Last weekend, we had been to Boston, Massachusetts. It was a wonderful trip da. The best trip so far.

We had beefed up our supplies for our 4-hour road trip. Donnuts, chips, Cola.. we had it all. This time, we were determined to start on time and not to repeat the mistakes of the previous trips. We managed just about that as we started at 4 am in the morning. We took NJ Turnpike (highway). We passed through Washington memorial bridge. It was impressive.

We reached Boston at 10.30 am. We roamed around Harvard University, Harvard Law School and MIT. It was a great feeling to be there in HBS. We saw the Strategy and Competitiveness department. This is the department that created Jack Welsh, the ex-CEO of GE. I remembered Rajkumar and our dreams to knock at the doors of Harvard to announce our arrival. Felt overwhelmed by the power and reputation of the place. I also came across Boston University and Tufts University. I just read about Tufts University in the novel that I just completed .. Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer. It felt great to relate to that.

We proceeded towards the Aquarium. We had to pay $36 (for 5 hours). It was costly, but we had no choice. We had food and we proceeded for the Whale watch. We bought tickets to the Whale watch. They gave us a refund of $18 for our parking. The whale watch started at 2 pm. We were on Voyager 3. We went to the deep of the ocean. The ship was full. It was fast. It was tremendously cold. True-to-its-word bone chilling experience. We understood why the whale watch counter personnel insisted on sweaters, jackets even when it was simmering. We saw a couple of Hump Back Whales. They are huge.. they were almost 70 ft long. Their open-mouth feeding was the main attraction. They form bubble nets when they feed on surface fish. The falcons and other birds then dive into the bubble net to prey upon the fish that escape the whale.The whale watch sesion lasted for 4 hours. We were back at the Boston Aquarium at 5.45 pm.
We met 4 MIT student on the ship... I remember Racheal, who was the first to break the ice with us. The guys were from Canada and Boston. They were totally fascinated by India. They wanted to drive in India and they celebrate Holi here. Nice to know that people in the West have started to recognize India (the guys jumped the gun when we said that we were from Bangalore) as more than a land of snakes and charmers.

We decide to walk around the city. We walked for almost 2 hours. We went to the Boston Public Gardens. It was a nice peacuful place in the middle of the city.
We spent some time there. We proceeded to the Quincy market. It was one helluva place, Total Digital Experience. Boston is full of beautiful girls. The range of party wear around the city was amazing. Looks like the glamour capital of the world. The Quincy market had a lot of sit-out restaurants and public shows. There was a guy who brought down the house with his jugglery. He had the crowd in splits with his quickwit.

We went to Harvard Business School after a lot of driving. We took a photo each in front of the Harvard board. Maybe one day, I will realize my dream. It was a great feeling to be there at the world's best B-school.

We started our journey back at 11 pm. Slept through the journey. Faintly remember the incessant rains....

Started our journey 4 hrs late. We had planned to start at 5 am. Due to the predictable delays of married men (my teammate), we started at 9.30 am. Journey was non-descript except for the number of tolls that we had to pass through. We spent $25 for the toll. We passed thorugh Delaware Memorial Bridge which was bigger than anything that I have seen in India. But nothing captivating. We reached Baltimore Downtown at 1 pm.

Our immediate necessity was carbs.. we needed fuel for the rest of the day.We settled for supreme-sized french fries and chomped down the packed chappatis that we had brought from home. The eatery was on the harbour place.We caught a first glimpse of a typical American city. Being in Matawan/Red Banks, we assumed that all places in USA would be silent towns. We were in for a pleasant surprise. The harbour place was teeming with teenagers. Families too were a substantial percentage of the population. These girls look so gigantic. A girl who is in the eight grade looks like she is doin her college here. I have to admit that anatomically, they do look more like they are in college.

We proceeded to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It was huge. It had 5 levels. It had almost 500 different species of the Water World under one roof. The ones worth a mention were the sharks, corals, octopus, anemones, etc. There are lots of information about each species and about the environments put up around the aquarium. The eye-catcher was their master stroke - the different kinds of forests, water bodies were closely simulated for the respective species... the tropical rain forests, marshes, aquatic, pacfic and springs were simulated to the last detail. The Poison Dart Frog, Cowfish, Sting Ray, Zebra Shark were the crowd pullers though.

We proceeded to the Dolphin Show that has been the flavour of the year here. The show started at 3.30 pm. There were 5 trainers in aqua-suits. The dolphins performed all the stunts in the trainer's manual... the tail wag, dives, etc. There was a bag hung from the ceiling, 15 ft above the water. The dolphins managed to nose that after a few mis-fires. Everyone was enjoying. The gallery was packed to its capacity (around 1500). The show lasted for an hour. But the trainers gave an impression that they were just going through the motions. There was no energy...

We proceeded to the Harbour Place Gallery. There were lots of retails shops, water taxis and other attractions along the harbour.The harbour place also houses the World Trade Center, Baltimore.

We proceeded to the I-Max theatre at the Maryland Science Center. This was just a block away from the harbour place.The I-Max theatre is supposed to be a break-through in motion picure projection technology.The screen was 5-storey high. The theatre is supposed to have the state-of-the-art 3D effects too.We paid $7.5 for the 45 min movie called Sacred Planet. The movie was about the conservation of the environment. It was impressive, but not breath-taking. It flattered to deceive.

We proceeded to a place called Fell's Point. It was embellished with a few casinos and and cabarets.This point is supposed to be the heart of the 'Water' world. It was teeming with pubs and restaurants.

The return journey was tiring. We missed the route too. We reached Matawan, NJ after a 3-hour arduous journey. It was 1 am....

http://photos.yahoo.com/jayan198