montreal: le dernier jour

Our fun in Montreal eventually had to come to an end.

We packed up and said goodbye to our cute hostel.

Farewell to our lovely street.

And hello to the train we would be spending the rest of the day with.

FYI, Amtrak loads up early, so if you want a good seat, get there a half hour ahead of time. We didn't do this and had to settle with aisle seats in the way back of the train. It wasn't that bad, but I can't tell you how long we had been looking forward to gazing out the windows at the gorgeous fall foliage as we rode the 11 hours back to NYC. This way we just made the people next to us uncomfortable by leaning a little too closely over their shoulder.

Luckily you can roam around the train pretty freely and visit the observation car which has tons of windows and sets you higher up above the tracks. The views and colors were spectacular. Lake Champlain is amazing and huge! We rode along it for the majority of the trip. The only downside of the observation car was the lack of A/C. It got pretty steamy in there!

We had some delays crossing the border (Kurt's seat neighbor didn't know how to answer simple yes or no questions) and ran into some freight train traffic, so the ride was pretty lengthy. I passed the time reading (made a good dent in The Fountainhead), sleeping, and sharing a couple beers with Kurt in the cafe car as we planned our move to Montreal.

I hope you have enjoyed all the lovely photos from our trip. Pretty much every single one (apart from a few random iPhone shots here and there) was taken by Kurt and his amazing new camera--an Olympus PEN E-PL2--in case you are interested. I don't even see the point in taking pictures with my crappy point and shoot anymore. So until I make a major camera upgrade (suggestions?) Kurt will be acting as my official blog photographer :) Thanks, Kurt! And thanks for another fun trip! Where are we off to next?

adventures in camping

Last weekend, a big group of friends took a camping trip to Bear Mountain just outside of the city. Kurt, Jenn, Christian, and Kritin made the approximately 50 mile trek on their bikes while the rest of us concocted a train/rental car scheme and toted all the gear to the campground. I will admit I am not an outdoorsy person and was not thrilled about camping. I mean, who puts so much coordination into a weekend just so you can sleep outside with all those bugs? Little did I know that the camping part would be quite enjoyable (albeit short) while the rest of the trip was a bit of a nightmare.

Saturday was one of those hottest days we've had all summer. I think NYC may have broken some heat records that week. In order to beat the brutal midday temperatures, the cyclists took off early in the morning and us train riders left the city around 10am. Unfortunately, due to some poor MTA directions, we ended up missing our train connection by mere seconds. Normally this would be annoying but not tragic. However, the next train wasn't for another two hours and would force us to miss our rental car window because the store closed at noon. Awesome. 

Thankfully, the cyclists were making great time even with the hills and heat and were kind enough to bail us out. They made the harrowing journey to the rental car place, dealt with the morons who work there, and agreed to come pick us up at another train station farther away. The heat was getting to Kristin, so she even agreed to be our personal chauffeur for the rest of the day. That's us in the above picture enjoying ice pops in the sweltering heat waiting for our pickup.

With all the travel issues, we were losing time and energy and decided to nix the hike planned for Bear Mountain later in the afternoon. Instead, we treked around a shopping center getting camping supplies and food. Here Andrea, Erin, and Johanna take a break in front of a huge rock in the middle of the strip mall. We like to think it was a close second to conquering Bear Mountain :)

While the train riders were slowly and painfully making our way to the campsite, the remaining cyclists were finishing the ride to Bear Mountain.

They made it! Congratulations!

Meanwhile, the rest of us found the campground and immediately took part in a lovely little stream behind our campsite. I feel like it was the turning point in the crappy day we had so far.

Thrilling UNO games progressed into late night Catch Phrase. We know how to have a good time :)

Kurt and I took a walk to the nearby beach at Lake Welch. Sadly, there was not enough time to get in the water :(

We grilled some hot dogs and s'mores for dinner. Delicious.

We survived the night! The gang the next morning after donuts and coffee (this was hardly roughing it). From left to right: me, Christine, Jenn, Erin, Johanna, Kristin, Andrea, Kurt, Christian, Erik (who made a surprise appearance by riding up from Brooklyn on his motorcycle!), and Paul. All in all it was a fun few hours at the campsite. I will try to forget all the trials of the weekend but am surely taking an extended vacation from camping for a while.

