Episode CXX: Summer Vacations

This year my wife and I had TWO summer vacations in the month of August- first we went to New York City to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary, and then my little bro came out to visit us in Cambridge, which meant we got to be tourists in our own hometown for awhile!

1) NYC

 Bostonians have some good low-price options for getting to NYC, first and foremost being private bus companies. We took Bolt Bus, which was better than flying in almost every way- no security lines, no baggage limit, free WiFi and electrical outlets- plus we got round-trip tickets at $21 per person. And, the bus dropped us off in the heart of Manhattan, just minutes from Times Square.

We did a lot of typical touristy things in NYC, like checking out the statue of liberty, eating pizza, touring the 9/11 memorial and new One World Trade Center...

 ...walking the new High Line park, taking a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, playing chess on Wall Street...

...visiting The Rockefeller Center, eating unusual ethnic foods, and picnicking at Central Park:

NYC was fun, and exciting, and vibrant, but Meg and I agree we would NOT choose to live there if we had any say in the matter- it was incredibly congested (both cars and pedestrians), there was no personal space, no public benches to sit on or water fountains or restrooms, nowhere for dogs to relieve themselves (they were just doing it on the sidewalk in front of us [sometimes the owners cleaned it up]), and nowhere to escape the INCESSANT HONKING OF HORNS! I thought Boston/Cambridge was busy and congested and had lots of honking, but there's nothing like a trip to NYC to make you count your blessings, I guess. Here's some data I collected while sitting on a randomly-chosen busy intersection in NYC, compared to a comparably busy intersection in Boston, measuring how often on average you hear a car horn.

Your eyes do not deceive you- that's approximately 20X more honking in NYC than in Boston, according to this study. And a less formal study of mine shows that you are 1,000X less likely in NYC to have a bench to sit on while listening to the honking.


2) Boston and Environs

So Kyle had one final week of freedom before starting his new job, and he chose to spend most of it with Meg and I here in New England! And we had fun doing some touristy things we had never taken the time to do here. Such as:

Walking the Freedom Trail from the very beginning to the very end, including a visit to the statehouse and the USS Constitution:

Heading up the New England coast for a sampling of all things seafood from the birthplace of fried clams:

Of course, playing some volleyball at Harvard. (Did you know, by the way, that volleyball was invented in Massachusetts? It's true!)

And most quintessentially, we took a trip to Fenway Park for the first time- and for a Yankees-Red Sox game no less! And a good time was had by all.