the vacation post
Aug. 14th, 2006 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulOkay, here's my big, rambling post chronicling our vacation adventures. It will be long but includes pictures! You have been warned.
The Short version: After some minor difficulties, I got my lobster, saw my relatives, and hung out with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beckanon in Boston too! Next year, I think I'll take off a few more days because it was a little rushed, but good times all around
The "detailed" version
So Wednesday morning I wake up a bit early and head over to my parent's house to feed the birds for them (since they left for Maine on the previous Sunday). I drive there, thinking I'll run all sorts of errands on my way home. I noticed that my tire is squeaking when I turn and my car is handling sorta weird but I shrug it off. After feeding the birds, I drive over to Target for a quick Star Wars toy check and while pulling into the parking lot I feel like I'm really leaning to one side. I get out of my car and check the tire on my side. Seems fine. I walk around to the passenger side - very different story. My tire is low. But my flight is in 3 hours and I decide I just want to get home and go on my vacation and deal with that later. (I ran into Target and they had no new toys, blah).
Anyhoo, so we get our stuff together and drive up the BWI. I have a coupon for the new Daily Garage so we park in there. It's very cool! I'm sure it was expensive to make, but every parking spot has a little sensor over it so they know if a car is there. So a big sign says how many spots are left on each level and then you pull into that level and it shows you exactly which row the available spot is in. I want these everywhere!!! I hate driving around garages in search of a spot.
We make it to our flight with no problems. It's a tiny little shuttle - only holds about 24 people, so once they can see that every seat is filled, they take off, leaving about 20 minutes early. So we arrive in Boston about 20 minutes early. Stepping off the plane, my cell phone rings. It'sbeckanon.
"You guys are early." she says.
"Apparently." I respond, since I have no idea what time it is.
"I know this," she says, "because I might be sitting in front of a computer..."
"uh oh"
"which means," she keeps going, "I might be at home."
We tell her we'll wait at the airport since we have to get our bags anyway, so we'll just meet her at the gate whenever she gets down here. So we head over to baggage claim and wait for our bag.
and wait.
and wait.
And then they tell all the Baltimore people still waiting on bags to come to the service area. Apparently our bag missed our flight! Delta told us they would get the bag to us, but I explained that we weren't actually staying in Boston but driving up to Maine. The guy said that they probably wouldn't have a flight going to Portland until tomorrow. We decided to just head up to Gorham (2 hour drive) and just hope the bag found us.beckanon pulled up outside a few minutes later and we started the journey courtesy of ZipCar Mully. (Zipcar rules!)
Anyhoo, we drove up to Maine, picked up my uncle Jim and went to Three Dollar Dewey's in Old Port for dinner. My uncle Jim had just qualified for Jeopardy after going to the local tryouts, so that was the story of the hour. My uncle knows a little bit about everything, it seems. And he'll tell you all about it too. haha. His computer knowledge isn't so great though. One of the questions he missed in the Jeopardy test was this - "This website has a button labeled 'I'm Feeling Lucky'" -- Jim's answer? MySpace!
After that we drove to my grandparent's house. Still no baggage. We slept in the attic.zaubervz was kind enough to save some dead mouse bits for us. It was really gross. He has the pictures on his camera, but suffice it to say, this ex-mouse looked like it had exploded in the middle of the attic. He had been stepping around it for the past few days, but now that we were all up there, and it was right next to the bed beckanon was going to sleep in, we decided to try and clean it up. Twas pretty nasty. We all were a little paranoid after that, any little noise (like moths flying around the room) would make us twitch.
Next morning - still no luggage. But we drove out to the lobster bake anyway! (pictures coming as soon as I get them). I had 2 delicious lobsters! the weather was perfect too, low 80s, slight breeze. So great. Even got some free EJP (company that hosts the thing) swag - a pen, a bottle opener, a foam rubber band propelled rocket and a strange blue octopus-like thing made of a weird smelling plastic.
On the way back to my grandparents, my cell phone rings. Our bag is at the Portland airport, but they won't be able to drive it out until 7:30. It just so happens we're passing by the airport as they say this, so we decide to just drive in and grab it, which we do! Yay for clean clothes! We arrive back at the Gradys and hang out time with my aunts and uncles. We shot the foam rocket around for a little while (that sounds weird) and then, when we got hungry, we decided to walk down to Amato's and get food. Because, along with lobster, part of our Maine trip tradition is to get an Amato's Italian sub, because they just don't make them like that anywhere else. My brilliant idea to walk there and back as foiled by a thunder storm, but luckily, my aunt Mary-Kate and uncle Tom both realized we'd get soaked and drove down and gave us a lift home.
