Beantown

I was in the Cambridge area of Boston all of last week for the 2012 New Media Consortium Summer Conference (sounds thrilling, right?!). Outside of awkward schmoozing and endless tech talk, I managed to find enough free time to fall in love with this city. Here were a few perks to my trip:

Lobster Roll at Legal Sea Foods. Need I say more?

MIT Media Lab Dance Party. It took place on the top floor, overlooking the MIT campus and downtown Boston. Breathtaking.

The Charles River and everything about it: the rowboats, the sailboats, the countless joggers/walker/bikers, the wind... you name it. I went for a rejuvenating run along the river and over a few of the bridges, and it was just a wonderful scene to be a part of. I could do that every day.

The Friendly Toast. I met a friend of mine here for a lovely little dinner on my last night in town. Great drinks, fabulous food, and a completely funky/adorable hipster environment.

The MIT Strata Center. Talk about amazing architecture.

Point being, I will be dragging Ryan back here soon so I can do some more in-depth exploration. And so I have a companion for a Red Sox game. :)

Is it Friday yet?

So ready for this week to be over. I'm tired. (Vacation in one week!)

Summer Solstice

In celebration of the summer solstice, [pause] ...

Wikipedia: The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. This happens twice each year, at which times the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the North or South Pole respectively.

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...we attended the Museum of Life and Science's Summer Solstice AfterHours event last night. I posted about the Science of Wine event we attended there, but with the warmth of summer and allure of foodtrucks, beer, and live music, all of the museum's recent events have been immersed in the outdoors. We tasted the delicious local Cackalacky spice sauce (and brought a bottle home with us), enjoyed some yummy IPAs (and a PBR or two), took a stroll through the butterfly house, dressed up as dinosaurs on the Dinosaur Trail (yes, this will be publicly posted), and visited the black bears, red wolves, and playful lemurs in the Explore the Wild exhibit. Oh how I love these mid-week night outs. 

Here's a gorgeous butterfly we passed in the Magic Wings Butterfly House. First day of summer, indeed!