The Final Night in Boston

Our final night in Boston was a fitting end to one of the more enjoyable trips I've been on. After leaving Fenway Park, we went back and showered and changed which felt great after sitting in the sun for almost three hours. The we headed of to check out Harvard. This was pretty much the last thing we really wanted to do on our trip that we had discussed before the trip. It is a beautiful campus, as you might expect. While we were walking around there were many parents there as this was the weekend before classes started and everyone was returning to the campus. They were even holding freshman orientation while we were there. It sounds like they were having a lot of fun. It also brought back odd, not-so-pleasant feelings to me as I never did enjoy the freshman/new student orientation, being the introvert that I am.

After we had walked around the campus for a little while and seen some of the buildings on the campus, we decided to go have dinner and wound up eating at an Italian restaurant in a neighboring neighborhood. The food was really good and this was the first of three locations where we enjoyed a fair amount of alcohol. The Italian place had a really good red wine, of which we got a bottle (to split, not each).

After that, we headed over to check out a bar that apparently was well known in the area and is popular with MIT students. The drinks and menu are on a periodic table of elements. We found it, but it was really small, there were no available seats and we didn't feel like waiting around. So we left.

We walked just a little bit down the street and found a nice sports bar where we continued our drinking ways. This is actually where I had my favorite drink of the weekend, despite the razzing from Eric for the name of it: Toasted Nuts & Berries. The thing that sold me was the fact that there was chocolate in it. I could barely taste the alcohol, which could be part of the reason I liked it so much. I forget what else was in it, but it was really good. I could have had many more of those if we had stayed there. They had the Dodgers-Diamondbacks game on while we were there, so we watched that while we drank. After a while, we left.

We then headed off to see the famous Cheers bar; the one the TV show was named and modeled after. It was nothing fancy, but of course had a lot of memorabilia from the show. I forget what time we got there, but it was late. Here we continued our drinking ways and split a really good appetizer with wings, mozzarella sticks, potato skins and stuff like that. While we were there, a bride, groom, some of the wedding party and parents walked in to hang out. It was kind of cool as this was the third wedding we had seen while in Boston. We joked about crashing one of them, but this one came to us, or at least the same place as us. Eventually, Cheers closed (yes, that's how late it was) and we left. Our waiter there was pretty cool and laid back, helped us with suggestions for food and drinks and all around was a good guy from what I could tell. When we left I was glad we didn't have a car. I don't think I would have trusted any of us to drive at this point, although we could still keep our balance fine. Anyway, we made it back to the subway and made the ride back to where we were staying. Again, I forget what time it was when we got back, but I'd be surprised if it was before midnight. Probably not the best move when we had a 7:00 flight the next morning.

Needless to say, this was a great night of hanging out with friends and just enjoying the times. I'll wrap up my Boston blogs with one more about miscellaneous stuff I haven't hit on yet, like the interesting people we met (two specifically).

Dodgers Playoff Fever Has Hit the Steinman Family!

Can you tell the Steinman household is excited about the Dodgers being in the playoffs? The girls have caught playoff fever! Needless to say, we are excited about the Dodgers making the playoffs for the third time in five years. The playoffs begin Wednesday when we play Game 1 (in a best of 5 series) against the Cubs in Chicago. Here is the what the schedule looks for their series with the Cubs:

Wednesday 10/1 in Chicago

Thursday 10/2 in Chicago

Saturday 10/4 at Dodger Stadium

Sunday 10/5 at Dodger Stadium (if necessary)

Tuesday 10/7 in Chicago (if necessary)

Fenway Park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After visiting the MFA for about an hour and a half, we walked on up to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox host the White Sox! This was one of the big highlights of the trip for me. (But if you know me at all, that's not surprising.) The picture posted here is my favorite from the whole trip.

It's so different from what I'm used to at Dodger Stadium. The ballpark is part of the neighborhood, just another building, really. There aren't any specifically designated parking lots, although the small ones scattered around the stadium were quite pricey...as high as $40! Outside the stadium, the streets were just about shoulder to shoulder. A game at Fenway is a block party. Even if you don't have a ticket, you can still hang around the area.

Once we got in, it was great. It felt like a big step back in time with the old school stadium that only holds about 37,000 or so (compared to 56,000 at Dodger Stadium). Our seats were located in right field, less than 10 rows from the top, but since it's such a small stadium, they were great seats. I got an $8 hot dog and it was so great! The only downside to the seats and the game was that it was easily in the 80's if not 90 and we were in the sun the whole time. Needless to say, we were a little toasty by the end of the game. No complaints here, though. I'd sit there again.

