Day 136

Happy New Year's Eve!  It's hard to believe that 2010 is gone.  It was a doozy.  Here's some pictures of things that have happened over the year.  Here's to 2011 and all that it will bring!

Chelsea got married!

Mom turned 50 and we saw Wicked.

Chelsea graduated.

I spent a semester in Boston, turned 21, graduated, and moved to Denver.

Day 121

My parents arrived at my doorstep last night.  We finished packing up my life in Boston and prepared for the drive home.  On a side note, my dad is the master car-packer of all mankind.  I don't know how he does it.  Simply amazing.
My last-last final as an undergrad was this afternoon at 3.  With this probably being the last time my parents will come to Boston, we hit up a few places that neither my parents or I had been before, as well as some obvious favorites.

On our way to visit a few places, we finished packing the car and we said goodbye to 46 Ashford Street.

 We went to the New England Aquarium and were there right when they opened for the penguin feeding.  The were so awesome!

Ribbit!

And of course one last stop at Mike's Pastry in the North End.  Oh how this will be one of the things I miss the most about Boston.  Amaretto cannolis, pistachio macaroons, and so much more.

Day 113

Look at the front bumper of the Mercedes and the rear of the Jeep.  This was all on the Mercedes fault.  Today while at Copley square I went to a little restaurant my mom and I found this spring, called The Globe.  I went today and had some delicious food, starting with my favorite: french onion soup.  The waitress and I were talking when she noticed this.  I tried to stay to see how it would play out, but I couldn't.  I was off to enjoy my last week in the city.

Day 109

Valerie and I went to the Sam Adams brewery today.  We went on the tour of the brewery and did a tasting.  So here's some pictures!

Sam Adams uses the used bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace for their Utopias beer. 

Day 108

Today while Valerie and I were riding the T, some street performers got on.  They were the same guys that I've posted about before.  I figured they were on their way somewhere to go do their act.  They may have been, but they were going to take the opportunity to perform on the T, too.

This is while the train was moving!  They were crazy.  They eventually got kicked off....the driver came over the PA system and said, "Guys what do you now understand. No performing on the train. Get off at the next stop and try it on the platform."
So awesome. I'm going to miss random things like this.

Day 107

Today was the Boston Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in the Boston Commons.  My friend Valerie, who is from San Francisco and is here doing the same exchange program that I'm doing, and I went to see what it was all about.  So here's some pictures from it.

Kids from an inner-city program that using chorus to keep kids out of trouble.  They were so good!  And cute, too.

The Rockettes!

Katharine McPhee

Me and Valerie in front of the tree.

Me on a Boston PD's motorcycle. 

Day 104

There's a show that comes on at noon everyday called The Phantom Gourmet.  TPG talks about good restaurants in Boston and the greater Boston area and what they're famous for.  So today, I didn't feel like making something for lunch so I went to The Upper Crust.  Guess what they're famous for.  Pizza!  I haven't had pizza in forever.  And their's is is a flatbread pizza, which is what I like.  I walked in and they let me get one of the BU student specials: a piece of pizza that has bacon, garlic, and tomatoes, and a salad (Caesar was my choice).  Then the guy brought it to where I was sitting.  Holy smokes. 

Needless to say, I'll have pizza for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Day 103

I went down to the Craigville beach on Cape Cod today.  It was so cold windy.  If it weren't for the wind, it just would have been a cool fall morning.  I went because I had to take pictures for a project I was working on for my marine environment class, but it's more of a class on coastal marine environments.  Here's my favorite picture that I took.

Day 101

This afternoon I went into Boston with Gary (John's uncle) to watch Matthew, Gary's son, play a hockey game at Harvard.  He was so cute, and good.  He even scored a goal and had at least 2 assists.

Alisa, Matthew's brother, and I went into Harvard's stadium.

And then afterwords we watched the Havard vs. Dartmouth men's hockey game.  And low and behold, Tukka Rask, the goalie for the Bruins was at the game!!

Day 74

Pigeons.  They seem so dumb.  Yet they are so entertaining.  And sometimes, every once in a while, I think they do things that can appear to make them seem, well, like they've got enough brains to plot against us.

Take a look:

Does anyone else see the potential for this situation?  Look at the traffic light pole.  Notice the high number of pigeons.  These birds have perched themselves there.  Right over top of the pedestrian cross walk.  This poor woman has no clue.  Nor do these people:

The most innocent is the poor baby in that stroller.  (S)he hasn't even had the chance to chase all of the pigeons that all of us have.  I leave you with one word: splat.

Day 67

Megan and Olivia were singing at a "Hootenanny" tonight.  I don't even know people down South that call get togethers "hootenanny."  But they were going and singing a duet together and Megan played tried to remember to play the tambourine.  She apparently forgot to play it while they were singing.  But that didn't stop them from sounding amazing.

Day 66

My friend, Mandy, flew in from Houston, TX for the weekend!  It was so wonderful to have her up here.  We went to an event called the Wine Riot where there were over 250 wines from all over the world.

We didn't even come close to trying all of them.  But man did we have a great time! 

Day 63

Background: I don't like heights.  I can't stand on the top of a mountain without my heart racing or without feeling like the entire mountain, which has been there for many many years, is going to crumble.  I also don't like tall buildings, bridges or cliffs.  I just can't.  And what makes it worse is that I want to not be scared.  I want to be more like my sister and John, going right to to edge (well, maybe they are a little too fearless, I'll take 2 feet from the edge) of the mountain or standing on a glass floor that's up in the world's tallest free-standing building (the CN Tower...well it was the tallest when we were there).  But I can't.  It's not quite a phobia but I get pretty petrified.  Literally.  When I was in Colorado visiting John, we went to two mountains who's elevations were over 14k.  There were points where John was walking towards the edge, up and down rocks boulders, and I wanted to follow, but my feet were honest to goodness stuck to the ground and my brain would not let my legs move me in any direction other than towards safety.  Some call it phobia, some call it survival of the fittest (or smartest). 

