Weekend in Boston

Luckily Kevin was able to push his start date at Dow back by a couple of weeks giving us a little extra time to unpack, get organized, and visit friends. This included taking a little trip to Boston to visit Sarah and Jonathan. We flew in Thursday evening and had a nice long weekend with these two. It was wonderful seeing their faces again and in the test of true friendship it felt like no time had passed at all. We went out to dinner that night giving us a great chance to catch up.

Having never been to the area before Kevin and I were excited to get to check out the city. Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit that first full day so we didn't really want to walk around a ton. We drove into the city and found parking near the subway station and made our way towards the Samuel Adams Brewery to do a tour and tasting.

Waiting for a subway car

The guys wandered ahead and we enjoyed watching Jonathan and Kevin sharing the umbrella.

The tour of the Brewery was really good. Our guide was funny and very informative. I was only a little less impressed when at the end of the tour and I heard another tour guide giving the exact same spiel. (It makes sense they'd have it scripted...I just thought that it was unique to our tour guide.)

The tasting afterwards was fun as well. We even got to keep the little tasting glasses so I didn't have to buy any souvenir's.

Afterwards we grabbed some appetizers and played a little pool before heading back to Watertown for the evening. On the way we had nice view of Park Street Church which is a stop on the Freedom Trail.

It was still cold the next day but the rain had ceased making us more willing to gallivant outside in Boston. We were able to go into a couple of incredible churches along the Freedom Trail including King's Chapel. The burying ground right next to it was also amazing to see. The tombstones are so old and thin and you know that place is just crawling with history.

Sarah and Kevin outside King's Chapel Cemetery

Boston's Old City Hall. One of the business running out of the building now is a Ruth's Chris Steak House. Weird.

Wandering around a gift shop in the Old State House and Boston Massacre Site.

A nice view of the Custom House Tower

On our way to the Old North Church we had to check out the Paul Revere Statue in North End.

The Old North Church was pretty amazing. It was cool being in the site of where the famous "one if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. I love walking around all this rich history.

While there we definitely had to check out Harvard campus. I went into it thinking it wasn't going to be that pretty (based on something Jonathan said)...especially compared to Stanford's amazing campus but after seeing it I realize that the three people I was with are a little biased. I loved the campus. Definitely different than Stanford's campus which I also love but I feel they were being a little hard on it. Boston has real seasons and with all the old brick buildings and old trees you have a beautiful setting. I imagine it being gorgeous in the snow, at springtime, and in the fall.

I was told that it is tradition to touch the foot of the statue of John Harvard. I watched a whole bunch of other people do it so I thought...while I'm here I might as well. In reading about this tradition I have since learned that a "must do" for Harvard students is to take a pee on the foot of this statue. A little gross but I'm not going to worry about it too much. Urine is sterile, it had been raining, and based on how many people touched the foot right before me I think I'll be okay. Plus I was wearing gloves...but I might have to wash them now.

During our walk we stopped by the Boston Common Frog Pond and decided to watch the ice skaters for a little bit. Jonathan was betting there would be some awesome wipe-outs worth laughing at. While there we saw something much better. This older gentleman doing some incredible ice skating moves right in from of us. We were laughing so hard that we had to record him and hope he would do something even funnier. This video isn't quite as good as the first thing we saw but we still laugh anytime we watch it or think about him at all.

After an amazing dinner out at the Russel House Tavern in Cambridge we headed back to Sarah and Jonathan's and spent the rest of the evening playing cards. It was a blast joking and laughing with those two and I'm so grateful we were able to visit.

It was also a lot of fun playing with the new kittens: Indy and Ana. (Jonathan is from Indiana and the naming helped Sarah in convincing him to get two instead of one). They were adorable. Indy was still getting over a bad cold and you could often hear him wheezing and breathing heavy. Ana was extremely active and quick to respond whenever a toy came out. Both very fun and we enjoyed them.

Brother and sister: Indy, Ana

Overall just a wonderful visit and we couldn't be happier that it worked out for us to come out even for just a few days. Not only was it great to see them but the break from unpacking couldn't have come at a better time. We'd been working nonstop and decided that we needed to take it easy and not try to do too much each day. We decided that and then when we got home that night we stayed up until 3am working but I guess we couldn't help it after a few days off.