Tuesday, August 4, 2009

B is for Boston

just spent a week in Boston visiting Katie and Aaron. they are summering in Jamaica Plains staying at a co-op house. the exterior is surrounded by sunflowers, while the inside is filled with 9 people. in order to accommodate this many people, they have a kitchen with two ovens, 2 refrigerators, and a large pantry along with a well working system for meals, shopping and cleaning. the basement has bike hooks with what seems like more than 1 bike per person(and at least a couple bikes for guests).
on my first day, Aaron, Erica and i rented a sail boat at the lake across the street. we had to convince the boat house keeper(aka merman) that we could sail(we dont know how to sail). we did a bunch of laps around the lake(i guess we kinda do know how to sail). i am now itching to get home to fix up my brothers hobie cat so we can take it out.
that same night we went out contra dancing in a small town outside the city. i thought i knew a thing or two about contra dancing, it turns out that i am better at sailing than i am at contra dancing(this is not saying very much).
day 2 was filled with rain and the most exciting thing we did was go to the Bikes Not Bombs storefront which is right down the street from the house. the shop sells new and used bikes and all the profits go to fund the BNB community projects. day three Aaron and i rode around boston. in boston common we saw some really awesome pedal powered paddle boats. the sat probably 20 people and the driver sat in a large swan. that night we went to a party at katie's work and ate free Turkish food till we couldnt move.
other highlights of the trip:
we went on 2 very nice rides in the boston area. the first one we rode up to Lynn, not the most exciting town, but its right one water, so that was nice.
the second ride was out to Holliston to visit A.N.T. Bicycles. Mike Flanigan's bikes really inspire me. they are simple, beautiful and utilitarian. they have a dutch city bike look, but are still very unique. his shop is in an old shoe factory. he was nice enough to show us his shop, let us see and ride one of his bikes(his personal dutch style bike) and then had lunch with us at a local cafe.(mike, thanks again for the drum brake boss, it will go on the next fork i build).
after 3 hours we were back on the road to boston.
im not going to post all the pictures on here, click this image to see more.
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so, here are some statistics from my trip so far:

minimum number of miles ridden on a bike thus far: 200(hmm, should be more)

number of bikes ridden: 5

number of dead rats: boston 5
philly 2
nyc 0(huh?)
number of live rats: boston 0
philly 2
nyc 4
number of bus rides: 5 (2 more to go)

vegan ice cream shops visited: 2

of those, how many actually open for business: 1

# of collectively run vegan pizza joints that i tried to visit but were no longer in business: 1

Vietnamese veggie sandwiches eaten:5 (the ones in philly are the best so far)

total cost: $15

famous people i had to move out of the way of? 3

city were i spent the most money: new york