Today I do Harvard, or should I say, HaaHhhHVAAhhhd!

But first a stop at Fenway:

So, how'd you guys do last season? Oh wait...

Tee hee.

Yes, I did in fact dare to wear such a hat at Fenway, but I promptly took it off before anyone saw me… I think.

Funny thing about Fenway: after spending a few days at Boston, I only noticed maybe one or two locals donning Red Sox gear. But while I was walking around the baseball stadium, EVERYONE was wearing Red Sox hats, jackets or whatnot. I’m not kidding, either. I stuck out like a sore thumb even without my Yankees hat. And as an extra bonus, I saw the official mascot for the BoSox too, Wally The Green Monster, just walking down the street like any old dude:

Only at Fenway!

One girl actually ran across the street to hug him too. I was going to ask her to hug me as well, but I hadn’t quite hidden my Yankees cap completely out of sight, so I decided not to chance it. Ah well. Even ugly mascots get all the love.

Still, a fun visit, I walked around to see if wanted to get inside the stadium, but it seemed closed to the public. Once again, that will have to wait for another day. I got back to the subway and got out near the Hynes Convention center, deciding to take a brisk walk through the city and also check out the other hotel I was considering before I came here. When I finally got to it I realized I had made the right choice in staying in the financial district. There was a bar beneath the hotel and it also seemed positively squeezed between two busy looking buildings. Good call there, Linc.

After walking all the way back to the Commons, I went under again and took the T line to Cambridge. It was time to see the breeding ground that regularly produces the most repugnant and disgusting elements of our society mankind has ever seen: Liberals!

HaaahhhVAhhhdd!

To be honest, it didn’t look any different from any other university. The campus looked similar to some of the ones I’ve visited or used locally, and the students all looked the same to me.

As I walked around campus, two Chinese girls who were apparently tourists approached me and asked if they could take a picture with me, being a Harvard student.

“… suuuuuure, I’d love to take a picture!” We posed together and I gave a thumbs up sign to the camera and flashed my trademark grin. Oh what I wouldn’t have done to have my Sarah Palin button with me.

I continued walking around, passing by the law school and several other buildings before finally turning back to Harvard Square, where I passed by a student holding out a Starbucks cup and begging for money to help pay his tuition. Rich beggars, gotta love ‘em.

It was getting late in the day, so I decided I had seen enough, and headed back to the North End for another taste of Italian food. This time I went for Regina’s Pizzeria, which also touts some of the best pizza in Boston.

Meh.

I think I’ve been spoiled by New York pizza. There’s just nobody out there that can do it better than us.

I took the rest of the pizza back to the hotel and realized for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow it would be time to go home, and already I was beginning to miss the city. On the upside, I believe this would only be but the first of many visits to come.

Tags: baseball stadium, boston, Cambridge, fenway park, Harvard, Harvard Square, italian food, liberals, North End, pizza, Red Sox
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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I left on the ninth, the massive storm front that had just dumped 55 inches in Washington, DC only a mere few hundreds miles away and slowly making its way north. Despite the forecasts, I threw caution to the wind and hightailed it out of New York for a four day adventure in Beantown. There was not a cloud in the sky as I opted to take the scenic route through Rhode Island, and do some geocaching along the way. It would in fact be my first ever visit to the state too.

Oh wow... a rock...

Driving towards Newport, RI

Rhode Island was… blah. Although I drove through Newport where all the famous mansions were, Rhode Island didn’t really do anything for me. It just felt… blah. After a few hours of hunting down geocaches here and there, I decided I had seen enough of the state and continued northward. By the time I arrived at Boston it was around 3PM, the sky still as blue as the Caribbean ocean. I was about a day ahead of the storm, and I was determined to start checking out the city as soon as I settled into the hotel and stashed my car safely away at a nearby parking garage.

Boston!

I’m glad I picked the financial district too. It was immaculate, lightly crowded, and the T line was literally right outside the hotel. I bundled up and headed straight for the North End, cutting through Christopher Columbus Park and enjoying the splendid view of the harbor. Before I knew it, I was standing right outside Paul Revere’s House, amazed and awed that I was finding myself walking the same paths and traveling the same roads that so many famous men of history had once been on.

India? Fuhgetaboutit!

Still standing! Now where's my pizza??

Once the sun began to set, I decided it was time to see for myself if the Italian food here (namely the pizza) lived up to the hype. It was time for Santarpios Pizza!

