John's 35th reunion at MIT was held from June 7-10th, 2007. We arrived in Boston on the afternoon of June 7th
and checked into the Club Quarters hotel in the financial district. While a bit far from MIT,
the hotel was ideally located for the MBTA so we were able to get everywhere easily.
After a dinner at Legal Seafoods with friends Pattie and Slaton Tuggle, we attended the Boston Pops
"Tech Night at the Pops" concert at Boston's Symphony Hall with about 3200 other MIT alums.
On Friday we were signed up to take a Duck Tour of Boston. We had
a great time on the tour. The highlight was having
Oliver Smoot on our Duck. Oliver is famous at MIT
and throughout Boston as the human unit used by his fraternity brothers back in 1958 to measure the length
of the Harvard/Mass Ave. bridge between Boston and MIT. Naturally, all of the Duck drivers have heard of
Smoot
and often repeat the (incorrect) story that he was drunk when used to measure the bridge. Naturally, our driver was the envy of every
other Duck that day as he had a bona fide Boston celebrity onboard.
We kicked around Boston with Pattie and Slaton for the rest of Friday including a ride on the Swan Boats in the Boston Public Gardens.
On Friday evening Jane and John
went over to Boston's North End to get some Italian food. We found the same small Italian place,
Maurizio's,
where we had all eaten together for the 25th reunion. The food was just as good as we remembered. We stopped
in the North End for some gelato on the way back to the hotel.
On Saturday morning I attended some lectures that were part of MIT Technology Day. The day was rainy and
not good for walking at all. In the afternoon we joined Pattie and Slaton for a drive out to Wellesley. It had
been over 35 years since I'd been out that way and it was fun to see the beautiful campus again.
Saturday's dinner was the four of us at
Anthony's Pier 4 a favorite special haunt during our student
days.
Sunday morning featured a Baker House '70s reunion brunch. We then said goodbye to Cambridge and MIT and
headed off for Martha's Vineyard. We caught the ferry from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven and took a cab
to the Hanover House Inn bed and breakfast where we spent
three nights. This was a very nice B&B with many luxurious touches like 600-count sheets and
some of the fluffiest bath towels I've ever used. The rest of the inn was occupied by cyclists on a
WomanTours bike tour of Martha's Vineyard. We enjoyed talking
to them and seeing them around the island at various times.
Monday on the Vineyard was cool but dry and we walked from Vineyard Haven to the
town of Oak Bluffs. After lunch in Oak Bluffs, we took the bus to Edgartown. Then it was back to Vineyard
Haven and dinner. On Tuesday we headed out by bus to see some of the smaller towns. We went to the
cliffs at Gay Head Aquinnah and visited the fishing village of Menemsha.
On Wednesday we boarded the ferry and headed back to Woods Hole. We drove across Cape Cod with a stop in
N. Truro to see Austin friends who were renting a house there for a week. We ended the day in Provincetown
(P'town to the locals) at the Copper Fox, a former bed and breakfast that is now the summer residence of
our friends Jacky and Kathy. We stayed in Provincetown until Saturday morning checking out the action
and meeting some of Jacky and Kathy's friends. Jacky's sister, Maryann, was also there. She had just
gotten a major book deal and we're anxiously waiting for her first book,
The Richest Season to be published next year. P'town is a
high-energy place and we had a good time.
We shared our first whole lobster of the trip on the P'town pier.
We even got to a screening of a new movie at the P'town Film Festival.
On Saturday we departed P'town. We stopped in Chatham, MA at the elbow of Cape Cod to have lunch with another
retired IBMer, Ron Clark, and his wife, Debbie. They gave us a great tour of the picturesque town.
Then it was on to Sandwich where we spent the
night at the Belfry Inne which is a church converted into
a B&B and restaurant. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a room in the church and had to settle
for less-deluxe accommodations in one of their other properties.
We hit the Sandwich Glass Museum on Sunday morning
and then drove back through Boston to have lunch at the home of friends Judy and Buck. Then it was up through
New Hampshire and Maine for a night in Boothbay Harbor. It had been many years since I'd been in
Boothbay Harbor and it was just as scenic as I remembered. We had boiled lobsters at the fisherman's
co-op and strolled around town.
On Monday morning we did some shopping in Boothbay Harbor and then decided to take a harbor tour. After some
lunch, we headed back down the coast to Kennebunkport. We had visited the
Bufflehead Cove Inn ten years ago and found it to be one
of the best bed and breakfasts we had ever stayed in. This visit did not disappoint. We were the only ones in
the main house and thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance and gourmet breakfasts. We shopped and walked
in Kennebunkport and took a "lobster tour" that went out of the harbor to check some lobster traps.
I think we learned more about lobsters than we ever wanted to know!
While in Kennebunkport, we had two dinners at Nunan's Lobster Hut in Cape Porpoise. This is a great place
for lobster: just basic bench-style tables in an unassuming lobster shack. The food is great and we were lucky
that it wasn't crowded either night.
We departed Kennebunkport on Wednesday morning and drove down to visit with my cousin Pat and her family
in Topsfield, MA.
Pat and Dick indulged me by having lunch at Woodman's, purportedly
the home of the fried clam. I'd had clams several other times on the trip but Woodman's was the best.
We left Pat and Dick's on Thursday morning to catch our flight home from Logan airport. All in all, we
had a great time, weren't lost too much, and overall had very good weather. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing
all of our friends and relatives.
Can't wait for the next reunion in 2012 (OK, I'm not really in a hurry for a 40th!)
Final vacation totals:
According to Google Calculator: 634.7 miles = 600,217.791 smoots
Click a picture to see a larger view.
