3 Cities: Boston! ~ Exile From Conformity

The plan was to visit three cities in the year for fun and not for work. I've been a mountain of interesting places for work including Southern California, Seattle and Hamburg, but those weren't for fun and fun was the key here.

The trek to see Early Morning Blues all over continues and this time I got to see them in their hometown of Boston, MA. Heather, my friend from the DC area came with and we trekked from DC to Boston (after I started everything in California). We planned out for a weekend and got to Boston midday on Friday which meant we had most of the day to explore.

First things first we met up with Rana which involved a trip on the T (their bus/metro/train system) to her apartment. That's always an experience, but once you learn one metro map, the rest sort of fall together. Heather had a handle on DC and though it had been a while I could muster my way through the Paris Metro which wasn't even in English.

After dropping things off and changing at Rana's we headed out again, grabbing lunch at a local pizza place, the Penguin. Totally yummy and actually a pub run by British folks. It reminded me of of Manchester Arms in Atlanta, but they served pizza.

Then it was off to Newbury Street which was probably my number one goal. We walked from the Penguin there and had Rana laughing because she told us it wasn't far, "only a 30 minute walk." Heather and I both being from places where you just don't walk balked at her a little. We wound up walking which was really nice, getting to see a lot of Boston as we did, but it was quite the walk.

Newbury is home to Johnny Cupcakes which was one of my main targets. I love the story behind the shop and love the clothes that he sells. It's all very kitsch and cool. Danny from Early Morning Blues actually works there which is even cooler. I picked up a shirt with Hello Kitty as well as the Johnny Cupcake logo and Heather got a cute maroon one.

Victoria caught up with us and we wandered up and down Newbury, stopping in a thrift store where Heather found a loud Betsy Johnson shirt which had all of us laughing because really? That's Heather. The used CD/DVD store had a copy of the Boys Like Girls dvd for $6 which meant I picked it up. I have it on iTunes, but the case has a ton of really cool photos which I wanted to get my hands on and for half price I was more than willing.

There was another stop at Pinkberry of course to get a treat for the afternoon. Definitely delicious and totally worth the stop. It was fun to get it with my friends who don't live in Atlanta, but I always wind up tweeting with about it.

The last stop was for me, at the Converse store. Walking in the door I honestly felt like I'd walked home. I loved the clothes, everything looking like something I'd wear (boys clothes and girls). We went upstairs to look at shoes and I just sort of knew I'd end up with a pair, but instead of just grabbing a teal pair of chucks to match Meaghan's I found out they customize chucks. Turns out it was $20 to do one side of printing and by one side they mean a design on one side of either shoe, anything that can be done in a single print. It took us almost an hour but eventually both Heather and I designed customized high tops.

I feel like a total nerd, but I've never been so excited about a pair of shoes in my life.

We left Newbury and wandered towards Fenway, grabbing a few photos of the stadium as they got ready for the Red Sox Brewers game. It was fun to see all the people gearing up for the game. It's different than being around Turner Field in Atlanta which is huge and one of the only things in that area. There's a lot more surrounding Fenway.

Post Fenway we headed back to Rana's to rest for a while before going out for a late dinner and drinks with Cole, who is one of my brother's friends from high school (so one of my other little brothers). It was awesome to get to see him, introduce him to my friends as well.

I think I'm kind of in love with Boston. It's such an old city, something we don't have in Atlanta. (That's what happens when your city is burned to the ground in the Civil War, but even then we don't have the same sense about it. Atlanta doesn't keep old buildings like they do in Boston). I could definitely live there if it came down to it. I think I'd really enjoy it.