Boston!

So a long time ago (July 30 - August 4) I went to Boston, and now I'm finally going to tell you about it, with plenty of pictures.

My aunt had a conference in Boston, and she was nice enough to take me along! (Last year she took me to the same conference in Vancouver, which was awesome.) Sunni also came, as well as my aunt's friend Apo.

This was my first time in Boston ever. And in New England ever. (Though I don't really count it as a "New England experience" and want to go back for more of that outside the city.) I was excited to go, but I was also so busy with work and school and running that I didn't ever take the time to study up on what Boston has to offer. But I checked out a tour book at the library, so that helped out once we got there.

We checked into our hotel rooms Tuesday morning after a super early flight out of Richmond. Here was our view!

Hellooooo Boston!

The hotel was a block or so from Copley Square, which turns out is a pretty great location. Much of the rest of the day was spent reading (for grad school, ugh) and napping, but we ventured out in the late afternoon. We walked around Boylston Street for a little while and got a sushi snack where we could sit outside.

Bubble tea!

Not too long after the sushi snack it was time for dinner. We had seafood. And a good time.

Cheers. (I stole this from Apo.)

After dinner we were stuffed, so we walked around a little for fun.

Not sure why we decided to take a photo in front of the pay toilet but hey, it's a cute picture. (Another one I stole from Apo.)

Boylston Street

See the pistachio shell?

We also went inside the Boston Public Library. First we went inside the more modern half and it was pretty boring, but I assured the rest of the group the library was supposed to be a lot more exciting than that, so we found our way to the old wing. And sure enough, it was more exciting.

That's a cute lamp base! I guess Sunni is cute too.

The library has this really great inner courtyard, so we hung out there for a little bit.

And this happened. I dared her.

Wednesday morning I got up early for my run. I had a track workout on my schedule, so I used Google's satellite view to see if there was a track near our hotel. Sure enough I found one about a mile away! So I ran there, did my workout, and ran back, for almost 7.5 total miles.

Later that day we ventured out to see more of Boston.

Copley Square sighting.

We walked to the Public Garden and Boston Common, and then signed up for one of those hop-on-hop-off trolly tours. In trying to find the first stop, however, we decided to take a lunch break instead. We sat outside, and then about a hundred (give or take, but might not be too much of an exaggeration) law enforcement cars of various ilks with their sirens blazing proceeded to go by every couple minutes. (Turns out there'd been a shooting at a hospital right around the corner.) So it was a loud lunch. Then we finally got on the trolley and it took us to Cambridge.

When we hopped off in Cambridge we were greeted with the opportunity of a free guided walking tour, so we did that. Our guide was dressed up. She was good though. So she showed us around Harvard.

(Another photo stolen from Apo.)

 Wednesday night was the beginning of the conference, so we all went to the opening reception. It was at the conference center and they had two ginormous rooms for us, one with a sports theme (that we didn't go to) and one with a Boston-slash-history theme. There was a ship in the middle of the room and several of those street-performers you see who paint themselves and stand still to look like statues (in this case statues of Ben Franklin and his kite, Betsey Ross and her flag, etc.).

Thursday I got up super early and joined other conference attendees for a 6am run. Then I actually worked all day. That meant I went and looked at old books and letters at the Boston Athenaeum, Massachusetts Historical Society, and the rare books room of the Boston Public Library. I went from 10am straight until 5. After that I visited Marathon Sports (the running store at the finish line of the Boston Marathon) for some Gus and chews, and then I finally ate something (Sweet Greens!).

Maybe some day I'll cross this?! Only if I get a lot faster. But maybe.

Just so you know, I didn't take pictures of all the ones I saw.

 That night all the conference people got to go to a Red Sox game. (My aunt wasn't with us though, because she flew back to Richmond for a funeral. Then she came back the next day.) We walked to Fenway Park from the hotel. During the game we ate popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream. Sunni also had a hotdog and fries. (I might have finished off her fries. And I had a beer.) We really did that up right, I think. Oh, and the Red Soxs came from behind in the bottom of the 9th inning to win, so that was exciting.

Friday I had to run back to the Boston Athenaeum to look at another old book, and then that afternoon Sunni and Apo and I went on a guided walking tour that started at our hotel and eventually made its way to the Freedom Trail, ending at the site of the Boston Massacre.