The White Sox wound up winning 4-2 and since my team wasn't involved, I didn't care who won. It was a good game and a great experience! My words in this posting don't do the experience any justice. I did wind up buying my only Boston souvenir here. Before the game, Micah and I both bought hats. He got the traditional Red Sox hat with the red B on it. I couldn't do that since I felt as though I would have been committing treason against the Dodgers. So I went for a hat that said Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park and had 1912 on it (the year Fenway Park opened). It was a good buy since I didn't bring a hat because I didn't want my Dodger hat getting all flattened in mu luggage...yes I baby it! After the game was over, we headed back to our place to shower and clean up. You would do that same after sitting in the sun for almost 3 hours. Then we headed out for one last night of good times, but that's for the next blog.

Museum of Fine Arts

On Sunday, we wisely chose to set an alarm again as we knew Fenway Park was waiting for us and we wanted to be sure to go to the MFA before the game. I think we set the alarm for 9:00, but when Eric and I woke up with my alarm, we decided to sleep more so we reset the alarm for 30-45 minutes later...a good move. It was worth it.

So, once we were up, it was off to our traditional breakfast spot, Dunkin' Donuts. It was always good and pretty cheap. I mean seriously, how much can you spend on donuts, coffee (which I don't drink) and the like, unless you're Homer Simpson?

Anyway, we walked to the MFA since it was less than a mile away. The picture you see posted above is of me and Eric out in front for the museum. Micah tried to get me and Eric in a spot where the baby head is about as big as our heads? Not too bad, I say. So we pay and go in for about an hour and a half. I've never been much of an art fan, but Eric and Micah are quite the art buffs (compared to me). They were pretty cool with providing me some insights and background to some of the pieces we looked at, which was helpful and appreciated. Without them, I would have wandered aimlessly looking at the various things and looked like some scrub off the street. As Dionne Warwick once said, "That's what friends are for." Between not being an art fan and knowing that Fenway Park was calling my name, I was pretty anxious the whole time we were there. Once we left, the adrenaline started flowing pretty strong in me. Needless, to say, you can probably guess what the next blog will be about and how long it will be.

It's Official!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has happened! The Dodgers are the National League West Champs of 2008. Thanks to the Cardinals beating the Diamondbacks this afternoon, the Dodgers have officially clinched the Western Division before playing their game tonight, which is the last home game of the year. However, who they will play in the first round depends on how the National League East and Wild Card play out. As of right now here is a summary of who is in and who is still fighting to get in:

NATIONAL LEAGUE
West - LA Dodgers
Central - Chicago Cubs
East - either NY Mets or Philadelphia Phillies (probably)
Wild Card - either NY Mets, Philadelphia Phillies or Milwaukee Brewers

AMERICAN LEAGUE
West - LA Angels of Anaheim (stupid name!)
Central - Either Minnesota Twins or Chicago White Sox
East - either Tampa Bay Rays (probably) or Boston Red Sox
Wild Card - either Tampa Bay Rays or Boston Red Sox (probably)

This is what we know about the Dodgers playoffs as of right now. They will begin on Wednesday, October 1 in Chicago if Milwaukee wins the Wild Card or in the NL East champ's park if either the Mets or Phillies wins the Wild Card (with the other being NL East champs). It should be exciting. My biggest concern at this point is my sister's baby shower on October 5. That will be the same day as game 4 (if necessary) in a best-of-5 series, which I had to turn down tickets for today. Needless to say, I may be very distracted at the shower. If you're really interested in how it plays out, keep coming here for updates.

Mmmmm...Seafood...and Jazz

After we had completed the Freedom Trail, we met one of Eric's friends from Stanford who is now a professor at the University of Alabama. We decided it was time for authentic seafood somewhere. We had heard about this place called Legal Seafood, where the motto is "If it's not fresh, it's not legal." So once we met met up with Eric's friend, and one of his acquaintances from the Political Science convention they were attending, We headed off to Legal Seafood.

What you see pictured is what his friend ordered...and ate...and finished! I'm not a big seafood guy and not very adventurous, so I went with fish and chips. It was good. I felt like I was eating fast because I was afraid his dinner would crawl off his plate and eat mine. Ok, not really, but it was good and very filling. The portions were pretty large (as was the lobster, obviously).

