Boston

(Stole the above picture from Lauren's blog. This is on Harvard Campus in Cambridge.)

I love Boston. It's been my dream city for a long time. And yet, I haven't been there in eight years. That's far too long.

My friend Lauren and I found cheap airline tickets up to Boston a couple months ago, and this was the big weekend. I flew up Friday afternoon, and she flew up later Friday night. That night I stayed with my good friend/former BYU roommate, Becca. It was great to see her! And to finally meet her kids. Even if they weren't too sure about me being in their house. :)

I met up with Lauren and another friend of ours (who lived in Baltimore before she got married and moved to Boston) and her husband. We ate at this Jewish deli called Zaftigs, near Coolidge Corner. All the food in the picture isn't ours; our friends pushed it across the table for the picture. (I love me some potato pancakes! They were huge and so tasty! Lauren got the stuffed banana French toast, their specialty.)

We spent some time downtown exploring the Freedom Trail. We first stopped at Haymarket, which is an open air market downtown that sells good produce for cheap. It makes me wish that we had something like this where I live. Excellent red grapes for $1/lb and yummy strawberries for $1.50/lb. Amazing!

Here we are at a spot between Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. (Stole this picture too. :) It's more fun to see us together than just me!) We got incredibly lucky this weekend weather-wise because it actually warmed up a bit after their big snow storm this week. Saturday it actually got up to about 40*F! (And was actually RAINING lightly towards the end of our time walking around.)

Me and the Massachusetts state house. (I've been there before, so this doesn't add another capital to my list, but I now have an updated picture!)

Boston Commons, and a lot of snow!

That night we went to a performance of the Boston Symphony, which was great! They played Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" (did you know the version most of us know of this was arranged by Rimsky-Korsakov? I had no idea!), followed by Beethoven's piano concerto #3, and Prokofiev's 6th Symphony. (Have I mentioned how much I love the Russian composers?) The hall the BSO plays in is so beautiful; it looks like something right out of the 1800s, with gold ornamentation and statues in each of the many arches around the top of the hall. And our seats were great; they do an under-40 special where you can get tickets for $20!

Sunday we went to church at one of the singles wards in Cambridge. Afterward we wandered around the Harvard area. I like the architecture of the buildings.

That night we went to dinner at Giacomo, this great place in Little Italy on the North End. We split a plate of butternut squash ravioli and an order of garlic bread. It was SO good! The bread was so buttery and garlicky (sometimes I swear I've got to be part Italian given how much I love garlic), and I loved the flavor of the butternut squash and the sauce was amazing! We then got cannolis at a bakery and ate them on our way to the train. Yum!

Also, I will note that the above picture is easily the best my hair looked all weekend. Between the wind and the winter dry, it was having a rough time. I'm glad this was documented so I can pretend it looked like this all weekend. :)

Such a touristy thing to do, but I took this picture because I just love good public transportation! (Especially trains. Oh, how I love trains.) I also thought the red things hanging above the train was some cool art in the station.

And lastly, it was snowy and icy in places, but I only slipped once! And it wasn't even that bad. Lauren said I did it very gracefully. :) We were walking back Saturday night and my left foot slipped forward, and my right knee went down and tapped the pavement. The rest of me didn't even go down. (Whew.) It didn't affect me at all, but it did end up leaving a bruise! But I guess things like this are what happen when you visit Boston in the middle of winter!

As I'm applying for jobs right now and considering "all my options," I sometimes have dreams about being able to just choose where I want to live for a change. (I feel lucky that most of the places I've lived have turned out great!) I've always wanted to live in Boston (at least to try it out), so it's extremely high on the list. (Definitely in the top five, probably the top two. The Bay Area area is also extremely high.) If this academic thing doesn't work out this year, I'm strongly considering applying for a job this area. It was great to be able to talk to people I know about potential job opportunities. (And always nice to know that if I DON'T get a job in the current academic cycle, I won't be totally up the creek without a paddle.) (Even though all the job stuff is totally overwhelming. Eesh!)

A great weekend filled with fun sights, good friends, good food, and gave me some things to think about. Success!