I think with the lengthy time that I spent between webposts on my Torino journal, I'm going to attempt to stay up to date with my blog *while* I'm here in Boston. It certainly will be easier for this stage of the trip since our hotel has a convenient LAN ethernet port which I can just plug my laptop into. So here goes for the first part of my trip. My relatives from Austria are in Edmonton, so last night Diane and I joined my mom and my dad at my Uncle's place for a hotpot. For those who haven't been at one of these, its quite an experience. You put a pot of soup stock in the center of a table on a hot plate and surround it with an array of sauces, vegetables and raw meat (including beef, shrimp, fish, squid, and really most anything). You grab a bowl, throw some sauces in there and throw some meat and veggies into the soup stock and cook it. Chaos ensues as people grab cooked bits of meat and veggies from the pot. It really is a tasty treat, particularly when my Aunt makes the yummy satay sauce!

We visited for a little while and then Diane and I headed out and picked up Mike on our way to the airport. After saying my farewells, we went and checked our baggage. When passing through security, my bag got stopped. I totally forgot that I had packed my toiletries bag, and inside I had a pair of cuticle scissors. Woops! Well, they confiscated those, which is okay - they were a cheap pair at any rate and I didn't really need them anyways.

We waited for our flight for about half an hour and then boarded. This was a red-eye flight leaving at 1:00 am (mountain time) and arriving in Toronto at 6:30 am (eastern time). The flight was uneventful - I found it really hard to sleep on the plane this go-around, so I'm gonna be pretty tired tonight though at the moment I'm pretty wired.

The wait in Toronto ended up being about half an hour after we finally switched terminals, cleared US customs and security, and had some breakfast. We got on the little plane taking us to Boston - it was a brand new and had little screens in the back of every seat. Unfortunately, they weren't working yet! It was neat to ride a smaller aircraft, but at the same time the plane was still new that it had a plastic-y smell that really kind of irritated me.

Finally we got in to Boston where Mike and I got our luggage and moved over to the Seaport hotel. The lady checked us in despite it being earlier than check-in time (hooray!), so Mike and I stowed our bags and went out to do some errands. We needed to book some bus seats to foxwoods and then from there to new york. The tickets ended up costing us $35 each which was pretty reasonable I thought.

After that we found some lunch at a fast food mexican place. Not too shabby actually - I got a chicken quesadilla which was pretty tasty. We then stopped at a radio shack for Mike to get a replacement power cord he needed because he forgot to bring the one from his laptop. Whoops. Easily done though.

We wandered around a bit more - we found a book Mike's been looking for. It happens to be the new Sklansky no limit poker book (which I should get from amazon soon I hope). I hear its a pretty good book.

Now I'm back at the hotel. Mike is checked into his hotel and taking a breather before we head out for supper. Hopefully I sleep well enough tonight so that I have enough energy for some exploring tomorrow!

Heraldk