Boston 10/1-10/8 Wow a whole week! Sorry, behind again.
So before I get into Boston and the wonderful week that was, I have to tell you of a tragedy.
My beloved little olympus digital camera has died. It not longer is able to judge exposure and over exposes everything, and there is no way I have found to fix or compensate for it. In light of this, after much angst and trial and error to get it to work, I have purchased a new camera. No pictures attached to this post, though in a few days I might get them up on Facebook. And possibly none for a while as I get used to the new camera. Bah.
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Arrived in the Boston area latish Thursday night, in time to pick Theresa up from work at the flying trapeze rig in Reading, MA. It is INSIDE a "Joardan's Furniture" along with a water/light show, Imax movie theater, RIchardson's ice cream and candy shop. Even though I didn't fly this trip, still not sure of the health of my shoulder, it is tons of fun to watch other people fly.
If you are in the Boston area and want to see awesome Trapeze work, the Boston Staff Show is on the 25th. (Beantown you get to see MY friends fly! They will be all in gold!) http://boston.trapezeschool.com/ Or take a class and fly yourself!
Friday morning Theresa and I had breakfast at a diner, then walked a bit around Wakefield before I took the commuter rail and T into Boston proper to hang out with Emily! Yay! It was awesome, we walked from her apartment along a portion of the freedom trail and since Em is a history buff, I pretty much had my own personal tour guide. One who could be convinced to have gelato before lunch. ;) The gelato was good, nice flavor, even though the tiramisu one had chunks of a cookie like thing that tasted of soggy bread in it. I didn't eat that part. Lunch was at a pub, and while my lobster was tasty, they got negative points on service, it took forever to get the food, and the clam chowder wasn't very good. There is NO excuse n New England to have bad clam chowder. None. Walked my feet sore, but saw a bunch of neat things, wandered through a farmers market and picked up inexpensive veggies, and headed back to the apartment to rest a bit. Em made homemade gourmet pizza for dinner, that almost was a no go when the cheese turned out to be bad, but Heather saved the day going down to the corner market and getting more cheese. Final result, Pizza with fresh basil and Roma tomatoes and capers was delicious! After dinner, we all headed out to a place that Zagat rated highly for desert.. I think my food Karma was just off for the day. The Bread pudding was at least tasty, but I almost missed my train home because they took so long. Ugh. Still it was fun hanging out. And I DID catch the train.
It rained Sat and I took a "rain" day. Stayed in and played on the computer (got the previous posts out) and played a bit with Photos. Dinner when T got home at the local pub. I got delicious (redeemed!) clam chowder and a salad. They had homemade Irish soda bread they brought to the table that was fantastic. T's Spinach salad was missing the candied pecans (they were listed on the menu, it's not like we were expecting them unduly)
Sunday lazy day as well, Finally got motivated and met T at work at 4ish. We went to get linner of Pizza, very yummy "special" with good stuff on it. I can't remember. what So sorry. After dinner, Theresa had staff fly, and I headed out to my next home in Boston with Alec and Brisket! Yay Alec. Thanks for having me. Alec had the leftover Pizza, then later that evening he made couscous with sausage. It was tasty.
