Oh the joy of the 4th
Post church service a large group of people from the project made our way in to Boston to see the wicked sweet fireworks. We drove in four cars to Newburyport, Mass. to take the T commuter rail in to North Station. My group made our way to the train station way early so we were there playing hotseat for about 2 hours before everyone else showed up for the 12:48 train in. So we arrived in boston around 1:40 and made on to Quincy market to get food since we couldn’t get our factions to unite or balance to go to Hard Rock and Cheers. We had about 3 people who wanted to go to Hard Rock(and absolutely didn’t want to go to cheers) and the rest wanted Cheers. Andrea and I went to Zuma Tex-Mex for some food, I got a Taco Salad and she got a combo platter with taco’s and enchiladas. After that we wandered around stopping in random stores out of curiousity and eventually decided to buy hoodies, we heard from someone in the group that there were cheap hoodies by the water so we found that store and bought 2 hoodies for $25. Then we asked a cop how to get the fireworks and made our 15 minute walk over to them. The coastline was completely covered with people so we had to split up in to 2 groups to find spots to spread out and sit. After sitting around forever the Boston Pops played and some other people. Finally at 10:30 or so the fireworks started. Best fireworks show ever. period. It was definately worth what happens next. The trains were supposed to hold up for 30 minutes or so after the fireworks were over(at 11) but of course we didn’t get back to the station till about 11:50 because thats what happens when you try to make half a million people try to cross a few 15 foot wide bridges to get home. Total stinkin’ chaos of people. There was this one family(of like 20) that just was a train and pushed through the croud, with children, and a baby carriage. I was seriously impressed and annoyed. So we got a little lost on the way back to the station we got lost since none of us had been to Boston before and I’m sure that we would of missed the train even if we were on time by the 30 minute hold up because I doubt that they actually held the train. Either way, we first decided we’d just camp out at the station and take the first one home. Then we realized that the parking we were in was not overnight so our cars *could* get towed. I tried to find cops to try and get some sort of permission to park there over the night but of course I couldn’t find any. Eventually I just called them and asked and was told they were not going to tow cars. Then we talked about taking a shuttle from the airport home but that was really expensive. Then much fighting and crankyness ensued. I think was was pretty good the whole time. I just tried to get stuff done so we could get home. Either way at around 2:00 AM the cops(the ones we really wanted to find about 45 minute before) told us to get out of the station. Our minds were made up(for the most part) that we would just take cabs back to Newburyport and get our cars. I stopped a cab driver outside and asked him how much it would be to Newburyport, he told me 91$ and we went for it. We arranged 3 cabs and got our money together and made our way home. All said and done I was back home at around 3:30 or so and crashed in to my bed.
Side Story: Crystal:
Crystal is a lady we ran in to in the train station who was also stranded there. Some of the girls in our group talked to her and she seemed to be pretty nice. Unfortunately she had no money for a taxi when the station kicked us. She followed along with us and ultimately we decided we would pay for her cab to where ever she needed to go. It turned out to be something around 75$ so we put that together, got her a cab and sent her on her way with a Knowing God Personally booklet. I think we did the right thing there. She definately did not have the money to pay for it. I overheard that she was recently fired from her job.
Needless to say this Boston trip was super expensive. I dropped over $100 between the taxi, crystal’s taxi, food, and hoodies. It was worth it.
End of story for now. More to come in a bit maybe.