Visitor from the Deep North

My great friend Shannon, who I've known since 1996, is here visiting from Alaska. We are having a great time!

Here's the view of Boston from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument.

We walked all over Boston on Friday. We went first to Bunker Hill and then we wandered to Faneuil Hall. My roommate Dianne was giving a Ranger Program about the history of Faneuil Hall. We ate burritos at Boloco (and I had my favorite, a peanut butter smoothie with Soy Milk. Shannon wasn't so impressed). We also got half price day of the show tickets for Blue Man Group.

We had time to kill before the show at 2200 hrs so we wandered to the Old State House. The Old State house balcony is where the Declaration of Independence was first read. The reenact it every Independence Day. The building is a museum now. Our favorite room in the museum was the Favorite Things gallery, staff picks with some amusing explanations of why each artifact or painting was a favorite.

We got a seat at the Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in Boston. I had some fantastic lobster ravioli. Shannon had a really tasty looking lobster, shrimp and scallop dish. We had Boston Creme pie for desert.

Then we went to the show (after wandering around the Theatre district for awhile to find it). I hadn't known what to expect, but it was really neat. Here we are afterwards with one of the cute Blue Men. Notice that he has no ears.

On Saturday we got up and drove to Harvard, MA to pick apples at Phil's Orchard. We met Phil, he was making cider. We each bought a little quart jug for $2. We also got 1/2 peck bags to fill with apples. And being U-pick, we could eat as many as we wanted. Shannon ate three, I was more cautious and only ate two, but they were so good!

Here they are dangling off the branches, ripe, juicy, and ready to be eaten. We didn't find any of those nasty Styrofoam apples you sometimes run into in the grocery store. These were all so sweet and yummy.

Here's Shannon taking her first bite of a fresh off the tree apple.

Later, Shannon made a fantastic apple pie with our fresh, delicious apples.

On Saturday afternoon we went to Harvard Square to see the Head of the Charles Rowing Regatta. I signed up to win a trip for two to Peru from GAP Adventures (the travel company who's catalog makes me drool). But the neatest thing about the Rowing Regatta wasn't the vendors (and that sickening fried dough. Why did I eat it?) or watching the crews slide by on the river. It was the used bookstore on the way back to the T. I think Shannon and I may be nerds. Happily so.