rowing (watching it) and friends and food and rain

We've been here and there around Boston, stopping by the places we often visited when we lived here. Friday we hung out in the Public Garden and later had seafood for dinner. The fall colors are only just barely starting to show themselves in this part of New England; we were hoping to see more of them, but it would appear that the storm that is coming through the area today marks one of the first real cold snaps the area has seen so far this fall.

Saturday we headed down to the Charles river to watch some of the head racing (rowing), and of course for me to pout about not being able to race here ... AGAIN. One of these years it will work out, dammit. I was also able to meet up with a friend of mine who now lives in Seattle and who is out here with his employer. I also was fortunate to bump into two people I knew when I rowed out here previously, so even though those visits were very brief, it was fun to see those people again.

Last night we met up with a BU friend of Laura's who lives out here with her husband and their 12 week old son. We had dinner on our own then met them for drinks at a cool, schwanky hotel that used to be a prison (only in New England). Well, I had a drink, Laura had a soda. I had forgotten just how sophisticated people dress out here when they go out. We were dressed up okay enough, but everybody else ... MAN! Fancy shoes, jeans, dresses, all the girls all coiffed up, even the guys were sporting the fancy hairdos. Tom Shaw would be jealous.

It's such a busy, energetic, crazy air here. With all the colleges in the area, and with Europe so much closer (relatively speaking), there is so much liveliness here that either doesn't exist, or that I just don't see in Sacramento. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad to live where I live because it means I can be close to my friends and family whom I love very much, but the atmosphere is just not the same.

Anyway, rain blew in today and the day has been soggy. We walked around Beacon Hill to check out all the old fancy expensive brownstones, had lunch, then later had dinner. This has been a very food intensive trip, which has been fun too.

Ok, well that's enough for now. Time to go back to the room and get some sleep. SO awesome to not have to go to work tomorrow. I'm going to enjoy it while I can.