Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Cambridge and Boston, MA

This was a whirlwind of a trip. It happened over the course of a weekend. We caught a flight to Boston on Friday, experienced Harvard and downtown Boston on Saturday and at dawn, we were catching a cab to the airport. It was jammed but that is the only way to organize a weekend trip. My motto is "Do all that you can do in the time that you are given."

The main purpose of the trip was to escort selected high school students to an orientation seminar at Harvard followed by a campus tour. Sounded simply enough but from the start, he had its trials. First, our flight was delayed which made us miss our connecting flight. This was crucial because if we did not make the connecting flight then that could have potentially crushed the purpose of the trip (to attend the early AM seminar at Harvard). However, by some magic and good will, US Airways was able to find 11 seats to accommodate my traveling group on the last flight to Boston out of Charlotte.

We stayed at an interesting hotel/house that reminded me of "nice" hostile. It was owned by Harvard and was in business to provide housing for prospective students and their families while visiting the campus. The next morning, I was "in charge." I managed to get us lost in Cambridge just by making a left instead of a right. Finally, a man walking along the street was able to steer us in the right direction. All the while, I was very upset because the students were clearly going to be LATE for the seminar because of my silly mistake. Turned out, that we booked it and we were only about 7 minutes late for the hour long presentation. Still, I was disappointed that I was not able to get them there in a timely manner. Then, I grounded myself by realizing that in the scheme of things: "We made it to Boston safely, we attended the seminar and now, it was time to enjoy the city of Boston."

As a way to culminate the trip, we had dinner on the wharf (which is the bay area). It was a perfect way to end the trip. Most of us ordered seafood just because that is what you do on the wharf ;) In summary, it was terrific traveling experience with unusually warm temperatures and rainy weather (Rain and Boston are married, that is just the way it is).


I have created a slideshow to bring the trip to you.