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We went to Needham this weekend to spend it with Melanie as a lead-up to her week-long birthday celebration. In general it was a nice trip away from home and there was some fun had.
We left Friday afternoon and arrived in the evening at Melanie's Mom's house where we promptly had some snacks and watched some Forever Knight. Melanie eventually cooked a delicious pizza on a wheat and herb crust with eggplant & garlic sauce, tomatoes, peppers and mozzarella. Very tasty! I got very tired so Kathy and I went to bed and left Melanie to watch some more Forever Knight.
Saturday we got a late start. First we had some strawberry waffles for breakfast (again very yummy!) and followed it with a visit from Melanie's aunts. They had stopped in to drop off the pass to the Museum of Scinece. After that Melanie's other aunt called from the west coast and we were unexpectedly handed the phone and asked to talk with a complete stranger. It was a bit awkward but kinda fun. We finally got going and (with some confusion on the directions) made our way to the Needham library to get more passes, the Natick library to drop off and pick up videos and books and then to Quincy to see Melanie's aunts' dogs and take the T in to the Museum of Science.
Let me start by saying that the library in Natick is really cool. They preserved and old building completely and built the new library around it. It's an amazing design that had me absolutely fascinated for a while. Also a new experience was taking the T into Boston from the Braintree end of the Red Line (never really been on that end of the T). I was pleasantly surprised at how much of that stretch of the Red Line was above ground. We also took the Green Line outbound to Science Park for the museum, which was also a new stretch of T for me to ride. The new ticket kiosks are interesting if not a bit annoying in that they dispense change in dollar coins. I do like the ability to purchase tickets with credit/debit. Very handy! :)
The Museum of Science was fun, even if short-lived. We were all operating under the false assumption that since the Omni theater was open late, the museum was also open late. Not so. Still we managed to spend a lot of time in the Jane Goodall exhibit, which was one of the two big attractions we wanted to see. We missed the dinosaurs sadly, but it will give us a good reason to return. The Goodall exhibit had a lot of excellent interactive features that made it not only informative but also very fun and imaginative. That's one of the biggest successes of the Museum of Science I feel: their exhibits are interactive and engage curiosity in such a way that makes learning fun and easy. When the museum closed, Melanie and Kathy walked around the gift shop for a bit and then we walked to the Quiznos near the Banknorth Garden for dinner.
Kathy and I had never been to a Quiznos before. It was actually fairly decent for a fast-food sub shop. I agree with Melanie's heirarchy of sub shops: it goes Subway on the low end, then Quiznos, then Panera Bread and then actual restaurant. My only addition would be to give Subway a little credit and place gas stations/convenience stores as the step below them.
We returned to Quincy by T and the train announcer voice-bot thingy kept saying "next stop: harvard square" at every stop, which is in completely the opposite direction from Park Street as Quincy. It was amusing though and sparked a conversation with the nice older gentleman sitting across from us. He ended up getting off at the same stop as us and walking mostly the same way so we had some more conversation and humor with him. He seemed like a very nice man.
We finished the night with some Red Dwarf, a chicken pesto pizza cooked by Melanie (once again very tasty indeed) and Godzilla vs. Hedorah (ugghhh) and then sleep. I had to go to bed halfway through the monster flick. It was dull and I was tired so that made for a "lots of Jamie snoring and not paying attention" situation. I really only remember go-go dancers, weird cartoon segments and some strange charcoal tadpoles.
Today went quite fast. We got up late again, had spiced pecan pumpkin waffles (oh so yummy!) and watched more Godzilla. Actually I was feeling a bit down and funky so I spent some time out in the garden while Melanie and Kathy watched Godzilla. It did me a little good to spend time outdoors. I had a squirrel hang out between my feet for a bit so we had a nice little visit, followed by some little brown bird hanging out with me for a few minutes, then a blue jay sitting above my shoulder on a brach for a little while and then the squirrel came back. I went inside and watched some Red Dwarf with Kathy until we both agreed that we should probably just leave at that point since we had a long drive ahead.
At first we were going to stop at my parents' for a visit. Then just before we left we decided not to do so. On the way home we decided again to stop in and visit. I'm glad we did. Both of my sisters ended up stopping in with all the nephews and niece so we had a splendid visit with the whole immediate family. We got to meet Cat's new boyfriend Johnny. He's a very pleasant fellow from Peru and the father of Cat's expected baby. I'm very happy to see Cat with a nice guy for a change. We ended up ordering out for pizza and having a late dinner altogether which was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. It was a most welcome end to the weekend! :D
The truck acted up a few times on the trip down and back. I'm going to call tomorrow and schedule an appointment. Fortunately I get free loaner vehicles from the dealer while it's in for service so that'll help with matters, but it's still a bit annoying to have a vehicle repair come now. Oh well. Worse things happen at sea. The up-side is we returned home to find the phone line is working properly again so we can once again connect to the Internet from home. Yay!
Overall a good but tiring weekend. Thanks for having us down for the weekend Melanie! We had hoped to see your mother in person today to thank her for her kindness in opening the home for us but it didn't happen. Would you please pass along our thanks to her, as well?
