2021 Life Logs, Day 334: With JJZ&C in Plymouth and Boston
Date: Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 40, Low Temp 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
On the final day of Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco’s visit, we traveled to Plymouth to pick up Justin’s violin. Hollis at Plimoth Violins did a wonderful job of refurbishing Justin’s violin.
While we were there, Jo bought Justin a new bow for Christmas and Hollis showed us the violin ukuleles that he makes. He is one very talented man. Since it was already noon and Hollis lives in Plymouth, I asked him for a recommendation for a good seafood restaurant for lunch. He suggested Wood’s Seafood on the Town Wharf.
As we walked, we took a wrong turn and ended up on Cook’s Hill where we spent Thanksgiving Day. It looked very different without a huge group of people and the view of Plymouth Bay was glistening in the sunshine.
We walked down the hill and took a look at the Plymouth ‘Pebble’ as Plymouth Rock is called by the Wampanoags. I don’t believe there is any written history of the Pilgrims landing near any particular rock, but regardless, it certainly has become a famous one. The Mayflower was not at the dock today, but there were plenty of fishing boats near the Town Wharf.
After lunch, we headed on to Logan Airport in Boston. We parked in Central Parking for Terminal C and took the Silver Line SL1 to South Station where we began a walk about in downtown Boston. We parked at the airport because I thought it would be faster to take the T back to the airport at rush hour. The traffic in Boston can be brutal at 5 pm and that is the time we needed to get back to the airport. We were all pleasantly surprised that the Silver Line came so quickly, was free, and got us to South Station in about 15 minutes. 
We walked from there to the gate at the entrance to Chinatown and walked through Chinatown to the Boston Commons on Tremont Street. 
We walked through the park and made many stops to so that Ziggy and Coco could take photos of the very fat and very friendly squirrels.
Coco is absolutely smitten with squirrels and couldn’t have been happier. After squirrel watching, as we walked on up Tremont Street I pointed out the historical spots of interest. When we got to Government Center, we walked down State Street and made our way to Quincy Market. We were looking for a place to have tea and a snack before heading back to the airport, but all of the restaurants were closed. We went into Quincy Market, but only about half of the food venders were open. We supposed this is because of Covid, but not sure.
Quincy Market, inside and out, is really decked out for the holidays.
The twenty-foot-high Christmas tree in the rotunda is stunning. Ziggy and Coco got drinks and Coco got the Chinese food she has been wanting for days. Unfortunately, due to Covid, there was no place to sit down. We found one chair and Princess Coco took the seat and ate those noodles with gusto.
From Quincy Market, it was a short walk to the Blue Line T stop. There were only two people inside when we entered which was surprising. We went to the machine to get our tickets and a man came over and said, “No, no, it is free. Come with me and I’ll get you in.” When we hesitated, he pulled out a card and put it in to open the gate and told us to hurry. We were not sure what that was all about, but we rushed through the gate. It seemed the gods were with us today and gave us a free tour of Boston. There is only one stop between the Aquarium Blue Line stop and the airport, so we were there in no time. We took the shuttle back to Central Parking, got the bags out of the car, and headed into the terminal. It was time to say farewell and that is never, ever easy. We kept reminding ourselves that we will be together again in April. And after hugs all around, JJZ&C headed to the security line to catch their 7:30 pm flight back to San Juan and I headed back to Central Parking to start the drive home to Cape Cod. I was dreading the rush hour traffic, but it was one of the easiest drives home from Boston I have ever had. There was bumper to bumper traffic, but it moved quickly. I was home walking with Shadow in an hour and 40 minutes. The flight to San Juan was delayed by 45 minutes, so the gang will not land until 1:15 am local time there. Thankfully, last night Justin and Jo decided to book a room for tonight and drive home to Rincon tomorrow.
Today was a wonderful day at the end of a wonderful week with my family all together. And part of the ‘wonderfulness’ of today was that I didn’t have to worry about leaving Shadow alone for so many hours. Karen Baranowski came over and walked and played with him for an hour and half this afternoon. Thank you, thank you, Karen.
