boston

r and i visited boston last weekend. it was sort of a weird visit because we stayed with his friend who lives about an hour outside of the city so we weren't actually in boston. but we actually hit boston itself first on friday, to kill time waiting for his friend to arrive at his home. we went straight to the institute of contemporary art. they were in between major exhibitions so we ended up paying full admission to see just half of the museum. what they had was cool, but we felt a little gypped.

afterwards, we headed to the barking crab restaurant for a late lunch. it was within walking distance from the museum, and boston is a seafood city. we were totally disappointed, however. again, we felt gypped having ordered the crab cake appetizer. it was $12 for 3 tiny little medallions of mostly breading. we had excellent crabcakes not long ago at jacques imo's in new orleans where we could see large chunks of crab meat. then, our entrees came. i don't mind the paper plates and the whole picnic feel to the restaurant even though they were certainly not charging picnic prices for their food. the food was not that impressive though, especially for what we were paying for. overall, i would recommend avoiding this place.

we headed to r's friend's house that evening. we just took it easy, after a long drive for r, and had dinner and saw iron man. the movie was good. nothing mind blowing, but it was fun.

the oddest thing i encountered was actually the pets. i know someone who has 4 cats which, to me, is quite a handful, having grown up pretty much without pets. but r's friend has a dozen animals: 6 dogs and 6-7 cats. it was a little overwhelming for me, but i love seeing r around dogs. he has a great fondness for them and loses all inhibitions to doggy-talk to them.

since r has never been to boston before, he wanted to some of the more touristy things. he's very interested in history and wanted to do the freedom trail. unfortunately, saturday was a dismal day, and his friend suggested that we visit the museum of fine arts instead, an indoors activity. we were totally fine since we love art. we hit this museum at a good time. i LOVED the british printmaking exhibition: rhythms of modern life, british prints 1914-1939. using simple lines and forms and no more than 3 colors at a time, the artists were able to convey so much. the pieces held so much energy.

r was absolutely inspired by the antonio lopez garcia exhibit. his work is so meticulous that, upon first seeing them, i thought they were photographs, when in fact, they were paintings. r is fascinated with space, being a set designer, and loved the way lopez garcia captured an empty apartment in his paintings. i could tell he was itching to start a painting of his own.

afterwards, r's friend took us to a bar, then dinner, and another bar where one of his friends is playing in a band. when we first arrived at the bar, we had walked into "nerd night." it was nerdy people giving power points to share their extensive knowledge. r's friend's friend started heckling the presenters. immediately, i thought to myself, r's friends were the people i and my friends were escaping when we chose to apply for ncssm. i couldn't take sides. luckily, the band finally started to perform.

the next day, r and i headed into boston on our own. i wanted to visit my friends, p & d, and meet their baby girl. n is so precious. they let me hold her for a little while. apparently, d was taking pictures of everyone and anyone who holds the baby. we caught for a bit and then they walked us to a shopping center where r and i grabbed some korean food for lunch. p & d took the baby back to the their house, and r and i decided to roam the city. we were finally on our own.

we left r's truck at p & d's house and walked to the T station nearby. r wanted to compare the T to NY's metro. we got off near charles street and walked to boston commons. luckily, the weather finally cleared up. it was cloudy but not wet. so we embarked on the freedom trail, going all the way into the italian district in the north end. r really wanted to see paul revere's house, which we did. unfortunately, it was already closed by the time we made it there. but we got some italian pastry before we headed back to get the truck. that afternoon was my favorite part of the trip.

r noticed that boston is so much cleaner than new york. i couldn't agree more. maybe we were just in the nicer parts of town, but i never thought to look for feces on the sidewalk as i ALWAYS do in new york. we definitely want to go back again, but we might do it a little differently this time, like staying IN boston and putting up with ONE baby instead of a DOZEN animals.

baltimore is next on my list of places to visit with r. it will probably have to wait until june. stay tuned.