Day 1 (March 14, 2015): And so begins another March Break!

The alarm started beeping at 5:00AM.  And so began another March Break!

By 6:15AM, we were in a cab with our friends, Lorna and Jim, enroute to Halifax Airport.  As they were heading to Florida, we all agreed to share a cab to the airport.  Our trip overseas started with an over-the-local-ocean flight to Boston at 8:30AM. 

The plane was packed with people heading to the Boston Seafood Show, but we were heading to Boston to connect with our Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.  The only problem is that we had a 15-hour layover to fill.  But that was not really a problem.  More on that in a second.

First things first:  I got a Tim Horton's coffee at the airport using a  Roll-Up-The-Rim winning tab.  Somewhere between Halifax and Boston, I rolled up the edge of the cup to find I had won $100.  Now:  isn't that a sweet way to start a vacation?

We landed on time at 9:05AM, picked up our bags, got an Enterprise rental car, and headed into downtown Boston.  OK, so we got a little lost on the I-90 and lost some time.  But everthing is fixable!  We eventually made it to downtown and found a meter next to the Boston Common, and set out to find the "T" -- as the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority is known.  

First stop: Prudential Tower, the tallest observatory in Boston at 52-stories high.

Fortunately we chose not to pay the $30 USD admission, as the fog was thick as pea soup.  Rather, we chose to have lunch at the Top of the Hub Restaurant (also on the 52nd floor) with the same foggy view, just minus the admission fee. 

Back on the T, we found the historic Old South Meeting Place (where the Boston Tea Party had its start), Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, and the Old State House, where the American Revolution was born.

The rain was pouring all day, so having seen those sights, we took the T back to the snowy Boston Common, 

took in the architecture of Beacon Hill and its hyper-expensive historic town homes,

jumped in the car, and headed north to Wakefield, where we had a Sheraton room reserved for a few hours of rest.

I did a workout at a local gym, we got a bite in the hotel restaurant, and by 9:00PM, we were back in the rental car, enroute to Logan Airport for our 11:55PM Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.  Boarding will commence soon, so I will sign off from the departure lounge.  God willing, I will pick this up again tomorrow night from Turkey.  (Oh, this is our Turkish Airlines Airbus A340, in case the Bermuda Triangle gobbles us up as we fly through it and we are never heard from again!)