And now, to backtrack a little bit

Normally when we travel we bring a laptop which enables me to blog about our experiences and upload pictures daily.  This time we brought an iPad and it should be happy that I didn't toss it out of the window of a bed and breakfast or a tower in Manhattan.
So now, for posterity, please ignore the blog postings of the last two weeks, grab a glass of wine, and I'll tell you the real story.
On Thursday April 11th we caught a late flight out of YVR.  A friend of ours was also on the flight which was good because we were delayed like crazy at Pearson and three people have more stories to share than two people do.  Especially when one of them (cough, ahem: Michael) decides to go to sleep on a bench.
Finally got to Beantown and checked into the Gilded Lily.  It was a beautiful brownstone with a wonderfully appointed and decorated room.  The kitchen was shared with another suite.  It was on a very quiet street and just over a mile from the finish line of the marathon.
Taking the train in, I noticed a woman staring at us when she wasn't working on her knitting.  I was pretty sure I had food on my face.  Finally, she leaned over and asked if we were running on Monday.  I confirmed that indeed we were.  She introduced herself as a volunteer for the marathon and said she had been doing it for something like ten years in a row.  I thanked her for coming out and told her what a great race it was and asked if she'd ever done it, and it was as though I'd asked her if she'd been to the moon.  She looked at us incredulously and said she could never do what we were about to do, as though we were about to perform brain surgery.  But that's the mentality of the Boston marathon volunteers: happy; encouraging; smiling; supportive; adoring.  We chatted a bit more and then she said "I hope to see you on Monday".
It was the best welcome to Boston I'd ever had.
We dropped our bags and picked up our race packages from yet more kindly and accommodating volunteers and I bought a second pair of the Asics that I was planning to run in, because they were $115 US, but I paid $212 CDN for them up here, because Canadians love to pay more for everything and wear matching underwear while doing it.