Day 21 - MIT, Harvard University, Harvard Museum of Natural History, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Chinatown

A slightly less busy day today. It's university day and I start over at MIT and look around campus and visit the museum.

The museum doesn't have a lot of exhibits but I enjoy the ones that are there, all being centred around technology and robotics where MIT was for many years at the leading edge.

After looking around and getting a morning coffee I head up to Harvard University where I take a walking tour by one of the student groups, it is a fairly light-hearted approach to the history, buildings and life on campus.

There were a couple of funny things on the tour that I should share...

1) The following photo is of a building that houses the offices of the president and top brass of Harvard. The top two levels are student dormitories. I'm willing to bet they vet the students picked to stay here for their hermit like abilities and lack of social life and parties.

2) The Harvard endowment fund is approaching something like US$30 Billion dollars. There is only one other private institution that has more money, the Roman Catholic Church, leading the second year student tour guide to the punch-line that the only person with more money than Harvard is in fact...god.

3) The following picture is of a guard house at the main gate. Over the years there hasn't been any love loss between the Harvard and the City of Cambridge which is the local government and has control over a lot of what the university does. Harvard tried to get the guard house built, the plans had to be approved by Cambridge, over 300 revisions later they finally came to agreement on design making the structure the most expensive building in all of Harvard by square foot.

4) There is a statue proudly on display in the middle of the campus to founder John Harvard pictured below. The only problem is there is three things wrong with the statue a) John Harvard didn't found the university, he just provided the starting money so it was named after him. b) The year of founding etched into the stone is incorrect and c) The statue isn't of John Harvard. By the time the statue was built records were lost and there was no picture of what he looked like.

Once the tour finished I walked across campus to the Harvard Museum of Natural History which had an impressive collection of specimens.

Changing tack for the afternoon I head over to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum which is on the campus of University of Massachusetts.

It has a museum that walks you through the lead up to, during and legacy of the Kennedy Presidency which was cut short with his assassination on 22nd November 1963.

The exhibits contain some of the now de-classified documents on the space race and Cuban missile crisis during his presidency which was interesting.

Once back in town I go for a short stroll around Chinatown before heading back to Vanessa and Tim's.

Day 20 - Prudential Centre, Freedom Trail, USS Constitution, Cheese Cake Factory

Today I start out at the Prudential Centre which houses a viewing deck 50 stories high and is the best place to view Boston from.

There is also a restaurant/bar two levels above which seems like an opportune spot to stop for a coffee.

I then walked back towards the city to Boston Common. Well at least I thought I did. I'm usually pretty good with directions but today I failed as I managed to walk west instead of north and ended up at the Charles River. There is a small lake in Boston Common and I saw water thinking I was heading in the right direction. As I got closer, a bit too much water appeared! It was in fact a good detour none the less as it's a very pretty spot.

After consulting a map to ensure I'd be right this time I then head to Boston Common and book in for the Freedom Trail Walking Tour which goes through some of the history of the British colony here in Boston and the struggle for independence.

The tour is run by the historical society and being a Sunday I had a middle school history teacher as our guide. She was fantastic, very knowledgeable and knew how to work the crowd. It was a mini history lesson as we went with lolly pop prizes for correct answers. Easily the most informative and educational thing I've done in the USA.

We finish up near Quincy Market, a great spot for lunch from yesterday so I walk down the halls and find some more good food to eat.

The wharf is a short walk and I go and catch the ferry over to Bunker Hill. There are a number of harbour cruises and boat rides for tourists. But for $1.70 each way you can catch the MBTA ferry which gives you the same view and it wasn't even busy!

The USS Constitution is just down the dock, the oldest active ship in the US Navy fleet. They say active in a loose sense as I'm pretty sure the war would be over by the time the ship got there.

It is still maintained and free floating in the water. We go on a tour of the boat with one of the active officers assigned to the ship. The conditions are rather cramped below deck with all the canons and sleeping quarters not far away.

Just up the hill from the USS Constitution is the Bunker Hill monument which is surprisingly similar to the Washington Monument in DC. The difference being it's 300 steps rather than a lift.

After getting my exercise for the day by quickly climbing to the top and enjoying the view back across to central Boston I depart on the ferry and train back to home. For dinner I meet up with Vanessa and Tim and head to a place called the Cheesecake Factory. Apart from your usual big American food mains, desert is fantabulous, check out the height of these cheesecakes.

Day 19 - Quincy Market, Old State House, Boston Common, Cheers Restaurant

This morning we get up at our leisure. Dinner plans tonight is at Cheers restaurant in town so we decide on the best way to arrange plans. Tim is on holidays so has some free time, Vanessa has exams in a few days so I'm trying best not to interrupt study!!

We decide to all head into town together to have lunch at Quincy Market which has a dazzling array of food selections.

A local specialty we try is Clam Chowder.

Vanessa parts ways to a nearby place to sit down and study for the afternoon while Tim and I browse the market and explore, poor Ness!

We visit the Old State House which housed seat of government here in Massachusetts during British rule before the revolution and independence.