Santarpios was located in East Boston, so I hitched a ride on the blue line over, and promptly got lost from there, even with my GPS. I had gotten out of the stop for Logan’s Airport, but once I got above ground all I saw were a maze of freeways and no clear way through. Santarpios was somewhere out there, but my GPS would not cooperate and insisted I had at least a 2 mile walk ahead of me. I wasn’t willing to do anything more than a half a mile, so next thing I knew I was hopping freeway barriers, dodging an insane amount of traffic moving at breakneck speed, and breathing in the toxic fumes of all the car exhausts before making it to the other side and hoofing it another few city blocks before I finally found the pizza joint.

Man this had BETTER be worth it. I walked in, asked for a booth and was promptly seated. My muscles were aching from climbing the freeway barriers, so I was glad to be able to stretch my legs and relax a bit.

Weird menu by the way. I had never seen one so brief it didn’t even have the option of ordering pizza by the slice. It included choices for the types of pizzas you wanted, and beverages. That was it.

I opted for extra cheese and sausage, and patiently waited. The pizza came after about 10 minutes and I was ready to dig in. I used a knife and fork to cut a piece and savored the moment before I took my first bite, indeed the first bite I would ever take of a pizza made in Boston. And the verdict was…

Meh.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good pizza, spicy and tasty, but there were no heavenly choirs singing, or psychedelic moments that took me to a different level of the astral plane. It was just modestly good pizza. Yes I am in fact a New York snob, deal with it.

I did note that it was so thin you couldn’t really eat a slice by hand, so I had to use a knife and fork for the most part. That’s just weird. It wasn’t until a few minutes when the crust began to harden again that I was able to fold up a slice and eat it by hand. I had another slice or two and then had them bag the rest. Good thing I had cash on me too, because they didn’t accept credit cards either.

Once my food was boxed and ready to go, I bundled up again and braced myself for the walk back to the T line. There had to be some better way to get to it, but rather than use my Garmin GPS, I went to Google Maps on my iPod this time. There appeared to be a park that separated the streets nearby from the T line, so I made a beeline straight for the park, initially discouraged to see that the gates were closed. Undeterred, I kept moving along the fence, until somehow, by the grace of God I was able to find the still open main entrance, which led directly to the subways. The park also afforded me an amazing view of Boston’s skyline in the distance, so I took a moment to take it all in, until I could hear the rumbling of the blue train nearby. I raced ahead and down the stairs, just in time to catch another ride back to the hotel, before the latest episode of Lost would start.

Returning from Wonderland: The Blue Train

After Lost ended, I was all settled in for my first night, enjoying the view of the buildings from the 7th floor, and anxious for tomorrow to begin so I could start my journey on the Freedom Trail. Outside, the city lights twinkled in a night that had been further darkened by a brewing storm.

A view from my hotel window.

Tags: boston, boulder, Christopher Columbus Park, driving, geocaching, gps, iPod, italian food, journey, new york, North End, Paul Revere, pizza, Rhode Island, skyline, storm, subway, travel
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So hey, I finally took the plunge and made a reservation for Boston, just in time to see a forecast for a storm coming to New England Tuesday night, a forecast that was confirmed juuuuuust late enough to ensure I couldn’t cancel my reservation in time. Yaaay!

But whatever, I was born during violent weather, so this will be a mere walk in the park for me, even though my dear Mommy threw a fit about me traveling under such adverse conditions. If this is how she reacts to me being in mildly bad weather, then I probably shouldn’t tell her about my plans to go tornado chasing in a few months.

So this is how I’m gonna kick it: I’ll be spending a large part of the day driving the scenic byways in Rhode Island and geocaching along the way like a fanatic monkey who has no life whatsoever, mainly because I do in fact have no life whatsoever. In the course of doing so I may come across hot babes at rest stops and whatnot prior to my arrival at Boston, in which case I will walk up to them and use my world renowned pickup line: “I think you’re beeeooootiful! Will you be my love snuggles?”

After having been solidly rejected by the entire female population of Rhode Island (all 6 of them), I will spend a few minutes crying over hot cocoa at the border of Massachusetts, then continue on my journey until I arrive at long last at Beantown, for the first time evah! I will then check in, discreetly inquire about escort services, then decide I would never make enough money in this lifetime or the next to afford it, and opt for a slice of pizza at the North End instead.

Good times, baby, good times.

