Dec 27, 2016

We left our hotel in the morning and headed to Allston Diner for breakfast. They had a nice vegan selection so we got the tofu scramble with BBQ seitan which ended up being incredible! It was a cute little diner place with nice staff and great food. They even had the proper coffee cups. It was good that we split the meal because we were properly stuffed afterward.

We went to Cambridge next for a little walk after our big meal. I took Becca to the MIT campus where the Frank Gehry building I like is located. We walked a little bit, wandered through a public art gallery of medical information, and then headed down to the river.

We started our run heading toward the Longfellow Bridge so we had the view of the city the whole way out. Once we crossed the bridge and sidestepped a lot of construction we were on the other side of the river where we headed back toward the Harvard Bridge for the loop. It was a perfect day for a run and there were a bunch of people out there with us. We walked along the river a bit after we finished our 3 miles to continue soaking up the nice day.

After way too much driving around we finally snagged a parking spot near the Institute of Contemporary Art and headed inside. It was split into two sections of exhibitions. The first side we walked through featured female artists and was full of a lot of really great pieces. Kara Walker's pieces that I saw in Australia were featured at the start of this exhibit as well.

The other side of the gallery had some interesting things, but mostly we weren't grabbed by it. We were also getting hungry (or at least I was) so that didn't help matters. There was one great audio/visual piece with randomized sounds made by ordinary objects displayed on televisions placed in a circle around the room. I really liked that one, but after we saw it we headed down the awesome stairway and out the door.

We ate chili and pepperoni bread leftovers on our short drive to Harpoon Brewery. Unfortunately the tours were all sold out for the day so we just had to get flights in the taproom. Another thing I had forgotten was they started doing set flights that you can't alter or add to so we had to pick from those instead of making our own like I would have preferred. I wasn't particularly blown away by any of the beers, and the overall experience of the crowded room left me longing for the old days when it was a smaller operation. I might be over that place.

It was time for sunset so I found a spot across the water at Piers Park with a view of the city I'd never seen before. The sky didn't light up too much, but it was still a beautiful show of color on the buildings as the sun dropped. There was another photographer there as well who was talking to me about the shots I was taking. It was also very cold and windy. I got some decent shots and once it was dark I made the call to head out.

Before we left Boston I wanted to finally try ice cream from FoMu, so we made our way over there and sampled a bunch of the amazing flavors. We ended up settling on peanut butter (which tastes just like a spoon of peanut butter, but even better!), cookie dough (yes.), and a chocolate thai spicy flavor. They were all delicious and refreshing on a cold Boston day.

Our plan was to go to Trillium Brewing for a flight, but when we arrived we found out they don't do flights and their beer is really pricy. We made the call to skip it and head to The Grange in Providence for dinner instead. There was a bit of a wait for a table which was frustrating as we were hungry and already disappointed about the brewery. Once we were seated I got a delicious dahl soup followed by what I came for: the Po Boy. It was a good as I expected, and it was the last one they had. I decided it was a good thing we didn't stay for beer or someone else would have gotten my sandwich! Becca got the seitan tacos which were also amazing.

We booked a room at the Marriott in Norwich, Connecticut for the night and made the hour drive there after dinner. We had a nice, big king bed that had pillows like soft clouds. It was a great way to end the night.

Sep 1, 2013

We started the day playing the heavily wooded and fun Bellamy DGC in New Hampshire. It was a cool course, beginning with a shot over a river/stream. Luckily the stream was dried up mostly, because on hole 2 I threw directly into it and had to climb down onto the rocks to get it. There were some longer fairways, but most of it was somewhat short but technical. The last few were just long narrow shots through tall trees. I really liked this course.

We continued south to Boston and went to Veggie Galaxy for dinner. They had great food and lots of desserts that I didn't get to try. We met Casie and Nathan at Harpoon Brewing for a tour. They updated their facility since last time I had been there so there is a huge dining room/bar where you enter now. The tour was a little different as well, but it was still a good one. You don't get to delve quite as far into the brewery as before, but you still get the free for all at the tap room after the tour. Their Pilot Session Pale Ale was awesome as is the White IPA. We hung out and got some pretzels after the tour with some beer.

We took our stuff over to their apartment and then Nathan took us downtown to the Microsoft offices, which are just amazing. They occupy the top 7 or so floors of one of the tall building downtown and they have a crazy sprawling view of the city. Not only that, they have pool tables, ping pong, and foozball, among many other awesome recreational activities. We spent most of the night there playing all the aforementioned games as well as a card game that was completely ridiculous. It was just a fun night. I was very envious. Am. We went back to the apartment and hung out watching a movie for a little while until we were too tired to stay awake any longer.

Jun 18, 2012

Kate and I got our stuff together and headed north for our trip in the morning. We stopped at the Pez factory in Connecticut, but they charge quite a bit for a tour so we skipped it.

It took us a while, but we made it to Vermont! And then we still had quite a while to go through the state.

Since it's right off the highway we stopped at Harpoon Brewery for a few samples of things like the Leviathan Quad and their small batch Saison. We looked around the store for a while and then got back on the road.

When we got to our campground we put up our tent, started a nice fire, and then got to drinking.

We ended up drinking quite a bit and had the fire going really well for a while.

It was a fun and slightly drunk night. We retired to the tent after the fire was totally out and we couldn't drink anymore.

Jan 15, 2012

We woke up in the cold parking lot not wanting to emerge from the blankets. There was frost on the windows and we eventually got up the courage to get changed and drive away.

I drove to a bridge with a nice view of downtown and went out into the frigid morning to take photos. I couldn't find my gloves so my fingers were going numb as I shot these. I was really loving the light on the city though so I dealt with the pain. We went downtown and saw some more nice sights then had breakfast at an awkward Dunkin' Donuts full of homeless and/or recently released inmates.

We headed north and made our way into Boston and looked into getting a room in the city. It was very expensive even to park so we looked into other options. We decided to go over to Harpoon Brewery and do the tour first.

They gave us samples and our small glasses straight away as they introduced us to the brewery. We started with the IPA.

The tour was great and our tour guide was really funny. He let us sample some IPA that was still in the tank and we could notice that it tasted a little flat. It still had a week or two to sit before it was ready. That was a cool experience. The brewery is really big and they do some great charity work in the area between Boston and Vermont, where their other brewery is.

After the great tour we came out into the tasting room and got our sample on. We managed to try everything that was on tap! There were so many good beers there. We ended up leaving with two growlers. One of them was the Chocolate Stout mixed with the Raspberry UFO which made a wonderful flavor. This is probably my favorite brewery tour/experience.

We headed south and stopped after a while at Tullycross Tavern in Connecticut for some samples and a break from the road. They had some good stuff including a couple of IPAs and a winter stout.

The rest of the drive home seemed long and we hit some traffic, but we eventually made it back. That was a whirlwind trip up and back. We did quite a bit in a short time. It was too cold to enjoy just walking around unfortunately.