Diving

This weekend the 2011 RedBull Cliff Diving World Series came to Boston. Now you may be asking yourself where the cliffs are to dive off from in Boston. Unfortunately, Boston does not have cliffs bordering the ocean, but it does have buildings bordering the ocean. So why not jump off a building instead? Well, that's exactly what the cliff divers did. A makeshift diving platform was constructed on top of the cantilever designed Institute of Contemporary Art building. The platform towered 92 feet (approximately 8 stories) above the Boston harbor which equates to a free fall of 3 full seconds and speeds of 60+ miles per hour when they hit the surface of the water. Talk about an intimidating jump! Jumping, however, is the easy part. The hard part is the 3 or more acrobatic flips and twists the divers do while they are free falling. All of this is followed up with a feet first vertical entry into the water...with zero margin for error. Mistakes can be fatal. We were impressed. You will be too. Check out the pictures.

Chihuly

For weeks the Chihuly exhibit has been on display a mere stone's throw from our apartment at the Museum of Fine Arts. We were first introduced to Chihuly's work back when we lived in Grand Rapids. He had a few installations at Meijer Gardens as well as an impressive glass sculpture of DNA at the Van Andel Institute where Mitch worked. Knowing the exhibit would be good, we kept intending to go, but never found the time to make it there. Since this was the last weekend the exhibit would be in Boston, we decided it would make for a romantic Friday evening to check out the exhibit as a way to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. To our dismay, the exhibit was sold out! Determined to see what all the hype was about, we left our apartment early Saturday morning before the museum opened and waited in line for about an hour just to get tickets. That wasn't all the waiting. Once inside, we waited nearly another hour just to get inside the exhibit. It was a fantastic experience and a real joy to take pictures of all the colorful glass artwork. Well worth the wait! We were truly impressed by the imagination, planning, vivid coloring, and fine craftsmanship that went into each of the pieces.

Biking

We are enjoying the long awaited summer in Boston. This year we are taking advantage of the summer days by seeing the cities around Boston from our two wheels. Today we biked up our second category 4 climb, this time in the Blue Hills. Here is the view from the Blue Hill Observatory summit. Want to see where else we've been riding? Check out our Strava links on the right side of this page.

4th

The Fourth of July brings all sorts of festivities to Boston area. This was the second time we were in town for the excitement. Check out the pictures to see how Boston celebrates the Fourth.

Chatham

To continue the tradition started last year, we spent one of the first weekends of summer on Cape Cod. We were able to rent the same cottage in Chatham that we had last year and found 4 other couples willing to spend the weekend with us. Like the year before, Mitch rode his bike from Boston to Chatham, however, unlike last year he had a lot more company this year. In total six cyclists rode to the Cape. While the roads started out wet in the morning, conditions improved as the ride went on, and in the end it turned out to be a beautiful day. If you don't believe we actually rode to Chatham, here are links to Mitch and Bekah's tracks of the ride. The rest of the weekend was spent eating lots of food (to recover from the estimated 6,202 calories burned on the ride), relaxing on the beach, playing tennis, and hanging out with friends. As always, we took some pictures.

Seedlings

This summer will mark the completion of our third year in Boston. Like the three summers before, we are once again preparing our Fenway Garden Society plot for another season of growth. Curious what we will be growing this year? Check out the seedlings that are beginning to come up.

GPS

With Spring time here, biking season has finally hit Boston. The roads are now filled with spandex clad cyclists on their carbon fiber rides. One lucky biker this year got a shiny new toy for his bike: a GPS. Now Mitch can map all his rides before he heads out and track his progress when he gets back home. You can see his progress too. We added a fancy sidebar to the blog that displays the most recent ride that Mitch has been on. Clicking it provides you with even more information such as awards he won. There was a recent Android app released that allows tracking on a smartphone, so Bekah's rides are now tracked too.

Marathon

Patroit's Day is Marathon Monday in Boston. While Bekah did not participate in the marathon this year, Mitch still did his customary early morning ride of the marathon route. Weather conditions were optimal this year with cool temperatures and a strong tail wind propelling runners to set a world record for the fastest marathon time. Check out pictures of the day here.

Rack

With the acquisition of Mitch's single speed for his birthday and a possible new addition arriving sometime in April, Bekah "encouraged" Mitch to come up with a more permanent storage solution for our two-wheeled friends. Armed with SketchUp, some boards, two boxes of screws, a handful of tools, and his trusty friend Dan, Mitch set out to create the perfect budget bike storage solution. He's not claiming he obtained perfection, but with $33 he came pretty darn close. The result was one spectacular looking rack. While the scaled replica above is only holding two bikes (note their uncanny resemblance to Mitch's bikes) a closer inspection reveals a hanger for a yet a third bike. Bekah is pretty impressed with her new rack. Curious how it turned out? Check out the pic.

B-Day

Does B-Day stand for birthday or bike day? The answer is both. Happy Birthday, Mitch! For his birthday this year we had a delicious feast at the Atlantic Fish Co, went to Harpoon, ate a deep fried platter at the Barking Crab, and of course chowed down on some of Bekah's amazing cheesecake. It was a great time. Thanks to everyone who made it a special day. Oh, and by the way Mitch got a bike for his birthday. Its a pretty stealthy single speed. Check out the pictures online.

Bench

Just in case you were thinking you had a lot of snow where you live, we thought we would pass this one along of a bench we saw on our way in to school and work.

Katelyn

They moved back to California, but we knew they could stay away for only so long...and we were right. This weekend Katelyn came back to visit us in Boston. It was a great time reuniting with a good friend. For old time sake, we went out for dinner in the North End and followed up the meal with cannolis from Mike's Pastry. Good times, good times.