Monday I spent a few hours wandering through the local goodwill. Fun, fun, fun. Apple (honeycrisp) and garlic hummus (from TJ's) and Pita chips for lunch. Dinner unexpectedly was homemade borscht, sauteed greens, and sauteed hen-o-the woods mushrooms. We headed over to meet some friend of A's that lived down the street, with the intention of getting barbecue afterwards. We stayed late and watched Top Gun and were fed and never DID make it to the barbecue place. But the new friends are awesome and the mushrooms (my favorite) were much better than barbecue. At least in my opinion. :)
Tues we met Crystal, one of the new friends from the night before, for breakfast at a hippie-esq place, Clear Conscience Cafe, where I got a chai and a bagel with cream cheese.. or was that cream cheese with bagel? the proportions were equal. 1/2 inch bagel, 1/2 inch cream cheese. Good thing I like cream cheese. Em met us after breakfast and Alec she and I wandered around trying to go shopping. The stores we wanted weren't open, despite their signs saying they were supposed to be! After walking back and forth the 3 blocks between the two stores several times, Indian food was had by Em and Alec, who hadn't had breakfast. I still wasn't hungry though it did smell tasty. After Em left, Alec and I wandered, still waiting for the other stores, into a goodwill where I scored a fabulous REI rain jacket. (this will be important later, trust me). We then FINALLY found our target stores open, they had what I wanted, and we walked back to the house about 2 and a half miles. We took the scenic way through some of Harvard college. Detouring through a neat little exhibit of scientific stuff in the science building, along with the Mach 1 computer. The trees were looking pretty and we passed an awesome playground with this huge net like climbing structure. I restrained myself from climbing on it since it was swarming with kids. For dinner Heather met us at a local pub called Christopher's [http://www.christopherscambridge.com/home-flash.html]. I got a chocolate porter which was good but not great, and a fantastic hamburger. Wow. Huge and delicious. I got the ENGLISH BURGER Coleman natural beef burger marinated in ale and grilled, with cheddar and Applewood smoked bacon, served on a large English muffin. It was exactly what I wanted and totally hit the spot. The good company just topped off a grand day.
Wed. Wandered around with Crystal. Fantastic breakfast at Sound Bytes [http://www.soundbitesrestaurant.com/] We shared 2 of the specials, a pear and goat cheese stuffed french toast with real maple syrup, and a smoked salmon and avocado eggs benedict. They were both really fantastic. More wandering, and chatting, and hanging out ensued. Dinner was tasty meat stuffs that Alec made. I have no idea what it was but it was yum. :)
Thurs morning I went back to Emily's for breakfast and final hanging out before I left. She made me abelskiver for breakfast. It is essentially danish donut holes? Or at least that is what it looks like. :) Tasty. Then back to Alec's to pack up, and off back to NJ. Wheeee...
My beloved little olympus digital camera has died. It not longer is able to judge exposure and over exposes everything, and there is no way I have found to fix or compensate for it. In light of this, after much angst and trial and error to get it to work, I have purchased a new camera. No pictures attached to this post, though in a few days I might get them up on Facebook. And possibly none for a while as I get used to the new camera. Bah.
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Arrived in the Boston area latish Thursday night, in time to pick Theresa up from work at the flying trapeze rig in Reading, MA. It is INSIDE a "Joardan's Furniture" along with a water/light show, Imax movie theater, RIchardson's ice cream and candy shop. Even though I didn't fly this trip, still not sure of the health of my shoulder, it is tons of fun to watch other people fly.
If you are in the Boston area and want to see awesome Trapeze work, the Boston Staff Show is on the 25th. (Beantown you get to see MY friends fly! They will be all in gold!) http://boston.trapezeschool.com/ Or take a class and fly yourself!
Friday morning Theresa and I had breakfast at a diner, then walked a bit around Wakefield before I took the commuter rail and T into Boston proper to hang out with Emily! Yay! It was awesome, we walked from her apartment along a portion of the freedom trail and since Em is a history buff, I pretty much had my own personal tour guide. One who could be convinced to have gelato before lunch. ;) The gelato was good, nice flavor, even though the tiramisu one had chunks of a cookie like thing that tasted of soggy bread in it. I didn't eat that part. Lunch was at a pub, and while my lobster was tasty, they got negative points on service, it took forever to get the food, and the clam chowder wasn't very good. There is NO excuse n New England to have bad clam chowder. None. Walked my feet sore, but saw a bunch of neat things, wandered through a farmers market and picked up inexpensive veggies, and headed back to the apartment to rest a bit. Em made homemade gourmet pizza for dinner, that almost was a no go when the cheese turned out to be bad, but Heather saved the day going down to the corner market and getting more cheese. Final result, Pizza with fresh basil and Roma tomatoes and capers was delicious! After dinner, we all headed out to a place that Zagat rated highly for desert.. I think my food Karma was just off for the day. The Bread pudding was at least tasty, but I almost missed my train home because they took so long. Ugh. Still it was fun hanging out. And I DID catch the train.
