After NYC it was Boston. Our next port of call. Boston, with its leafy wide avenues and beautiful architecture and, more importantly, a reputation for loving the Brits. Remarkable considering their attitude towards us on December 16th 1773. Perhaps it's guilt. It was all quite a shock, and a pleasant one after the madness that is New York, and a contrast and just about any nice word you can think of. It's also the home of my wife's first favourite soap......Cheers. For at least a year I had been planning this part of the trip. I had even interrogated a bloke from Boston who was staying at our hotel in Washington about my forthcoming plan to 'make' Trish's trip by visiting Cheers. Merlin and I also wanted to spend one of the afternoons watching Boston Red Sox, something I knew Trish would not want to do, so it was VITAL I got the Cheers part of the trip right. Imagine my delight then when Rich, my new friend who loved shopping and worked in the entertainment business and had a lot of champagne friendly meetings to go to, informed me that there were TWO Cheers bars in Boston. The original, and a replica. Ching, ching, one hundred and eighty! (Rich also informed me that he could easily get tickets for cricket matches in London and Lords next year (Ashes test)would be no problem. How many maximum scores can you get in one day?
We had a full schedule as you can imagine in this city of colonial history but Cheers held importance that cannot be overstated. So, on our first day in the city, ahead of out 'Duck Tour' we made our way to Cheers....The Replica. Unlike The Pirates Of The Caribbean experience in St. Vincent, a hurricane destroyed film set and a lonely nutter valiantly running The Jack Sparrow Bar where we were greeted with 'don't worry I ain't got no licence and nothing to sell man' , Boston has gone overboard to accommodate sad Cheers geeks. It was mobbed. And it was pretty much what I had expected, except there was no road entry via steps leading down to the bar, with a door opening into the bar as in the TV series. This was to come later. This Replica Bar was stuck in the middle of Boston Market. Dining was on a scale Sam Malone could only have dreamed of. Norm's seat was taken, so we sat at the other end often frequented by Frasier and Lillith. But the Normburger was alive and kicking. And Merlin ordered it.
Even on the Cheers Menu it looked graphically awesome, a mega favourite word here in the US, but in reality it needed full mountain climbing gear to scale it's heights and eat. It was truly awesome. Even a bloke on an adjacent table laughed when it arrived. I managed, luckily to to capture this moment on digital. (See Facebook for photo). Out of the corner of my eye, as Merlin negotiated the extremities of the monster, I could see diners checking for 911 on autodial on their mobiles. To add to the drama, a nine inch kitchen knife protruded from the top of the mound, effectively stapling the dining drama to the plate. The whole thing reminded me of photos of the Leaning Tower Of Pizza where for original fun effect, tourists pretend, using awesome camera trickery, to be holding up the precarious pile. Know what I mean? This effect was certainly possible here. Merlin devoured it in seconds. I even had to point out that the knife was not part of the dinner as he wiped his chops on the Cheers napkin, examples of which Trish was moving bag wise.
A couple of Normbeers later and I was merrily caught up in the whole event, taking daft photos with the rest of them, visiting the Cheers souvenir shop and buying an oh too expensive t - shirt for my beloved. Meanwhile on the TV above our heads they were running an ad for tomorrow's Ball Game at Fenway Park, Home of The Red Sox, reigning NBA Champions. Sox v Houston Astros. 'Don't miss it' they said. 'We won't' I thought affording myself a sly Malonegrin.
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