When we awake this morning, the skies are grey and threatening with occasional gusts of wind. The news is still forecasting gloom and doom as the so called "frankenstorm" approaches New England. Our bus to Boston doesn't leave until 12:30 so we have a leisurely late breakfast and a long chat with Laura, the house maid. We are the only guests and while we chat, someone phones to cancel their reservation due to the hurricane. At noon Laura drives us to Hyannis bus station and we are soon on our way to Boston. The freeway is quite busy for a Sunday, maybe with lots of people returning to Boston early to avoid the storm.

Two and a half hours later, we arrive at South Station which is the hub for trains and buses. The T as the subway is known, is based on the Parisian system and is quite easy to follow. Up and down elevators, escalators and stairs we finally find our platform for the trip on the Red then Green lines to Hynes Convention Centre station. From there it is an 800m walk to our apartment. By now it is drizzling and is a bit colder but even in this environment, this part of Boston (Back Bay) looks very appealing. Wide tree lined avenues criss cross at right angles as red and yellow leaves flutter to the ground, Very pretty indeed! Our apartment located in an typical brownstone building is the 2nd of our airbnb bookings and looks very promising as we enter the front door with the code given to us. After reading all the reviews for the apartment we are well aware that it is quite small consisting of 1 bedroom, living room, kitchenette & miniscule bathroom. The reviews are not wrong! The only bathroom which was smaller was on a catamaran called "Tuning In" (Hi Lucy & Dave) and we managed OK.

Shopping for some essentials turned out to be quite an experience. We found the recommended Trader Joe's store and so did half the population Boston so it seemed. Trader Joe's is quite a small yuppy type supermarket right in the heart of Back Bay, The queue for the checkout snakes its way down the aisles of cold food, back up the other side where samples of pumpkin pancakes are being handed out to the patiently waiting public and back around ....... at least 50 people long!. Is this normal for a Sunday night we wonder? "It's the impending hurricane" we are told. "We have to stock up on food in case there is a power outage". The strange thing is that most of the food sold there except for the fresh vegies would require power to cook them. Maybe everyone has camping gear stashed in their cellars.

Our apartment is quite close to Cheers of TV fame, but tonight we settle on a pizza at Joe's which was recommended by the checkout guy at Trader Joe's. I wonder if the two Joes are related. By the time we leave, the wind has picked up a little and the temp has dropped a degree or two. Let's see what tomorrow brings.