We cruised out of Baltimore in almost perfect weather for late June. Warm but not humid and it was so nice not having to fly to get to the ship. Two of my friends did fly into BWI, one from Milwaukee and the other from Los Angeles but they mentioned that it seemed easier than going to a Florida port. My buddy Barry and I showed them around the Baltimore area before we sailed. It was really cool to cruise under the Key Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel before getting into the Atlantic. Little did we know that less than 24 hours after we sailed that the area would be hit by the worst thunderstorms in history with power outages all over and also oppressive heat, I guess that I was lucky to have missed it but was worried about everyone affected by both the power outages and the heat.
After an overnight stop in Bermuda we sailed into Boston and since I have been to Boston on several occasions I decided to part ways with my friends for a day and get a rental car and head off to 3 new DDD places in the area to get my count over 250.
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| Approaching Boston by Sea |
The ship arrived about 8am and I had about 5 hours to get the car and drive to the 3 places I wanted to get to and get back before sailing out of the city to Newport, Rhode Island. I usually mock the other passengers who crowd the exit at all of the ports trying to be the first off the ship in each port. I was now becoming one of them and I always joked that the first one off doesn't get an award, well now I know for certainty that they don't as I was the very first one off!
I got the car and headed off about 30 miles south to the small town of Atteboro and a 100 year old diner called "Morin's Diner". I arrived still during the breakfast hours and noticed that Morin's has grown into a Diner-Restaurant-Night Club complex. I found a small booth in the diner area and was greeted but the very friendly employees of Morins. Very friendly and with very strong New England accents. I chose a Portuguese Breakfast Skillet which consisted of Eggs, Cheese, Onions, Green Peppers, and Portuguese Linguese sausage. It was very tasty. The staff was very interested in my journeys and told me all about both the filming and the party they held when their episode was aired.
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| My Skillet meal at Morin's |
Just before I was about the finish up the owner, Bill Morin came to my table to sign my book. Mr. Morin is a fourth generation owner of what has become an institution in Atteboro. He spent about 5 minutes with me telling me all about the history of of the diner and the town and it's surrounding areas. After he signed my book I was given a Morin's Diner T-shirt which all of the staff wears, I can tell you that I will be wearing it proudly and can highly recommend Morin's to anyone visiting the area.
From Morin's I headed back north into the fun pre-4th of July traffic of Boston! After about a hours drive I got to my second stop in Brookline, just down the street from the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy. Along a busy street is a small shop called "Cuttys Foods".
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| Cuttys in Brrokline, MA |
Cuttys is a sandwich shop. they use mostly organic foods and tasty breads. I decided upon the small specialty sandwich and a fresh squeezed limeade. The service was friendly and fast, which was nice because the place was very busy. The sandwich was really tasty with fresh ham and salsa, but what really made the sandwich was he Cibatta Bread, delicious. I got my book signed between the busy customer service and I now had been to 250 places!
I headed across town to East Boston near the Maverick 'T' Subway stop just across the bay from Logan Airport to an area that is very Italian.
Italian Express Pizzeria specializes in all things Italian, but I decided to get a slice of Sausage Pizza. The slice here is at least 2 slices and most other places! It was very good pizza and there was a steady stream of customers during my visit. I noticed on the walls photos of Guy and his 67 Corvette parked in front of the restaurant and also on the wall was the new DDD poster.
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| Slice? of Pizza |
To be ones the pizza was good but there are so many places that have good pizza that it is alot like a number of places that I have visited.
From there it was back to the ship and the cruise, a brief respite from the cruise to get o some new and fun DDD places. Now that I have 251 I hope to get to 300 soon!
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| My cruise gang! |
