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Despite the perfect biking weather today, we still had some trouble getting out of the house for a ride. So, we decided on just to tool around Vienna. We headed up to a nearby cemetery that we’ve been meaning to see, and then just putzed around the back streets of Vienna. It was a short, short ride, but it was good to get out on the bikes finally.
Trip miles: 6.2 miles
Weekend miles: 6.2 miles
Season miles: 242.5 miles
Laurie came out my direction today so we could shop and scrap. Sadly, my normal scrapbook store was completely uninspiring today. They’re supplies seemed to be a bit thin, though they had gotten in a few new papers since I’d been there last. One problem might be that they’re making room for the new stock they’re expecting – scrapbook companies trot out their new lines at a convention in mid-July, and then ship to stores sometime after that, so new stuff should be on its way soon, I assume.
Anyway, despite the uninspiring store, we did walk out with some fun new supplies, and went back to my house where we each worked on a spread. Laurie did an awesome “Connor’s first ballgame” spread, and I worked on a spread with my two nieces. 
As usual, we didn’t have enough time together, but we did get re-inspired to work on our own, and are talking about getting together in a couple weeks.
After Laurie headed home, I worked on a second spread of my Halloween pictures from 2003. I’m finished, for now, with the major scrapbooks that I had on my list (i.e. wedding and cruise), so I’m now going back and scrapping my random pictures from each year, going back to about 2003.
Ares was waiting for me, as if he knew it was time for the kitten check:
Artemis and Duncan were both sleeping in the master bedroom:
[Posted a bit late, but the pics were still taken Friday]
I’d heard from one of the locals that the whale watching was spectacular this year, so I talked Andrew into going on a whale watching trip today. We took one of the three-hour tours out from Long Wharf (yes, a three hour tour…I get it, okay?). The boat took an hour to get out to the whales’ feeding grounds. There was a group of four whales feeding there – three grown whales and a calf. The whales would stay at the surface for a few minutes, and then dive (showing their flukes on the way) for a few minutes, reappearing later at some random location not terribly far from where they’d dove.
The calf got curious about our boat, and one surfaced on one side of it, swam under, and surfaced on the other side. My pictures don’t really show a scale, but s/he was about half the size of the catamaran we were on.
After we returned from the whale watching tour, we poked around Faneuil Hall, picking up a t-shirt for Felicia (she was here last November with us, but didn’t get a shirt because we couldn’t find a Build-a-Bear in a touristy area) and taking pictures of more of the Cow Parade cows. Finally we headed back to the hotel to rest and pack up for our trip home tomorrow.
We spent much of the day at the Museum of Fine Arts. Andrew had read that they have the largest collection of Monets outside of Europe. So, even though Andrew is not a huge fan of Impressionism, he took me there. Fear not, there was plenty there for Andrew, too.
The museum had a large collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. (Sweetie, I took the hedgehog picture for you. It’s an Egyptian vessel of some sort.)
They also had a great collection of antique instruments (plan little bit ahead for this one &150; the instrument room opens an hour after the museum, and closes about an hour before). In addition to some impressive harpsichords and pianos, they had some highly decorated harps and stringed instruments. Of course, I homed in on the case with a saxophone, which is pictured to the right. The other instrument in that picture is actually clarinet.
Of course, my favorite part was the Impressionism room. There were two of Monet’s Waterlilies and a slew of others. In the next room were a few Asian-inspired European pieces, including Monet’s La Japonaise, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before (in books or online, that is, since of course I haven ‘t seen it in person before). That’s the on pictured to the left.
After we left the Museum of Fine Arts, we poked around Boston Common for a while, seeking out some of the Cow Parade” cows.
Our final stop, for a busy, busy day, was a the Museum of Science for Body Worlds. Body Worlds is an exhibit of plastinized bodies. The exibition is touted as “educational”, though I might argue with that assessment. Certainly there was an educational aspect to the exhibit – there were rows of cases containing plastinized organs organized by the system they’re associated with (such as locmotion or digestion). These cases also showed some unhealthy examples of organs, such heart that had gone through a heart attack. And these cases were certainly educational.