We played some progressive rummy, babbled about all kinds of random stuff - from Monty Python to anime - and then watched Daily Show and Colbert Report together before heading up for bed.
Friday, we hung out for awhile, then late afternoon we drove back down to Boston. Traffic was pretty light. We got the zipcar to it's spot RIGHT at 6:30, which was whenbeckanon's reservation ran out. so *phew*. We dropped our bags at her apartment and then went out for yummy sushi at Mr Sushi. Good stuff. Ate too much. It felt good to walk back to her apartment. We popped into a grocery store and grabbed some snacks, then just went to hang out.
Saturday, we headed on down to Harvard Square to take "The Hahvahd Tour". You can read all the details on the site but suffice it to say, these two Harvard students decided to make their own tour of Harvard, with a little more trivia and dirt on the school and it's history than the official tour was offering. And Harvard decided to be kind of jerky and make their lives miserable, tried to shut them down. Which, of course, back fired and got them news coverage! The tour was totally worth it too, 90 minutes of all kinds of random stuff. if you're in the area, I definately reccomend checking it out.
I've been trying to getbeckanon into comics so we made a couple stops at local comic stores. If I had been paying attention and noticed the tax free shopping signs up in each shop, I would have bought some books! But it's probably best I resisted. We also popped into a few used CD stores but every time we went in my brain flat lined as to what artists I was looking for! d'oh!
beckanon walked us over to MIT and showed us the newest building on the campus. I can't remember exactly what the building was for, it was part lab part office part student hang out - at least, it was supposed to be. From the outside, it looks like some crazy thing from a Tim Burton film. But I have to say, it does photograph nicely. The yellow room in the center is actually round and apparently not quite flat inside either. beckanon says that several people have reported being naseous just sitting inside it. Hm. I like how this picture turned out though.
Then we went to see 'Little Miss Sunshine' at the Coolidge Theater (sorta like the Senator theater except slightly bigger on the inside, with a couple screens). And then the YouTube search. And then we went home Sunday. But not before I snapped a picture of the CW Veronica Mars ad stuck in the T station.
And now we're home. I got my tire repaired today. And now I have to find a way to motivate myself to go back to work tomorrow.
The Short version: After some minor difficulties, I got my lobster, saw my relatives, and hung out with
beckanon in Boston too! Next year, I think I'll take off a few more days because it was a little rushed, but good times all aroundThe "detailed" version
So Wednesday morning I wake up a bit early and head over to my parent's house to feed the birds for them (since they left for Maine on the previous Sunday). I drive there, thinking I'll run all sorts of errands on my way home. I noticed that my tire is squeaking when I turn and my car is handling sorta weird but I shrug it off. After feeding the birds, I drive over to Target for a quick Star Wars toy check and while pulling into the parking lot I feel like I'm really leaning to one side. I get out of my car and check the tire on my side. Seems fine. I walk around to the passenger side - very different story. My tire is low. But my flight is in 3 hours and I decide I just want to get home and go on my vacation and deal with that later. (I ran into Target and they had no new toys, blah).
Anyhoo, so we get our stuff together and drive up the BWI. I have a coupon for the new Daily Garage so we park in there. It's very cool! I'm sure it was expensive to make, but every parking spot has a little sensor over it so they know if a car is there. So a big sign says how many spots are left on each level and then you pull into that level and it shows you exactly which row the available spot is in. I want these everywhere!!! I hate driving around garages in search of a spot.
We make it to our flight with no problems. It's a tiny little shuttle - only holds about 24 people, so once they can see that every seat is filled, they take off, leaving about 20 minutes early. So we arrive in Boston about 20 minutes early. Stepping off the plane, my cell phone rings. It's
beckanon. "You guys are early." she says.
"Apparently." I respond, since I have no idea what time it is.
"I know this," she says, "because I might be sitting in front of a computer..."
"uh oh"
"which means," she keeps going, "I might be at home."
We tell her we'll wait at the airport since we have to get our bags anyway, so we'll just meet her at the gate whenever she gets down here. So we head over to baggage claim and wait for our bag.
and wait.
and wait.
And then they tell all the Baltimore people still waiting on bags to come to the service area. Apparently our bag missed our flight! Delta told us they would get the bag to us, but I explained that we weren't actually staying in Boston but driving up to Maine. The guy said that they probably wouldn't have a flight going to Portland until tomorrow. We decided to just head up to Gorham (2 hour drive) and just hope the bag found us.
beckanon pulled up outside a few minutes later and we started the journey courtesy of ZipCar Mully. (Zipcar rules!)Anyhoo, we drove up to Maine, picked up my uncle Jim and went to Three Dollar Dewey's in Old Port for dinner. My uncle Jim had just qualified for Jeopardy after going to the local tryouts, so that was the story of the hour. My uncle knows a little bit about everything, it seems. And he'll tell you all about it too. haha. His computer knowledge isn't so great though. One of the questions he missed in the Jeopardy test was this - "This website has a button labeled 'I'm Feeling Lucky'" -- Jim's answer? MySpace!
