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.

Dec 26, 2016

We got up before the sun and quickly headed out of the hotel to find a spot along the water for sunrise. When the first place was unaccessible I headed a short distance away and found a great spot with a view of an offshore lighthouse that was just in front of the glowing sky. The sun rose perfectly behind the lighthouse and I got some great shots. It was incredibly cold out there and I couldn't feel my fingers for a good while after shooting. But it was worth it.

As the feeling slowly returned to my hands we drove into Maine and headed to Woodland Valley DGC. We went into the office and paid to play, where several other groups had already started out. Disc golf is amazingly popular on the day after Christmas at a snowy course in Maine. The course itself was pretty nice, with the snow packed down it didn't feel too different than regular play. I did, however, lose a disc after shooting a second shot and somehow it disappeared in the snow. After a long search we accepted defeat and moved on.

We had to cut the course just a little early to make the 40 minute drive to Portland in time for our Allagash tour. When we arrived we got our badges that all had punny phrases using the word "tour." Mine was TOURture. They gave us our first sample of House Beer and we milled around for a short time until the tour began. Disclaimer: The rest of this post will be very beer heavy, so if you're under 21, please look away.

Our tour guide was hilarious and good at describing the processes of brewing without being overly verbose. It was a big crowd and he handled it well. It was fun little tour starting in the brewhouse with a sample of Allagash White, moving on through the old facility, and ending in the barrel room where they age everything. This is also where we got our last three samples of the day and got to wander around. We took some photos for people, people took some photos of us, and we just had a good time. All the beers were good, with the Little Brett and Sixteen Counties being my favorites.

Maine is nice enough to have great breweries right across the street from each other so we walked over to Foundation where we did some flights of really good beer. Everything was great. The Zuurzing sour was the standout. The Ember IPA was incredible as well. Overall just a great little brewery with a nice vibe.

Around the corner was Austin Street so we walked over there and sampled the three beers they had on. Both pale ales were very good and the stout was also tasty. This is a pretty great place to spend a whole day drinking.

We were heading for the coffee shop and I forgot that rising tide is directly across the street so we stopped there on the way. We got one flight that was decent and then moved on. It wasn't as good as I remember and it was a little crowded.

We walked over to the Portland Coffee Roasters and I got a delicious cold brew and saw this coffee bean on the trash sign. Things I did.

We headed up the street to the HoneyMaker Meadery and when we walked in everyone turned around like we were in a movie and the bartender asked us if we were in the right place. It was an awkward start. There may as well have been a record scratch as the music went off. Anyway, misunderstanding diffused, we did our tasting. The lavender mead was quite good, but the lavender mead lemonade was even better. He saved the best for last as there was a Chai mead that Becca and I both immediately agreed we need to get a couple bottles of. The bartender told us about a barrel aged sour at Oxbow right behind their bar so we went back there and did a quick sampling of two beers. Not bad.

We got to Pleasant Hills DGC maybe 45 minutes before sunset and it was already cloudy so it made it even more dark. We played 8 holes on the icy snow before it was too dark to find our way, but this is a course I'd definitely like to come back to sometime. It was mostly open, yet they made most of the holes pretty interesting in some way. 

After stopping at a brewery called Earth Eagle and finding the beer list and the atmosphere to be not at all appealing, we headed to Stoneface Brewing for another quick flight. There it is. The beer was pretty good, but I'm starting to think the amount of things we tried over the day possibly skewed my reactions.

We got to our hotel outside of Boston and got an Uber to Night Shift Brewing. The guy drove us in silence the whole way and I used my "first ride" credit to pay for it. Nice. The place was packed because they were doing Geeks Who Drink trivia night. We jumped right into the game and eventually went up to get some flights.

It was a very strange night, and Becca went and made the executive decision to take chair that people were using just for the jackets and purses so we could also sit down. Pretty awesome. The game was hectic and hard to hear the host over the crappy speakers or microphone. It was a bit stressful, and we only got to taste our beers once in a while during a break. The beer was good though.

After the game we breathed a heavy sigh of relief, finished our last beers, and then got an Uber back to the hotel.

Nov 2, 2013

I had been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading today. I had the morning to prepare and enjoy a little bit of down time before heading down to the Port-O-Call Hotel in Ocean City to meet the bridal party for pre-wedding photos. I had the girls and family pose on the deck, inside, and next to the boardwalk. After exhausting all the shots I could think of I did some other solo shots of the bride and then moved on to meet the guys on the beach.

Guys are just inherently easier to work with and much more fun for me. I did some standard shots then we went out on the beach for some walking shots before I had them climb up on the rocks. These are some of my favorite shots I've done with groomsmen and in general. They did some other fun things on the beach before we headed back to the ceremony spot such as having the groom punch the ground and everyone exploding out around him. It was great.

The ceremony awkwardly began about an hour later, with the bridal party staggering slowly down the boardwalk ramp that led to the beach. It didn't seem as if anyone was perfectly sure what was happening. Once they all got up front everything smoothed over. I must say it was an absolutely perfect day for shooting on the beach: no wind, sunny with clouds, and 70 degrees. This made shooting much more pleasant. The ceremony went off without a hitch.... wait, just one hitch. The marriage, that is. They did a nice sand blending thing that I liked and there were no seats, just free-form standing for the guests.

After the ceremony we did family and full wedding party shots on the beach and we got the girls up on the rocks too! The bride wanted to stop by her grandfather's house on the way out to take some photos with him because he was too ill to make it to the wedding. After that we headed to the reception at Sandi Pointe restaurant. The place had a giant lobster on the roof. Seems to be a trend in shore towns. I set up and took some shots of tables while we waited for everyone to be ready for introductions. It took a little longer than expected because Kate got turned around on her way to the reception.

The reception went basically the way they all go. People danced, people gave speeches, people cried, people drank, danced some more, ate food, cut cake, took pictures, ate cake, drank more, and slowly filtered out. I know it's a big day for the guests of honor, but really almost all receptions are identical with different heads on dancing bodies. Sometimes the DJ is good. This was not one of those times. Regardless, the reception went pretty well and we were out of there pretty early.

After a quick stop at Passion Vines for a growler fill, we headed back to Kate's to have some beer. It was a nice bit of relaxation after standing up with my camera all day. After having a few I headed home to really relax and lie in bed watching Party Down until I fell asleep.