11.7.07

a fortnight in New England

Ahoy hoy! What a marvelous trip I just had with my boo to her old NE stomping grounds. Let me tell you all about it (mainly so I can relive the past):

Arrive in Boston after a wonderful non-stop flight on JetBlue. Honestly, JetBlue is one of the best things happening to America right now, and even the red-eye is bearable, nay, enjoyable. Leave that afternoon for friend Carrie's Maine lake house, where we spent 5 nights on the waterfront. Daytime activities include canoeing, swimming, laying, eating, laying, and swimming. Nighttime: grilling, watching scary movies (both "Cape Fears," for example). It was a big, gay time.

Back in Boston for a night then on to a solo NYC trip (briefly leaving official New England). As many know, a NYC trip means non-stop, short visits: lunch, coffee, dinner, drinks. Somehow it's never stressful for me because I'm seeing people I like and I don't care if a cross-town bus is involved. Stayed with the wonderful Mer-Bear (Merry Andrews) who introduced me to her world of arts and crafts at her newfound love, Little Shop of Crafts, for which she will be the Upper-West Side store manager. (See very early postings on this blog for more about Merry). One of the highlights was dinner at Amy Ruth's near her Harlem apartment. Let's just say I've never had honey-dipped fried chicken before, and now I can't imagine my life without it.

Met up with Leah and her family to leave NYC for their place in the Berkshires...a small but kick-ass wildnerness house. Got to see two renowned performances, one at the dance venue Jacob's Pillow and the other at Tanglewood. I'm definitely not a modern dance fan (I feel like I could run around in gentle circles waving my arms and call it 'art', but the venue was cool). Heard lovely Beethoven Fuges via Emerson String Quartet at Tanglewood which was nice, although taking all of the retired "Berkshirians" sprawled out on the grass with a grain of salt. Day we left I got some awesome goat cheese from a po-dunk farm and had breakfast at a cafe that rehabilitates and employs adults with mental-health issues (as Carrie, who works with this sector, would say: adult retards).

That day we drove back to Boston for a baseball-filled evening. We walked from Leah's house to Fenway...just her dad, the girls and me. As you may or may not know, I'm relatively new to baseball and consider myself a loyal Nationals fan, but there was something differently-exciting about going to Fenway for the first time, including the seriously-obnoxious Sox fans, including Leah's own dad. I mean, is everyone a bum??

After that is was off to Cape Cod for the Fourth. Leah's family lucked out and moved to Brookline 35 years ago; I'd consider them about as blue-collar as you'd get in that part of the city. Necessarily, though, a lot of her friends from Brookline HS have different experiences and lawyer/doctor-type professions. Needless to say, for whatever reason, they've got Cape houses. So we got to go to the Cape.

A beautiful hike on the bayside to a sandbar for swimming, a walk-up raw bar, a fun-filled BBQ with the necessary (and, on this end, quite missed) summer thunderstorm...it was a really fun time.

Now I'm back in SF and realizing that the east coast is definitely where my heart is. I'll be back eventually!

1 comment:

Morning Pages said...

I haven't checked your (or anyone else's) blog in a very long time. I'm glad to hear you went to a Sox game...even tho you had to endure rowdy Sox fans like myself. Your New England vaca sounded like something out of my dreams!

I still want to visit SF someday soon, but I "need" to visit my friend Michelle in Perth, Australia before she moves back to the U.S. in late 2008. (Any desire to be my travel buddy?) After I recoup my money from that ex-travel-aganza, it's on to the fair city of San Fran.