Season's End

After countless hours of hard labor, a soggy month of June, a couple of bug bites, a stolen garden hose, many delicious meals, and even more shared vegetables, the gardening season is sadly coming to an end. We are now eating what will probably be our last week of produce. We will certainly plant again next spring and are already plotting out ideas of how to better maximize our limited space and growing season. Check in next spring to see how our garden grows.

D.C.

How could we say "No"? A round-trip flight from Boston to D.C. and three nights in a hotel for only $72 a person. The deal included a hotel room for each of us, so we had a total of four rooms each of the three nights. Thanks to Todd for another super-slick deal! While in D.C., we enjoyed seeing all the sights: the White House (we saw Bo the dog playing in the yard), the Washington Monument, the National Museum of American History, the U.S. Capitol Building, the Library of Congress, and the Arlington National Cemetery. We had beautiful weather for strolling along the National Mall, snapping pictures, and visiting Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We flew back into Boston on Monday morning just in time for Bekah to get to work. It was an exhausting day, but well worth the experience!

Bike

09/09/09 will go down in history as the day Mitch got a road bike!  After months of talks and negotiations, Mitch finally convinced Bekah there was enough space in their apartment for a road bike (in the bedroom of course!).  After conducting weeks of research and test riding several bikes, Mitch narrowed down his search to a select few.  The season was ripe to buy a bike, with many stores discounting their '09 inventories to clear space for the new '10 models.  Mitch and his friend, Todd, both liked bikes from the same store, so they put their effort together to get a deal.  Combining the fact it was the end of the year, two bikes were being purchased, and Todd has impressive bargaining abilities; both Mitch and Todd left the store with amazing deals on super-sweet road bikes.  They both decided on the same model (great minds must think alike) with Mitch's bike having a silver paint job and Todd's white.  The bikes are thoroughbred racing machines with super-light full carbon frames, a geometry tuned for power delivery, razor sharp steering, and vibration dampening seat stays.  It's a fun bike that rides effortlessly along the flat stretches, cuts into curves, glides uphill, and rockets downhill.  Already Mitch has put close to 100 miles on his new ride.  Here's a sample video of him in action.

Grape Island

This Labor Day weekend, we and two other couples decided to camp out on Grape Island, one of the 34 islands speckled throughout Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.  While the island is only 9 miles from downtown Boston, the seaside island setting makes it seem like you are a world away.  It is a true primitive experience camping on the island with no running water or shelter of any sort.  Getting to the island is no easy task either. From our apartment, we walked to the T, rode two subways, walked to the ferry terminal on Long Warf, and took two ferries to the island (one ferry of which the driver appeared to have never driven a boat before); all while carrying our camping gear, food, water, and clothing for the weekend.  Lets just say we got a few interesting looks from our fellow T riders.  The trip, however, was well worth it.  Grape Island is a wildlife haven home to deer, fox, and several varieties of edible plants and berries (including grapes).  The island also hosts several grassy trails to explore, an interpretive trail highlighting the island's history, and daily wild edible tours lead by a ranger.  Highlights from the trip include exploring the island, stone skipping contests, taking pictures, wild edible tastings, watching the sun set over the Boston skyline, and building a fire on the beach.  We had a wonderful time and are already thinking about going back next year.

Rockport

This Saturday, Todd and Kari reserved a Zipcar with some of their remaining Low Car Diet miles.  Having heard good things about Rockport they decided to head there for the day and invited us to come along.  It was a beautiful day and considering the fact it was Labor Day weekend the traffic wasn't too bad either.  We made it over to Rockport in just under an hour.  Most of our time in Rockport was spent walking along the harbor and visiting touristy shops.  We went to Top Dog for lunch and enjoyed their fish sandwiches, tasty hot dogs, and several varieties of mustard.  We took a more scenic route back to Boston and made a few stops at local bike shops along the way.  Check out our pictures from the trip.