George's Island

Delys (our downstairs neighbor) and I decided to go on a girls only adventure to George's Island.  The island was free, you just had to pay for the ferry over there.  And it was FUN!

I'm pretty sure the ferry we came in on was leaking because the whole ride to the island I saw the crew members carrying full buckets of water out of the engine room and then dumping them overboard.  Weird.  And I'm pretty sure the driver had no clue how to drive a boat either.  I almost died laughing when the driver had us hit a wave sideways and everyone on the whole boat fell out of their seats.  I felt really sorry for the girl who was down in the engine room at the time.  She came up moments later, her whole body soaked.  HA!

Just let to let you know Georges Island is a civil war POW camp/fort and it was really cool.  They don't have anything fenced off and you can go into all of the rooms and explore everywhere without a tour guide. It would make for the best flashlight tag/paintball/hide and go seek game ever! Below to the right Delyse is pointing to the shrine next to our house (not the airplane tower).

The only thing is, there is no electricity.  So all of the rooms are pitch black and really really creepy.  I used my flash on my camera just so we could see what was up ahead. There are lots of stairs that just go up into nothingness and once you start thinking about all the dead and diseased civil war soldiers you start getting really freaked out.  Delys is hardcore though, she walks down pitch black corridors, opens random doors and is like "Let's going up these [creepy] stairs, I think there might be light up at the top"

These pictures are a more realistic view of what it was like walking through the fort and these were the rooms with the most light.

The hospital... just think, typhoid everywhere

They had political prisoners, union deserters, and captured confederate soldiers in different areas.  And get this, the confederate soldiers got fed better than the union deserters?! They only got a piece of salted ham and rice

Ahhh... light!

I think these peeling paint textures looked pretty cool.

Arriving back in Boston. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone who is adventurous

The shrine

There is a catholic shrine behind our apt that is pretty humongo and we rode our bikes up there to go check out the view.

You can see our apt (the cute yellow one) and where we are to the city. Pretty nifty

This is what is on the other side of it.  Who would have known

Our Landlady is a wonderful Italian lady and she has made us several delicious Italian dishes.  One of them being Fried Zucchini Flowers.  I didn't know you could do that but they are pretty good.

Around town

Beacon Street (McKay's street)

I like this picture

I went in there and they really DID know my name

Just kidding.  But we did eat there, and I didn't particularly like it.  They actually had pretty bad service.

Boston Tea Party

Oh yes we did

Lifesavers

My mom, Amanda, Heather and Adam came up with us to Boston when we were moving.  They helped us carry all of our things up three flights of stairs.  Adam was a hero.  Without him McKay would be dead and it would be only us girls left.  It took McKay, Adam, our neighbor John and Delys three hours to get the couch up the windy circular stairs.  Needless to say, it barely fit. And it is not coming down, unless we throw it down or chop it in half.  After that long hard day we went into Boston and went exploring.  Here is our T station looks like:

 In D.C. if it isn't brand new it is unusable, so I had a big shock when I came into this thinking it was going to be like the Metro.  But I guess that is how everything is here. Really really old.  This is kind of a random fact but they still have a lot of lead paint in all of these old apartments and houses in Boston. I thought it was funny when we were looking for an apt because we found "De-leaded"to be advertised a lot.

That's a pretty big hole

poor manny

We ventured down to Little Italy. (we mainly went there b/c they had these fluffy doodads in the air but w/e)

Choices... choices...  We decided to go down to Mikes Pastry Shop which is "the" shop to go to and people wait in a line around the block to get their cannoli's and other delicious mini heart attacks.  I LOVED their chocolate chip cheesecake. Yum Yum Yum!

Apparently we had come during a celebration for one of their patron saints and were having a parade and a fair.  The Italian Marching Band came through and this saint thing with money pinned to it.  I just wish one of those bills would fall off...

We ate at one of the street vendors that was there for the celebration.  I tried a rice ball.  It had peas, hamburger, gravy inside the rice ball and it had some sort of crunchy coating on the outside.  It was ok, I think I should have gotten the italian sausage with grilled onions and peppers though. But its nice to try new things.

So all in all we had a fun time and we are glad they came and helped us move in. Thanks!

Where's my history buffs?

Nice huh? Wouldn't these teeshirts look great on a certain history teacher? That's what I thought.  AWESOME!

Or how about your own copy of the Declaration of Independence on legit old looking paper, or a mouse pad, or a mug?  Don't forget, they have the same thing but a Constitution version as well.  My favorite would be the feather quill pen.  Definitely cool.

Yep, this is what we did on our anniversary. We went to the Boston Massacre site.  Yay for 4 years! This is not the site by the way but a couple of blocks away from it.  After that we went to the Boston Commons, had a picnic, and people watched.

 These other pictures are from the Boston Commons and Public Gardens.  We spent hours just watching really interesting people.

Applying for jobs...

Every cover letter and resume I rewrite for a different job makes me want that one really bad.  I don't even know how many I have turned in so far.  All I know is that it is a lot.  Most recently I applied for a photo retoucher job.  Seems pretty like a nice job and I would love doing it.  Now, I just have to wait, and fill out more applications while I'm at it.  *sigh*  I will be glad when this is over.  

So check this out. This is an art teaching position I applied for in Hull, MA. I would have to take a boat every day to get there! HOW COOL!!!

Around the school

McKay's school is in the Back Bay area which is the most expensive area in Boston.  Everything around his school is super duper nice.  Apparently it is not uncommon to see celebrities walking around. 

McKay's school is inside the Sears' Mansion (which is where New England College of Optometry is now located).  Pretty neat. 

These stairs were in "her" wing. I think they are beautiful!

Chandelier in "his" wing.  This is the hallway to the different classrooms.

nice ceiling.

Where the Red Sox play. One "Go Yankees" and then you die

The neato ivy crawin all over these buildings. Love it.  Maybe I should have ivy cover my whole house later in life.  That would be cool. But I'd have to make sure it is the nice kind and not the mean kind that tears apart the bricks with its roots.

Oohh looky looky! There's a Paper Source! I probably shouldn't ever go in there. Ever. I'm serious.

This last one is the beach near our apt.  It's not the cleanest one out there but it's still a beach.

Our drive from MD to MA

Google maps says that you can make it from Maryland to Boston in 6 hours.  I honestly don't think this is possible.   We pass through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, New Haven, Hartford or Providence, and then finally Boston and it has taken us 10 hours every time because we hit traffic in at least one of those cities.  I talked to someone who said he had done it in 6 and i think he was lying and trying to make himself feel more macho for doing so.  Frustrating!

Philadelphia 

New York City

Do you see the face? Two eyes, a mouth, and two arms coming out to get you? RAAWRR!

So as we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper in traffic we heard on the radio that there was a tornado that just touched down in Bristol.  And guess where we were?  That's right, stuck on the highway in Bristol, CT. (My worst fear is tornados by the way.) This bad boy was right out our window swirling and swirling around and we were just praying that traffic would start moving again.  

Here is the view on the other side of the car. This event seriously traumatized me and now I officially hate the state of Connecticut.