It rained Sat and I took a "rain" day. Stayed in and played on the computer (got the previous posts out) and played a bit with Photos. Dinner when T got home at the local pub. I got delicious (redeemed!) clam chowder and a salad. They had homemade Irish soda bread they brought to the table that was fantastic. T's Spinach salad was missing the candied pecans (they were listed on the menu, it's not like we were expecting them unduly)
Sunday lazy day as well, Finally got motivated and met T at work at 4ish. We went to get linner of Pizza, very yummy "special" with good stuff on it. I can't remember. what So sorry. After dinner, Theresa had staff fly, and I headed out to my next home in Boston with Alec and Brisket! Yay Alec. Thanks for having me. Alec had the leftover Pizza, then later that evening he made couscous with sausage. It was tasty.
Monday I spent a few hours wandering through the local goodwill. Fun, fun, fun. Apple (honeycrisp) and garlic hummus (from TJ's) and Pita chips for lunch. Dinner unexpectedly was homemade borscht, sauteed greens, and sauteed hen-o-the woods mushrooms. We headed over to meet some friend of A's that lived down the street, with the intention of getting barbecue afterwards. We stayed late and watched Top Gun and were fed and never DID make it to the barbecue place. But the new friends are awesome and the mushrooms (my favorite) were much better than barbecue. At least in my opinion. :)
Tues we met Crystal, one of the new friends from the night before, for breakfast at a hippie-esq place, Clear Conscience Cafe, where I got a chai and a bagel with cream cheese.. or was that cream cheese with bagel? the proportions were equal. 1/2 inch bagel, 1/2 inch cream cheese. Good thing I like cream cheese. Em met us after breakfast and Alec she and I wandered around trying to go shopping. The stores we wanted weren't open, despite their signs saying they were supposed to be! After walking back and forth the 3 blocks between the two stores several times, Indian food was had by Em and Alec, who hadn't had breakfast. I still wasn't hungry though it did smell tasty. After Em left, Alec and I wandered, still waiting for the other stores, into a goodwill where I scored a fabulous REI rain jacket. (this will be important later, trust me). We then FINALLY found our target stores open, they had what I wanted, and we walked back to the house about 2 and a half miles. We took the scenic way through some of Harvard college. Detouring through a neat little exhibit of scientific stuff in the science building, along with the Mach 1 computer. The trees were looking pretty and we passed an awesome playground with this huge net like climbing structure. I restrained myself from climbing on it since it was swarming with kids. For dinner Heather met us at a local pub called Christopher's [http://www.christopherscambridge.com/home-flash.html]. I got a chocolate porter which was good but not great, and a fantastic hamburger. Wow. Huge and delicious. I got the ENGLISH BURGER Coleman natural beef burger marinated in ale and grilled, with cheddar and Applewood smoked bacon, served on a large English muffin. It was exactly what I wanted and totally hit the spot. The good company just topped off a grand day.
Wed. Wandered around with Crystal. Fantastic breakfast at Sound Bytes [http://www.soundbitesrestaurant.com/] We shared 2 of the specials, a pear and goat cheese stuffed french toast with real maple syrup, and a smoked salmon and avocado eggs benedict. They were both really fantastic. More wandering, and chatting, and hanging out ensued. Dinner was tasty meat stuffs that Alec made. I have no idea what it was but it was yum. :)
Thurs morning I went back to Emily's for breakfast and final hanging out before I left. She made me abelskiver for breakfast. It is essentially danish donut holes? Or at least that is what it looks like. :) Tasty. Then back to Alec's to pack up, and off back to NJ. Wheeee...