I always have the best time in Boston

So I just got home from Boston where, as usual, I had a blast. I think that my opinion of Boston is skewed because I’m always there expressly to have fun; what city could suck when one’s only goal is to be entertained? We stayed at The Back Bay Hotel (thank Jeebus for Priceline), which was awesome, but whose unlimited free wireless would have earned it my undying love even if it had been only half as good. The hotel was in a great location for us to walk whereever we wanted to go, which is great, since we walked everywhere the entire weekend. For somebody as lazy as I am, this is quite an accomplishment. Actually, I don’t usually consider walking as real exercise, as you can look around and talk while doing it without losing your breath, but I definitely haven’t walked that much since I was in Europe last year.

Newbury Street was really close to our hotel, which is great, since there are some incredible restaurants on it. We went to:

• La Voile – French, awesome. The pan-seared fois gras is pretty amazing and the portion is insanely generous.
• Stephanie’s on Newbury – Great brunch, smart casual.
• The Other Side Cafe – Another brunch spot, much more casual/vegan-friendly/inexpensive than Stephanie’s.
• Pazzo – Italian. Unassuming space, pretty tasty food.
• J. P. Licks – Great ice cream. Crazy flavors, too.

We really wanted burritos from Boloco this morning before we headed home, but they didn’t open until 10, and we were on the road by a little after 9. It was a great, relaxed and fun weekend, and even the rain that greeted us as we neared New Jersey didn’t ruin the good mood I’ve got going!

Staying put

I’m back! I was on vacation for the latter part of May, and although I had an excellent time, I didn’t have much to share in the way of blogging. I spent a few days in Boston, came home long enough to repack, and then made my way to Richmond, Virginia to hang with my friends from undergrad. Stayed there for a long weekend, and then rested my head on my pillow a few times and made my way up to Canada for the wedding of a friend from my time at McGill. If you like the country and are looking for someplace to go, you could do a lot worse than Pembroke, Ontario. I love love love Canada. I didn’t take as many pictures as you might have expected whilst on my adventures, but here are a few snaps from each place:

Boston

Richmond

Pembroke

No more Mrazzy Goodness

I’ve been to three Jason Mraz concerts in the last week and a half, and I’m bummed that this great period in my autumn has come to an end. I enjoyed all three of the concerts, albeit in different ways.

New York was great because it was the first show that I attended this tour and I hadn’t seen Jason Mraz perform live in two years, and also because I’d never been to Radio City Music Hall before. I don’t know how I managed to avoid this in my 27 years, but it was just beautiful and definitely worth the wait. And!! THEY SERVE ALCOHOL. Sometimes they come in faux martini glasses with Rockette legs for stems. Cute, right? So yeah, I was totally lit up for that show. People were dancing in the aisles and I bonded with a group of Boston Red Sox fans in the row in front of me and ended up dancing with one of the cuter guys for a song or two.

The second show, which was at Brookdale Community College, was interesting because I’d never been to this particular school before. The energy of the college students was pretty great (except for this weird section of people who could not get enough of sitting on their butts and never stood until Mraz told them to get on their feet). I saw a Brooke Hogan lookalike in a way too short dress, and felt inexplicably cheered every time our paths crossed.

The Boston show was pretty fun, too. I was with a friend who is also a huge Mraz fan (and her much less fan-like but good sport fiance), so that was awesome. We’ve been to several shows all over the eastern seaboard (and Wisconsin), and it was nice to be back at a show with my #1 Mrazzy buddy. I brought my camera to this show, but left the freaking memory card in New Jersey. I missed most of the opening act searching high and low for a place to get a new card. Why do stores in Boston close at 7 pm? What kind of a city downtown closes so early? Just terrible. Anyway, I stumbled upon CEX, a British store just starting to appear in the US. It seems that pretty much everything they sell is used, but who cares when you can get a 4GB memory card for $20. Almost never happens at a brick and mortar place without some kind of an insane sale going on. I got back to the show in time to hear the last few songs of Lisa Hannigan’s set. and and took some pictures and video.

Here’s a video I took during the song “Live High.” All you Barack Obama fans, pay attention starting at the 1:15 mark.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4mkn516OK8]