Boston 2010 (Map)
My Boston friend Arntz recently purchased a house and was planning a housewarming.
That was a good enough reason for me to ask if the May 24 weekend would work for his housewarming. This would allow me to take off an extra couple of days, and with the holiday, make a 5-day weekend out of it. He was shocked that I would drive so far for a trivial housewarming, but said that if I would drive that far, that he would make the housewarming on May 24.
...and so it went:
1. Purchase Ferry Ticket ($220 for round trip adult + car)
2. Drive 2.5 hours south to the ferry terminal.
3. Boat across the Atlantic for 7 hours.
4. Drive 13 hours from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Boston, Massachusetts.
The drive was uneventful outside of seeing a bear in Newfoundland and getting harassed at the border for half an hour. Although, with an aging Intrepid, I was happy the journey was uneventful.
The above picture is from somewhere along Highway 9 in Northwestern Maine, shortly after I made it through the border crossing.
After speeding as fast as I could from Nova Scotia to Boston, it was amazing to pull up to my friend's house. We caught up for a bit & generally relaxed as we waited for another Boston friend to pick up Nailhed from the airport as another comrade was making the trek (this one coming from Detroit).
The four of us would meet up & take it easy this night by hitting a rooftop and enjoying a few Narragansetts before the lights of Massachusetts' capital. This is something that is sorely missing from my life in Newfoundland & I was on Cloud 9 as we shot the shit & chugged brews on this brisk, ideal night.
After quite a few hours we decided to leave...where halfway out of the building we noticed one of Boston's finest parked behind our cars! Nailhed was dead tired, so it took about 2 minutes of waiting for him to find a soft sleeping spot on the concrete floor; whereas I found my own all of 10 minutes later.
Away from waking up once to cover myself for warmth, I slept soundly for the next 4 hours as our Boston friends watched the happenings outside. Eventually the sun started to emerge, which woke both of the out of towners (the soft spot wasn't ALL that comfy either).
I was too hung over to remember to take a picture of the awesome sunrise, but it was also only minutes before good news came in that the car was leaving. While the concrete floor was less than ideal, it was offset by the reward of a drive home in the early morning hours, where I was able to experience a uniquely quiet downtown morning in an otherwise chaotic city.
After all of that peaceful slumber in the warehouse, I didn't need much sleep at Arntz's before I was ready to go!
Where Nailhed & I came on Thursday because of convenience, 4 others would join us today as the housewarming weekend was officially starting!
While trying to think of somewhere for us to check out, someone decided on Fitchburg Central Steam Plant.
Of course I've already been to Fitchburg Steam and covered it on this website back in 2007.
I wasn't going to let that stop us from coming here today though. I remembered how awesome the place was & didn't really mind being forced to go see it again - and also, Nailhed had never seen it, so who am I to stomp my feet and demand a new location when I figured he would thoroughly enjoy it?
After stopping at a furniture factory where my dumb ass forgot my camera battery in the car, we nearly went to New Hampshire as we went to the northern village of Baldwinville (pop.:1852) for a paper mill.
The paper mill wasn't half bad, but the day was growing long and we all seemed more fixated on conversing and chugging beers, then we did on photographing an overly haggard building.
Sure enough, I don't think we even spent an hour at Baldwinville.
The chowderheads discussed Boston places to eat and they might as well have been speaking Vietnamese, for I didn't understand a lick of what they were saying.
I could never complain about the location they ended up selecting though - John Harvard's Brew House in Cambridge on the Harvard Campus. It resulted in us circling the insanely busy campus saturated with hotties, making fun of hipsters who were talking really loudly about being rebellious and filling out their census on a Friday night, drinking delicious & fresh brew and the highlight of it all - my bacon macaroni & cheese! Hooooooooooooly moly was my dinner unreal!
Everyone else seemed to have decent food as well. Now I'm going to have a hard time avoiding John Harvard's if I'm ever in Boston again - that bacon macaroni & cheese was vivid memory inducing good.
In the end, my boy Desmet picked up the bill for all six of us as well! After growing excited because I would finally be able to pay him a 3 year debt from TGIFriday's, he wasn't hearing it as he picked up the bill for the whole table.
Some fine chowdah hospitality.
Onto the next day.
End.