Going East: New Hampshire + Boston

We left our friends in Chicago and flew to Boston, from where we drove north to New Hampshire to see Craig, another of Adrian's Bolivia friends. Craig was the best man in our wedding. Driving into New Hampshire was as we expected - beautiful. The woods surrounding Craig's house were such a brilliant green, something like southern Germany or Switzerland.

It was lovely spending a few days with Craig and his family. We drove to the White Mountains and searched for moose, but even Adrian and Craig's moose calls didn't bring them out. We swam in a river that had natural rock waterslides - so much fun. During our time in New Hampshire we saw our first porcupine as well as some deer (I love deer). The place was gorgeous.

We also quite liked the state motto, 'live free or die'. New Hampshire people see themselves as free and independent, so they don't make it illegal to not wear a seatbelt and you can get away with various other things. Then you drive across the border into Maine and numerous signs detail all of the things you can no longer do!

We then drove on to Boston. Boston was packed with American history, which you probably needed a little more context to understand, but it was good nevertheless. We walked the Freedom Trail and saw Paul Revere's house and lots of important graves and buildings (can you tell I don't remember details? :P) Something that did surprise us about Boston though was the people. Compared to the west coast and Chicago, people in Boston were so direct, bordering on rude and brash. For example, when you're enquiring about something (to a customer service person) they will answer part of your question, get distracted and talk to another staff person, then turn back and answer the rest of your question, not making eye contact. I guess it's part of the culture. Is that an excuse though? It's not that hard to be polite. Another example was when Adrian got told off by a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln, when he didn't pay him money first. So he can now say that he was given a talking to by Abraham Lincoln. :)

By far the best part of Boston was our whale watching trip one evening. I've been a tour guide on a boat cruise that took people to see whales and I've studied them, but never have I seen so many so close. We had humpbacks breaching all around the boat. We also saw a minke whale (my first). And a beautiful sunset. It was one of the most amazing evenings!