Lovely mosaics in the Boston Public Library! (Where we stopped in during the tour, making it my third visit.)

General Washington at the entrance to the Public Garden.

"Time flies" at the Granary Burying Ground.

After our tour with the guide ended Sunni and I continued on to see the rest of the Freedom Trail. We also stopped for a snack, which was calamari and Boston cream pie. (And a beer for me. Sunni on the other hand asked for a "sweet tea," and learned they don't serve that up north.)

We walked and walked and walked along that red Freedom Trail line. We took it across the bridge to the USS Constitution and all the way to Bunker Hill.

Freedom Trail sighting, in the North End.

The USS Constitution

Sitting felt nice.

Bunker Hill monument ahead!

See the red trail line? Very helpful when one doesn't have a map.

We were so tired once we arrived at Bunker Hill that we promptly laid down on the grass. It felt good.

End o' the line!

After a good rest we headed back, retracing our steps along the trail. When we went through Little Italy, there was a festival going on! There was a band playing and lots of guys parading around with a saint. We had dinner at an Italian place (obviously), even though neither of us really had much of an appetite after our calamari and pie. Of course that didn't stop us from getting cannolis for dessert either.

And then we proceeded to walk the rest of the way back to the hotel. Which was a pretty long way. We measured it afterwards and discovered we'd walked well over seven miles by the end of the day. Our tour started at 2pm and we finally got back at 11pm.

Saturday my tired legs got up and ran ten miles. I ran on the paths on both the Boston and Cambridge sides of the Charles River. It was overcast but pleasant.

Stretching next to a William Lloyd Garrison statue.

After my run I headed off to Quincy by myself. The one thing I knew I wanted to try and do while in Boston was go to Quincy to visit the home of John Adams. I took the T (subway) to Quincy and found my way (eventually) to the Adams National Historical Park visitor center. The last tour available was another hour-and-a-half away, so I visited the cemetery across the street and the church next door while I waited. The United First Parish Church is where John, Abigail, John Quincy, and Louisa Catherine are all buried, and you get to go right into the crypt next to them. Pretty cool.

Back at the visitor center I bought a postcard of an engraving of old John Adams to hang in my office, and then it was finally time for my tour. A trolley takes you from the visitor center to the actual houses (there was more than one! who knew?). You get to tour the house where John Adams was born (in 1735, yikes) and the house next door where he lived when Abigail had John Quincy.

Then you get back on the trolley and it takes you to Peace Field, the house John and Abigail ended up in and that was passed down through several Adams generations. This one is neat because it's pretty much as it was left by the family in the 1920s, and has tons of original furnishings and wall art.

When my tour ended I had to book it back to the hotel, freshen up and change in five minutes, and then head to the closing party for the conference. They bused us all (and there were hundreds of us) to this outdoor concert venue on Boston Harbor, where they had a carnival for us. There were clowns and games and lots of free food. And then the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra played an entire concert, including Stars and Stripes Forever, and the evening was topped off with fireworks over the Bay. This conference goes all out, I tell you what.

Not a bad way to enjoy the Boston Pops!

Sunday was our last day. Unwilling to hang out in the hotel for hours when there was still more of Boston to see, I headed out on my own again. I took the T to the North End and then walked over the bridge along the Freedom Trail again, back to the USS Constitution. I toured the boat, which was pretty neat. Kinda crazy to think it was used in the War of 1812.

Final sighting.

Santa Claus was on my tour of the USS Constitution! For reals!

After that I walked to the Paul Revere house and toured it, too. Then I ate lunch.

And then it was time to head back to the hotel and to the airport. The only good thing about ending the trip and arriving back in Virginia was that we brought some lobsters with us on the airplane (crazy, I know, but my aunt makes things like this happen) and cooked 'em up when we got back to the house in Richmond. That was the first whole lobster I ever ate.

Sorry little guy.

So that was Boston. It was pretty neat, and I had fun with Sunni and my aunt and Apo. I imagine I'll go back someday.

double view

Yesterday I walked through Lee Park on my way to the library, which it turns out is closed on Sundays during the summer. On my way into the park, I had a pistachio shell sighting!

