Boston

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I just got back from a much needed break from work and life in the city. My friend and old college roommate lives in Boston. He lived in New York over the summer for a law internship, but had a week at home before he headed back to good ole’ Provo. So I decided it would be a great time to go visit Boston. I’ve wanted to go since I moved to New York, but haven’t had the opportunity yet, until now. So me and a couple of friends headed up Friday after work on the luxurious Chinatown bus. On Saturday, we woke up and had some fun on the lake in his backyard. We went for a swim and even went for a nice kayak ride. It was absolutely serene. After getting ready, we headed into the city to see all of the Boston sites. We walked most of the Freedom Trail.

On the Freedom Trail, we saw the Old North Church.

Fanuiel Hall
Paul Revere’s grave
Bunker Hill
and the Cheers Bar.

I even thought Paul Revere deserved a high five for everything he did.

In the midst of seeing everything (including too many things to blog about), we ate some great Italian panini's in the North End of Boston (Boston's Little Italy). It was really good. After a long day, we headed back to Jon’s house in Georgetown. For the next two days it rained and wouldn’t stop. I wasn’t complaining though because it gave us some time to watch the Olympics and just take a break from life. Even through the rain, Jon took me up to see New Hampshire, which is a beautiful state.

On Tuesday, the rains parted and we had a gorgeous day. We decided to go back in the city and tour historic Fenway park. As you can see, I was converted.


Then Tuesday night, I was lucky enough to use Jon's family's season tickets to go see the Red Sox play the Texas Rangers. It was the best game I could have asked for. The Red Sox scored 10 runs in the first inning. I thought it was over after that, but the Rangers came back and made the game competitive. The final score was 19-17, which is amazing for a baseball game. We were lucky enough to see a slugging fest.

This is David Ortiz after he hit his second 3 run homer in the first inning.

I should add that Jon's season tickets are absolutely amazing. They have had them forever, so they are lucky enough to get them on the 5th row, right near home plate. I couldn't have asked for better tickets. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that made my whole trip. Here is the view from our seats.

To finish off the trip, we headed to Harvard. It is a beautiful campus. Maybe someday I'll actually go there. Who knows? :)


What more could I ask for from a week's vacation.


My New Apartment

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Since I've decided to stay in New York, I had to get a new apartment. After the month of stress with finding a new place, arranging movers, finding a new roommate, and actually moving, I'm finally settled in my new place. Now that we are settled, I realize it was definitely worth it. The place is not as nice and we no longer have a dishwasher, but we have a lot more room. I now have my own room, pay a little less rent, and live closer to all the members of the Church in my area. I thought I would post some pictures of my new place.

Maui

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It has only been two months since I came back from Maui, so you would think that I would have already blogged about it. Since we had three cameras in Maui, it has taken a couple of months to get all of the pictures (which I still don’t completely have). Anyway here’s my travelogue.
After two long flights with over 12 hours in the air, I arrived in Maui from New York. As always, it was a tropical paradise. After doing some shopping, we headed straight to the beach to enjoy some warm water and some nice rays.
That morning, we had van pick us up at 2 am to travel up to the volcano to watch the sunrise. Although, it was tiring, the sunrise was beautiful as it rose through the clouds. Then came the fun part; we rode bikes down the entire volcano. It was quite the ride (with very little pedaling). We rode from over 9,000 ft all the way to the beach at sea level. We did take a break to take some pictures.
After recovering from the early wake-up call, we found a blow hole and some natural pools that the ocean created. These small hikes were the perfect way to spend the afternoon.
Another day, we took the “Road to Hanna.” For those who have never been to Maui, the Road to Hanna is a small road (one-lane at times) to a town called Hanna. There’s nothing special about Hanna, but the road is amazing because you are driving along lush cliffs with waterfalls everywhere and neat places to stop along the way, including Black Sand Beach and Red Sand Beach. At the very end of the road, you are rewarded with swimming in the Seven Sacred Pools. It took us 12 hours to take the road there and back, so it was another tiring day, but definitely worth it. By the end, waterfalls were nothing special.
On Saturday, the boys went scuba diving. We love scuba diving so most of the time we actually plan our vacations around scuba diving. For this set of dives, we dove the back wall of Molokini, a small crater off the coast of Maui. The wall is amazing because it is a shear drop off. This one only drops off 300 ft to the ocean floor, but when visibility is 100 ft, all you see is blackness below. With wall dives, you have to worry about your depth, because there is no ocean floor to stop you from going too deep. It was an amazing dive with beautiful fish and coral. We were lucky to see a 6 ft reef shark as well. The next dive was a shallow dive, but we swam with turtles and a giant eagle ray. Maui is definitely a great place to dive.
After more beach days, the pool and hot tub, and some snorkeling, we finished the trip with zip lines in the mountains of Maui. Our family had done zip lines in Cancun, but they were not near the length of the zip lines in Maui. The longest zip was 1,800 ft long, so over a quarter of a mile. The zip lines went over gullies and some tropical forests. It was gorgeous and the perfect way to finish my time in Maui.

