Boston Part 1

When I arrived in Boston on the Wed. night Jet Blue redeye from Long Beach it was somewhere around 5 AM. Brittany, as always, was happy and smiling upon picking me up. They live so close to the airport that all I have to do is call her when I land and about the time I've got my luggage she's pulling up to the curb. Travelling all night isn't bad when you figure you can pop an Ambien and sleep for a few hours. So I popped the pill, but didn't really sleep. Along with the time change and usual jet lag adjustment I was a little droopy the next day but didn't want to get too goofed up so tried to push on through until the next night. Aargh, I don't recover like I used to.

One of my favorite things to do when I visit them is sleep in Annie's bed at the opposite end so I can look out the apartment window onto the street below. They live on the 7th floor of student housing.

This is what I saw when I finally got in her room and put my suitcase down:

However, this is what it felt like:

Although I was beginning to feel totally messed up, I really enjoyed cracking open the window and letting the cold early morning air blow on my face, even for just a few minutes of a "mini-snooze". There's something wonderful about being under a toasty quilt with cold fresh air blowing on your face, sort of like hot chocolate with vanilla ice cream...or camping under the stars.

Having left sunny SoCal (and I was amused by the advice of those friends I made here telling me to be sure and bring a hat, gloves, and warm coat...as though I'd never been in cold weather before) I knew I'd be in for a bit of an adjustment. I wore my flipflops onto the plane but brought along my Austrian boots to wear off of it. Still and all, I'd forgotten really just how cold Boston can get. Reality set in on Valentine's Day when Brittany, Annie, and I walked over to Harvard Square to buy a T-shirt at the Coop for Baby Sawyer, lallygag at the Curious George Toy Store, and celebrate the holiday with a chocolate malt.

Another view from the apartment of the Charles River

Did I say it was cold? We're talking sweatshirt, fleece, scarf, hat, hood, gloves, turtleneck, etc. I was too lazy to pack my parka and didn't feel like wearing Brittany's. The only final damage was windburn on my cheeks (on my face).

There's a rubber duck here for everyone. Even Sherlock Holmes, Mackenna. Can you spot him?

Brittany told the guy at JPLicks we wanted one chocolate malt (with two scoops of malt) to split three ways. It was delicious. In fact it was so good we ordered another one with three scoops of malt. I dared Brittany to go back and order a third one with four scoops of malt but she chickened out.

Clearly the only smart ones of the bunch were Jordan and Jakey who stayed home and were nice and VARM practicing hoops.

Boston Part 2 coming later.