Looking back

The last part of this process is Assessing, looking at the end result and the process. The end result isn't very exciting. It's underwhelming, actually. But then again, even if I had had some kind of amazing breakthrough of information in the great Boston Trip Case, it still wouldn't have been enough for me to be really satisfied.

The way I learn best is, and has always been, tactile learning. If I can physically do it then I know it. In my world, experience is everything. The theoretical is nice and all, but it doesn't mean much to me. You want me to learn math? Walk me through a step-by-step example, then let me practice it by hand. You want me to learn chemistry? Put me in a lab. Just out of high school I went for a Culinary Degree and while I couldn't tell you most of the terms or specifics anymore, I can still slide, dice, saute, or do anything else food related you could ever ask for. I like to joke that my muscle memory is better than my regular memory by far.

Which, of course, isn't a big help for the type of information inquiry I'm doing. The best way for me to figure out how to visit Boston, or anyplace for that matter, is to actually visit said place. To walk around and see where the roads lead, to try the food, and wander into the hotels and shops and theaters. To see what it's like there. I can do all the research in the world, but until I'm physically in the hotel and it is as nice as it looked online and I am face to face with the reality of the situation I won't be confident of my knowledge of it. 

Writing it down, however, this whole process of blogging my experience I think has helped with that, to a point. I feel like just adding in a physical component like jotting down notes and typing up blog posts helps settle some of the free floating theoreticals in my mind. It is definitely something I should consider doing as I continue this process.

The next steps

The fourth step is Applying - connecting the information to a task. In this case I'm going to have to say that my task is going to be finding out even more information. When researching Boston it quickly became clear that we would need to figure out where we would want to stay first. Before we decide anything else. The actual information I found is:

• Traveling to Boston itself will be easiest and cheapest if we fly there.
• At some point we will need to rent a car in order to make a day trip up to Salem. 
• The majority of the museums, libraries, shopping areas, etc are located within a dense area in downtown Boston.
• The hotels located within this downtown area range from very expensive to extremely expensive, but allow for easy walking or public transportation to the sights. 
• Hotels farther distant from the city center are more budget friendly but would require a rental car for the entire week in order to reach many of the sights.
• Boston streets are notorious for being tricky, narrow, and difficult to navigate. There is very limited and expensive parking downtown.

What this all adds up to is, I need to keep on researching. Are there methods of public transportation from farther out that could take us into the city without the added stress and expense of driving a rental car? Are there hotels within a reasonable walk that still fall outside the insanely expensive area?

A quest for information like this can be a very tricky and complex undertaking. It isn't like looking up a single, concrete fact  and being done. In this case the only thing I can do now, is, as seen above, take the information I've found and go back to the beginning. Compose a new list of questions that I need to find answers to and  begin the process all over again. 

What I found

Step Three is analyzing the acquired information, and is probably one of the most important steps in research as far as I am concerned. Being able to find information that is, in some way, related to your topic is still a fairly useless skill if you don't know how to deal with that information and sort through it to find out what is actually useful.

For example, it was clear to me pretty quickly that the books I got out of the library weren't really going to work for me. My first clue was in the publication dates of the books.None of them had been published in the past year. Most were over five years old. According the The Restaurant Broker's study on the lifespan on restaurants "up to 90 percent of independent establishments close during the first year, and the remaining restaurants will have an average five-year life span." (Source) While other things, like hotels, museums, etc have longer lifespans a lot can change in 1-5 years. I don't want to wonder, as I gather information, if that information is even still accurate.

That being said, what I really wanted, in terms of information, was what was contained within a travel guide. Which is what really drew me to the Fodor's website. Fodor's has all of the authority of the Fodor's Travel name and experience. It possesses all of the various information about Boston that is present in the guidebooks, broken up into the exact sane categories. But what it does have that the print books did not is immediacy. The information on the website can be updated almost instantly. And even better, because it is the internet, with just a couple of clicks I can go from reading an entry on a likely hotel to the website for the hotel to see what the price per night is, to see if they have rooms open during the time I'll need them, to see pictures of the rooms and public spaces. The website, then, is not only more current than the books, it also contains more information than the book, and is more flexible and interactive than the travel books. In more academic pursuits I might spend the time to find several more, similarly reliable, sources of information. But for a personal investigation, especially one this early in its progress, one solid, thorough source is what I'm looking for.

Beginning the Search

Step Two is Accessing Relevant Information. My approach is the same as with my questions. I will start wide of scale and work my way toward more specific information. I started by looking for reputable sources for information on traveling to Boston. This was broken into two parts: physical and electronic. I started by going to the library and browsed the Boston section of the travel guides. There weren't as many as I was hoping to find. Certainly there were as many books on Boston as there were on more popular travel destinations such as New York or Orlando. There were a few, however, and I basically cleared their shelves.

I then moved on to the internet and quickly came up with the usual suspects. Travel websites. Travel websites as far as the eye could see. And while I understand the usefulness of sites like Expedia.com etc, I was looking for something a little bit more specific and all encompassing. When I get to the point that I want to know exactly what the price of a rental car from X company picked up at Y airport and rented for Z days then I will use those sites. But in the meantime I will be exploring my stack of books and the following Boston specific informational sites.

http://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/massachusetts/boston/

http://www.boston.com/travel/boston

http://www.cityofboston.gov/visitors/

http://www.bostonusa.com/

Post 1 - What to study and how to do it?

When approaching the idea of doing a little research into a topic I am interested in, my brain immediately goes to wedding stuff. Of course, in all honesty, since I'm trying to pull together my wedding for this fall, everything makes my brain immediately go to wedding stuff. However, it actually makes sense in this instance, because planning a wedding isn't one contained thing. Rather, it is a long list of activities, topics, and decisions that most people, myself included, have no real knowledge of. So for this project I'm going to be looking into taking a trip to Boston, where we are thinking of going for our honeymoon.

For this task I will be using Ian Jukes' 5 A's

• Asking - key questions to be answered
  
• Accessing - relevant information
  
• Analyzing - the acquired information
  
• Applying - connect the information to a task
  
• Assessing - the end result and the process.

To start with A-1 -- Asking: What questions am I asking here? What do I want to know? The following are some of the main questions I have to start with. I imagine as I begin to do research I will discover more detailed questions.

• How can you get to Boston from Indianapolis?
• Where is there to stay?
• What is there to do?
• What kind of restaurants does Boston have?