Today I walked through Lee Park again on my way to the library, which was open. On my way out of the park I had another pistachio shell sighting!

Looking southeast.

Looking northwest.

St. Louis

Last weekend I attended a history conference in St. Louis, mostly just for fun.

I arrived Thursday in the early afternoon, and found my way on the train to the Central West End and my hotel. After checking in I changed clothes and headed a couple blocks away to Forest Park, which is really big and nice. It was very warm and muggy, but I was only doing three miles (which turned into four).

Toward the end of my run I came across this guy, which of course was motivation to run faster.

That evening was the opening plenary session and a reception. This was the view from the reception. Not too shabby. It was the one and only time I saw the arch.

Friday I attended sessions, read my mammoth history book, and took a nap. That evening was a reception at the history museum, and instead of taking the bus like everyone else I decided to walk. It wasn't too bad, and I did run across one other conference person walking so we chatted. That evening I also attended a get-together for grad students. I met some people and ate some food and talked about history. I also got many bug bites on my legs, and they were so bad that they were swollen and tender the next day. I actually thought maybe I'd gotten a running injury but no, it was just a bug bite.

Saturday I had to run 9 miles, so I got up early and headed back to Forest Park. (Originally I wanted to run to the arch and back, but a couple people in St. Louis said maybe that wasn't the best idea.) There is a six-mile loop around the park, and I tagged on a trip through the Washington University campus.

Saturday during my lunch break from sessions I walked the couple blocks to the Cathedral Basilica. It has one of the largest mosaic collections in the world. Essentially the entire ceiling with its several domes and most of the walls were all mosaiced. Pretty neat.

The thing was, however, that all the mosaics were really high up. So I couldn't see all the details I wanted to, especially in faces. Maybe some day I will mosaic a face, and I want an idea of how to do it well. This separate mosaic happened to be hanging in one of the chapels, so I could finally see a face up close.

They also had a mosaic museum downstairs. I don't actually recommend the museum unless you're really really interested in the construction of the cathedral and mosaics. I was happy to see this neat partially-finished piece.

I also like the inspiration of the desk on display from the studio where most of the pieces were done. Some day I won't be working on my PhD anymore and hopefully I will get to mosaic again.

After the museum I attended another couple of sessions, and spent much of the evening reading. Sunday I went to one last session, ate lunch, and headed to the airport. The flight was a little delayed, and then the flight from Atlanta was canceled, so they put me up in a hotel. I finally got back to Charlottesville Monday around 11:30 and went straight into work.

Even though I only stayed in the West End in St. Louis, I liked it and would be interested in going back some day.

the reading. there's so much.

Some day I'm going to have a PhD. In the meantime, I'm feeling bogged down by doing all the reading it takes to get a PhD. Ugh. Since I'm taking this summer course, I won't have any break at all until Christmas. Every single week between now and then I'll have multiple books to be reading. Even now, when I'm spending my weekend at a history conference listening to lots of history papers, I also have a giant 900-page book on the Civil War to be reading by Wednesday. And in a couple weeks when I go on a vacation, I already know it won't feel especially vacation-y because I'll have lots of reading to be doing. If I'm not reading, I'm feeling guilty about not reading.

I don't mean to be complaining. Just venting a little. I've chosen this lot in life. I'm okay with it. But still, it takes a lot of time that could be spent doing more fun things. Or just relaxing.

I will add, however, to the whole getting a PhD thing, that even though the dissertation part really scares me as far as time management with my full-time job goes, attending conferences like these does make me look forward to the chance to do my own research and write down my own ideas and feel like maybe I can contribute something to the field. But I won't do any of that for another few semesters. Because there's still so much reading to do first.

upside-down sighting

 Today I had class (summer school, ugh) and on my way back to my car I had a pistachio shell sighting! So I sat on the steps and took a photo with my phone to share with you all. A little farther down the path I saw another shell, possibly the first one's partner, but I decided against taking another photo. Then I got home and discovered I can't turn the photo I took over. Who knows why. (It's upside down in the first place because it's hard to get a photo of a shell on the ground next to a step with a flip phone. FYI.) So here you go! An upside down photo!

Not a very pretty sighting.

