Monday, August 11, 2008

Day trip: Overpriced & underwhelming.

I've got the week off from work, so my roommate & I decided we wanted to take a bunch of day trips. Today we went to Boston to check out the aquarium. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and she had never been. The day turned out to be pretty mediocre. Bleh.

The weather was a bit crappy -- nice and mild, but rainy. We got a little lost on the way to Boston, but fortunately not too bad. We parked in a nearby garage and as we approached the aquarium, we noticed that the line to get in... stretched ALLLLLLL the way across the courtyard, out to the street, wrapped partly around the sidewalk outside the garage.

So, yeah. A word of advice: don't attempt to check out the museums in Boston in the summertime when it's rainy out and everyone's "stay-cationing." Holy fuck.

Roommie & I had to pee anyway so we made a pit stop and then debated what the hell to do next; we weren't sure if we wanted to bother with the aquarium or not. So we walked around Quincy Market for a little while and figured maybe the crowds might thin out...? They didn't, but we decided to just suck it up and wait in that ridiculously long line anyway.

Quincy Market florist - Boston, MA

It "only" took about an hour to get into the damn place, so it wasn't as bad as we feared, despite the rain and everything. We got free entertainment for the duration -- the college kids behind us in line were STRAIGHT out of one of those "Sully and Denise" skits on Saturday Night Live -- fucking hilarious! They were the EPITOME of the stereotypical "Boston teens."

So we finally got in to the aquarium, and had a look around, and it wasn't anything special. We were both pretty disappointed. Quite honestly, I enjoyed my 2006 trip to the Mystic Aquarium a LOT more.

Arm!

Jellies - New England Aquarium, Boston, MA

Whale skeleton - New England Aquarium, Boston, MA

Not to mention that... THERE WERE JUST TOO MANY PEOPLE. The huge crowds made it really stressful, & really difficult to see anything. We decided to get a snack & have a rest at the cafe there and the food there was WAY overpriced. We enjoyed the mural on the wall more than we enjoyed our snack. :P

Cafe mural - New England Aquarium, Boston, MA

After we had seen everything, we wanted dinner so we walked across the wharf to a restaurant called the Chart House. Our meal was pretty decent but nothing amazing. By that point, I think we both were too tired and worn out to enjoy it. The seating arrangements weren't ideal, either -- WAY too close to the party next to us. Ugh.

Dinner at the Chart House - Boston, MA

Fortunately, we found our way out of town with no problem. God, I'm exhausted. I haven't been up during the day, for an entire day, in months.


Today's tally:

Half a tank of gas - roughly $20
Aquarium admission for 2 - $40
Snack from aquarium cafe - $15
Parking garage - $34 (!)
Dinner - $85
Knowing that it's totally not worth it to do THAT again -- Priceless. ;P

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