.

Sometimes its fun when your grown children still act as children.

The Franklin Institute - a museum - was an integral part of my childhood.  My love of museums comes from the FI.

The Franklin Institute includes a much-larger-than-life heart that you can walk through, following the path of blood as it traverses the valves, going chamber-to-chamber.  As a child, I loved it.  

One of the greatest meals I've ever had was at Le Bec-Fin, one of the country's great restaurants, back in 11/1998.  It no longer has the stature in the restaurant community it once enjoyed, but we returned with excitement.

My brother, Richard, and his wife, Steff, joined us for another unforgettable meal.

The next morning, we all returned to Gainesville, Florida.

90 days and 9000+ miles later (2387 biking, 6948 by car), Lani and I were home. 

I'm obviously writing this long after the bike trip ended, more than 8 months later.  There is a lot I can say about the trip.  I think about it daily...I think about Texas, the small towns, the view of America, the time with my daughter who remains one of my most favorite people.  Hardly a week goes by that I don't read about some place in the news where we visited on the trip.


There is a lot more to say, but I think I'll end the blog here and leave the rest for a book.


For any of you who have followed, my thanks.