However, the crux of the exhibit were the full bodies that were on display. They started innocently enough with just a full body, then one with a man leaning back with his hands behind his head, and one with his arm extended for a handshake. But then they started getting weird. There was a woman in a diving position, but her front and back had been split with her organs standing up in the middle. But that was mild compared to what was to come. In the next room, there was “drawer man”, with random squares cut from his body and then pulled forward or pushed back to expose his insides. The most disturbing one, to me, was “ring man” who was displayed holding onto altheletic rings. He had rings of skin removed from his body and extremities.
I wasn’t creeped out by the exhibit, as I thought I might be (which might be surprising, since it was completely my idea to go, while Andrew wasn’t sure about it). I would quibble with calling it a primarily educational exhibit, though. In fact, I’d call art, albeit with a questionable medium.
The meeting ended today, and so-as not to waste my free ticket to Boston, Andrew came up today so we could play this weekend. We had made reservations at the Hotel@MIT. Yup, I went from Harvard to MIT. I must be smart.
I have to say that any crappy hotel would have been welcome after the Harvard dorms (no offense to Harvard or my suite-mate, but I just hate dorms), but this was no crappy hotel. The Hotel@MIT was beautiful and geeky all rolled into one. What more could a geek like me want?
There are patent pages behind the front desk, robots in cases in the lobby, and classic pictures of MIT around the whole hotel. Just outside each room, there are sconces that look like circuit boards. The best part? The throw blanket on the bed is full of equations (see picture at the right – click to see a larger view)! Oh, and in the hotel information booklet in the room, the first tab is connectivity! Finally, a hotel that understands what is most important!
One of the guys helping with the meeting I’m attending lives in Lexington and volunteered to give us a tour. Most of the meeting participants (18 out of 25) signed up to go along on the tour. We met at Lexington Green, the site of a skirmish between the British and Rebels. (Though, Bruce, our native guide, was quick to point out that everyone was British at that time.)
After Bruce gave us a great telling of the history, we walked around the square for about 45 minutes. Sara and I went to see Buckman Tavern and then walked the couple of blocks to the Hancock-Clarke house, where John Hancock and John Adams were sleeping when Paul Revere rode into town to warn them of the coming British troups.
We capped the evening with dinner at Not Your Average Joe’s. Good food, and I sat at the fun table, so a good time. (Except for the “bug incident” – one of the women at our table had a salad, and pulled something out of her mouth when it tasted oddly spicy. It was a shield bug. Eeew! But, the manager made things right, and we didn’t have any complaints…well the soman with the bug might have, but she seemed to take it well with a little humor.)
I don’t have time for a detailed entry right now, but thought I’d drop a quick note. First of all, I’ve posted some of my pictures from our adventures yesterday to Harvard’s historic scientific instruments collection: check them out on my Flickr stream. We also took a tour of the Great Refractor, and I have just a couple pictures on Flickr.
Wondering what else I’ve been up to? Check out the pics below:
More later.
Many of you who’ve known me for more than a few years have heard about my fun experiences on the train while I lived in New Mexico. I only took the train once from New Mexico to Minnesota, but that was enough. The trip consisted of two legs – a 24-hour trip from Albuquerque to Chicago, and an 8-hour trip from Chicago to Minneapolis. On both my outgoing long trip and home-bound long trip creepy men hounded me…for the whole 24-hour trip.
This is why I felt very brave of me to take the train to Boston. However, if things did go badly, the trip was only 7 hours, so I had some hope that it wouldn’t be too bad. (That, and Andrew will be joining me for the return trip, so he can protect me then.)
As it turned out, though, my fears were unfounded. I don’t know if that’s because I was on the Acela Express (translation: business class), or because I was on the quiet car (no cell phones, no loud conversations), or because the train has just become a better experience. Either way, I’ll be happy to take the train again…at least in business class, and for relatively short trips.
Tonight I’m staying at the Sharaton Commander Hotel. Tomorrow? Off to the Harvard dorms. Ick. I didn’t like dorms as a “young college student”…I’m not expecting to like it much as an old grad student.
Artemis and Duncan are sleeping-clones on different sides of the room:
Ares was being silly on the chair by my scrappin’ table:
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