Category: Boston

Vacation Roundup

We’re back from a wonderful week-long Thanksgiving trip to Boston and New York, but somehow managed to take almost no photos. Oops?

In New York, we saw a fun group of my college friends (including one couple with their two week old baby!!), and a slew of Kevin’s college friends. Most people have been living their for at least as long as we’ve been in Washington, and it’s so fun to see the lives that they’re settled into. New York still isn’t my kettle of tea, but I bought a map this time with all the subways and neighbourhoods marked, so I at least felt competent. We also got to see my brother for a few hours during the afternoon football game.

We took Amtrak up to Boston on Monday, which was so much more pleasant that flying. Once there, we stayed with my aunt and her family (the same place we stayed before the wedding) – which was wonderful as always. Again, I’m so disappointed I don’t have photos. We didn’t manage to see Larry before he had to leave for Thanksgiving, but I did go to the Thanksgiving service at St. Andrews with my mom and sister (a treat), and the standard group was at my aunt Carol’s for Thanksgiving Dinner, which was enjoyable as always. It’s just good to be home.

I managed to actually get a good bit of knitting done over the week – the Conwy sock from Knitting on the Road, in Trekking XXL, color #104.

We got to Seatac airport, and I realized that I’d left my needles on the hall table. So disappointing! Luckily we were staying just a few blocks from Purl in NYC, so I went over there first thing on Saturday. It was a fun store to see, but (like everything else in that city) so expensive!! Luckily the needles were way cheaper than the yarn.

I’m afraid that I may end up ripping out the socks and starting over. These needles (#0) are a great size for the yarn, but I’m a bit below gauge and the pattern has very little stretch. I’ll give it a week and see if the socks grow at all – otherwise I’ll frog them and cast on a few more repeats.

On to the World Series!!

We just spent the last few hours watching the Red Sox earn their way into the world series!! What an awesome game, and how much fun for the next week!! I’ve been hit all evening with such strong nostalgia for my Boston apartment (it was just blocks from Fenway – quite the middle of things), and for who/where we were in 2004 during the last series when we’d just barely transplanted ourselves out to Seattle.

I’m sure that the new state of the living room wasn’t helping things:

I’m reveling in the emptiness, especially compared to the state of things circa Thursday. (I’m reposting the picture, just so that you can get the full effect. Wow, right?)

That said, it feels SO cyclical and like when we first moved in that I’m having sympathetic pangs for myself during that stage of life.

We spent the early afternoon getting the kayaks on the car for their voyage to the new home. The racks went on very quickly compared to last time, but we got a bit bogged down in finding all of the screws and straps for the attachments.

The exciting news is that we have a garage (it just doesn’t lose its magic when I repeat that phrase! Such possibility and freedom!)and so now I can (1) take the racks off my car so that they don’t whistle when I drive, and (2) we can store the racks with the attachments screwed on!! That’ll save us a good 25 minutes of screwing bolts every time we want to take the boats out – I’m psyched. Just put the racks on (5 min), lock them (1 min), boats on (8 min), and tie down (5 min, depending on organization level). Pretty cool!! And I can’t say how happy I am that this was the last time navigating the boats around the fish tank, over the front porch railing, and down to street level. I won’t miss that.

In new house news, we have carpet samples for the family room!!

We’d both liked this carpet on day one, when we were exhausted and overwhelmed, but when we went through all of the samples it was still our favourite. The color is a little tricky, since we want something light, and it needs to work with the couches-to-be and the fireplace. I like all of the samples together, so it’s hard to break out my favourite based on 1”x2” bits. We’ll see?

We’re still debating the washer/dryer issue. We’re pretty sold on the front loader style, but most of those are a bit deeper that the space available in the laundry room. 🙁 Our leading option (the Whirlpool Duet HT 9400 and matching dryer) is a good 2” too deep to fit. Very disappointing. I think we may end up with LG’s WM2455 washer and the dryer set, since it fits our max depth of 29¾” plus 4 inches of clearance in the back. Any opinions?

Finally (it was a busy day), we found a bed frame!! We’ve been looking for ages since it’s our wedding gift from Kevin’s parents, and the options kept just not being quite right. We both like sleigh styles (though not those where the footboard is too tall, and not the ones that are huge compared to the mattress), and I have an abiding fondness for the slats in mission designs. This bed combines both – I think it’s beautiful. There are surprisingly few pictures online, and most of them are dreadful. We’ll probably just have to post photos once it’s delivered.

Back to Boston

We went to Boston for the weekend (we’re such jetsetters. :-P). One of Kevin’s favourite fraternity brothers was getting married to his college girlfriend. Such a fun reason to go back. We redeyed in Friday morning, (miraculously) were able to check into the hotel eight hours early, napped for a while, and then hit the town.

We were staying right by the Common, so we headed over to walk along Newbury. I found a clutch for the wedding, and we met up at Trinity Booksellers (where my Boston knitting group used to meet). I drank tea and read the Globe while Kevin looked for a book, and then we headed to Croma for specialty pizzas and cocktail hour.

I put down the knitting for this picture. Kevin loves it — apparently I have a happy smile when I’m back in Boston.

And then a round of drinks later, here’s Kevin and Newbury street.


The weather was gorgeous, and the people watching was great. And later that night, after a nap, we met up with slews of Kevin’s college friends. Such fun. Especially where I barely got to talk to any of them at our wedding, I loved having the chance to catch up so soon after.

On Saturday, we split up to do our own things. I had errands (centered around the yarn store!), and Kevin wanted to play with his new camera lens. We’d barely left the hotel, though, when the sky just opened, and unleashed one of the longest and most dramatic thunderstorms I’ve ever seen. It went right over Downtown Crossing, and the rivers of water running down the brick streets, with pelting rain splashing everywhere, and simultaneous thunder and lightning, were truly spectacular.

We both flew back to the hotel to change, and then walked the two blocks (the rain let up just before, thankfully) to the Four Seasons for the wedding. It was gorgeous (my pictures are here — sorry that they’re so dark). It was so meaningful and interesting to attend another wedding barely two months after our own, and so fun to see Jim and Jess together.

I only have one picture of the two of us. I think Kevin should come up with more reasons to wear a tux. 🙂

And here are the bride and groom dancing together. 🙂