We had our usual pre-dinner drink in the Avenue Saloon and then we went to the Crystal Dining Room for dinner. We each had two courses so that we could make it to the showing of the Northwest Passage Video. More on that in a moment. We each had salads and Keith had the fresh Salmon Entree and Anne Marie had Scallops. The highlight from last evening was the showing of the Northwest Passage Video. It was shown two times and is a tremendous keepsake from this voyage. In two weeks we will be receiving the video via thumb drives that will be sent to our home. We have received videos from the World Cruises but this one was quite different. Its major emphasis was on the places we visited, the history, and included comments from some guests with many comments from people from the expedition team, some of the locals and others such as Project Manager John Stoll. We would say this is one that could be shown on National Geographic. An amazing video. Also adding to making this a special viewing was that President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Cruises, Edie Rodriquez came on board Crystal Serenity yesterday afternoon and spoke at the showing of the video. They made it funny by having the Captain speak and say he was in the highest ranking member of Crystal Cruises on-board the ship. All of a sudden you hear a voice saying that it not the case and then Edie walks up the aisle to applause from everyone. Edie spoke before and after the video. After the showing we spoke briefly with Edie. There was a sale on all Alaska merchandise in one of the shops and we have never seen it as crowded as it was. It seemed like a department store with an after holiday sale. Guess what the three Grandchildren are going to get. The irony is that the night before the sale we inquired about getting three additional bears for them. As luck had it whatever they had left was in the storage room (if bears were not available there was a moose and one other type of animal) so when we picked up the stuffed animals we were not only fortunate that they had our first choice but these where the last three available and we got them at a substantial discount. The evening continued with dancing in the Crystal Cove as part of the 50s & 60s Rockin' in the Cove. Crystal Cruises Ambassador Hosts were on hand for the dancing. Later in the evening the Liars Club was held featuring Comedic Liar Steve Stevens, Rabbinical Liar Rabbi Horseman, Stand-Up Liar John Joseph and Biblical Liar Monsignor Kidney. Liar's Club is only held on selected cruises and you need the right participants to make it a success as was the case last evening. By the time we got back to the room, it was easy to fall asleep as we began our day early in the morning. Seas were relatively calm. We began today with Keith getting in his morning workout at the Fitness Center. We had an early breakfast in our room. We were meeting friends Dave and Gary at 11:00 AM at the gangway to bring them on board Serenity for the day so we didn't have a lot of time to be off the ship. We have visited Boston a few times in the past for pleasure and during his career Keith spent a lot of time in Boston. We would like to return as part of time on land that we are looking at for the fall of 2017. Unlike many of the places we have visited on this journey most of you know a great deal about Boston. Some of you live here or have resided here in the past. There is certainly a rich history in Boston. The city population (downtown area not suburbs) is close to 700,000 residents. Major attractions include: Quincy Market which is an historic building of the market which was constructed between 1824 and 1826. It was named in honor of Mayor Josiah Quincy. The market contains over 50 shops and not only 14 restaurants but 40 food courts. Freedom Trail which we walked as part of a Crystal Tour several years ago is a 2.5 mile long path through the downtown Boston area. It passes 16 historic sites. To make is easy to see, it is marked with a red line and it runs from Boston Common to the USS Constitution in Charlestown. One of the sites we remember seeing is the Paul Revere home. Beacon Hill is a very upscale areas in Boston which is known for its narrow streets, federal style row-houses and its brick sidewalks. This hill was originally owned by William Blaxton. He was the first European settler of Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. This museum open in 1876 and contains over 450,000 works of art. Boston Common. This area dates back to 1634 and is one of the oldest city parks within the USA. This area is also known for where the British Forces were encamped during their occupation of 1775 to 1776. Museum of Science. The Museum includes over 500 exhibits, and also includes the Charles Hayden Planetarium and the Mugar Omni IMAX Theater. There is so much else to see in Boston. This includes the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library which we also visited a few years ago. Of course there are sports stadiums with the most historical one being Fenway Park. We also took a tour of Fenway Park a few years ago. We never made it to the old Boston Garden. As a child, Keith was a Boston Celtics Fan and remembers the eras of Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, and most recently Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. While also a Dallas Mavericks fan Keith still is a big Boston Celtics fan. As to baseball, Keith has always been an avid New York Yankees fan and Anne Marie lived only a couple of blocks from Yankee Stadium. Let us not forget the universities including Harvard. One could spend weeks upon weeks here and still have more to see. Rather than wait until 9:00 AM for the shuttle, we took a taxi from the Port into Boston at around 8:00 AM. We had the driver drop us off near the beginning of the Freedom Trail. We began our walk near the King’s Chapel and Burying Ground and we walked all the way to Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. That is right before the Charlestown Bridge. As such we didn’t see the USS Constitution of Bunker Hill. We retraced our steps on our way back and walked past where we began our walk to the Boston Common. We stopped off at several places along the way including several churches. The weather was gorgeous and there is so much history to the trail. We also walked inside two of the Cemeteries. One of the Cemeteries included a memorial to Benjamin Franklin's parents. The writeup noted that Benjamin Franklin only had two years of formal eduction. When you think of all of his accomplishments, that is truly amazing. Our friends Dave and Gary picked us up at the Omni Parker House Hotel and from there we drove back to the Cruise Ship Terminal and boarded Serenity A little after Noon the four of us were joined in the Crystal Dining Room for lunch by Cruise Director Rick Spath. Dave and Gary started to sail Crystal Cruises many years before we did and cruise on Crystal most years. First photos is Anne Marie with Dave. We will spend the rest of the day on-board Crystal Serenity enjoying the ship.
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