This past weekend, Daniel and I drove up to Boston, Massachusetts. We did not lose our wooden legs, we just wanted to go visit Sam, Dan's best friend and rowing buddy from his undergrad years. Anyone get the wooden leg reference? Maybe only my high school field hockey friends would... Anyway, on to mini-vacation pictures! |
Dan and Sam have managed to squeeze a few climbing expeditions together into their busy lives over the years since undergrad, and if Dan isn't texting me or his immediate family he's probably texting Sam. I also frequently text Sam, but we mostly chat about what we're making for date-night dinner, who our favorite contestants are on GBBO, or how to cheer Dan up when he's feeling down. I've never been to Boston before, and it had been a while since we'd seen Sam, so up to Boston we went.
Disclaimer: Dan and I are apparently only good at taking pictures of our cats, so the following is going to be a little extra hyperlink-y due to lack of vacation pictures...
One of the most important qualities a good host can have is planning out good times as well as great food, and Sam is one of the best hosts EVER. The first bit of our trip was largely dedicated to the Museum of Science. After grabbing some bagels from Bagelsaurus, we took the scenic route along the Charles River past MIT and some lovely boathouses to get to the Museum from Sam's house. While we didn't get to see everything the Museum had to offer, I thought the Conserve @ Home and Investigate! exhibits were pretty rad, but Lighting! stole the show in Dan and Sam's eyes. For lunch we went to Yankee Lobster, and the deliciously fried Fisherman's Platter only made Dan and I miss Keyport Fishery in NJ a whole lot. |
We rounded off the day as any reasonable group of people would by playing a 5.5-hour-long game of Risk with Sam's roommate. I was doing pretty well at first (see green forces on the right), but Sam, like the crafty jerk he is, likes to make deals with people and then betray them...Nice move Sam. We ended up calling a truce because Sam wanted to make everyone some burgers (which were super tasty). We got to meet Sam's girlfriend over dinner, and exhausted as she was from med school, she was super fun to hang out with :) Also, Dan and I do not drink alcohol, but we thought that beer in the picture on the right tasted rather nice and you should try it if you like sour/fruity brews. |
I only remembered to take a photo of one meal, and I didn't even get the entire thing. Regardless, our Speciaal Frik (pictured on the left), hand-cut fries, and crispy wild mushrooms from Saus were all absolutely amazing. If you ever go, I highly recommend their Vampire Slayer dipping sauce, especially if you love garlic. I could easily go to Saus every day for lunch, so I'm a little bit glad that it's 6.5 hours away from my home haha. Dan and Sam went climbing on Saturday at the Central Rock Gym and spent the rest of the day planning a late September trip down to the New River Gorge in West Virginia (as US climbers do). |
Before making us a lovely swordfish dinner, Sam introduced us to an Amazon Original Series called Catastrophe, which is equal parts hysterical, heart-wrenching, and incredible. We also got to experience our first barcade (bar + arcade) which was actually pretty fun, even for two old souls/shut-ins like Dan and I.
The rest of our Boston trip was dedicated to all things aquatic (other than our breakfast at Cafe Luna, which was decidedly citrusy and delicious on my part - lemon ricotta pancakes all day every day, please and thank you). During our meanderings around Sail Boston, we made a detour into the New England Aquarium to escape the sun for a few hours. Actually, the real reason we went to the aquarium is because Dan and I really love marine biology; we spent the entire time there dragging poor Sam around going "Ooooh, they have a cuttlefish tank!" and "What do you think petting a fur seal would feel like?". He was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.
We met back up with Sam's girlfriend and roommate (and Dan's aunt and cousin in a surprise drop-in <3) for lunch at Dumpling House, where I experienced my first ever soup dumplings. Dumplings were already pretty great in my book, but soup dumplings have ruined me: now I will always want them with just as much broth as filling. We treated ourselves to Toscanini's ice cream, where I discovered the joy of cardamom and earl grey tea ice cream. As if that wasn't enough, we finished our day with delivery Fico pizza from Ecco Pizzeria. I can honestly say that it took my stomach until Tuesday night to recover from this past weekend, but it was all worth it. Thank you Boston, and thank you Sam!