We walk past a rather funky looking garbage bin and Tim comments that this is an invention that came from a Babson MBA grad, the bin has an inbuilt compactor which reduces the size of the rubbish so it can fit roughly 5 times as much in before needing to be emptied saving on the cost of people driving around. It is powered only by the solar panel on the top and sends a notification when it is getting full and needing to be emptied.

We go for a stroll around town.

As the afternoon rolls on we walk down to Boston Common which is the main large open space in town and where we are meeting up with Vanessa to head off to dinner.

We all head over to the Cheers restaurant made famous by the television series of the same name to have dinner.

Day 18 - Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, Boston, BBQ

This morning I pack my things and head into town with Warren as I'm taking an afternoon flight and it will take too long to go back out to home and into the airport. We take a risk that there is somewhere at Union Station or the first stop I can drop my bags for a while but alas we are mistaken (Amtrak did in Philadelphia!) so I'm wheeling my suitcase around town.

Our morning is spent at the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame which to be perfectly honest I know nothing about.

They had two very interesting exhibits. The first one wasn't strongly aligned with Ice Hockey but very interesting none the less, a complete collection of the Olympic medals 1896-2008. It was really interesting to see what the host cities chose over the years, most being fairly traditional solid metal, but some were a bit out there with glass etc. Warren and I both agreed that if I won an Olympic medal, we want solid metal!

The second and truly awesome part was the Stanley Cup. Now I imagined it would be behind some bullet proof glass case with some guard dogs and a moat with sharks with lazers for good measure. But low and behold it's sitting in the open and with the watchful eye of a staff member you can take photos with it and touch it!

With some more browsing of the museum and some lunch thrown in that pretty much covers the time I've got until needing to head to the airport and I part ways with Warren and Toronto.

I make my way over to the city airport where Porter flies from and settle into their nice lounge and use up the free wi-fi. Porter is a great airline, I want to own shares in it. It's fairly low cost just like a JetStar but they are going for a business feel to it. There is a nice lounge at the Toronto airport where they are based with free coffee/soft drinks and biscuits etc and good seating which makes it feel classy but wouldn't cost much. The planes are all small propeller based but when its only an hour flight anyway, who cares. The seating configuration is 2x2. On both legs I had two seats to myself to spread out (hmm, maybe it isn't a good investment if they arn't yet filling the seats!). They serve a very basic snack on the plane which makes it feel better than having to pay to eat on a Jetstar.

Anyway, back to holidays.

I arrive at Logan Airport in Boston and as luck would have it came in just behind a couple of european flights and the line at Immigration is disgusting. One hour later I've snaked my way to the front of the queue. The only positive was the captive audience of the hot chick in the line behind me but by mid conversation I discover she's engaged anyway, doh!

After clearing customs with the wave of a hand (if only Immigration was like that!) I get the shuttle bus to the train station and head out to Tim and Vanessa's place on campus at Babson College on the outskirts of Boston.

It's now late evening when I arrive and we head out the back for a BBQ dinner with Enrique and catch up.

Day 17 - Niagara Falls Day Tour, CN Tower

With Niagara Falls being about a 1 and a half to 2 hour drive from Toronto depending on traffic today is an early start. I leave Warren and the rest of the house to sleep in and head down to the subway at about 7:40am. After reaching downtown with a bit of time to spare I head to the nearest coffee shop and grab some breakfast.

At 8:30am a car arrives outside Union Station and shuttles me over to the point where the tour bus leaves from. The driver notices I'm from Australia and we start up a conversation as I find out he used to live in Perth. The two to my left in the car are from Quebec and I get the first close up of the French Canadian accent.

We change to the bus and start on the journey, 2 hours and a toilet stop later we arrive at Niagara Falls and I realise it's actually a much bigger town than I expected. I assumed it was going to be more like a national park, I assumed wrong. It was a rather large town with a number of attractions other than the falls.

Niagara is right on the boarder. One side of the river is Canada, the other is the United States. I think Canada had the better view!

There are two boat cruises running, one from either side so you do don't have to cross the boarder. We take the Canadian boat and head into the falls. They provide everyone with poncho's and as we get closer I now understand why, the spray would be enough for me to have a shower in.

After the boat ride we had two hours to look around town which was a good opportunity to walk up to the falls and take some photos and grab a bite to eat.

We then headed off to a nearby town called 'Niagara on the lake' for a look around, we only had about 45 mins and I think I could have spent half a day there. It was your typical country town main street like you would see in Australia and some of the shops were really good, alas I bought a few things walked around and quickly made the bus in time for it to leave.

The next and final stop was at a winery in the Niagara area for some tasting. We tried three wines, one of which Dan Akroyd had lent his name to.

Once back in town with the tour over I walk over to the CN Tower to visit the observation deck and get a birds eye view of Toronto.

The tower was originally designed as a communications/broadcast tower for the Ottowa area and it was only late in the design that they considered adding a viewing deck and restaurant. It makes sense they did, its currently the tallest tower in the world and a pretty popular tourist attraction.

I arrive just on nightfall so get a great view of the sunsetting across the city.

The ballgame is again on tonight at Rogers and with the CN Tower right next to the stadium you get a pretty good view down to the game. The players look like ants running between bases.

They also have a glass floor section where you can look straight down, not for the faint hearted.

I then meet up with Warren and his housemate for dinner and the day long day comes to a close.