Heading West?

Morning everyone from Boston
I'm the only one up and about, so thought I would send you an update since arriving in Boston. The weather wasn't good with heavy snowfall so we abandoned the T Metro trains and went searching for a cab to the apartment. Lisa and the girls went in one car and the lads and I in another. My cabbie couldn't understand me. We were staying at 83 Pinckney St Beacon Hill. He could understand Beacon Hill so at least we headed in the right direction. In case you are over here and staying in this street its pronounced "Pinknee" and if your driver is from the Carribean then 83 is pronounced "ailee tree". I am not kidding when I say he got me to repeat it about 6 times; I spelt it out; Herb told him; we showed him on the map and finally I wrote it down for him in large handwriting. So we were all laughing by the time he got us there and I told him if he is ever in Australia that no one is going to know what "ailee tree" means! But we fared better than the girls who were dropped off at the bottom of the street because the driver was too concerned (lazy) to drive up the hill with all the snow - he didn't get a tip!
Then 5 flights up - the men did the heavy lifting. Great location in the oldest part of town and walking distance to city centre. Everyone was a bit tired and the weather was not great so we decided not to use the last few hours of daylight to explore and stayed indoors in the warmth and had takeaway pizza.
I got up early and went for a run which was fun - about 2-3 feet of snow in places and visibility was a bit limited. I looked like the iceman when I got back! But it is a great way to see things as hardly anyone is about, so I crossed the Charles River and checked out Cambridge and MIT.
After some breakfast we all headed out and explored Beacon Hill with all the old homes - plenty of writers lived in the district from time to time and Boston was a strong "abolitionist" town with many free black people, who along with prominent whites, harbored fugitive slaves from the South on their way to Canada. This was called the "underground railway" to avoid capture by bounty hunters.
We saw State Houses (1 and 2), the Commons and the Public Gardens, site of the Boston Massacre (which was one of the final trigger points of the ensuing war with the British), Faneuil Hall and the Markets and North End district, which was most interesting. Lisa and I spent a fair bit of time seeing Old North Church (where they hung the lanterns to warn the Rebels which way the British were coming - land or water), burial grounds, Paul Revere's house, St Stephens church etc.
As you would all know by now our planned flight to Chicago to link with the "California Zephyr" train to San Francisco was canceled. Thanks to Jen and Geoff (and Trish), we were able to utilize the apartment that Milestone Group hire in the centre of town while we tried to reshedule flights. Bit bizarre really because the weather is very good,so we really don't know why our flight was canceled - they never give you a straight answer. Anyway all modes of transport were full so we were stuck until the 6th and now have direct flights from Boston to SF leaving tonight (we hope?).
Actually while we were looking forward to the train, it has been very nice having more time in Boston. Today we are going to see Harvard; which pretty much covers everywhere in and around Boston.
So next time we should be reporting from the West Coast - "fingers crossed"!
We loaded a bunch of photos last night as well from Philly, NY, Niagara and Toronto - enjoy.
Take care
Mike