Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Boston Trip ~ Days 11 and 12: Independence Day Celebratin

Again, let me remind you that I don't remember every little detail that happened to me because I didn't write reminder notes for myself, but I'll do my best to relate all the important details.

July 3: I remember really looking forward to this weekend, with it almost being Independence Day and all. It looked like a beautiful day, which was pretty lucky and miraculous, because all of our first week had been so rainy (plus we'd heard that Boston had experienced the rainest summer in years!). In Boston they make a really big deal about this holiday, and every year they have this awesome concert thing at the famous Hatch Shell. You know, that big dome thing? Ever hear of it? Well, that night there was going to be a sort of preview concert, so Annette and I made a batch of spaghetti and packed it in some tupperware for picnicking later.

Now before we went to the concert, we went to the Museum of Science again. (Remember, where we saw the IMAX movie?) Annette and I were really excited, because we were going to catch two shows in one day. One a cool planetarium show (planetariums are so cool!), and the other some sort of laser display show that would play to Beatles music. (If you know the Beatles, then you're one of my best friends!)

Unfortunately, the train went very slow and we were actually stuck somewhere for half an hour, so we missed our planetarium show. *pout* We actually had to wait around for about 3 hours for the Beatles show. Well, we occupied ourselves as best we could. We'd made sandwiches, so we didn't go hungry, only they did get a little squished and messy. *bleh* We also looked around the gift shop, which at a museum is always fun to do. ^,^ To kill some more time, Annette and I walked around this nearby park and came upon a cool playground that had cool spinning structures. They were more fun than a tire swing! Don't worry, soon I'll post some videos of the trip for you to enjoy.

Oh, I nearly forgot! That morning Annette somehow got obsessed with the Animaniacs song "Yakko's world," and she thought she could memorise the entire thing! Well, she did get a good start. She was even able to teach the first verse to me! It was fun singing it over and over. Well, it's a fun song! But it sure was hard. At that point, I considered anyone who could sing that without looking at the lyrics to be a genius.

Eventually it was time for the laser show. Let me say that it absolutely rocked the hay-ouse! I was so impressed with the show, even more than the IMAX! Just so many blinking lights, and they made psychedlic patterns and solid looking shapes, and even made pictures of Beatles characters! And all the songs! Oh, I loved it. Both Annette and I wished at that moment that our dad, Benny, could have seen it with us, because he's a really huge Beatles fan (which is where I get my love for them from).

When the show was finally over, the Hatch Shell was pretty close, so we walked all the way there. Let me tell you, though, that even an hour before the show was to begin, there were literally thousands of people already there! It was sooo crowded! We were pretty hard-pressed to find a good place to lay down our towel, but we got a good view of the stage in the end. Oh, and when we tried getting in, the security guys confiscated our spaghetti forks. We weren't allowed to bring in sharp, pointy objects. I mean, I can understand their concern for safety, but how were we supposed to eat the spaghetti? With our hands?! Actually, that's exactly what we had to do. LOL! Lucky think it was angel hair! Man, our fingers got sooo stained with sauce! But we had a great time anyway. At least this would make it that much more memorable. Plus, funny story, no? ^_~

The concert itself was amazing. Neil Diamond (do you know him? I don't know him really, but I like his music) came on and sang a couple songs for us, and the crowd went wild. We took lots of movies of the show, don't worry. At one point later in the show Annette and I got hungry again, so I left to buy us some pretzels. I got to the concession stand quick enough, but then I got awfully and almost hopelessly lost and had no idea how to get back in! It was dark and confusing with the bright, shiny lights and such huge crowds of people in my way! I asked directions from a couple guards, and thry tried pointing me in the general direction, but I could never find the way! Too many people were blocking it up. Finally, unable to take it anymore, I decided to take a chance and jumped the fence when no one official-looking noticed me. I found our spot easily, and Annette was glad to see me. It turned out I'd been lost for a heart-pumping 20 minutes. To me it had felt so scary, like I'd been lost for hours and hours! I hate being separated from my twin. >_<

Anyway, the rest of the evening was very lovely. I'd missed a lot, but Neil Diamond came back and sang a couple more songs for us, though he messed up on the second one, so he did it again and all his fans sang along with even more gusto then the first time. It was so much fun, plus by that time Annette and I knew the refrain. We thought there might be fireworks in the end, but there actually weren't. That was fine. We went to bed around 11:00 anyway.