Later that night we checked another thing off our list of things we wanted to do...a jazz club. Micah had found the name of a place that sounded good so we went and checked it out. I forget the name, but it was a little hole in the wall. The place was probably about 25-30 feet wide by about 100 feet back. It was pretty small, but the music was good, the beer was good and it was something new for me. I think we got there around 10:00 and left at midnight. It was definitely worth finding. It's amazing what some people can do with instruments. After that we finally headed back to our place and called it a day as we prepared for what would be one of the bigger highlights of the trip for me.

Dodger Update...

The Dodgers' magic number is now 1 after demolishing the Padres 12-4 tonight! Be ready for the champagne tomorrow!

Lunch on the Freedom Trail-Thank You, Boston!

Considering we started the Freedom Trail at 11:00 and didn't finish until about 6:00, we had to stop for lunch somewhere. We saw this place, the Purple Shamrock, which was advertising 1 1/4 lobsters for $10, and since we had talked about having seafood while in Boston, we decided to stop there and have lunch. While none of us ordered the lobster, we did have a good time waiting forever to have our order taken and our food brought to us. From the time we got seated to the time our food was brought to us was over an hour! A little frustrating to say the least.

However, while we there, we were seated right next to the screen you see in the picture. It is just there to run advertisements and one of the things it was showing was a place to send texts if you wanted to try to get them on the screen. Well, one of the things I said I wanted to do while in Boston was to thank everyone for giving the Dodgers Manny Ramirez. While I didn't do that, my friend Eric did. It happened to be the biggest one on the screen as you can see from the picture. How classic is that?!?!?!?!?!?! So, although I'm not directly responsible for it, we did thank Boston for Manny Ramirez.

Speaking of Manny Ramirez, as I speak, the Dodgers' magic number has been reduced to 2 thanks to the Cardinals beating the Diamondbacks today. Right now, the Dodgers are winning 6-3 in the 7th inning. If they hold on to win, that means our magic number will drop to 1! That means with 4 games left to play, we only have to win 1 game OR the Diamondbacks have to lose just one of their last four in order for us to go to the playoffs. How sweet is that! Oh and by the way, yesterday Manny Ramirez became only the second player in MLB history to have 50 RBI for two different teams in the same season. He is proof that one player can make a difference on a team.

Freedom Trail - Bunker Hill Monument

This is the Bunker Hill Monument, a monument to the Battle at Bunker Hill. It was the last stop on the Freedom Trail for us. We arrived at around 5:45 and they stop letting people go up into it at 5:30. But that's ok because the people coming out of it were dripping in sweat. It looks like a smaller version of the Washington Monument in DC.

In the next blog, I'll go back to other picture (non-Freedom Trail) and stories about the Boston trip.

And in unrelated news, the Dodger won and the Diamondbacks lost. Therefore, the Dodgers' magic number is now 3! They are 3 games up with 5 games to play. If things don't change, we'll be heading to Philadelphia to face the Phillies in a best-of-5 series beginning a week from tomorrow. Bring them on!

Freedom Trail - USS Constitution

This is me on the USS Constitution, aka "Old Ironsides." We were able to talk briefly with one of the Naval officers working on the ship and talk to her about working on the ship. She told us that this she considered it one of the greatest assignments available to anyone in the US Navy (who controls the ship). She seemed very proud to be there.

While in Boston, we found out that the reason the cannon balls would just bounce off the sides of the ship when hit is because of the copper in the "shell" (for lack of a better term from me) of the ship. That was pretty interesting to learn.

Well, just one more stop on the Freedom Trail that I will post tomorrow while I am hopefully seeing the Dodgers magic number (combination of Dodger wins and Diamondback losses) for clinching the division drop. It's been at 5 since after Saturday's games and hasn't changed since. We're 2 games up with 6 to play.

Freedom Trail - Copp's Hill Burying Ground

Copp's Hill Burying Ground was the last cemetery on the Freedom Trail. It has a beautiful vantage point that was understandably used during the Battle at Bunker Hill. (Did you think I could sound that intelligent?) It is in a neat location and is also the last stop on the trail before crossing over the river to the last two spots along the trail.

If you look closely at the picture of the headstone here, you can see how old the burying ground is. It is two of Copp's sons who died Dec. 22, 1661 (at the age of 2 weeks and July 25, 1678 (at the age of 2 3/4 years). When I saw the ages, my heart kind of sank as I couldn't imagine losing kids that young. Granted, times were different back then, but that doesn't make it any easier.