Also, as a bonus, here is a right-side-up photo of how my sleepy self gets up to Fairfax for class!

(Sometimes I eat Sour Patch Kids instead.)

Happy Fourth!

My Fourth of July was probably the longest Fourth of my life, but it was a good one.

The day started with my 4am alarm so I could get to work by 5:15. Crazy talk, I know. (And staying out at a pre-Fourth party until after 11 the night before didn't help, but was fun and worth the sleep deprivation.) I spent the morning putting wristbands on the general public who attended a big ceremony. I've never put wristbands on people before, and it was a little bit stressful, but I managed.

I was back home at noon, where I read, took a long nap, and read some more. Then it was time for a Fourth of July picnic on Montalto!

I invited several friends and we all went up to watch the fireworks. The neat part is you're so high that you can see fireworks happening all around, from big shows in neighboring towns to the random ones set off throughout city neighborhoods. It was lots of fun.

I got them to wear patriotic tats with me!

sleeep

I'm tired, ya'll. Between getting up early to run and staying up late to read or be social or just because I'm stupid and waste time on the internet, I'm feeling a little sleep deprived.

But this weekend I got a little more rest in than usual. First, I didn't stay out Friday night past 10:30. That's something. But then I got up at 4:30 in order to be ready to run 30 minutes outside of town at 6:15am. The 13-mile run went really well though, so that was nice. After I was home and showered and had a little food, I took a nap. When the alarm went off I reset it and took a little more nap. Then I read history. And after a while it was time for another nap. Then some more history and dinner and grocery shopping, followed by more history reading.

This morning I set the alarm for 7:30 but snoozed it a few times and basically just kept sleeping until nearly 9. I needed it. Then I spent most of the day reading history, with some laundry and picking up around the apartment thrown in. Now I've been to church and had dinner and it's time for more reading. And hopefully I will go to bed at a decent hour so I can get up early in the morning to run and start the whole week over again.

beach time with the fam

I went to the beach! Two weeks ago. (Time flies.) My aunt and grandparents got a beach house at Sandbridge, Va., and my parents flew out for the week. Saturday I went to Richmond and met up with them for a six-car carpool. (Or five or four, depending on who couldn't keep up at various times.) First we stopped at the Virginia Diner for lunch.

Grandma's ready for the Beach!

The house was giant and right on the beach, but unfortunately there was a bunch of construction happening right in front of us. Which was noisy.

Kinda fun to see construction workers wearing swim trunks.

Layin' pipes.

The house did have two pools though, one indoor and one outdoor. The outdoor one had crabs, which were actually pretty cute.

Crabs in the pool!

And despite the construction, we still went to the beach. I took two walks with my cousin Sunni, and two with my parents. Beach walks are the best.

My parents. How cute are they? Very.

On one walk, my mom and I discovered we have matching feet. (Notice the right big toe leans in more than the other.) I reported this to Grandpa when we got back, who said he already knew that, and that Grandma has the same ones, too. I didn't check her toes though, we'll have to take his word for it.

Feet twins!

While at the beach we ate, played Rook, and they all watched movies while I had to read. (Grad school can be a buzz kill at the beach.) I also witnessed some karaoke in the living room.

That Monday was Sunni's sixteenth birthday. She and Dad and I jumped waves in the ocean, then she and I played around in the outdoor pool. Then a bunch of teenagers showed up to see her. Twelve teenagers. One of my favorite parts was when she and five other teenage girls tried to get all the crabs out of the pool. Hoo boy, that was hilarious.

Happy Birthday Sunni!

But after we ate her cake I had to leave. They all stayed at the beach for the rest of the week, but I had to get back to work. (Work can also be a buzz kill when you'd rather be at the beach.) It was a nice treat to get to spend two nights at the beach and hang out with family.

17-year cicadas

When I learned there would be a plague of cicadas coming up from the ground in Charlottesville I felt a little sick. I mean, they're big bugs and they would be everywhere. Gross. Also, I've never been in a place plagued with cicadas, so I didn't know what to expect. I just heard horror stories of big bugs littering sidewalks and flying into people all the time. *Shiver*

On May 13 I spotted my first cicadas. The minute I pulled into the parking lot at work I could see some on a lamppost in front of me, plus some of their gross brown shell thingies. I walked into my supervisor's office and said gravely, "they're here." She knew exactly what I was talking about.

