by Laurie Miles

Created on: May 07, 2008

We planned a weekend in Boston for my daughter's 15th birthday and what a time we had! Boston is a very cool place. It is a kinder and gentler New York. It reminds me of London in many ways.

We flew in on a Friday morning and the whirlwind began. We were picked up at the airport by our oldest son, who moved to Boston about 10 months ago. He sold his car when he moved there from California, because you really don't need one. Boston has the very clever Zipcar. It beats the heck out of the rental car system because it's by the hour. I think he paid $7.00 per hour. The cars were all new and very clean. The only downside is you have to pick the car up and return it to the same destination, but other than that it is the way to go for short errands.

He dropped us off at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge, over-looking the Charles River. I paid for a River view, and the hotel did not disappoint. The weather certainly did, but that did not stop us. Gloom and doom (50 degrees and no sun whatsoever) aside, we changed into fleece and headed out.

The first stop was the T, the Boston version of a subway. We wanted food, so headed to the North End and found Goody Glovers. A great pub, and probably the best cheeseburger I have ever had, period. Bartending was great and we had a water view again, so I probably could have stayed there all afternoon, just to keep warm and dry.

It was time to see Boston, so we walked in search of coffee and found Paul Revere's house instead. It was a pretty cheap ticket to go inside, so in we went. Did you know Paul Revere had 16 kids and 11 of them lived to adulthood? That was amazing for those days. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a television set.

We walked around some more and ended up at Macy's, where my daughter and I just had to do a little shopping. Then, back to the hotel to get ready for our big night. Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. As we were preparing to go to the game the rain started. We figured it would be just a quick sprinkle and no big deal. Things didn't quite turn out that way. The game was delayed by 2 hours and that was plenty of time to get very cold and very wet. I actually went back to the hotel with my husband and gave up. I do not sit outside in the rain for anybody, Red Sox or not. My daughter and the rest of the group all stayed until the 7th inning, when they realized they couldn't feel their feet anymore, and left.

Saturday morning and I'm hopeful the rain has passed. No such luck, so we tried to figure

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