As I mentioned, just two more stops along the freedom trail. Then I'll just start picking out other pictures from the trip and sharing some more fun stories from a trip I'm still remembering very fondly.

Freedom Trail - Old North Church

Since it's after midnight, this is today's picture. The last one, although posted today as well, counts as yesterday since I'm up so late and did not technically post yesterday.

This is the Old North Church. Like the others, it is very beautiful in appearance, inside and out. This is kind of like the beginning of the end of the Freedom Trail as there are only a few more stops after this on the trail. The churches, including this one were all very interesting to visit because of how old they were and realizing what an important role faith played in the lives of the settlers and beginnings of our country. However, one significant fact about this church, is the fact that this is the sight of the origin of the saying "one if by land, two if by sea."

Freedom Trail - Paul Revere's House

This is Paul Revere's House. Yes, he actually lived here for some of his life. It was definitely like a trip back in time seeing how everything was setup and what rooms were used for what. It was a little weird walking through also because it didn't feel very sturdy. When on the ground floor, you could hear the floor boards above you on the second floor creaking loudly. Nonetheless, it was an interesting stop along the trail.

Freedom Trail - Faneuil Hall

This is the three of us inside Faneuil Hall. The large painting behind us has a key to the right of us that you can't see that shows the outline of all the people on the painting as well as their names. There was a girl (employee) there that was very informative about the painting and history. She was also kind enough to take this picture of us.

Freedom Trail - Old South Meeting House

Ooooooh, the picture is on the right now. Does that freak you out? Anyway, this is the Old South Meting House. Although it originally started as a church, it eventually became a meeting hall, which it is still used as today. It's been around since 1729. Yet another building that is older than dirt (or at least California dirt, since California didn't exist until 1850 and therefore California dirt could not exist until then...you get my point).

Freedom Trail - Old City Hall/Benjamin Franklin Statue

This is a picture of a statue of Benjamin Franklin, which is in front of Old City Hall. If you look closely behind the statue, you will see some closed umbrellas. Those are part of a patio area of what is now Ruth's Chris Steakhouse that now takes up part of the Old City Hall.

Freedom Trail - King's Chapel

This is the King's Chapel. It is one of the many historical (old) churches along the trail. I don't know much about it, but like the others, it is beautiful inside and out. If you want to know more about, just click on the link here. It also has an old burying ground next to it, but I didn't get a picture there.

Freedom Trail - Granary Burying Ground

This is a picture of Samuel Adams actual grave at the Granary Burying Ground, next to Park Street Church. As you might guess, it is a very old cemetery with a number of well-known revolutionaries buried here. I found a grave of someone who had died in 1688. The guy in the costume to the left of the headstone is a tour guide. We didn't take the guided tour, but there was a group at Adams' grave while we were there so we sneaked around them to get a good shot of the headstone. This was the first of two (maybe three...I can't remember) old burying grounds along the Freedom Trail. It's hard to believe that some of the people buried in these cemeteries have been buried for more than 300 years. That's pretty amazing!

Freedom Trail - Park Street Church

(Obviously I didn't get to post a blog yesterday, so I'm cramming two into today.)

This is a picture of the steeple of the Park Street Church. It is just across the street from Boston Common. The church was started in 1809 (41 years before CA became a state). There were many churches along the Freedom Trail. It is obvious that faith played a big role in the lives of the early Americans. It's a shame to see what has happened since then, but at least God has not changed. Why can't we return our country to the way it used to be in that regard?

Freedom Trail - MA State House

Here is a picture of the State House. It is still used as the state government's meeting place and offices. I like to think my picture is better than the one on the Freedom Trail website, but that's being nit picky. It is a beautiful building. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go in. I think that's because we went on Saturday, or maybe it's because they found out we were coming that day.

Freedom Trail - Boston Common

Here is a picture of Boston Common. I know it's one of the oldest public parks in America, but I'm not much of a historian. Therefore, you can read more about it here.

This is where the Freedom Trail starts. There is an information center where you can sign up for guided tours and get some souvenirs. It was beautiful and nice spot to start.

The Freedom Trail

Saturday was the day we literally walked all over Boston. We did the Freedom Trail. This is a 3-mile walking tour of 16 historic sites throughout Boston. As mentioned in my previous blog, we had set out alarms for 10:00 this morning after crawling into bed around 2:00. Good thing too as 10:00 seemed to come way too early!