Boston 2011

We were in Boston a little over a year ago, but a couple friends have recently moved there, so we took a quick little weekend trip to visit. Kurt, Jenn, Christine, and I took the bus up after work on Friday, and Kurt and I took the train back Sunday evening.

After a long, rainy and traffic filled bus ride, we arrived in Boston and met Kurt's friend Thomas for a few drinks. Apparently "Happy Hours" are not allowed in the city, but "Drink Specials" are okay? If you can't tell, Kurt was in favor of the "Bucket of Blondes" :)

Along with our buckets of beer, we ordered some nachos. The bartender said in his 27 years of working at that bar, he had never seen a more beautiful plate of nachos come out of that kitchen. They were pretty tasty too and hit the spot after sitting on a bus for 5 hours. 

I guess we stayed out too late and the subway shut down. Who shuts public transit down?! Um, turns out most other cities other than NYC. I guess we are spoiled here. Anyway, catching a taxi was no small feat since everyone was trying to get one at the same time. You would think if the train stops running, they would have an excellent cab system. Nope. You can't even tell when a car is available or full. Did I mention it was raining? Yeah, not our finest hour. Eventually we grabbed one and made it to Thomas's apartment and immediately went to bed.

I have become such a supporter of exploring new cities by bike. (We've done it in Columbus and Ljubljana.) You cover so much more ground without the sore feet of walking (or death march as it often becomes). You can reach places not super convenient to public transportation. Plus, you get some exercise! (because we all now traveling means lots of eating and drinking...or is that just me?). I used to be skeptical but am now a believer.

Our little bicycle gang of Jenn, Kurt, Monica, and Thomas. Some tips for bike exploring: always wear a helmet, use bike lanes when you can find them, and figure out directions before you embark on your way. I feel like we stopped at every intersection, pulled out our smartphones, and tried to figure out where hell we were going. Boston is confusing! We are also spoiled by our NYC grid, I guess :)

All the wrong turns were worth it once we reached our destination: the Sam Adams Brewery!

Hops and other beer ingredients I can't remember.

The pinnacle of the tour was the tasting room where we had a few samples. It wasn't quite as free wheeling as the Harpoon Brewery tour we went on last time, but I got another tasting glass to add to my collection! (Am I turning into a frat boy?!)

After the tour, we had some Cuban sandwiches at a pretty authentic place in Jamaica Plains.

Then it was on to see Keely and Patrick in South Boston! Isn't their house so cute!?!?

They've done an enormous renovation on their house and are still working hard. My friends think they are crazy for taking on such an ambitious project. I think it's an architect thing. Maybe an Auburn thing too. We all have this I can do it myself! mentality. Crazy or not, they've made some awesome (albeit slow) progress.

Where some walls used to be. That's right, they took out walls.

Check out that DIY project!! Looks familiar, right?!

They are currently undecided on a color for their bedroom but are leaning towards a dark grey. I love the gradient of the paint swatches though!

Aubie's Boston doppelganger. Funny how he didn't bite or scratch me while I petted him...

Keely, Patrick, Busy, and Porkchop, thanks for letting us stop by! Keep up the good work! You're making awesome progress!

There was a Red Sox game going on at Fenway. Since I was too cheap to let us get tickets, we just rode by to check out the pre-game madness.

Dinner at the Barking Crab.

We had to wait a long time for a table for our large party but eventually had some yummy (mostly fried) seafood. 

Sunday before Kurt and I left, we did some walking around Cambridge and the MIT campus. We found a Gehry (obviously) building and picked out all the things we disliked about it :)

One of my favorite Boston things ever is the Aero Saarinen MIT Chapel. Always breathtaking.

Now I can check "beer tower" off my list of life experiences. I wouldn't suggest drinking one on your own, but it was fun to share one at the Cambridge Brewing Company. {Thanks for the picture, Jenn!}

Then before you knew it, Kurt and I had to catch a train back to NYC. If you can afford it, the train is much more pleasant than the bus. The views were pretty awesome. A nice bookend to a quick, fun trip.