I've been back for two weeks but here it is...the trip report from Boston.

Any red-eye flight is never fun and the San Jose-Boston trip was no exception. To add insult to injury, US Airways started to charge for everything. Among them, they added a charge of $2 for water and soda. So there I was in my middle seat, cramped for hours just waiting for the plane to land.

We got in a hour early. I went to Enterprise for my rental car. Good price but they gave me a PT cruiser. Has anyone actually driven these things? Oh my, it's a piece of crap! It seriously took 60 seconds to go from 0-60. It was pathetic. It did however get me to where I was going, which was a road trip through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut and back.

First stop was a half hour south of Boston to Mansfield/Foxboro. Foxboro is home to the New England Patriots. Mansfield has the Comcast Center, which was the venue for the Radiohead concert that night. There seemed to be a buzz going through the Pats' part of town (I subsequently found out they had signed John Lynch that day). Next to the stadium, a new mall is opening up called Patriot Place. Inside was a new luxury theatre. We didn't pay the extra $10/ticket for the luxury part but from what I could tell, we could be looking at the future. A grand piano thats plays in the lobby. Sit-down restaurants up front. Luxury seats and at-your-seat food service. We saw Tropic Thunder, which was an excellent movie.

There wasn't much in terms of restaurants in the area, so we ate at two local chains. Both places seem to serve popcorn as an appetizer. Is that a New England thing? The first place also was a little peculiar. The menu offers entrees with a potato and vegetable. My sister asked for rice and broccoli. To which the waiter replied, "usually rice is your vegetable...what kind of potato do you want?"

The Radiohead concert was excellent (especially compared to the imperfect one they gave at Outside Lands). 25 songs, old and new were sung. The last part seemed to contain most of the slow songs Radiohead has performed but that didn't stop the drunk guy next to us from loudly singing along.

The next day, we headed further south. My brother's flight was delayed so we had to stick around the airport. There was a huge freeway sign that read MALL, so naturally we went there. Upon arrival, there was a Wal-Mart and a large building that used to be a mall. Inside it, the most popular place in there was a DMV renewal station.

We got out right away. I picked up my brother and we headed to Mystic, Connecticut, made famous by the Julia Roberts movie Mystic Pizza. Yelp didn't like their pizza so we didn't try it, but I wish we could have spent more time in the city. Instead we headed to Abbott's Lobster. It's a lobster place that's only open during the summer and they steam lobsters from 1 pound to 10 if you can believe it. They crack it for you to enjoy and it was mighty tasty.

Next was Foxwoods, the largest casino in America. It used to be the largest in the world but Macau is starting to build larger ones. Imagine a forest and then a group of trees was replaced by a casino. That's how the scenery is there. It's actually 4 separate casinos under one roof but they still took my money just the same. $100 at the blackjack table gone in less than 20 minutes...5 minutes of that from the dealer shuffling the 6 decks. In a weird reversal, I won $150 at the slots, so it was a net win. Inside were some great restaurants including a Craftsteak from Chef Tom from Top Chef, a David Burke steakhouse, where we got some sliders, and a Junior's Cheesecake, straight from Brooklyn.

Time to head back to Boston. Upon our arrival, we ate at the Top of the Hub. The Prudential Building is the second tallest building in Boston and on top is a restaurant with great views of the city. Our table looked toward Cambridge. Also, it just so happened that a lightning storm was going on, giving us great views of that.

The next day was Chinatown and a tour of the city. The Chinatown here is actually pretty good. Not as touristy as New York, not as small as D.C.'s, it seemed like a smaller version of the great one in San Francisco. Decent dim sum too. Afterwards was the Boston Duck Tour. What they call ducks are WWII vehicles that could go on land and in the sea.

Sunday was a transition day as we moved to a new hotel, the Intercontinental, one of the newest hotels in Boston. The sign on the door says that the room should cost $999/night. The website said $349/night. I got it for $149/night. Thank you Hotwire! Boy was it upscale. The staff were extra friendly. You turned on an electronic sign to signify do not disturb. The shower head was so strong, you could have fallen like Kramer did when he installed his black-market shower head on Seinfeld.

We ventured that night to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market and to the North End. Faneuil Hall is a major historical landmark now turned into a shopping marketplace. It also holds a Cheers bar. If I understood this correctly, the TV show based their bar on the Cheers Beacon Hall location and the Faneuil Hall location based their bar on the TV show. Yeah, confusing. The North End has a large concentration of Italians. We ate at Giacomo's, highly recommended by many including Rachael Ray. A few peculiar things about the place...it only seats 30-40 people. Cash only. And you must stand in line. But boy is the food good. We sat at the bar area facing the kitchen. A little hot to sit there but with lobster, clams, mussels, and pasta for $18, I'm happy. Also had a cannoli from Mike's Pastry. Yummy.

Monday we ventured back to the Back Bay for the Fenway Park Tour. For $12, you get to see the park for much cheaper than going to a game. The only disappointing part of the tour was not getting to go on the field. Apparently, people were stealing the dirt and grass (LAME!). My sister then discovered Newbury Street (Chanel! Betsey Johnson! Burberry!). You get the idea. I fled to Borders.

Dinner that night was at the Omni Parker House, the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie. Extra good and pretty cheap as it was one of the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week.

Our last day was a visit to Harvard and MIT. The Samuel Adams tour was supposed to cap the trip but they were sold out when we got there.

One last story...I was sitting in the middle seat because of my sister. She slept a lot on this trip and on the trip to Vegas for a layover before Boston, she rested her head on another passenger's shoulder, which scared her half to death. So I said, you get the window from now on. On the return trip, she's sleeping but her head's moving around everywhere. Finally, her head dropped and hit square on the window and she woke up. I couldn't help but laugh really loudly.

And that was my journey.