July 4: Obviously, the day of the actual Independence Day celebration at the Hatch Shell. Since we'd had such a hard time getting a spot the night before, and since we heard a rumor that the gates would open as early as 4:00 (4 full hours before the show starts! Imagine that!), Annette and I made some meticulous plans for the day. We would spend most of the day at Faniuel Hall (We only passed it on the Freedom Trail, remember?), and then buy a pizza pie at the Famous One as well as some fruits from the Hay Market to snack on. We also made some more sandwiches as back-up. To occupy ourselves, we brought our iPod and a piece of paper on which Annette had written all the words to "Yakko's World." She wanted to learn the whole thing. ^,~

Faniuel Hall was fun. For some reason, there were large crowds of people there. Maybe everyone had thought along the same lines as Annette and me and decided to hang around here before the concert. I don't know. But we window shopped and walked around, enjoying all the hubbub. At one point we sat and had a nice sandwich picnic on the grass, and Annette tried teaching me the second Animaniacs verse. I don't think I concentrated very well, because I was thinking about all we had to do. We got our caricatures drawn afterwards. Don't worry, you'll see a picture of it in another post sometime soon. But I look fuh-nee!

Now unfortunately, not all of our plans went quite so smoothly. When we went to the Hay Market, we saw absolutely no tents or stalls. No one was selling that day. Plus the Famous One was closed, so no pizza pie. ~,~ Well, I guess we couldn't blame them, since it was the 4th of July, but still! We'd been a little bit stupid not to have considered that! However, we went to that burrito place, Boloco's, and got this good deal with a coupon we ripped out of the Metro newspaper. For $3.00, you get the burrito filling in a bowl, without the burrito part. You eat it like a salad. Very tasty. So Annette and I got 2 of those, instead of the pizza.

So we walked to the Hatch Shell, and it was 4:15. Just a quarter of an hour after the gates had allegedly opened. We thought we'd get a great seat this time... but nooooo! Thousands of people were already there! It seemed as if the same amount of people that had showed up an hour early yesterday had shown up 4 hours early today! Just unbelievable. But at least we did get a better spot than last time, something just slightly closer...

So yeah, we spent 4 long hours sitting there. It was actually pretty fun. There was cool music playing while everyone hung out there, real crowd-pleasers. We ate our other sandwiches and these cookies we got with our burritos very slowly. And Annette repeated Yakko's World to herself over and over again. I told her she could teach me the rest of the song when she knew it absolutely by heart. I had fun observing all the types of people that had come to the concert. When it was about an hour to showtime, Annette and I finally broke out our burrito bowls. Man, they were tasty and filling!

Let me say that this concert was pretty much the same as the one from last night, so we didn't see much new. Neil Diamond sang the same songs. But I did see what I'd missed while I was hunting for the entrance. A girl doing the Pledge of Allegiance and some sort of memorial for Abraham Lincoln. Also I think this show was actually televised, so there was more of an exciting energy in the air. And finally we saw the fireworks. How awesome! We picked up our spot and had to get a good spot to see them, but so did everyone else! It was hard being stuck in the middle of a bustling crowd, everyone shoving for a good view. But Annette and I saw them fine. I took plenty of movies of them. They were the best fireworks I'd ever seen, I think. The music that went with the finale was cool!

Then, when it was all over, everyone went home! It was kind of funny in a way, crowds and crowds of people tiredly walking the streets in a huge group after seeing such a show like that. We walked to the train station almost in a dream state, though I wasn't necessarily tired. But I sure was when we got home. We went to sleep at the latest time ever on our trip: 1:00 in the morning!

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