After that we drove to my grandparent's house. Still no baggage. We slept in the attic.
zaubervz was kind enough to save some dead mouse bits for us. It was really gross. He has the pictures on his camera, but suffice it to say, this ex-mouse looked like it had exploded in the middle of the attic. He had been stepping around it for the past few days, but now that we were all up there, and it was right next to the bed beckanon was going to sleep in, we decided to try and clean it up. Twas pretty nasty. We all were a little paranoid after that, any little noise (like moths flying around the room) would make us twitch.Next morning - still no luggage. But we drove out to the lobster bake anyway! (pictures coming as soon as I get them). I had 2 delicious lobsters! the weather was perfect too, low 80s, slight breeze. So great. Even got some free EJP (company that hosts the thing) swag - a pen, a bottle opener, a foam rubber band propelled rocket and a strange blue octopus-like thing made of a weird smelling plastic.
On the way back to my grandparents, my cell phone rings. Our bag is at the Portland airport, but they won't be able to drive it out until 7:30. It just so happens we're passing by the airport as they say this, so we decide to just drive in and grab it, which we do! Yay for clean clothes! We arrive back at the Gradys and hang out time with my aunts and uncles. We shot the foam rocket around for a little while (that sounds weird) and then, when we got hungry, we decided to walk down to Amato's and get food. Because, along with lobster, part of our Maine trip tradition is to get an Amato's Italian sub, because they just don't make them like that anywhere else. My brilliant idea to walk there and back as foiled by a thunder storm, but luckily, my aunt Mary-Kate and uncle Tom both realized we'd get soaked and drove down and gave us a lift home.
We played some progressive rummy, babbled about all kinds of random stuff - from Monty Python to anime - and then watched Daily Show and Colbert Report together before heading up for bed.
Friday, we hung out for awhile, then late afternoon we drove back down to Boston. Traffic was pretty light. We got the zipcar to it's spot RIGHT at 6:30, which was when
beckanon's reservation ran out. so *phew*. We dropped our bags at her apartment and then went out for yummy sushi at Mr Sushi. Good stuff. Ate too much. It felt good to walk back to her apartment. We popped into a grocery store and grabbed some snacks, then just went to hang out. Saturday, we headed on down to Harvard Square to take "The Hahvahd Tour". You can read all the details on the site but suffice it to say, these two Harvard students decided to make their own tour of Harvard, with a little more trivia and dirt on the school and it's history than the official tour was offering. And Harvard decided to be kind of jerky and make their lives miserable, tried to shut them down. Which, of course, back fired and got them news coverage! The tour was totally worth it too, 90 minutes of all kinds of random stuff. if you're in the area, I definately reccomend checking it out.
I've been trying to get
beckanon into comics so we made a couple stops at local comic stores. If I had been paying attention and noticed the tax free shopping signs up in each shop, I would have bought some books! But it's probably best I resisted. We also popped into a few used CD stores but every time we went in my brain flat lined as to what artists I was looking for! d'oh!beckanon walked us over to MIT and showed us the newest building on the campus. I can't remember exactly what the building was for, it was part lab part office part student hang out - at least, it was supposed to be. From the outside, it looks like some crazy thing from a Tim Burton film. But I have to say, it does photograph nicely. The yellow room in the center is actually round and apparently not quite flat inside either. beckanon says that several people have reported being naseous just sitting inside it. Hm. I like how this picture turned out though.Then we went to see 'Little Miss Sunshine' at the Coolidge Theater (sorta like the Senator theater except slightly bigger on the inside, with a couple screens). And then the YouTube search. And then we went home Sunday. But not before I snapped a picture of the CW Veronica Mars ad stuck in the T station.
And now we're home. I got my tire repaired today. And now I have to find a way to motivate myself to go back to work tomorrow.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-15 04:59 am (UTC)Here's what the inside of that nausea inducing conference room looks like:
http://web.mit.edu/patil/www/media/images/PatilConferenceRoomKiva/
(the page is a bit of a pain, as you sometimes have to hit reload a couple of times to get things to appear, but it all shows up eventually)
heh- "shot the foam rocket around".. yep, nuthin' like good clean family fun..
Glad y'all enjoyed the trip!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-17 04:45 am (UTC)Probably very cool the first time you visit, but I'm sure the novelty of the room wears off pretty quick after you meet their on a regular basis.