Revisiting Boston

Finally the post about my trip to Boston.
[Warning: long post incoming]

Left the Thursday of my spring break. My parents dropped me off at the airport after a quick stop for some cake for my mom's birthday. It was my first time flying by myself. I was pretty excited. Flying doesn't scare me, although I was paranoid about losing my luggage because that would be just awful.
I got a window seat on my connection flight to O'Hare. Took some pictures from the plane window.

[Beginning of take-off]

[Cool shadow from the wing]

[Interesting pyramid shaped building in Grand Rapids]

[Hello Chicago]

Had a long layover in Chicago. Spent my two hours eating all the snacks I brought along.

Arrived in Boston around 9. Andy met me at the airport and then we went back to his apartment. Got some pizza; watched a movie.

Friday I got to sleep in while Andy went to class. Then I went downtown to meet him for lunch. Apparently the transportation system lied about the bus I was supposed to take and was forced to take a taxi. That was an interesting experience, I really had no idea what to do. I just opened the door, told the dude where I wanted to go; I thought it was going to be alright. Halfway through my ride the taxi driver asked me if he should turn left or right. What? Aren't they supposed to know where they are going. But, by my obviously great natural internal compass, I made it to the dental school.
And then: Chinese food! Last time I went to Boston we went to this chinese restaurant and I fell in love with the fried rice. Been craving it forever. Got soup, fried rice, pork dumplings, beef and broccoli for about 6 bucks. Best 6 bucks ever spent. I also got to meet/see again some of Andy's friends from dental school.
Then Andy and I wandered Newbury Street with all the shops. Went to a Pinkberry for the first time. Little frozen yogurt shop. Andy recommended that I try the original flavor which I did against my instinct and was quickly reminded of how much I dislike yogurt. Got some chocolate frozen yogurt then, it was great.

[Chocolate, sliced almonds, granola. Delicious.]

[Andy took my camera]

I then proceeded to take a really long nap. Apparently airmattresses are the only thing I don't sleep well on and so a nap was in order. Andy and I then went grocery shopping and made ourselves dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Saturday was a day of more wandering around Boston based on certain eating locations. If you can't tell my vacation was very centered around eating, and it was great. We went to Beacon Hill, the historic area, for breakfast. Andy wouldn't stop raving about the french toast at a certain restaurant. It was pretty excellent.
Then we wandered around Beacon Hill so I could take some pictures.

[Old lamp post, still lit by gas]

[Andy was telling me about how lots of the older houses had boot scrappers.  Here was one in action]

[A cobblestone street, pretty cool but way more uneven than I expected.]

[Super fancy doorway]

[Haha]

Andy also showed me around the Tufts Dental campus. Got to see the floor he will soon be doing clincals on, along with many of his crazy dental tools. We then went and saw John Carter; an excellent choice.
Went to dinner at a nice italian restaurant and then onward to a bakery. More food, of course.

Sunday was the white coat ceremony. Pretty snazzy event, complete with a nice lunch afterwards.

[Future dentist parade]

[Andy and Miranda modeling their new coats]

["the boys"]

[Mom told us to get a nice picture together, and this happened]

[Got Andy a "helpful" congratulations gift: Crocodile Dentist]

[Dessert.... iDessert]

At the end of the night we met up with some of Andy's friends at a bowling alley. No lanes were available so we played pool and skeeball.

[Like a pro]

[Awww yeah, skeeball]

Overall I had a great time in Boston. It was nice to see my brother for the weekend. I also enjoyed living the city life for a few days. Got Starbucks once, took a taxi and frequently almost got hit by cars crossing the street, felt like a real city person.

If you want to view all of my pictures I uploaded from the weekend go here.

Bonus pictures:

[That fancy doorway again]

[Another old lamp post.]

Jet Lag

Home.
Landed back in Michigan around noon today.
Much napping was done upon my arrival.

I've done a basic edit of most of my photos so far, but I might play around trying different effects like vintage and other styles commonly seen in instagram. Snazzy photoshop and all that jazz.

Congratulations to my brother who got his white coat this Sunday. Future dentist incoming.

[Andy on the left and two of his fellow dental students]

Only a sneak peak of some of my pictures today. It's late and I don't feel much like typing out details of my Boston trip at the moment. I had an excellent time but my story telling skills decrease as the lateness of the night increases.

I'll put up a more detailed post later this week.

For now I'll leave you with these:

[Lamp post in Beacon Hill. Pretty sure they still use gas, nifty]

[Attempted a grainy, retro image of Andy playing pool. Leave me your thoughts on it. I'm a fan, but then again it is my work and I am biased towards myself.]

Finally Hip.

Yes, I am finally hip. I got my license for Photoshop CS5 on Thursday night.
For all the hype I've been going on about with this program, I've only used it twice.
You see it's spring break and so far I have spent my "vacation" time working. Working around the house, working for my parents, working closing shifts many nights in a row at my actual job. I've been left with little spare time and motivation for any activity other than looking at videos of cats jumping into boxes and sleeping.

I need a change of scenery to get my photography going again after my winter slum. I want to use photoshop more but I don't feel like working with any of my old photos, I want new things.
Luckily I leave for Boston soon. I'm flying out Thursday afternoon. My first time flying by myself, I'm super excited.
Step one when I land in Boston: Eat some fried rice from a restaurant in Chinatown. Seriously, I've been looking forward to that part of the trip for months. Step two: Take pictures of things. Many things.

In other news...
I got a new necklace the other day, I decided to splurge and buy it; need to show the world I can still be girly and wear jewelry. I had worn it to work today, and I decided I'd try to take a picture of it while it was still on. Slightly more difficult than anticipated; I had to go into the bathroom so I could turn on the LCD screen, view what I was doing and try to get it in focus. My success rate of a decent photo was about 10%. Even with the difficulty of taking the photo I'm pretty pleased with the composition.

Here is the image, edited in my newly acquired photoshop. Yay!

I gave it a vintage style edit and added some grain. I'd appreciate comments with thoughts and opinions on it.

Now it's time to charge up my camera's battery and finish packing. I've got vacation to attend to.