A Fabulous Weekend in Boston

Beginning this post about my weekend trip to Boston is giving me the feeling similar to the one I got when writing about this Charleston trip... It's a little daunting, and I don't even know where to start. So much beauty, adventure, contentment, food, and feelings were experienced during this time.

We experienced...

Humor and fresh beers in the Sam Adams Brewery tour that we started the weekend with on Friday. 

Silliness at the German piano bar on Friday night with Jordan, a friend of Amy's. One of Jordan's friends happened to be at the same bar (discovered through snapchat) and joined us for some more drinks after. I was really in a dancing mood (which is rare, so I wanted to take advantage) but apparently Boston is not a dancin town, so we just got some casual drinks. 

Beauty in the peaceful streets of the city. It was wonderful being able to stroll along these streets, seeing movie-worthy scenes of frat house barbecues outside their picturesque apartments, with couches in the lawn. One regret? Not joining them. Parts of the city reminded me of a mix of Notting Hill, NYC, and some of Copenhagen. 

Parks like cph 

Quiet streets like notting hill 

But it's all its own 

We didn't always know where we were or where we were going but that was one of the things we enjoyed the most about it.

Peacefulness in sitting on the dock by the Charles River, watching the sailboats go by. And almost flip. That was exciting. 

Wonder in the uniqueness of this room in the Boston Public Library. 

And intrigue in the occupants of the room...

Old man with the books

What is he learning about?

Lover's native tongue. 

(Haiku about the man "learning the language of his long lost Vietnamese lover he met during the war..." Obviously.)

Flattery by the polite, smooth-talking Stranger Gentleman at the Library. It started with me awkwardly thanking him for saying "you're so very welcome" to me thanking him for holding the door. One big, goofy conversation that led to him smoothly complimenting us and asking for Amy's number "in case he needs some legal advise" (Amy's in law school for any stranger readers). I don't think Amy was even aware he was hitting on her and she didn't wanna pull the "I'm engaged" too soon to make it awkward, so we just said our "goodbyes" and left the library. 

Fulfillment came, though, when we "made a good story," and went back to said Stranger Gentleman after discussing how he needs to know his efforts were appreciated. Numbers were exchanged since "well I'm not engaged." We thought about asking him and his friend to join us for pizza... but then realized that'd mean sharing our pizza, so we didn't end up meeting back up with them. 

Contentment in our Pizza at the Park Evening in the Boston Public Garden.

Pizza so dang big

I ran into the light post

Dirty Water Dough

1/2 Mac Cheesy (Mac and cheese with ritz and cheezits on top) 1/2 chicken enchilada. Epic. I obviously threw paleo out the window for this trip. And it was totally worth it. Probably will be rethinking that come the next swimsuit outing. 

Elegance on the Roaring 20s party trolley to celebrate Amy's friend's last year of her 20s. What a great time and perfect way to tour the city. The trolley was filled with glitzy party goers, booze in prohibition-style brown bottles, crazy lights, some interesting hookups, and a balcony off the back where we could hang, getting lots of funny looks, honks, and drivers and passersby dancing along. 

           Amy, Rachel, the oh, so sweet birthday girl, and I 

Exclusivity during our special tour of the Harvard Library. Amy's lovely, World-Saving friend, Yanina, who goes to Harvard, got us in the very private library you usually need an ID for. No pictures in here though, unfortunately. They even search you on the way out!

 

Being prestigious in the Harvard Yard

Privilege in stumbling upon Janelle Monaé warming up in the Harvard Yard. We definitely took advantage of this, and enjoyed a little concert, front and center.

Satisfaction in lots of delicious food. We had the best Boston cream pie I've had at the cafe, Flour, fantastic Italian at Giacamo's with the best scallops, excellent burgers from Shake Shack (Mr. Bartley's Burgers is unfortunately closed on Sundays), and perfectly tasty and tiny 3 layer cake from Mike's Pastry (which has significance in Amy and Sal's love story, so I had to try it even though I was full from the Italian. We did not skimp on food this weekend. We even got froyo twice in all of that. And another coffee and macarons treat thrown in there. 

Wisdom in our conversations about how "sometimes you don't know how you feel about certain things in life until you're experiencing them. You just gotta learn them as they come," and that a guy giving you his number is a good sign in the dating world. Not quite equivalent in their importance or wisdom but hey. 

Surprise at how friendly everyone was. The stereotype of the rude northerners was definitely not the case. We made friends with girls at one store, were impressed with the friendliness of others at another, experienced the super manners of the library guy, a very friendly couple talked to us the whole time in Giacamo's line, and a random lady on the street told us how nice we looked one night. There was so much hospitality and cheer goin around.  

And gratitude for this wonderful weekend spent with Amy Rubin to add to our great stories. We've got some good ones in our books, including this one with her visiting me in Denmark.

I was also glad I got to get to know her fiance, Sal, a little more, even with our short time together. His whimsical, solar-powered-plastic-plants were my first points of intrigue. 

Our common comment was that it was just a fabulous weekend.