Presidents Day Weekend

I just had a great weekend. I exercised. I ate delicious things. I hung out with friends. I enjoyed nature. I saw a good movie.

Saturday I went for a run (which I'm finally getting back into!) and then scrambled to make some green chili macaroni and cheese for a friend's "4th Annual Mac n' Cheese Showdown." You guys, my mac was pretty delicious. Unfortunately, I was stupid and procrastinated and got to the party after lots of people had already gorged themselves and voted. (And yes, my mom even warned me not to cut my time so close. She knows me!) So I didn't win. And even though people liked mine, I was a little sad to have two different people say "did you make the jalapeño mac?!" Um, no. That was fresh (frozen) roasted green chili flown in from New Mexico. Sheesh. In any case, the winner was lobster mac and was indeed prize-worthy.

After the party several of us went to the grand opening of Hardywood Brewery's Charlottesville taproom, followed by a late dinner at Mellow Mushroom (as if we needed more cheesy carbs).

Sunday I went to a cycling class at the gym (also a thing I'm finally getting back into!), then Patrick and I drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiked up Humpback Rock. Then we kept heading west and went to Staunton, where we had a cheese plate and glass of wine at a cute little wine bar, followed by dinner and the movie Lion, which was really good and I suggest you all go see it. (If you can. It isn't showing in Charlottesville, and hence our excursion to Staunton.)

Enjoying the view from the top!

Monday I was off from work and I had every intention of spending all day doing dissertation research. But I tell you what, I was tired (and sore), and ended up having a (quite enjoyable) lazy day in my PJs until I finally went out for a run before it got dark. Then I really did do a couple hours of work.

All in all? Excellent long weekend.

my month in Boston

Alas, my four weeks as a research fellow in Boston have come to an end, and I head back to Virginia tomorrow. This has been such a great experience. I really appreciated getting to concentrate on dissertation research full time. I also loved living the big city life for a little while. And of course I did plenty of sight seeing too.

Three of my four Wednesday evenings I spent at the Museum of Fine Arts. My first visit wandering the American wing was my favorite, but the whole place is amazing, and I think I saw everything I could see.

Gilbert Stuarts's portrait of the aged Paul Revere, which I coincidentally saw the evening after looking through the Revere Family Papers (on microfilm) all day.

Really old Egyptian stuff.

My first weekend in Boston I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Sunday and then attended both the 6pm service and 8pm choral compline at Trinity Church in Copley Square. I also ate my first lobster roll for dinner. That Monday (MLK Jr. Day) I walked the entire Freedom Trail, stopping into the Old State House and Old North Church along the way. On my way through the North End I ate a cannoli, and on my way back through I stopped for a really good Italian dinner.

It was delicious.

A pistachio sighting outside the Old State House! (Don't forget you can see this and all my other sightings on Instagram using the link on the right.)

My cannoli lunch.

Taken at the end of the Freedom Trail, atop Bunker Hill.

My second weekend Patrick came to visit. That Friday night we had an amazing seafood meal at Neptune Oyster. Saturday we visited the art museum again (I had told him about seeing some of the film The Clock in which Christian Marclay compiled a ton of movie and tv clips with clocks or time mentioned in them, making a 24-hour piece that is synced to real time, and he wanted to see it too.) After the museum we headed to Boston Common to see the Women's March crowd. Then we hopped on a train to Worcester, where we had dinner with Patrick's aunt and her family. (I went back to Worcester the next Wednesday to spend the day doing research at the American Antiquarian Society.) The next day we visited the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, in which period actors give you a tour, and the kids in the group get to throw "tea" overboard the ship. Then we wandered around Faneuil Hall Marketplace and got dinner. Monday we went for a run (through sleet) around Fenway Park before he went with me to a brown bag talk at the historical society. Then we had lunch and went for a walk to kill time before he needed to head to the airport.

Women's March signs left at Boston Common

Patrick channeling his inner Sam Adams

Learning about the Boston Tea Party aboard a ship

My third weekend in Boston I worked most of Saturday. Sunday I went to Cambridge, where I ate really good ramen for lunch, visited the Harvard Natural History Museum and the connected Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and sampled some beer at the Lamplighter Brewing Co. I finished the night off with compline at Trinity Church.

Yum.

A giant but extinct armadillo and ground sloth.

Also yum.

 For my final weekend I left work a little early on Friday and headed back to Cambridge to visit the Harvard Art Museum. And today I took the train up to Salem for the day, which was really fun. I took a self-guided walking tour through the McIntyre Historic District, which has tons of neat colonial and federal-era houses. I also walked around the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, though most of the buildings were closed for the season and the reconstructed ship Friendship was gone for repairs. After a stop for lunch I visited the Peabody Essex Museum. And when I got back to Boston in the early evening I enjoyed one last Italian dinner in the North End.

The Charles River and Boston in the background. I loved this view so much I started walking to Cambridge more.

A bust by Amedeo Modigliani. He's one of my favorite artists.

The Pickering House in Salem, seen after having just spent lots of time looking through the Timothy Pickering Papers (on microfilm).

I walked to the lighthouse at the end of Derby Wharf. It was cold.

Neat nautical art at the Peabody Essex Museum

I've walked my feet off here in Boston. According to the automatic tracking my phone does, I walked an average of 4.2 miles per day. The weekends usually involved a lot more walking, but even on weekdays I would often go for a walk between leaving the historical society when they closed at 4:30 and doing more work either at a coffee shop or back at my apartment. I also lucked out with the weather. Yes it's been cold, but I was well equipped to handle it and snow was never a problem. (For a while I was bummed I didn't get to experience more Boston snow, but the few times I wore my new LL Bean boots one of them was bothering my heel, and now I'm grateful I didn't actually have to wear them much because I wouldn't have wanted to walk so much.) 

Boston, I'll miss you.