That being said, I was making my way up to a new area in Cambridge today and came upon something that I never thought would terrify me.  An escalator.

This view is of the escalator going down.

This isn't just any escalator.  This thing was mortifying.  I walked off of the T and was greeted by an escalator.  No one looks up when you first get on an escalator.  But when we started climbing very steeply, I did.  Oh how I wish I didn't.  This thing was a good 3 stories long and I don't even want to think of the pitch of it.  To summarize how my trip up and down the escalator (while going up was so much worse), I looked at my hands at one point and I was gripping the handrail so hard that my knuckles where white and I was leaning forward so I didn't fall backwards.  I do not like heights...or this T stop.

Day 61

I've been sick for almost a week now.  And needless to say, I'm sick and tired of being sick.  So I slept in, washed my sheets (it is Sunday after all), picked up my room, got ready, and just headed downtown for some quiet time.  I got off the T at Copley, so right by the gorgeous Boston Public Library and Trinity Church.  I had never really noticed the pretty courtyard in between the two buildings.  So I took the opportunity to sit and people watch.  Not long after I sat down, a Border Collie, frisbee in mouth, came running in front of me onto the courtyard.  His owner soon followed and it sure was nice to see that there are dogs in the city.  Ones without leashes on.  Ones that are smart.  And love to play.

Please pardon the little dog on the left....had I known what he was doing I would not have taken this picture.  But I still love this picture.

Then there's this panoramic.  This is probably one of my favorite pictures that I've taken so far.  You can see Trinity Church on the left, then the Hancock Building, this pretty hotel (I don't remember its name at the moment), the Westin, then the BPL all the way at the right.  I just love the juxtaposition of the city buildings by the courtyard and the dog running free.  It was wonderful.

But one of the funniest and most entertaining things of the day happened after the dogs left.  There was a family walking around.  Now in this courtyard before and after the dogs were there, were tons of pigeons.  I mean a whole lot.  Then this little monster showed up:

Notice his face.  He's making a blood-curdling scream.  It should go down in the books for one of the strangest and most terrifying sounds a small child can make.  And what was he doing?  Not throwing a temper tantrum.  He was chasing the pigeons.  Why he was also screaming, I have no idea.  But it was pretty funny. 

Day 49

Today was miserable.  It was cold and misting and increadibly windy.  All day.  Non-stop.
However, that did not stop my marine professor from making us walk to the harbor and spend over an hour in the nasty weather looking at clams and algae and seaweed. 

Thank goodness I have a down-insulated waterproof jacket!  Thank you Macy's!!

Day 48

After being in the amazingly gorgeous Boston Public Library for a few hours, I met up with Olivia to go to the Museum of Fine Art (MFA is what all the cool kids call it.)  The weather today was, well, a typical New England Fall day.  I know many of you have never been up to New England in the fall, so let's just take a second.  You know how in movies (let's say The Others with Nicole Kidman) they take a day that's really overcast and windy and it just looks cold.  Well, that's what it is here.  For the next two days.  Fortunately the wind isn't bad yet and the sun peeked through a few times making it borderline hot.  Anyways.  I met up with Olivia and we began our 1 plus mile walk down Huntington Ave. from the BPL to the MFA.  We came upon this gorgeous building that Olivia just knew was the MFA.

Well, that is not the MFA.  This is actually the back side of the First Church of Christ Science.  AKA Scientology.  Surprisingly there was no Tom Cruise anywhere to be found.  So we kept walking a good half a mile and we eventually found our way into the MFA.

Day 46

Meet Anne.  We worked together at Jcrew at Crabtree in Raleigh.  She's up in Boston visiting potential grad schools, including but not limited to Harvard and BU!  We met up near Quincy Market and grabbed some lunch in Faneuil Hall before heading down to Newbury Street.  It was great to see her!  Not to mention that is was starting to feel like fall!

Day 41

After babysitting today, I went walking around the Faneuil Hall area, despite the miserably gloomy weather.  This area is full of shops both big and small, mainstream and off the beaten path.  I choose to only go in the ones that I have never gone in before.  As I exited a quite quaint little shop, the white lights lit up on the trees.  The quiet wandering of people, the quiet of the city, and the fog that has settled atop the buildings cast a mystical feel about the streets.  You could feel autumn making her stake on the city.  And I loved it.

Day 40

Two words: free concert.  Two more words: Boston Pops.  3PM.  Boston Public Garden.

  

The first signs of fall are in the trees above!  Ah I can't wait for my favorite season to finally arrive!!

On my way through the garden, I ran into a bride, groom, and accordion player!

Then it was time to listen to some wonderful music.  They played things ranging from Sleigh Ride, Star Wars, Harry Potter, God Bless America, Sweet Caroline, and much much more!

Day 39

This is from the newly opened Boston Olive Oil Company at 262 Newbury Street.  I was walking downtown with a friend who is also doing the exchange program that I am participating in and we stumbled upon this treasure.  I would guess that they have about 50 different kinds of olive oils and balsamic vinegars.  All of them are in these little kegs with spickets so you can sample everything!  There were some really delicious ones.  Their traditional balsamic was amazing, the best I have ever had, and the Tuscan herb was pretty impressive too.  There were wild mushroom and garlic olive oils and strawberry balsamic.  Other balsamic flavors included pomegranate, tangerine, wild cherry, and double dark chocolate, which was surprisingly delicious.
I will definitely be going back to this place!