Date #21 - Saints and Segways

Our dates and this blog have apparently been on extended summer vacation because we only went on exactly one (count 'em) date during the month of July...and we just barely managed to squeeze that one in during the waning hours on the last day of the month. That's what I get for bragging that we were right on schedule when we crossed the midpoint date!

But we weren't exactly sitting home playing cribbage during July. The first half of the month was spent on a Whale Watch on the 4th of July, visiting the Butterfly Place, spending days on the Cape and at local beaches, riding our bikes extensively, and attending a lovely wedding in Topsfield where we later spent the night in Amesbury. None of those qualified as dates, however, because it was rarely just the two of us, and those were invitation events, or things we'd done before, or fun grandparenting occasions.

The latter part of the month was spent on the west coast where most of our family and many dear friends traveled to celebrate our younger son's wedding in Malibu. It was a fabulous event, J&K really know how to throw a party! And I stayed in Santa Monica for the week that followed to hang with Grandbaby M. Thus, there wasn't much time for dating in July.

Now finally back to the one date we did manage to make time for...

We had discount Groupon vouchers for a one-hour Segway tour along the Boston Harborfront. When we called to redeem our coupons, the only remaining slots were for the last tour of the evening...the 7pm sunset tour. It would be a perfect way to spend a warm Sunday evening following a HOT summer day.

And, as an added bonus, the Boston Glider office/garage is located at the base of Hanover Street in the North End. Now, if it's a Sunday nite in the summer, you can guarantee there's a saint being carried through the streets of Boston's North End. This particular Sunday was the culmination of the Feast of Saint Joseph. The segway training area was just steps from the event stage where The Ray Cavicchio Orchestra featuring Sharon "Z" was performing. Where do they find these acts?

Here's TH (orange shirt wearing the helmet) watching the performers while waiting for our safety lesson to start.

Once we signed our life away, watched a safety film, refused to have our photo taken, and learned to ride the Segway... we were ready to roll. Our tour guide was a nice young college lad named Sam, from County Kerry, who was working here for the summer. And he was thrilled to learn that TH and I, along with the other three girls in our group, were all locals and he could skip the historical portion of the tour. Because we obviously knew far more about Boston than he did! We just wanted to ride the Segways...so we dispensed with the radio headsets and off we went.

We followed Sam along the Commercial Street waterfront, through Christopher Columbus Park, and around the back of the Mariott Long Wharf. The view was spectacular, although the journey was a bit hairy as we rode in single file on the SIDEWALK, and had to dodge hundreds of pedestrian tourists while getting used to navigating the vehicles. Who knew that Segways did not have brakes?!

Sam led us to an area he referred to as the Segway Playground, where we met up with two other tour groups, also led by Irish students. It's a wide open area on the wharf and, although there were still plenty of tourists out and about, we were able to "play"....have races, ride up and down ramps, and even bounce down stairs. Who knew?

Here's a photo of the playground. Sam is in the light blue shirt without a helmet on the right. He was a hottie rather cute and not bad to look at from the rear either. And, even though it was against company policy, he was kind enough to take this photo of the "daters".

Once playtime was over, the tour continued. We rode past the Aquarium and through the Boston Harbor Hotel, over the Northern Ave Bridge, and around the Moakley Courthouse. From there we continued on the Harbor Walk past Louis and the ICA to the Pier 4 parking lot. It was a great vantage point from which to watch the sun set over Boston Harbor. It was almost romantic... if not for the fact we were standing on precarious vehicles and with four other riders alongside.

In the parking lot we had one more race but, truthfully it's far less exciting than it sounds. The top speed of the machines is 9 miles per hour. That's right...NINE. You could walk faster and win the race. And, when you press it to the top speed, the big bar that's in front of you pushes back against your midsection to slow you right back down.

From there we made our way across the Children's Museum Wharf, over the Congress Street Bridge, behind the Intercontinental Hotel, and back to Atlantic Avenue. Darkness was setting in quickly on the return trip which made navigating the pedestrian obstacle course a completely new extreme sport. However, we arrived unscathed, without incident and it was actually a relief to dismount from the machines. I was glad we'd only taken the one hour tour. It is quite numbing to have your legs stationary on a vibrating vehicle for all that time.

The St. Joseph's feast was still in full swing when we returned. And while this part of the evening didn't officially qualify as part of our date because we attend the feasts every summer, that didn't stop us from wandering around inhaling the delicious scents while enjoying the music, the crowds, and (as always) the gelato.

Buona Notte!