Got to the airport at 10.30am, dropped off the car, had a ciggie, met my friend Eamon L. who dropped out to see me off and had a nice big (expensive) breakfast before going through security. Had 3 jumbo sausages, 2 rashers, 2 slices of thick toast, 1 egg, 1 hash brown, 1/2 a fried tomato, and numerous backed beans.:) A good end to a long drive, and a nice fill-up before a long flight.

On the plane I got 2 seats to meself and dosed off for about 2 hours or more after they served “dinner”. Woke up somewhere over the Canadian north and got to watch the lame ending to the last Harry Blouter film.

At Logan (Boston’s airport), I got through everything quickly, and didn’t have to wait too long for a shuttle bus to the blue line on the subway. And it wasn’t too busy considering it was rush hour. I guess most of the commuters were heading the other way. I changed Gov Center for the Green Line that goes near the house, and lucky enough I got a local train going to Kenmore (never seen one of those before) which was nice and quiet and not full of rush-hour nasties. And got home in time to see the sunset.

So now I’m pooped, as it’s 11:45pm Irish Time, and I need dinner … pics will appear on Flickr at some point.

Update: Here’s one!
More via this Flickr search.

The last time I watched the fireworks from the bridge was in 2007, and I was near the middle at the 200 smoot mark:

The views of the fireworks was quite good, not as good as being on the river banks. Considering you could show up 5 minutes before the start of the display instead of 12 hours before is a good tradeoff in viewing quality.

And the finale:

This year, like last year, I’ll be up in the Adirondacks where the fireworks aren’t quite as spectacular, but still has it’s own charm and a sense of tranquility that you don’t get in the city.

Much better than looking at the tweed walls of the cube in the cube farm of my old workplace. And, non-Donegal Tweed at that, sure even the Donegal Tweed is now made in Morocco, and the only native Donegal Tweed is made by artisans.

And those are seagulls perched on the ice.

Check out their tour dates at:

http://tour.cardinology.com

If your outside North American, your out of luck for this tour. But, they post a lot of live clips from their concerts on their Twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/cardinology

And some video clips at:

http://coffee.cardinology.com

Ryan also has or had a blog which he has had an on-again/off-again relationship with. He often does little videos of himself writting and singing new songs or just jamming away, but he’s  deleted all the blog entries as he’s in the hate-stage of blog relationship.

But, I think he’s used to great affect to reach out to his fans and to create a relationship with his fans that he wouldn’t have otherwise. Hopefully he’ll start blogging again as it’s great to be able to see an artist at work!

It’s still been lying around and slowly thawing and refreezing, and being ground down. Today it snow about 5 inches, and now it’s turned to rain/sleet and it’s a sloopy mess outside. Huge snow laden puddles everywhere.

The doorway:

From across the street:

From down the road:

From afar:

And a close-up of one of the angels on the tower:

It’s not a big airport, but it’s a lot bigger than Dublin Airport.  There’s 5 terminals; A, B, C, D, and E. It might seem confusing how to get one from one to another, and how to get to Downtown Boston (the city center) if you don’t know where to go! But, it’s really very very simple, as they have free shuttle buses connecting all the terminals.

You will arrive at Terminal E (used for most of international arrivals/departures).
US Airways is at Terminal B.

Exit terminal E, and look for the signs for the Airport Shuttle Bus (they’re across the street in  this sorta big traffic island thingy).

They have at least 3 different routes for the shuttle bus, they have signs that say what bus goes to what terminal.
Catch the bus that goes to Terminal B:
http://www.massport.com/logan/insid_termi_b.html

If you’ve a lot of bags, don’t get on at the front door, get on at the middle door. Waiting for the bus and getting to the terminal will take about 10 minutes. So relax and have a smoke while you wait, in Massachusetts you cannot smoke anywhere indoors.

There’s a good variety of restaurants at Terminal B, I suggest stopping at Bonfire for a steak if you’ve time, if you don’t have time get a sandwich from “Au Bon Pain“.

So, in summary, catch the shuttle bus from terminal E to terminal B.

If your arriving at any other terminal and need to get to another terminal at the airport it’s basically the same procedure. All you need to know is what terminal you need to get to, if you don’t know ask any of the Airport staff, or at an Information Desk, or alternatively ask the Shuttle Bus drivers which Terminal your airline is at. Also, the Airport’s Shuttle Buses are free, the Silver Line (which is part of the public transit system is not free and will take you to South Station, one of Boston’s major train stations).

If your delayed at the airport and have a lot of time to kill, I’d suggest going to the Hyatt Hotel at the airport. It’s connected to the garage, which I think is called Central Parking. It’s a good spot to spend a few hours, has a nice view, and the food ain’t bad and it’s a nice place to relax away from the hustle and bustle of the Airport terminals. Alternatively go to Terminal B which seems to have a pretty decent collection of restaurants.

If you’ve more that 4 hours to kill, it’s also very easy to get into the city. What I’d suggest for tourists to do is to catch the shuttle bus to the Subway line (the Blue Line). Catch this inbound to Government Center, which is less than a 10 minute subway ride. Fanueil Hall which is about 5 minutes walk from there has plenty of stores (shops for all you Irish and Brits) and restuarants and pubs. I quite like Durgin Park and their Yankee Roast followed by their traditional style Strawberry Shortcake for desert.

It’s also less than 10 minutes walk from both the State House, Boston Common, and 2 minutes walk from the Old State House (the seat of British rule during colonial times).

I’ll try and update this posting with relevant information.

http://timony.com/mickzblog/2008/12/15/getting-from-one-terminal-to-another-at-bostons-logan-airport

http://www.pinestreetinn.org/news.php?id=343

The photograph also came 24th in the Boston Globe’s 2008 Winter Wonderland contest:

http://timony.com/mickzblog/2008/02/22/winter-wonderland-24/

Penny over at BostonZest did a write up on this and asked me to comment on the picture:

http://www.bostonzest.com/2008/10/holiday-cards-to-support-pine-street-inn.html

Updated: Oct 25th with updated link to Pine Street Inn’s Greeting Card page.