Diana's First Visit to Boston

Sorry it's taken me this long to finish up the trilogy that is Diana's visit, but this is finally it!

When I talked to Diana originally, she expressed interest in visiting Boston. She mentioned that she'd never been there before and she was curious what it was like. It's about a 2 hour drive from the Valley to the parking garage at Boston Commons. Not too bad.

We left pretty early on Sunday morning, we were nervous about the fact that Hurricane Sandy was supposed to be making landfall up here later that evening and bringing the rain with her.

We kind of did a small recap of what I did with my family back in October, we parked at the Boston Common parking garage ($12 a day on the weekends, probably one of the best deals in the city) and started up towards Quincy Market.

Our first stop was the Granary and the King's Chapel burying grounds . This seems to be a regular stop whenever I've toured the city in the last year. I mean, who doesn't want to see a bunch of old graves from the 1700's? I know I sure do. The Granary burying ground is home to some famous Bostonians like John Adams, Paul Revere, and Sam Adams.

As we were heading over to Quincy Market, it started to rain. We bolted inside of Faneuil Hall as quickly as we could and Diana checked out some of the shops there. While walking around, I noticed that there was a sign that said "Free Tours Daily" and there was one at noon, which was in about 5 minutes. I asked one of the park rangers how we sign up for a tour and she gave us a sticker told us to head downstairs where the tour was going to start. These tours don't bring you inside the places you stop at, but it's a great way to see the city by way of the Freedom Trail. We found out that the tour we were going on was to Old North Church in the North End. Our park ranger tour guide gave us a brief introduction about the tour and we headed outside to start.

Our first stop was a place called the Green Dragon Tavern, which according to our tour guide isn't exactly the original Green Dragon where some historical meetings took place. The original pub was demolished a looooong time ago. Diana found a minuteman buddy here.

The next stop was Paul Revere's house. By this time it was drizzling pretty hard again, so that was kind of a bummer. It was a little tough to pay attention to the tour guide, since we were out in the open and getting rained on. It wasn't long before we were on our way up to the Old North Church where the tour ended.

After the tour was over, Diana and I headed over to the courtyard at Old North Church (you know, the church Nick Cage sends the bad guy to at the end of National Treasure). We were having fun taking pictures there because of all the fallen leaves. Fortunately the rain held off for a little bit here so we could get some shots.

On our way back to the car, we stopped to get some Mike's Pastry treats. We got an oreo cannoli and a lobster tail. Exhibit A shows just how large that lobster tail is - as big as my hand. It's seriously amazing.

Diana really liked this noodle we passed in the Quincy Market area. We thought the signage was pretty funny too "Do not climb on the big noodle sculpture". I kind of wonder if anyone has tried to ride it?

It started to rain pretty hard again, so we decided to call it a day and head home. At least I felt like Diana got to see some of the main attractions in Boston on her first trip. I totally recommend the walking tour if you're looking for something free to do that helps orient you in the city. I liked that now I know where to head if I want to actually go inside the Paul Revere house (which is about a $3 admission).

This post was shot entirely with my iPhone and some of my Photojojo lenses. Sometimes simple is better. :)

Diana's First Visit to Western Mass: Part 1

One of my best photography buddies (and one of my best buddies in general), Diana, is from the Mississippi coast. When I found out that Adam was going to be moving to Pittsburgh, she decided to come visit and keep me company for a weekend. She was so excited to visit during the fall, because she doesn't really get to see any foliage down there along the coast. She was arriving a bit after peak season, but I was determined to show her how pretty fall is around here.

The day she arrived, I picked her up from the airport and on our way back to my place, we stopped at our friend's cupcake shop, Kayce Cupcakes. Diana has heard all about this place from me and the owners (Larry and Kayce), a father daughter duo who we're mutual friends with, so she was excited to be able to finally try it.

We got a cotton candy and a s'mores cupcake to try. The s'mores is my favorite, it's the closest that I've had to the ones at Kara's Cupcakes (huge props to Larry and Kayce for making something so delicious!). I thought it was funny that my nails matched the color of the cotton candy icing. I asked Larry if they needed a hand model.

We also got a sneak peek of one of their new flavors for the month of November, sweet potato casserole. Yum.

On our way to dinner, I decided to take the long way around to Northampton, through Amherst and Hadley, so I could show Diana some of the sights. A few weeks ago, I noticed these house installation pieces went up on the Hampshire College lawn and I was intrigued. Luckily, Diana was also curious, so we stopped to get some photos. I think it was Hampshire Halloween that night and they block the entrances off for a big party which is invite only (not the case when I was in college!), so we hurried to take some pictures before anyone could shoo us off.

In Hadley, on one of the back roads, I've always noticed people walking on what looks like a path, but never knew what it really was. It isn't the bike path - which is just down the street. Diana was game to check it out, so we parked in the little lot and headed up towards where the path was only to find out that it had an AMAZING view of the Connecticut river. It was also an amazing sunset that night. I got to try out my new iPhone toy here. I bought the Photojojo phone lens set and used the wide angle lens to get the shot of Diana and I. Such a great little piece of glass, I totally recommend them (I'll show more shots with the macro lens in my next post)!

We had food from Zen for dinner and Herrell's ice cream for dessert. I stuck with one of my fall favorites, pumpkin, while Diana had an interesting flavor, Sweet Dreams, which was chamomile, honey, lemon and vanilla flavored. She said she really liked it. I guess I'll have to try it if I head back there! We both had a little ice cream with our sprinkles. :)

Stay tuned for Part 2, our trip up to Bernardston and Greenfield, MA!