For a couple weeks I didn't notice them very much though. And then the noise level outside at work raised exponentially. I specify at work, because I work outside of town near tons of trees in forests. In town, I don't notice them at all. I started to think that maybe the cicadas weren't all that bad. In fact, I kind of like getting to experience this 17-year phenomenon that even Thomas Jefferson made note of back in 1775. (Do the math...1775 was fourteen cicada plagues ago!) I get to hear them, but they're not littering my sidewalks or flying into me.

Recently they've perked up though. Not only do I hear them at work, but I look out the window and see them swarming in the trees. Kind of gross. And then today? Today I came home and found this outside my apartment window:

You guys are getting a little too close to home 17-year cicadas...

Old Rag

Ever since I moved to Charlottesville I've wanted to hike Old Rag. I've even had directions for getting there and a map of the hike just sitting on my desk for over two years. And today I finally did it.

My friend D picked me up and we drove the hour or so to the parking spot in the Shenandoah National Park. The hike is an 8.8 mile loop, and includes lots of scrambling around on boulders. Which was kind of fun. Luckily it was overcast and not very hot, though still humid and I was still plenty sweaty. But unluckily the overcast sky meant the views weren't really good enough for bothering with many photos. So here's what you get:

Me at the top looking over boulders and sporting a temporary tattoo.

And a slew of pistachio shells. We had many sightings on this hike.

 8.8 miles sort of seems like a lot, but it wasn't bad. Though I guess it did take us something like five hours. But a lot of time was spent waiting at log jams in tight spots among the boulders.

I'm glad I finally got out there and experienced Old Rag. I'd do it again.

best weekday ever. or at least in a long while.

Thursday was such a fun day. So. Fun.

I woke up at 5:45am and met up with two friends at 6 at a park by the river. C and I ran 3.5 miles together on a trail (with me slightly dying because she's so much faster than I am but I didn't want to slow her down), then we walked with A and her dog along another trail to the river, where we went for a swim! This was my first foray into the Rivanna River. I felt so adventurous, considering I'd just run on trails and was now fully immersed in a river all before 7am on a workday!

After our brief swim I hurried home to shower and get ready, then rushed to work and arrived at 8:l5. And that's when I and eight of my coworkers all climbed into two cars and headed for Lynchburg for field trip day! We visited two historic houses there. First was Sandusky, which is currently under renovation and had some neat archaeology going on. Second was Point of Honor, which is a really neat historic house museum. And between the two we enjoyed lunch at the Depot Grille. On the ride home I was so happy with our field trip and time together that I got a little sappy (unusual for me) and said "I'm glad I work with you guys. This has been really fun."

We didn't get back to work until 5:45, and that's when I rushed to the orientation meeting for the marathon training program I'm going to do this summer. My friend S was also at the meeting, and afterwards we went back to her place and she made dinner for us and the two girls I'd been with earlier that morning. So we had fun girl time over a great dinner, and ended the night with a little walk around downtown together.

I'm so grateful for the friends I've made recently in Charlottesville, and for my fun coworkers!

a first time for everything

I've been in school for a long time. Many, many years, covering multiple graduations. (And another to come, hopefully.) But in all those years of school, there is one thing I have never experienced.

Summer school.

Until now, that is. For the first time ever, I am enrolled in a class over the summer. And that means that last Monday after I submitted my final project for the spring semester, I started reading a book after work for the summer session. Luckily last semester was pretty easy, and I counted it as my "break," though I was still driving up to Fairfax every Monday for class. Now I only have to drive up every other week for class, but I also have to read three or four books for each one.

First up, almost 900 pages of Howe, plus two more books.

This reading is happening at the same time that I am working full time, running a lot, trying to maintain a social life, and spending time with family an hour away. I'm going to need to work a little more on my time management skills, but I think I can handle it.

Work hard. Play hard.

fun times

I've had a good past few days y'all. Not to say that most of my days aren't good, these past few ones just had lots of fun things happening.

Thursday after work I went to hear a friend read poetry in a garden at UVA. It was lovely except sometimes I couldn't hear very well over all the noisy birds and squirrels. Afterwards there was a reception, and then several of us went out to dinner.

