The trip back to Boston was pleasant enough. We took the shuttle bus service again (already prepaid) and this time had an exceptionally chill driver. A young guy from Brooklyn, but now living in Queens, a high schooler during 9/11, calm as can be as he maneuvered through once-again stop and go, sometimes hellish traffic (particularly in Midtown). His secret: he makes sure he eats a good breakfast, and he allows for plenty of time to get to work, so he doesn’t arrive frazzled or hungry. I think he said he gives himself two hours, which I didn’t probe him on, but it did strike me that he has a long, long commute – for which he’s not paid, of course.
Airport check-in was easy (pre-TSA approved both ways for some reason); ditto the flight itself. Took a bus to the Blue Line, to Bowdoin, walked to North Station and got a ~2p.m.-ish train. By the time we got through the front door, it was getting close to 3p.m.
The first thing we noticed on exiting at Bowdoin is how quiet and frankly deserted-seeming everything was. So few people out and about, and most of them from the homeless population …of which I saw fewer in two-and-a-half days in New York than in the five minutes outside of Bowdoin and North Station; go figure. We both suddenly felt slowed down.
After we walked home we walked into town. Again, a surreal experience of sorts: so quiet, with quiet tendrils of life – people going to cafés, out on errands. But obviously nothing like the insane volumes of humanity pumping through Manhattan’s streets. Stopped for coffee at T.-café.
Today we awoke to rain, thunder and lightning actually waking us up in the earlier hours of the morning. Had it rained like this in New York or on our travel day yesterday, well…