Produce

The rain stopped, the sun came out, and the heat of summer has finally made its way to Boston. For our garden, summer sunshine means abundant growth and production. The garden couldn't be happier. What used to be delicate little seedlings in plastic trays are now thick bushes that fill cages and cling to the side of our fence. Rapidly maturing zucchini, peas, cucumbers, and tomatoes now fill our plot (we took pictures for proof). In a couple of weeks we will be drowning in produce. Have great recipes for fresh produce? Send them on to us. Need produce? Stop by our garden!

Beach Boys

Bekah's childhood dream finally came true this past Saturday - she heard the Beach Boys live in concert! The free, outdoor concert was in Boston's Hatch Shell, an ampitheatre in a park right on the Charles River in downtown Boston. We arrived a couple of hours early in order to secure a good view. Prior to the concert, we enjoyed a delicious picnic (complete with pulled pork, fruit salad, Jello, and key lime pie) with friends on the lawn. The Beach Boys (including John Stamos, a.k.a. Uncle Jessie on Full House) played all their best songs: 409, Surfin' Safari, Good Vibrations, California Girls, Barbara Ann, Be True to Your School, Kokomo, Surfin' USA, and many more! We sang and danced throughout the entire performance, which was close to two hours long.

Red Sox 3, Orioles 1

We first helped the Red Sox beat the Yankees. This time, joined by Todd, Kari, Adam, and Katelyn, we put an end to a five-game losing streatch by bringing in a victory for the Red Sox. This time rather than sitting in bleacher seats, we opted for standing room tickets in left field. Thats right: standing room tickets. While standing for an entire baseball game doesn't immediately bring thoughts of confort to mind, the experience was suprisingly enjoyable with railings and tables to lean up against and plenty of space to move around. The game, admittedly, started off a little slow with the Orioles taking an early one point lead in the second inning. The Red Sox, however, came back in the fourth inning with two runs and an additional run in the fifth. The Red Sox held on to the lead, and despite Todd's wishes for an Orioles grand slam in the 9th, the Red Sox were able to walk away with a victory. Our next game is another Red Sox-Yankees game on August 22.

Katahdin

This past weekend we traveled to Maine to visit Baxter State Park. The park is about 6 hours from Boston and in the middle of nowhere. We headed out in the rain on Friday evening and spent the night in Maine at the Viens' cabin. Saturday we continued on in the rain to Baxter State Park. We set up camp and took a short warm-up hike to Little Abol Falls in preparation for our big Katahdin hike. Sunday we woke up at dawn to beautiful blue skies. We hurried over to the Katahdin trailhead, ate breakfast, registered, and were off hiking up the Helon Taylor Trail before 6:00am. We climbed our way upward and summited Pamola around 10:00. From there we made our way across the Chimney and South Peak on the Knife's Edge Trail. It was a hairy journey which included high winds, loose footing, narrow passages, and steep dropoffs. Bekah is quoted saying: "There wasn't a moment on the Knife's Edge when I wasn't 100% afraid for my life". The Knife's Edge Trail ended at Baxter Peak, the summit of Katahdin and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. It was cold and windy at the summit, so we briefly took pictures and continued on to the Saddle Trail. The Saddle rockslide quickly brought us down to Chimney Pond where we met up with the Chimney Pond Trail, which led us back to the car. It was an amazing hike that took up almost every hour of daylight! The next day we headed back to Boston, but first made a stop in Freeport, ME at the L.L. Bean store as well as at Sea Dog for dinner.

Tall Ships

They were coming, then they weren't, but they did after all: the tall ships sailed into Boston harbor for the weekend. The event was made possible after a prodigious effort by Sail Boston to raise enough funds to cover city security costs. The tall ships were docked in various locations around Boston harbor and offered spectators a chance to board the vessels and learn how a tall ship operates. Check out pictures from the event in our gallery.

Biking

July 11 was a day of biking. We woke up early and quickly readied our bikes for a long day. Our trip started off with a brisk morning ride downtown to the Park Street T station to meet Todd and Kari. We then loaded our bikes onto the T and headed to Alewife, the northern terminus of the Red line. After some scenic circling around the T station, we located the Minuteman Bikeway and were on our way. We quickly completed the mostly uphill 11 mile railway converted bike path through Lexington to Bedford, stoping only once for a brief water break. In Bedford, we celebrated the end of the first leg of our trip with a snack break. From there, we headed to Concord via the Reformatory Branch Trail. The pamphlet on the trail mentioned the possibility of some rough gravel patches, but never warned of the muddy mess we encountered. After a soggy, yet exciting, 4 miles of the Reformatory Branch Trail, we arrived at Minuteman National Historical Park. We checked out the Old North Bridge, famous for the "shot that rang around the world", and cleaned off our muddy bikes in the Concord River, before heading into Concord for lunch. Having renewed energy from our Italian feast, we headed to another section of Minuteman National Historical Park to ride along the Battle Road Trail. This trail traced the retreat of the red coats back to Boston and highlighted points of conflict along the way. The trail brought us back to Lexington where we made a quick stop for icecream before making our downhill return to the Alewife T station. In all we biked 36.64 miles with an average speed of 9.8 mph and a max speed of 35.5 mph. To finish off the day, we celebrated Slurpee Day, 7/11/2009, with a well-deserved, free 7.11 oz slurpee from our neighborhood 7-Eleven and baked homemade Flat Bread Pizza. Check out our pictures of the day.

Museum of Fine Art

Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is located just a short walk from our apartment. However, despite its close proximity, we had not yet visited the museum. Having recently learned that the museum offers free admission after 4:00 on Wednesdays and today being a rainy Wednesday evening, we decided to take a stroll on over to check it out. The building looks relatively large from the outside with its impressive columns and grand architecture, but inside it is massive. The museum is two entire floors packed full of fine art with collections spanning from Egypt, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Highlights include works by Monet, van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, and Donatello. Besides collections of sculptures and paintings, the museum also showcases musical instruments, handmade furniture, mosaics, and weapons. Lucky for us, the museum has extended hours in the summer, but we still felt rushed trying to get in all the exhibits in under 3 hours. We might just have to come back on another rainy Wednesday evening. Interested in seeing what we saw? Check out our pictures.

Independence Day Celebration

For the past year we've heard stories of how Boston celebrates America's independence. The time finally came when the soggy weather of June cleared away, and we could experience the festivities firsthand. We joined in on the activities July 3rd to watch the full dress rehearsal of the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular complete with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Neil Diamond, cannons, church bells, and confetti. High points of the rehearsal included the Pops performance of the 1812 Overture, Neil Diamond performing Sweet Caroline (a Boston favorite) and America (twice due to some sound issues the first time around), and several other patriotic sing-a-longs. On the 4th, we took advantage of the sunny weather and rode out to the end of the T for a morning at Revere Beach. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a picnic in nearby Ramler Park. To finish the day off, we headed to the Charles River to watch fireworks. We were greeted with a flyover by the 104th Fighter Wing. An estimated 500,000 others joined us by land and by sea to watch more than 20,000 pounds of explosives illuminate the Boston skyline. This year’s celebration was the largest and most complex Boston Fourth of July pyrotechnic show yet. Follow the link to see our pictures.