beantown

we went to boston...aka beantown...and it wasn't for anything medically related {gasp!}. and it was on this trip that i realized what a seriously cool city boston really is. we gallivanted around the city with bryan and catherine and barely scratched the surface during our 2 night 1.5 day stay, but we had a blast. 

we got to stay in legit MIT student housing in cambridge as catherine's brother is a business student there and they were out of town.

we spent our saturday walking from bunker hill to beacon street along the red brick {and red painted} freedom trail. 

the weather was AMAZING. it was a balmy 50-something degrees and we didn't even wear our coats for most of the day. on our two and a half mile walk, we saw the bunker hill monument, the skinny house {i've never seen bryan so giddy}, old north church {where paul revere's lanterns shone}, the site of the boston massacre, the old state house, granary burying ground {and a few other super cool cemeteries}, the massachusetts state house and boston common, among other things. 

{including this really stunning memorial for veterans of the wars in iraq and afghanistan.}

 

boston even had special garbage cans for chubby girls like me! so sweet.

we stopped to get lunch at quincy market and clam chowder has never tasted so good. especially when capped off by a pistachio cannoli from mike's pastry. if you've never been, go. just go.

we spent our nights relaxing and pretending to stay awake during movies and chats. only we aren't very good pretenders. leah flirted it up with bryan {she was actually superb on this trip...three cheers for leah!} 

we snuck into sacrament meeting at a student ward nearby on sunday {well, bryan, catherine and i did...ryan was in the hall with a seriously wiggly and giggly four year old}.

ryan's highlight of the trip? - eating eclaires and fresh new england clam chowder 

bryan's?: the skinny house. hands down. 

catherine's?: escaping the upper valley and being in civilization for a few hours

leah's?: wearing my gloves on our 2.5 mile walk back to the car. hilarious. 

and mine?: being asked if we knew "any backstreet boys songs" to help some teenagers out on a video scavenger hunt near boston common. i know this should make me feel ridiculously old because 1) they didn't know any bsb tunes and 2) they thought i looked old enough to have such information in my head. well, they were right. and it made my day. catherine and i jammed out to "i want it that way" on their video camera while they tried their best to sing along. i was humming it for the rest of the night. good times, good times. 

all in all, our quick jaunt to beantown was a seriously fun success. can't wait to do it again...no doctors involved.