Harbor Islands

It was my last day in Boston, and our last day as roomies (at least for a while), so we took a trip to the Harbor Islands. The weather was perfect. We had some time before the ferry so we wandered the North End, listened to some music in the park, stalked some fanny pack wearers, and stuck our heads in this thing. 

We went to Spectacle Island first. It was kite day! We skipped the walking tour to decorate our kite. 

N. was a pro kite flyer. 

                                     

After crashing the kite, I gave up and took a million pictures of the skyline instead. 

Then it was time for lunch! We brought a bottle of champagne that someone had given us at one of our parties. When N. opened it, the cork flew off, across the path, and landed in the bushes somewhere. We never found it. 

Our classy picnic. We got a couple of looks from passerbys as we sipped champagne from a bottle covered in a bandana. But no one said anything. 

We didn't have a way to close the bottle, so we took the empty wrapper from the animal crackers and tied it around the bottle with a hair band. Then we put the whole thing in a plastic bag in my backpack. It worked!

Then we went to Georges Island and took a wonderful nap on top of the fort wall. We also drank some more champagne while hiding behind a cannon. I'm pretty sure a park ranger saw us. 

The ferry was confusing and super disorganized, but it worked out in the end and we made it back in time to shower, make cookies, finish packing, and tandem to Punters for my going away party. 

It was almost too good of a day. I'll miss you Boston :( 

June Day BBQ

It's that time again...PARTY!

This time the weather was nice so we decided to have a BBQ, vegetarian of course!  The (facebook) invitations were set, the calendars marked and the planning began.  S. really wanted veggie kabobs and I wanted corn.  We also decided to get some veggie burgers and iced tea!  Luckily our boss took us to Costco the week before so we stocked up on Boca Burgers, cheese, contact solution and other necessities.

The day of the party S. and I got started on making the veggie kabobs.

It was a long process but we did manage to throw our porch table down into the yard and V. helped us take the silk out of the corn.

Soon guests were arriving, beer and watermelon in hand.

Right as we were about to try and light the grill D. walked in and, since he is evidently some sort of West Coast BBQ god, took over the cooking.  S. and I played sous chef for a while grabbing foil, matches and spices but all of the cooking was kindly taken over by D. and J.  

Iced tea was drank out of jars and we even made s'mores, treating M. to his FIRST EVER S'MORE in the process.  

 

After eating most of the group moved towards playing wiffle ball, frisbee or trying to learn to skateboard.

Some of us still have wounds healing from the latter.  Towards the end of the night a guitar emerged and I could feel the JP hipster-ness oozing from our yard.

Party complete!

-N.

Six Pack Shuffle I

Since we first heard of the concept of a 6 pack shuffle we have wanted to do one. The idea is everyone gets a six pack, then you think of 6 places to bike to. At each place you drink a beer. You try not to die. 

We left right after work and headed to the Zakim. 

M. and D. met us there. 

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After that we went to a park in Cambridge. After which Q. ditched to go home, but we continued on and played on the playground!

 Then went up to the roof of a parking garage. The view was great and biking through the garage was awesome. G. met us up there after much difficulty getting in - evidently they lock the doors around 11.

 I seem to recall we played ninja warrior, then N. tried to crush a can by blowing on it.

Of course we went to New York Pizza.

Then we stopped in one of the Northeastern building to go to the bathroom. Where we took this picture for some reason.

 And found a cart with wheels on it.

And we all made it home alive!

We didn't actually make 6 beer stops, but it was a good first effort! Stay tuned for more.

My Thai Vegan Cafe

 We have always wanted to go to this vegan place in Chinatown and we finally did! It was about a month ago, but blogging is hard to do.

Everything is vegan, and the menu is huge. They have a lot of fake meat stuff, which is not really our thing but I guess it would be good for some people.

We went after work and it was deserted.

G. ordered a giant slice of chocolate cake. The waiter brought 3 forks, as if he were going to share with us. Nope. 

 I got crispy triangles and bubble tea. They were ok, but I wish there were more vegetables inside.