So after we had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (huge on the east coast apparently), which was quite satisfying and yummy if I do say so myself, we jumped on the T and headed to Boston Common where the Freedom Trail starts. We headed off about 11:00 on this 3-mile journey. (The picture posted is off the three of us surrounding the Freedom Trail marker in front of the Massachusetts State House, symbolizing our walk along the historical path.) It was definitely an all-day thing. We arrived at the last sight, Bunker Hill Monument, at about 5:45! (Keep in mind we had lunch at a restaurant along the trail that took almost 2 hours due to very slow service...we're talking put your drink requests in a half hour before you need them, but still that's almost 5 hours of walking!) Nonetheless, we made it and survived. And it was well worth it.

I have never been a history buff, but some of the sites on this trail were amazing. I think what I'll do for the next series of blogs is provide you a link to each of the 16 sites with a picture from each of the sites. My goal while walking the Freedom Trail was to get at least one picture at all 16 of the sites along the way. I was successful at that, so stay tuned. However, you should know that I will not be posting another blog about the trip until Thursday as I travel to No Cal for work tomorrow for a couple of days.

Let the Good Times Roll

It was good to see Micah again, when he showed up after our naps. After all, it had been quite a while since we had seen him. (He moved to Texas a while back and just moved to Connecticut before our trip.) We said our hellos and decided to head out for dinner, sightseeing and some drinks.

I forget where we had dinner, but we also did little sightseeing in Copley Square (see previous blog) and the Back Bay area on Newbury St. if I remember correctly. After all that, we decided to check out a lounge/bar that we saw in the Boston book Eric had. That is the picture you see. This is at the Top of the Hub on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Center, overlooking the city, which you can kind of see in the background of the picture. We were just going to go to the bar and have some drinks, but it was SRO at the bar and we didn't feel like waiting around or paying the $24 minimum for a table. There was also a jazz band playing which is what we wanted to check out. However, as you can tell, we opted to get a table. Out stomachs were already stuffed from dinner (you know, that over-expanded feeling) but I decided to order some Calamari so that I didn't have to spend $24 on drinks since I hardly ever drink. Micah and I managed to pace our way through half of it over the two hours or so while we were there. I am holding a Rum & Coke, which was pretty good.

Our biggest adventure was actually finding the entrance to the building. We walked the entire distance around it before we actually found an entrance, which is pretty weird considering it's 52 stories tall. However, we did find it (obviously) and I think we got there about 11:00 or so. As I mentioned, we were there about two hours and decided to get a taxi since we weren't sure we could catch the last T by 1:00am. So we did and we made it back and were in bed around 2:00. Amazingly we decided to set an alarm for 10:00 so we would be able to get through everything we had planned for the next day. Good thing we did. We were all ready to sleep right on through the 10:00 alarm when it went off, but I guess that's a good sign that is a fun night.

The First Sights of Boston

Once we got a grip on where we were and got out into the city, Eric and I had fun taking in the local sights. We started off walking the length of Newbury St, which was lined with shops and cafes. Once we had been walking for a while, we decided to find a place for lunch and settled on Joe's American Grill. It sounded good and was reasonably priced, so we got a table.

Once we had indulged in our first taste of Boston, we headed off to Copley Square, home of the library and Trinity Church. The picture you see for this blog is me in front of Trinity Church. The architecture is amazing. It really shows how long it has been around and how much care they put into the design of the building. The stain glass windows were the most amazing I have ever seen. The detail on them was amazing. I have pictures of the inside of the church, but will probably just post them on MySpace (and maybe Facebook as well).

The library's architecture was pretty cool too. The inside was more amazing than the outside. The main reading hall was beautiful. There were actually a few people in there reading too, so we had to be quiet. I actually took a few seconds to look at a book in front of me about how the author ranked each of the presidents (up through Clinton) on various aspects of their presidency. Kind of interesting, especially to me because there were lots of numbers involved!

At this point in the day, we were pretty tired and still had a few hours to go until Micah arrived. So it was back to our room for a quality nap. And it was well worth it, especially after the bumpy red-eye flight.

Next up: let the fun begin!

Getting Around Boston

This is a picture of the subway system (Green Line) that we used to get around town while in Boston. There's nothing too exciting about it, but it did take a little getting used in terms of where the stops were that we needed and how to know which line to take. The key thing to remember was Inbound meant going into the city (downtown) and Outbound meant going out of the city.