We left Friday afternoon and arrived in the evening at Melanie's Mom's house where we promptly had some snacks and watched some Forever Knight. Melanie eventually cooked a delicious pizza on a wheat and herb crust with eggplant & garlic sauce, tomatoes, peppers and mozzarella. Very tasty! I got very tired so Kathy and I went to bed and left Melanie to watch some more Forever Knight.
Saturday we got a late start. First we had some strawberry waffles for breakfast (again very yummy!) and followed it with a visit from Melanie's aunts. They had stopped in to drop off the pass to the Museum of Scinece. After that Melanie's other aunt called from the west coast and we were unexpectedly handed the phone and asked to talk with a complete stranger. It was a bit awkward but kinda fun. We finally got going and (with some confusion on the directions) made our way to the Needham library to get more passes, the Natick library to drop off and pick up videos and books and then to Quincy to see Melanie's aunts' dogs and take the T in to the Museum of Science.
Let me start by saying that the library in Natick is really cool. They preserved and old building completely and built the new library around it. It's an amazing design that had me absolutely fascinated for a while. Also a new experience was taking the T into Boston from the Braintree end of the Red Line (never really been on that end of the T). I was pleasantly surprised at how much of that stretch of the Red Line was above ground. We also took the Green Line outbound to Science Park for the museum, which was also a new stretch of T for me to ride. The new ticket kiosks are interesting if not a bit annoying in that they dispense change in dollar coins. I do like the ability to purchase tickets with credit/debit. Very handy! :)
The Museum of Science was fun, even if short-lived. We were all operating under the false assumption that since the Omni theater was open late, the museum was also open late. Not so. Still we managed to spend a lot of time in the Jane Goodall exhibit, which was one of the two big attractions we wanted to see. We missed the dinosaurs sadly, but it will give us a good reason to return. The Goodall exhibit had a lot of excellent interactive features that made it not only informative but also very fun and imaginative. That's one of the biggest successes of the Museum of Science I feel: their exhibits are interactive and engage curiosity in such a way that makes learning fun and easy. When the museum closed, Melanie and Kathy walked around the gift shop for a bit and then we walked to the Quiznos near the Banknorth Garden for dinner.
Kathy and I had never been to a Quiznos before. It was actually fairly decent for a fast-food sub shop. I agree with Melanie's heirarchy of sub shops: it goes Subway on the low end, then Quiznos, then Panera Bread and then actual restaurant. My only addition would be to give Subway a little credit and place gas stations/convenience stores as the step below them.
We returned to Quincy by T and the train announcer voice-bot thingy kept saying "next stop: harvard square" at every stop, which is in completely the opposite direction from Park Street as Quincy. It was amusing though and sparked a conversation with the nice older gentleman sitting across from us. He ended up getting off at the same stop as us and walking mostly the same way so we had some more conversation and humor with him. He seemed like a very nice man.
We finished the night with some Red Dwarf, a chicken pesto pizza cooked by Melanie (once again very tasty indeed) and Godzilla vs. Hedorah (ugghhh) and then sleep. I had to go to bed halfway through the monster flick. It was dull and I was tired so that made for a "lots of Jamie snoring and not paying attention" situation. I really only remember go-go dancers, weird cartoon segments and some strange charcoal tadpoles.
Today went quite fast. We got up late again, had spiced pecan pumpkin waffles (oh so yummy!) and watched more Godzilla. Actually I was feeling a bit down and funky so I spent some time out in the garden while Melanie and Kathy watched Godzilla. It did me a little good to spend time outdoors. I had a squirrel hang out between my feet for a bit so we had a nice little visit, followed by some little brown bird hanging out with me for a few minutes, then a blue jay sitting above my shoulder on a brach for a little while and then the squirrel came back. I went inside and watched some Red Dwarf with Kathy until we both agreed that we should probably just leave at that point since we had a long drive ahead.
At first we were going to stop at my parents' for a visit. Then just before we left we decided not to do so. On the way home we decided again to stop in and visit. I'm glad we did. Both of my sisters ended up stopping in with all the nephews and niece so we had a splendid visit with the whole immediate family. We got to meet Cat's new boyfriend Johnny. He's a very pleasant fellow from Peru and the father of Cat's expected baby. I'm very happy to see Cat with a nice guy for a change. We ended up ordering out for pizza and having a late dinner altogether which was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. It was a most welcome end to the weekend! :D
The truck acted up a few times on the trip down and back. I'm going to call tomorrow and schedule an appointment. Fortunately I get free loaner vehicles from the dealer while it's in for service so that'll help with matters, but it's still a bit annoying to have a vehicle repair come now. Oh well. Worse things happen at sea. The up-side is we returned home to find the phone line is working properly again so we can once again connect to the Internet from home. Yay!
Overall a good but tiring weekend. Thanks for having us down for the weekend Melanie! We had hoped to see your mother in person today to thank her for her kindness in opening the home for us but it didn't happen. Would you please pass along our thanks to her, as well?
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Date: 2007-06-11 03:28 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 07:56 pm (UTC)From: