From Boston Harbor to Bar Harbor

By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

Paula and I traveled from Boston Harbor to Bar Harbor during our Oct. 28-Nov. 3 trip, thanks again to Skybus airlines’ giveaway fares.

For Halloween weekend, we went to Salem, Massachusetts, where they know something about witches. The streets were crowded with witches, from age 2 to older than me. Every witch way we turned, there they were. The guys who burned the witches so long ago would be amazed at the gold mine they created for the survivors.

In Boston, there were so many historic sites that I thought maybe we were in Rome again. We stood on the site of the Boston Massacre (5 dead, more wounded), looked up at the balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read to the Boston citizens for the first time, went to the burying grounds where rabble-rouser Samuel Adams and fellow signers of the Declaration of Independence -- John Hancock and Robert Paine -- and Paul Revere (starring in "Midnight Ride") are hanging out forever.

It was cold, uncomfortably so, but not nearly as cold as it was in China.

We went to Plymouth Rock, which split in two in 1774 when patriots tried to move it to another site. The top part re-joined its base counterpart in 1880. I tossed pennies onto the Rock 10 feet below. Those suckers bounced off like they had springs in them.

I became the first member of my family to go to Harvard. The entrance requirement was a snap -- just walk through the gates.

Paula and I also visited Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where Paula's son, Patrick, got his degree and start toward being a jazz musician in New York City.

We went to Fenway Park to see what a World Series championship banner looks like. The one in Cleveland is tattered since it’s 59 years old.

We visited Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. We didn't see if there were one or two lanterns in the tower.

We planned to go whale-watching off Bar Harbor, Maine, but the whales took off for their Caribbean winter vacations. The town shut off the water two weeks before we arrived to avoid winter freezes. Only businesses with well water were open. Our plan to drive to the top of nearly 7,000-foot high Mount Washington was frozen out, too. Season over.

Our Bar Harbor lodging place's manager, when we asked how many guests he had, said, "You're it." We did go up to Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the Atlantic seaboard. It was windy and cold, like a West Virginia Mountaineers game in November.

We tried to visit the George W. Bush family in Kennebunkport, but apparently the former President wasn’t home. The compound juts out into the Atlantic.

Next: Hawaii in December, Florida in February and Tennessee in March.

If you want to see the photos of our trip, click on the headline.