As I eluded to in my last blog, it took Eric and I almost 2 hours from landing to check in despite our "home" only being a few miles away from the airport. Some of this had to do with getting my suitcase, which I checked (I think it was just over the carry-on size), but the main problem was that we got off the subway a little before we should have and therefore wound up walking farther than we needed to. We also started walking in the wrong direction initially, so that set us back a little too.

Fortunately, we had maps with us and were able to correct our missteps quickly. We became very familiar with T, as the subway is called there, and how to get where we needed to go. It was a very convenient transportation system. I can see why it is so widely used. Too bad LA doesn't know how to make something like this work. Then again, LA is very spread out compared to Boston which only seems to be a few square miles.

Next up: our first sightseeing

On another note, Courtney had her first audition today! Traci blogged about it, so you can check it out at her blog via the link on the left side of this page (Traci's Treasures).

In the Beginning

Welcome to the beginning of what I hope will be an interesting series of blogs about my recent trip to Boston with my good friends Eric and Micah over Labor Day weekend. My goal: a picture a day.

And so I start at the beginning of the trip. Eric and I tried to play the market in terms of flight times and pricing. In the end, we ended up taking a red-eye on Jet Blue out of Long Beach Thursday night. We took off at 9:30, then landed in Washington DC at about 5:00am local time for a layover before landing in Boston at 8:30 Friday morning. The flight had some pretty rough turbulence a couple of times (over the Rockies and Missouri area of mid-west), just far enough apart that it made it hard to get sleep of any meaningful duration. I think we each managed about 2 hours total on the flight. As I mentioned, we landed in Boston at about 8:30 Friday morning at which point we were very much awake.

Eventually we made it to the place we were staying, Anthony's Townhouse. Technically, it's in Brookline, not Boston, but it was only one or two blocks outside of Boston and about a mile away from Fenway Park. That brings me to the picture above. That is Eric jumping on what turned out to be Micah's bed. We thought it would be fun to jump on the beds so he did, which made for a Kodak moment.

Anthony's Townhouse is a small, family-owned and run place that used to be a bed and breakfast, but now is pretty much just a guest house with 10 rooms spread out of 4 or 5 levels, with just one bathroom per floor. We had one of the two rooms on the bottom floor and there were three beds in our room, with plenty of space left over. Micah recommended this place and it met our needs. We really only needed a place to sleep and shower, which is what we got from it, plus "Little Tony," but he's a story for a different blog. At $145/night, it much less expensive than most other places in Boston that you would feel safe staying at. It was also conveniently located next to the T (subway) which made travel very easy.

Next up? Our introduction to the T and the streets of Boston: why it took us almost 2 hours from landing to check in.

Back from Boston

Well, I have made it back safely from my Labor Day weekend trip to Boston with a couple of good friends. And just to let you know, this will be more of a summary blog than anything. My goal is to post a picture a day for about the next month or so to explain the happenings of the trip. I took about 130 pictures, so I'll be picking the best ones and the ones that represent the highlights of the trip. But just to give you an idea of what I will be elaborating on, here is how the trip went...

Thursday, August 28:
Red-eye flight from Long Beach

Friday, August 29:
Land in DC for layover before landing in Boston
Intro to Boston subway system and streets
Check into "hotel"
Sightseeing (Back Bay, Trinity church, Library)
Nap
Micah arrives
Dinner/sightseeing/barhopping (what's going on there?)

Saturday, August 30:
Breakfast
Freedom Trail
Sightseeing
Dinner (seafood)
Jazz club/barhopping (again?)

Sunday, August 31:
Breakfast
Museum of Fine Arts (MFA)
Red Sox game at Fenway Park
Harvard/Dinner
Barhopping (what have my friends done to me?)

Monday, September 1:
Fly home (breakfast in NY...Traci was jealous)

I may have left out some things or confused the order a little bit, but as I go, you'll get more details. The bottom line is it was more fun than I expected it to be, which is pretty good considering I went into the trip with high expectations. I do have to say, though, that I'm surprised at how well I held my alcohol. I consumed more this weekend than I had the rest of my life to this point. (Granted, I hardly ever drink, but still.) Hanging out and just being guys with a couple of good friends definitely made the trip a weekend I'll remember for a long time. I hope you'll come back and read about some of the details as I attempt to post a picture a day. It will be a challenge, but it will be fun sharing with you all the memories and good times.