Giving Thanks to the City of Boston

First of all, Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone!

So, my dad arrived on Wednesday and left this morning and boy were we busy!

Wednesday night when he first arrived we just went and had dinner at this pub I like in downtown, The Kinsale. Good food and drinks and nice quiet atmosphere. I thought it was best for him following a day of traveling.

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. We made our way over to my friend Amanda's place, arriving at 10 am, thinking we were an hour late for watching the Macy's parade. Turns out since I warned Amanda we were running a little late they made sure to TiVo it and waited for our arrival.  We then enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving breakfast of donuts and coffee from Dunkin Donuts while we made fun of the rather unusual camera angles selected for some of the balloons (hi, I don't need to look at Ronald McDonald's ass, thank you).

Following donuts was cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, and chips and dip, served with pumpkin martinis or cosmos while we watched the dog show.  Yes, we did indeed start drinking at noon.  But with plenty of food to balance it out.  During this time various other people started arriving.  Eventually we had a representative from almost every law school in Boston - Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, and New England.  We were only missing Suffolk.  Great conversation was had, mostly around law stuff because, well, that's what we talk about.

At around 5-ish it was time for dinner.  All I'll say about that is...Amanda is a fantastic cook.  All the traditional stuff was there, of course, but the line between good and fantastic is all around how you flavor the food, and she knows what she's doing.

After digesting for a bit, we had dessert.  This meant 5 different pies.  We had apple, pumpkin, pecan, derby (chocolate and walnuts) and eggnog.  Then we sat and digested those for a bit, talked some more, and everyone finally went home at about 9.  All in all it was a great day.

So on Friday it was time for my dad to take the tour of Boston.  The most entertaining thing at first was introducing him to the changeable weather here.  We left and it was a light rain, barely more than a drizzle.  We got to downtown and the rain had stopped.  We went on our way, about 1/2 an hour after we started it turned to rain again, then started hailing at which point we sheltered in the entrance to Old City Hall (we were walking the Freedom Trail at the time), the hail stopped after about 10 minutes and turned back to rain, we went to Faneuil Hall for some lunch, and by the time we were finished with lunch the sky was blue with an occasional fluffy white cloud here and there.  It was highly amusing to see his reaction to all that.

Anyway, so most of what we did was traverse the Freedom Trail, which is a red line either painted or set in brick through the city, taking you on a path to all the important historical sights.  It starts at the Boston Common and ends at Bunker Hill, visiting the Old State House, Faneuil Hall and the Old North Church along the way, to name a few.  After the Freedom Trail, we went up to Harvard and MIT, just to look, I showed my dad my favorite view of the city, which is behind MIT on the river bank, and then we went back into downtown and hit the North End for some great Italian food.  We then went to the Omni Parker House to have Boston Cream Pie where it was invented, and then we went over to Cheers for a drink.  My dad later estimated we walked about 12 miles that day.  Clearly we were exhausted.

Saturday we just went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. That was really interesting.  I didn't know much about him so I enjoyed going around and learning about the stuff he did.  I plan to take my mom back there because I know she will love it.  After the museum I took my dad down to see my school very briefly and then we went back into downtown for some food.  We ended up at a very fancy restaurant in the Theatre district, I don't remember the name but I do remember the delicious food and wine.

So, after all that, I was still exhausted today.  My dad left this morning and I spent the rest of the day being lazy and eventually made fudge, as is my tradition after Thanksgiving.  Can't make Christmas fudge until it's the Christmas season!

And now, in continuation of the laziness, I am going to bed early.  Although that's just good sense since I start my winter internship tomorrow and I don't want to be tired.

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