New England: Boston, Coastal New Hampshire and Maine

I decided to visit my old friend from my college days the Labor day weekend of 2008. It turned out to be a very unique experience and involved lot of walking and even more talking with car rental companies. Since one of my (two) friends did not show up, I spent the entire time in Boston with one friend. My friend Rahul did not have a car yet and I had flown in (with US Airways) late Friday evening. So we decided to postpone renting a car till the next day. On Saturday, the local Enterprise in Waltham was so busy that they just kept putting me on hold immediately, the three times I called. Since they closed at noon, we decided to just go to the city and check out Fanueil Hall and Quincy market etc. The weather was great and after transferring through buses and showing my face to all the cameras on the city buses, we finally landed at Quincy market. That area has a lot of choices when it comes to food (and people watching on holidays). I chowed down some masala dosa (yeah lame of me) while Rahul had some teriyaki stuff. Then we lounged around here and there, and wandered off to Boston commons. It was a sunny day and we saw a lot of kids cooling off in a shallow pond (?) inside the Commons. Myself and my friend were chatting about many things including the odd question of how to say "grey" in Hindi or Tamil. It seemed odd to us that several indian languages do not have a word for grey (at least to the best of our knowledge; can anyone help me out here?).


Later we went to a movie theatre to a watch a movie. I wanted to see Tropical Thunder but since the movie at least an hour after, we decided to instead watch a random chick flick - Traveling Sisterhood of the Pants (or something like that). I went because of the promise from my buddy that the girls in the movie are cute. Yes, they were and it was a decent brainless entertainment (just like Ironman -only there was no action in this). The next day, we started our quest for a rental car again, only to be thwarted at 1) the local enterprise - which had jacked up the rates, and 2) the airport enterprise - which would not let us rent without our plane itinerary. Finally we got a car from national, at 4pm, and then my friend had 2nd thoughts about the one we got (VW Rabbit) and wanted a Corolla or a Pontiac instead. Only after I threatened to toss him in front of a truck, did he agree to drive off in the VW itself.
I took a pic of this at Rock Bottom Brewery in the hopes of entering the contest and winning something. I have nt gone to the site yet, but you are welcome to do so.

This lobster was the delicious serving which found its way inside my stomach, but only after some persuasion from my friend. We ate at Fox's Lobster restaurant at York Village, Maine. Located right on the shoreline, adjacent to the Lighthouse Island, the food at Fox's is pretty good, prices a little upmarket, and the service was decent. They did have a very busy day, being that it was the Sunday of a Labor Day weekend. The restaurant has 2 levels, so if you get there when it is daylight. Incredibly enough they have an active webcam with sound.
A shot of the twilight shoreline from Nubble Point, York Village Maine. The lighthouse is pictured below.

Adjacent is some beach in the York Village which we drove into for a few minutes. Below you will find the bridge on Piscataqua river, which borders New Hampshire and Maine. We were standing on a draw bridge between Badger Island, ME and Portsmouth NH.