8:47AM, 10/10/2009 - Vicki Cycling on the Minuteman Bikeway

It rained all the way up to Boston with a substantial amount of bumper to bumper traffic, leaving little pleasure on this drive. Seven hours for a three and a half hour trip. When we got up on Saturday morning, it was still raining, but a warm 60 degrees, so we took a chance and won. We have a nearly perfect record of cycling between the raindrops, in direct contrast to our rain soaked driving record.

The rain stopped as we took the bikes off the car and only a beautiful, sun streaked fog remained. We headed out for the Minuteman Bikeway, a rail trail that passes outside the back door of the Lexington, Aloft Hotel where we were staying. Nothing is as exhilarating as riding an empty rail trail or local county back roads, and this was one of those mornings. In the short 20 mile round trip to the City limits (almost to Harvard Square, but at that point the trees were gone and we were basically riding next to strip malls) we passed less than a dozen people. Nice.

Alewife Roadway Marker on Minuteman Bikeway, Boston

Vicki took a spill at the Alewife road marker (Alewife, not a brewer’s wife, but a fish – see fish in detail photo of marker), throwing her off the bike and leaving her bruised and shaken. But she got right back on her bike and forgot about it until the bruises started to swell as the day progressed. Sunday was close to 60 again and perfectly sunny, but instead of a ride, we gave in to the hotel’s small salt water pool, which was warm, clean and empty of guests. It is one of the best urban (cheap) hotel pools I’ve been in.

What happened to the markets? Amazingly, Boston has changed, and the markets as I remembered them are different. Next trip, I do some research first. In light of my disappointment, we did the tourist thing: Paul Revere’s house (interesting), the Old North Church (not so interesting, except this is where the American revolution literally started), and the Institute of Contemporary Art (really worth visiting – great building, great exhibits). This trip was more about relaxing, eating and cycling, than taking photos.

Not a bad thing.