Apathy

Here's a somewhat timely video we stumbled across on YouTube. The video was created by two guys living in New York City who are sick of getting their bikes stolen. Sound familiar? They decided to find out just how hard it would be to steal their own bike in broad daylight (during rush hour nonetheless). Hardly discrete about their motives, they use methods varying from a bolt cutter, hacksaw, angle grinder, and hammer and spike. Subways come and go, police pass by, and people are even standing next to the guy smoking. The only person who does approach the guy shows him a better method how to break the chain. Priceless.

Android

It was a bit of a late Christmas present, but Bekah was persistent. With our previous AT&T contract up and his old phone no longer holding charge, Bekah thought it was the prefect time for Mitch to get a shiny new smartphone. Well it didn't take much convincing. The hard part was deciding what to get. There's quite a few options out there ranging from the iPhone, Blackberries, and a host of other offerings. The one that stole Mitch's attention, however, ended up being the sleek little HTC Aria. While it was one of the smallest phones he looked at, size can be deceiving. With a powerful green robot under the hood (Android 2.1) and a sharp 3.2" capacitance touch screen the phone does more than one could ever imagine. Plus, it easily fits into a pocket. After our initial 1 cent investment (along with a few other service charges) the phone now enjoys its new home in our apartment. Mitch also found out why Bekah wanted him to get a smartphone so bad: she is addicted to Angry Birds.

Blizzard

The day after we got back from the beautiful beaches of Florida, Boston was hit by a blizzard. In all, the blizzard dumped about 18 inches of snow before it left the area. It was good we came back to Boston when we did to avoid travel frustrations at the airport. We were relatively unaffected by the blizzard except for a power outage for a few hours Sunday evening and no hot water the majority of Monday (which was probably not be related to the weather). Bekah shot this picture of our apartment building on her snowy and very windy walk to work (note the wind blowing). Mitch enjoyed a comfortable day "working" from home.

Holidays

Christmas has come and has now passed. The season went quick for us. We spent most of our holiday break in Florida with Mitch's family. Our trip started off with Mitch's cousin Kristyn getting married, followed by celebrating Christmas with Mitch's Mom's side, celebrating Christmas Eve with Mitch's sister, and celebrating Christmas day with Mitch's Dad's side, all before jetting back to Boston to celebrate Christmas night together in our apartment. Besides celebrating Christmas we enjoyed our time in Florida soaking in the sun at several beaches, feasting on Worth Avenue, biking around Palm Beach, kayaking in MacArthur Beach State Park, and walking around a bird filled nature preserve. The pictures are here. We hope you had an enjoyable Christmas too and can't wait to hear about your holiday adventures.

10.10.10

Six months after running the Boston Marathon, Bekah was ready for another challenge. This time, the B.A.A. Half Marathon. Running this race is so popular that the number of registrants reached its cap less than two hours after registration opened back in July. Luckily, Bekah secured a spot in the race and has been training with running buddy, Kari, since then. The two went in with the goal to be safe and finish under two hours, and they achieved their goals! Bekah's finishing time was 1:56:45, which is an average pace of 8:55 per mile. The weather, sunny and around 60 degrees, was perfect for the 13.1 mile run, which looped around some of the most scenic views in the city. Mitch and Todd biked along the course to watch the super-fast Kenyans and to cheer Bekah and Kari on towards the finish. What will be next for Bekah? Maybe a triathlon. More to come about this possibility in the months ahead.

Red Sox 7, Yankees 6

Once again, we were able to secure Red Sox-Yankees tickets for the second year in a row due to Bekah's incredibly lucky streak. The tickets were for Friday the 1st of October, but due to rain delays the game was rescheduled to Saturday, making the day a double header for the Red Sox and Yankees. With a start around 9:10pm the two teams battled it out until the wee hours of the morning. Today, October 3rd 2:00am, we are proud to say that the Red Sox have yet again risen victorious over the Yankees. This time in a close match-up that finished 7-6 in the bottom of the 10th inning. This continues our perfect track record for Red Sox wins with Mitch 4 for 4 and Bekah 5 for 5. While we originally had seats in center field, we were able to move closer to home plate as the crowds cleared out a bit past midnight (hence the good picture). We even were able to see Dylan selling popcorn.

Boston Med

Today Bekah got a sneak peak of the first episode of Boston Med, which will premier on ABC Thursday at 10PM. It is a documentary with "real life drama" from three Boston hospitals, including Brigham & Women's Hospital, which is where Bekah has now been working for almost two years. The series runs for eight weeks and is guaranteed to be full of powerful stories. In addition, you will be able to get a feel for the fast-paced environment and world-class colleagues Bekah is surrounded by each day while at work. To see some additional previews and to read more about the show, click here. Although Bekah found herself in front of the cameras a handful of times last summer while the filming was taking place, she does not expect to see herself in the final product. We'll be curious to know what you think of the series!

Century

It was a bit of a long shot, but they did it. Mitch and his biking buddy, Adam, successfully rode their bikes 100.90 miles from their apartments in Boston, MA to Chatham, MA! The trip took just over 8 ½ hours, with the bikers beginning their trip at 8:00 in the morning and finishing around 4:30. Having only ridden his bike a maximum of 52 miles previously, this was a massive biking feat for Mitch. Calculations indicate that it took over 5,600 calories and 2 gallons of water for each biker to make it to their final destination. Mitch alone consumed 4 cliff bars, a ham egg and cheese English muffin, a Boston cream donut, and a king-sized snickers bar en route. The weather was sunny and clear making for an unseasonably hot day with temperatures on the black asphalt peaking at a sweltering 98.6 °F. Memories include several turkey sightings, stopping for lunch in Plymouth, climbing over the Sagamore Bridge, and begging for water at a local thrift store. To check out the ride in greater detail and see ride stats and splits follow the link. Pictures will be posted soon.