Trains, plan... just trains and a missing Uber

 Backpacking in...

... New England?

No backpacking across Europe quite yet but we did make it to New England for a nice little three city trip. First, stop Salem Ma. to see all the spooky stuff. I didn't take many pictures here and none are included in this post. Second Stop Boston Ma.

Boston was nice. It is a big city but not too big or dirty, relatively speaking. The first two photos of the same place, I couldn't decide which one I liked better, I took in a neighborhood while we were on a bike tour.

The tour was great! It took us all around the city and the guide was very informative. We had our nine-year-old son with us and he did great and the tour guide did great interacting with him and making him feel included.

The stairs and escalator are from the train station that took us out to Harvard. We had a nice walk around the campus and ended up at a great little Irish pub called The Burren. They had live music and a great atmosphere.

Okay, there was a boat. While in Boston we also took a whale watching trip out into the Atlantic.

I will not bore you with any more photos of whale tails or tales of whales. It was a good tour and we had fun. The End.

Next stop, Providence Rhoad Island.

My wife had visited providence many years before we met and had heard of an event called Fire Water and wanted to go. Fast forward 15 years or more she finally made it.

Providence is a very nice little city with canals running through it. For Fire Water, they light up these braziers up and down the canal and play music and people come out to see the lighting and then walk up and down the canals.

Also in Providence Brown University

The campus is tucked in the streets of this city. We had a nice walk around campus and around town looking at shops and getting coffee.

I really liked this building with the spiral staircase and trees growing in between the buildings

While in Providence we stayed in an awesome little AirBnB. It is located in The Arcade in downtown. It is said to be the oldest indoor mall in America.

One of the things that made this place so cool is that it is apartments on the top two floors and small businesses on the ground floor. One of these stores was an H.P. Lovecraft store. It had all kinds of cool stuff from books, statues games, and various other things written by Lovecraft or by others that were inspired by him.

This building/scene reminded me of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. I am not sure if it was the emptiness of the window or the quaint town or just how I was feeling.

Oh yeah, the missing Uber. For this trip up north we decided to take a train. Since our train left pretty early in the morning for our 10-hour trip we didn't want to ask anyone to wake up to take us to the train station. So I scheduled an Uber the night before, or so I thought. I haven't used Uber much so I was unaware that no one picked up the ride. Luckily the train station is close and the parking is cheap. So we hopped in the car and drove to the station. So we did have an automobile after all.