Friday a few of my co-workers and I went to the outdoor crepes place downtown for lunch. I had never been there, so it was nice to finally go. That was followed with a quick stop at the bakery before heading back to work. After work I met up with people to watch a church softball game (a real nail-biter that went into overtime!), and then went to a party.

Saturday I stayed in and worked on my final project for school most of the day. (Did you remember I'm still in school?) Then I went for a warmup 3+ mile run, followed by a 2-mile race at 8pm at a high school track. I ran the same race last year. It's very small and mostly filled with walkers, but for those of us who want to do the marathon training program over the summer (that's right!) it's the perfect way to get in a 2-mile time trial without going to the track at 5:30am on a Wednesday. I shaved 1:05 off of last year's time, and once again got third woman overall. (And speaking of running, the local running shop named me one of their "runners of the week" a couple weeks ago for my marathon, and my coach mentioned me and my marathon in his weekly running column in the paper. That's kind of exciting.) After the race (and a shower) I went to another party, followed by a drink downtown.

Sunday I slept in, worked on my project some more, and then met up with a friend for lunch. After that I finished my project (It's a website, if you must know. I'm getting a PhD in history but they make us learn html and css.), then went to church at 5. And church was followed by going to another friend's for a crawfish boil! So I ate my first crawfish. Plus a lot more crawfish.

It was an excellent weekend.

Montalto Challenge 2013: a new PR!

Saturday I ran my fourth Montalto Challenge. That's the all-uphill 5k that rises almost 900 feet in elevation and ends with the best views around.

Every time that I've run it I've had the same goal: finish in under 30 minutes and get up the mountain without any walking. The first year I made it in 32:02 and walked some (yet still managed to place second in my age group). The second year I got up in 31:04, but still had to walk some. The third year I was only recently back into running after my injury, so I knew I wouldn't make any goal. I made it up in 33:49 and did some walking.

But the fourth year? The fourth year I finally did it! I finished in just under 30 minutes and never had to walk. It felt great.

Proof of my sub-30 time!

The race started at 8am. I got to the Monticello visitor center to sign in and get my bib, and found my friend R who was running it for the first time. In the past we've always parked at the bottom of the Saunders-Monticello Trail, but this year they had us park at Monticello and take shuttles down to the start. But I wanted to get in a good warmup so I ran almost two miles down the trail to the start instead. Once I was down I still had about ten minutes to wait, and then we were off!

I was able to keep up a good pace (for me) and just kept pushing steadily up the trail. Shortly after the turn up Montalto (the really steep and hard part that starts around mile 1.75) I stopped at the water stop long enough to take two sips of water and a couple deep breaths, but then I started up the mountain. After my marathon I knew I would be able to get up without any walking (and in fact I had hopes of a Montalto Challenge PR in mind the entire time I trained for the mountainous marathon), but I wasn't confident at all that it would be fast enough to make my time goal. I know in the past when I've finally gotten to the top of the mountain but still had a little ways before the actual finish line I've felt so dead and out of breath that I haven't been able to pick it up very much. But this year I really pushed myself to keep up the pace and go faster when it leveled out some. I saw the big timer up ahead at the finish line and was actually a little surprised to see I could make it. (I had neglected to reset my watch after the warmup run down the trail so the time was off and I thought I was already over my goal). So I pushed it, and made it in 29:41!

At the top I had to catch my breath, but then I went back to watch R finish. Once we met up we grabbed a snack and drink, picked up our goody-bags, and then walked around to enjoy the view.

Documenting our happy selves and the awesome view. Monticello is peaking out behind R's head.

Fun music at the top.

The crowd at the finish.

It was actually pretty chilly at the top and the sun never bothered to come out, so once I'd cooled off I was grateful to have my jacket. We stuck around for the awards ceremony, but everyone was so cold that it wasn't all that fun and the crowd was thinning quickly. I'm glad we stuck around though, because it turns out I won third place in my age group! So exciting.

My 3rd place prize!

I really love the Montalto Challenge. It's definitely a challenge and can even feel a little miserable at times, but the sense of accomplishment at the end paired with the amazing views makes it all worth it.