Love that Dirty Water...

Hey all; just got back from Boston last night, so I've got stuff to say. Yay!

The reason for this trip began with Rachel's parents. They and two other couples from Duluth wanted to go to Boston, see a few Red Sox games, and enjoy the sites. Fortunately for me one of the couples dropped out, so Rachel got invited to come along and, by extension, I was as well. I headed up on Wednesday and met Rachel at the hotel her parents were staying at. It's called the Liberty Hotel, which is a pretty ironic name when you consider that the hotel used to be a prison. (Keeping with the theme are the two hotel bars, the Clink and the Alibi) It's really posh- heck, they even give you fresh plums at the reception desk. Plums! Who'da thunk...

The first night I wandered around the city with Rachel while killing time before dinner. We wandered over to Faneuil Hall and found a really cool (though overpriced) comic store that had a bunch of Dr. Who action figures and accessories (TARDIS USB port! Sonic screw driver pen! Dalek web cam!), and lay in the grass in the park at North End and picked out animals in the clouds (including a penguin, a dragon, and a bird-fish). We then ate a delicious meal at one of the Italian Quarter's many restaurants, paid way too much for parking, and headed off to Nik's house, which is about an hour outside of Boston. We got there in time to see him before he went to bed (early work and all that), and soon followed suit after catching up.

The next day we wisely decided to take the train into Boston for the day. We began by eating at a great restaurant called Fajitas and 'Ritas, which serves awesome fajitas and margaritas (though I am biased against the latter). We then stopped in a used/antique book shop that had a really cool selection and from which it took me about half an hour to pry Rachel away from once we decided to go. (And I believe she's still upset about that...) After that we went on the Freedom Trail, a self guided walking tour of Boston through the eyes of history. I have a lot of pictures of it still on my camera (well, cell phone...), and will post a link to them with captions once I get them off it. But it was a lot of fun and walking, and we got to learn some interesting things and see a lot of cool sites for little money. We also made a few unscheduled detours from the path, including one to a place called Mike's Pastries, which is an amazing patisserie in the Italian Quarter. I got something called a lobster tail, which is basically what you get if you take a cannoli and make it in the shape and size of a lobster's tail. Huge, but delicious, and will probably chop at least 5 years off of my life, but so worth it.

Later that night we went to the Red Sox game. Fenway is a pretty fun place, even though they made the idiotic decision of cutting off our seats from the nearest exit by putting two seats right in the middle of the aisle. The game was basically over in the second inning when the Sox scored 8 runs against the Rangers. Still, Sam Adams and conversation kept the game interesting.

The next day Nik got off work, so we spent the day hanging around with him. First was mini golf at the aptly named Mulligan's. Now, they didn't have any of those fancy moving windmills or anything, but what they did have was a spinner in front of most of the holes. Each player spins it and is assigned a disability or power from the spin. For instance, you might have to play the hole with your foot rather than your club; do the first shot blind; have the power to switch the positions of the balls on the course after the first shot; and permanently swap scores with another player if you got a hole in one.

We then headed into the city to go see the Blue Man Group, which Rachel's mom heroically got us tickets for that morning. The show was really, really awesome, but I still don't know exactly how to describe it. They use a lot of different media at the same time in the show to make music, entertain the audience, and just do really cool stuff. Check 'em out on YouTube- they are freaking awesome.

Rachel and her parents left us to take their plane that was leaving the next morning, so Nik and I decided to head home, eat guacamole and watch Dr. Horrible that night. The next day we drove through heavy traffic to Hingham to see Russell, who was apparently in Boston for that week (or possibly day) only. We basically just sat around and talked for four hours about various things (oh MAN this campaign is going to be fun...), ate a delicious meal, and said our good byes.

Now that I'm back in Elmira, I'm beginning to realize exactly how little time I have left here and how much stuff I still need to do. So, apologies in advance if my postings become erratic.

Until next time...

"Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927