Batman

So I’m definitely a fan of the Batman movie. It was great! It took us a week to get them, but we bought tickets to Batman in IMAX. Heath Ledger did such a great job. One great part of living in New York City is that there are many movie stars here and movie premiers. The movie theater that I always go to held the world premiere for Batman. Thus, all the big name actors showed up. I didn’t see any actors, but here are some pictures of the Batmobile that they brought to the theater for the premiere.

Endless Summer

Summer is so busy here. There is always something going on. We try to go to the beach every now and then, but there are many events that occur in the summer. In addition to the events I mentioned in my earlier posts, I have also recently attended Shakespeare in the open. A group performed MacBeth in Battery Park. With every new scene, the players would move to a new part of the park for the scenery change. It was actually really interesting and helped you keep your attention during the performance. Just one note: We took dinner there, which would not be advised because every time we sat down and tried to eat, they would move.
Then someone had the bright idea to make New York more artistic, so they hired this artist to design waterfalls that they have positioned along the river at different places. They are pretty cool, but not worth the price that they paid for them ($15.5 million for four of them).
Then here are some pictures of the Death Cab concert that I mentioned in my earlier summer post.
The summer is winding down, but I still feel like there is so much I want to do. Sad day! One of the terrific things about summer is Broadway in the park. Every week in July and August, a few Broadway shows perform a number or two from their show. It seems like I’ve been gone from work or have had something every Thursday, so I haven’t attended any! Hopefully I can make it tomorrow.

My Birthday

Thursday, August 7, 2008

My birthday was amazing this year. Everyone went out of their way to make it special. All my coworkers at work signed a card and gave me a gift certificate to Crate & Barrel. Then I got to pick my favorite restaurant for lunch. I went to Tao which is an amazing Asian restaurant. It's actually where the speed dating scene is shot in Hitch. For my birthday, they brought me out a giant fortune cookie filled with custards. It was delicious. If that wasn't enough dessert, my coworkers also bought me a cheesecake and even had me blow out the candles.
Then Camas had told me we were going out to dinner and that afterwards she had invited some friends over for some cake and ice cream. She refused to tell me where we were going for dinner. When we showed up at the restaurant, some of my close friends were there to surprise me. It was so awesome. I don't think anyone has ever had a surprise party for me. It was fun. (Thanks to all those who came.) The food was great too. It was a place called Dinosaur BBQ. Who would have thought that you can get some good BBQ in New York City.

Then we moved the party to Megan and Mitzi's apartment for cake and ice cream. It was a great night.
My birthday was on a Thursday, but there were so many of my friends with birthdays the same week as mine. So, we decided to have a joint party for all of us on Friday night. We had a friend who knew this lady with a penthouse apartment and terrace overlooking the Guggenheim museum and Central Park. It was the perfect place for a party, with amazing views. It just topped off an awesome birthday week.

 
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