9.25.2011

Fall Travels 2 of 8: Boston

My next trip was with my boss but actually my friend from USU (she also bought the All You Can Jet Pass) which was a blast. This trip will actually be three blog posts because it was Boston-Maine-and-New Orleans!

Boston was AMAZING! I loved it! I could move there!

The first day we arrived we rented a car and as we were leaving the airport we were a little nervous about driving in a big city and we didn’t entirely trust our gps. The next thing we knew the rode turned into a tunnel which went under water and we lost our satellite connection with the gps and there were all these turn offs in the tunnels, we were laughing only to hide our terror of being underwater and not knowing where to go. Story a little bit shorter… we made it out!

We visited Harvard… which I LOVED! What a beautiful campus. Oh my gosh; and they have“houses,” like in Harry Potter! All new freshmen are assigned to an actual house and alumni and professors are over the houses. It’s a place for the freshmen to go hang out and do homework but they also have dinners in the fancy dinning rooms. It’s amazing! “Ten points from Gryffindor!” Except not really. We ate at John Harvard’s Brewery, a common college student hang out, that day for lunch... very classy-cool.

We walked the Freedom Trail: a literal red line trail around Boston that leads to historical places and buildings… I literally walked on history! I didn’t throw tea in the water though. While walking the Freedom Trail we saw a guy at a church dressed like an actual friar, like on Robin Hood! But it wasn’t a costume. We had dessert that night at a chocolate cafĂ© in Harvard Square; it was the richest hot chocolate I have ever had… in fact, we were saying that if we were still in college, we would go there with our roommates and dare eachother to chug the hot chocolate because it was so rich. That night we drove around in neighboring towns Lexington and Concord. The houses were AMAZING. The east is so sophisticated and quaint.


The next day we walked around BostonCommons and the Public Gardens. They are these huge parks right in the city; so gorgeous and lush. We stopped by Cheers but we weren’t hungry for lunch so we didn’t stay to eat… sadly nobody knew my name. We went to the first public library in the U.S. with my cousin's wife, Chrissie, that was way cool. And the library had a special display of vintage travel posters, which I loved and wanted to steal some away to decorate with. We walked around Fenway Park, the team was out of town that week we went so I plan to go back to Boston when there is a RedSox game.




We witness a manscream like a girl… story: So we’re waiting to cross a street and then we seethis girl turn a corner but instead of turning wide enough that she is still in therode, she pulls into a lane of parked cars and she ends up right behind aparked car. Well the flow of traffic behind her, followed suit and were stuck.(girl drivers… disgusting ;) ) Well, the car right behind the girl is a man inan Audi. Well he rolls down his window and starts barking at her (not a literalbark, just deep angry yelling) while honking his horn. Well the intelligent girl, ahem, puts her car in reverse and it jumps backwards. The barking man’s voice then jumps to a high pitch squeal! It was the funniest thing.

That night we went back to Harvard to eat at Barkley’s Burger Joint (recommended by Chrissie; it’s a restaurant that names all of its burgers after celebrities and it’s a hopping place where you sit where ever they put you and it may even be sharing a table with other people.) We lucked out and ate at the bar so we chatted with our toothless waiter while we ate. I had the Shawn Bradley burger. He was very delicious.

On Sunday we went to the MIT singles ward! Pretty much found the man of my dreams there! He was good looking, dressed well (ok, everyone in Boston dresses well), out going, obviously smart if he is going to MIT, church attendee, charismatic… aaaaand he’s in Boston and I’m in Utah. After church we explored MIT and then finished exploring Harvard as well. I got to see where they row crew. We crossed the river to go to the Harvard School of Business Campus to have dinner with cousin Brady and Chrissie. I’m so jealous, they live on such a beautiful campus. Chrissie made us this amazing salmon dinner and twiced baked potatoes and for dessert she made us an apple pie with apples she had picked herself on an apple picking outing. It was really so much fun to see my cousin and to spend time with his sweet wife. Thanks again you two!

Dorms on MIT's Campus... very cool and creative.

The Crew House at Harvard
The Lampoon House at Harvard
(The Lampoons: Basically started by a group of guys making fun of the Greek System (Frats and Sororities). Basically to be a Lampoon you have to be funny/ good at practicle jokes/ etc. Writers on Saturday Night Live have come from the Lampoon house, Connon O'Brian and B.J. Novak were Lampoons. The Lampoons even have a comedy newsletter and magazine. I loved it!)

After dinner we went to the famous Mike’s Pastries in Little Italy and bought some pastries to take home. After that we walked around Beacon Hill, the richest real estate in America and then we walked in a big triangle because we thought our car was down farther than it really was. It was getting dark so we were able to look into windows like creepers. Lots of spiral staircases and some cool houses! After that we said goodbye to Boston and headed back to our hotel.

(P.S. I took all of these pictures! (except for the ones I'm in... obvi) Cool eh?!)

9.07.2011

All You Can Jet 2010

In August of 2010 I bought an All You Can Jet pass from JetBlue. Basically this pass was an unlimited plane ticket for the month of September. I bought the pass for the amazing one flat rate of $500 and I could book as many flights as I would like during September 7 to October 7. It made perfect sense to buy this pass: (1) I love to travel (2) I was graduated from college (3) I was finishing up my job at USU and hadn't started the job hunt so I could easily take the time... perfect sense :)
Finally getting to the point: When buying this pass I promised a lot of people I would blog about my adventures... well... one might say I'm a bit behind... BUT HEY! Why not tell about these adventures a year later... like an anniversary type of thing: married people eat the top of their cake... I'll tell my stories. So! I'm going to be writing blog posts this month about my 2010 Fall travels (I'm going to throw in a few other trips I took along with the All You Can Jet trips)
1 of 8: Vegas
Exactly one year ago today I flew to Vegas for the day to go shopping... haha because I could! Basically I got on the plane that morning with my purse, jacket and a book. To add to the ridiculousness of this... I had a layover in Long Beach but I didn't care. Once I got to Vegas, I took the airport shuttle bus ($8) to the Planet Hollywood where the Mile Long Shops were and I headed straight to H&M. If I'm going to fly somewhere to go shopping; might as well go where I can't go at home. Once I was done with my shopping adventures at the mall, I ran over to the Belgio where I purchased some gelato and then went outside to watch the fountains (one of my favorite things in Vegas). It was lovely: chocolate gelato, warm sun, mystical fountains, shopping bags filled with cute clothes :)
After that I caught a taxi back to the airport (again, I felt very cool all by myself in a taxi with my shopping bags) in perfect timing to board the plane right away. On the flight home I ended up in the very first row of the plane (very spacious), sitting next to a man named Michael Scott. No joke. He was a talker; so we talked the entire flight home. He was from Vegas, used to be a "criminal man" but changed his life around and now volunteers at a catholic school coaching the football team. He also asked if I was Mormon, I said yes, he said, "Hmm, I like Mormons. They're good people. My nephew went to school in Colorado and dated a Mormon girl and she really turned him into a good boy. I couldn't do it though... but... yeah.... I like Mormons."


Still to come:
Boston
Maine
New Orleans
San Diego
Lake Powell
Washington DC
Cancun