N. got some sort of curried noodles. She says they were good but she doesn't really remember.

The bubble tea was the best part! Not sure if I would go again since most normal Chinese restaurants have enough vegetarian stuff already.

Lexington

N.'s dad found this wind-powered motor thing on craigslist or something that some guy was giving away for free and he wanted it for his boat. N's dad lives in Florida; the thing was in Lexington...

Time for a roomie adventure! 

I actually really didn't want to go because it was early Saturday morning and I am lazy, but I did it. The weather was beautiful and to get in the spirit we made up a song as we were biking. It went:

"We're going to Lex-ing-ton

It's going to be a ton. of. fun. 

There will be no rain

Only sun

It's going to be a ton. of. fun. 

Who is going?

Two, not one

It's going to be a ton. of. fun. "

There is no tune. Thankfully we didn't pass many people on our way to Cambridge. 

We arrived in Cambridge looking pretty cool. 

We then met our manager/friend Q. who let us borrow his car. N. can drive!

But not park.

The motor thing was wayyy smaller than expected. 

So we had a lot of room in the trunk. We went to Trader Joe's and DSW and JoAnn's. There I found this awesome Duct tape while N. was busy looking for fabric and fancy needles. 

Not gonna lie, this trip kinda made me want to move to the suburbs. Everything is so big and clean there and it's easy to get around! It was nice to be back in the city though. 

We ended the day successfully with a full car! 

Later that day, we biked to a BBQ in West Roxbury. Who knew West Roxbury was so nice? I would totally move there. Lots of hills though. We even had to walk our bikes up one (don't tell anyone).

We arrived home to this lovely couch in our yard. Our landlord was moving some stuff and left it. We relaxed on it for a bit until he came back, at which point N. literally jumped up, ran away, and tried to hide in the basement. I played it cool.

A wonderful summer day :)

Midnight Marathon

I convinced some people to do the Midnight Marathon with me!  Despite a few initial road bumps like failing to obtain a Midnight Marathon Train Ticket (Q. missed the sale by only a few minutes!) and missing the first charter bus, thanks to Facebook and a stranger named Jed Jeng I was able to get all 8 of us onto the 2nd charter bus!  Woohoo!

As the night approached (Sunday April 14th in case you are wondering), I got a little nervous and decided to do a trial run on my day off.  I carefully mapped out a route on google, copied directions down and headed out on my bike.

Per usual I missed my turn and ended up in Milton.  Then Roslindale and finally Dorchester to where I was actually heading...Target!  At the end of the day I was confident that I could ride the route and had managed all of my errands as well.

This was actually my second year doing the ride and I was a bit concerned that since losing my bike naivety I couldn't go out on this ride unprepared.  Last year we had hopped on the trail with only our bikes, a few snacks and some water but had miraculously finished unscathed.  This time I was certain I'd get a flat and remain the laughing stock of my work.

So I decided to make a flat kit!  Initially I was working on a fanny pack but then decided to just make a bag that connects to the bike, large enough to hold a tube, tire levers, multi-tool, 15mm wrench and a banana!  I researched a few models online and got to work.

Half a day later with the help of V.'s sewing machine I was set!  Reflective details and all.

Sunday rolled around and one guy dropped out of our group!  I also worked all day.  D. and Z. met me after work and along with DD we rode over to South Station where I had to continue work by handing out coupons and stickers.

Tons of cyclists mulled around with excitement in their eyes and shiny new stickers in their fists.  Q., C., and F. met us at the station and I managed to sell the extra ticket.  We stuffed our bikes under the bus (except for Z. who put his in a UHaul) and set off for Hopkington!

One hour 51 minutes and 56 seconds after we unloaded our bikes at the start line and took off we made it to Copley Square, somehow losing D. in the mix.  Along the way we'd chatted up new friends, raced old ones and couldn't figure out which measly hill was supposed to be a Heartbreaker.

Orange Marmalade Ice Cream

No words necessary.

-N.