Quack! (Or, a Surprise Duck Tour, Followed by Ducky Cake)

[magid]

Sunday I joined a crowd of people surprising BubbleBabble with a Duck Tour. It was great to see his surprised face when he finally heard all the people calling his name from a neon pink Duck! Kudos to Bitty for organizing it all. (And the weather mostly cooperated, so we weren't out in a rainstorm.)

I hadn't been on a Duck Tour before; it's far too touristy for a resident to do, right? I enjoyed it, more than I'd expected. The tour guide was great, and it wasn't just that he was wearing white pants covered in red hearts, black socks covered in hot pink socks, and amazing shiny blue leather shoes. He had a lot of fun patter to go along with the historical information.

Since I'm familiar with the city (well, reasonably so), it was easy to slot all sorts of interesting information into my brain, such as how there are excavations under the church facing the main Boston Public Library, so it can be heated geothermally. And how a local jail got two architectural awards. And that there's going to be a new park near the Science Museum reasonably soon. And that there's a biggish piece of the Berlin Wall in front of an office building not far from the Science Museum, either. And how Boston tried to get rid of some of the omnipresent Canada geese. And how many people are in that small burying ground not far from the Common (thousands; they're stacked). Etc, etc etc. Oh, and I finally saw the Pepper Pot Bridge from the water, so I got to see the Viking ships!

I was fascinated with the transition from driving along to going into the water; all I could think about was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He described what he was doing, but I wouldn't mind being able to see it from outside the Duck.

After the tour, many people went back to the apartment near the cemetery, for the rest of the surprise, which included a cake topped with duck candles. Of course, we all had to quack the tune of happy birthday... and so started a fun, silly evening, with much zaniness ensuing. (Yes, Perquackey was played, but not Duck Duck Goose, at least to the best of my knowledge.)

Comments

[curly-chick.livejournal.com]

I *love* the duck tour. So much fun.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I definitely enjoyed it, but I don't know that I'd want to go on another one for a long while.

[cellio]

We took Dani's mother on a duck tour of Pittsburgh and it was a lot of fun. Ours focused on the parts of the city that the "high-faluting" tours wouldn't pay much attention to, and we heard a lot of neat history.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realized that other cities have Duck Tours (though it makes sense, since there were thousands of Ducks made 1942-1945 (mostly by women) (found out on the tour itself, of course)).

There's a lot of Boston not covered at all; they didn't get anywhere close to anything that might've been really off the main line of attractions, as it were. It sounds like people are more daring in Pittsburgh...

[cellio]

I hope it's people being daring. Sadly, another possibility is the mayor et al saying "get those ugly things out of the good parts of town; we're trying to attract outsiders to move here (and we don't understand that maybe it's the taxes, stupid)".

Oh, sorry -- did I say that out loud? :-)

Ironically, I only found out a few days ago that Boston has duck tours; somehow I had thought it was a local gimmick. That gimmick works pretty well here with our three rivers.

[magid.livejournal.com]

There were parts of the tour where the Duck couldn't stop (except for traffic concerns), so the idling wouldn't annoy the residents (I remember it particularly with regard to Charlestown, though it might've been other places too), but we did go past the state house, down Newbury St. (major shopping street), around the Common, which are reasonably upscale. We didn't go through Back Bay, but I don't know if some of the streets are wide enough, anyway :-).

They'd really keep them off the streets in some areas for being eyesores? (a) They're just goofy looking. (b) They're moving, not permanent, for goodness sake!

We've only got the one river, but it curves a lot :-). There's only one entry/exit point to the river, though, so we loop on the water, rather than going to a new place. It does mean getting very close to lots of Big Dig stuff right now, though, which is cool.

[cellio]

They'd really keep them off the streets in some areas for being eyesores?

I don't know; it was just speculation. But the lunatic mayor who drove the city to bankruptcy has done some pretty goofy things, and the tour didn't go into the "nice" parts of town, so it's possible. We did go through downtown, but it was a Sunday.

We have rivers running through the city, so our duck was actually able to drive across rivers and end up in useful places. There are times during rush hour when I want that option! (I don't know if it's true, but I have been told that Pittsburgh has the largest number of bridges in a city in the US.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

The Charles runs between Boston and Cambridge, so theoretically, it could be useful to drive across, but my impression is that they lack places to get in and out of the water. (I'm so sure some commuters into Boston would love to be able to drive across without benefit of bridge.)

I hadn't realized Pittsburgh has so many rivers; I never would've pegged it as the bridgiest city in the country.

Pittsburgh

[cellio]

We have two rivers that meet to form a third (Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio). Downtown is at the point, between the first two rivers. The city spreads out from there, though not so much to the west. So in addition to the land between the two rivers (the city boundary is about 6 miles from the point), there are major neighorhoods just across both (North Shore, South Side, others). The new sports stadia are across the river to the north, and there are major commercial areas along both rivers because apparently riverfront property is trendy.

Here, a picture is worth a bunch of words (maybe not 1000, because it's only Mapquest and not an arial photo, but still).

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine owns an Amphicar (http://www.houseboatvacations.ca/images/amphcar.jpg). There are apparently three drivable ones in the immediate Boston area. He was thinking it would be a great publicity stunt to have a Duck Boat puttering in the Charles followed by a line of little Amphicars!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Wow! I didn't know those existed... so much more Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-ish. It would be so cool to have a ride in one, though on a pretty calm day, definitely. Do they need to get paperwork from whoever patrols the water, as well as the DMV?

I could totally see it, Make Way for Amphicars :-)

[ceo]

Ah yes, the Amphicar. "Drives like a boat, floats like a car", I believe the saying is. :-)

There was an article in the Globe recently about how they've declared Newbury Street and other hoity-toity neighborhoods "no-quack zones". Apparently the local shopkeepers think that it detracts from the exclusive atmosphere of the street to have duck boats full of tourists going "quack quack" at their customers as they dine alfesco.

Some tour guides encourage their passengers to moo instead in those areas. Was me, I'd suggest oinking.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Our guide didn't suggest quacking at all. The only time some of us quacked was in response to quacking pedestrians (especially kids, how can you disappoint kids?).

Aren't they concerned that they might drive away the high-end duck business with an anti-quack zone?
:-)

(I'd tend to think al fresco diners would be entertained, but I suppose it depends on how frequently they're quacked at...)