Wish me luck! I probably won’t blog at length until I’m safe and sound at my hotel tomorrow night.

Tags: Beantown, boston, geocaching, hot babes, hotel, journey, Massachusetts, New England, pizza, scenic byways, storm, travel, weather
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Another Thanksgiving draws near, and once again it’s time to reflect on what I should be thankful for.

… well I got nothing.

No seriously, I do have a lot to be thankful for, especially this year. This was after all the year I finally became debt free, after having paid off my credit card, car and my college loan. It was the year my earnings from this blog reached inconceivable heights, making it possible for me to travel more frequently now and enjoy life in a way I never could before. For this I have you, my readers to thank. I still can’t quit my job just yet, but the extra income coupled with a debt free existence has made it possible now for me to go out and experience new and different things, and better yet, write about it too.

My health has also gotten much better as well. I thought I would be too tired, too sick to take on exhausting road trips and weekend getaways to God only knows where, but instead it’s become the exact opposite. The more I moved around, the better I felt and the more energy I had. In a way it broke my depression and lifted me out of this mental prison that I’ve built for myself for so long.

I’m thankful for finding a new hobby in geocaching too, to keep things interesting on my trips and find new places to explore that never would have occurred to me otherwise.

I’m thankful for my parents, who are all that I have left of a once huge family that had been lost through hate, estrangement and betrayal.

I am thankful for my beautiful and reliable SUV, which continues to guzzle gas and proudly leave it’s wide load of a carbon footprint for all to see.

I am thankful for Yankee Candles, pizza and cupcakes. And occasionally brownies too.

And of course, I am thankful to God my Father and my savior Jesus Christ, who has made all of the above things possible.

And I am thankful for the new year to come, the endless possibilities it might bright, and a hope that refuses to die, the hope that I will someday soon meet my dream girl.

Tags: christ, college loan, debt, depression, dream girl, energy, family, geocaching, God, health, income, Jesus, life, new year, parents, pizza, readers, road trip, thankful, thanks, Thanksgiving, travel, yankee candles
Categories: Gone Mobile
 
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After a round of shooting at the range and seeing Karen, I got thoroughly depressed and decided to take a walk down Little Italy to take my mind off things. Nothing can lift my spirits faster than a chocolate covered cannoli and a slice of Mulberry Street pizza can after all.

I wanted to stash my car somewhere between Little Italy and the Seaport, so I picked a cheap garage just outside of Chinatown and rolled it right in. It was valet parking, so I had to get out and let some weird Hindu looking guy park it for me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy a few things or not to take back with me, so I wanted to know if I could get to my car to leave a few things if needed.

“So listen, I might come back here to drop off a few things, but I won’t be leaving just yet. Would I be able to do that?”

“I park car!”

“Yes, well, I just need to know if I’d be able to get to my ride to drop off some stuff I might buy later on.”

“I park car!”

… … …

“Ok, well, thanks for your time.” I made sure my glove compartment was locked up tight. “See you later!”

I have an odd craving to play Tic Tac Toe for some reason.

I walked a block or two and suddenly found myself in a familiar place:

Somewhere in the distance I can hear the DING DING of Law and Order.

How is it that I always wind up here one way or another? Ah well, at least this time I don’t need a lawyer for once.

Yooooooooo hoooooooooo, I hope you're getting my best side this time, darlings! *kissy kissy*

I continued uptown a few blocks until I reached Little Italy. (One thing I’ve always hated about it was just how much Chinatown overshadowed everything. Chinatown is virtually a city unto itself, while Little Italy was basically just a small, weenie street in comparison.) I stopped by the Ferrara Bakery, saw a mini wedding cake I wanted to sample too, until I saw the price tag: $15.

Um yeah, no thanks. I waved to the wise guys sitting in the back and walked back out again. I found another bakery further and got a few chocolate covered cannolis, then made my way back down again for a slice of pizza, and finally started feeling better about things. Finally walked back down to the seaport and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon.

For some reason I always feel at home downtown. Midtown always seems claustrophobic to me, but downtown I feel like I can spread my wings a little and relax more. Maybe it’s the sight of the Brooklyn Bridge and the river that does it. Even City Hall Park has its quiet charm too:

I like lamps.

Sigh, I guess I’m just kind of hoping one day I’ll find a girl who will appreciate these little things as well.

The sun had set and the day was losing its light as I walked back to the garage to pick up my ride and head home. The city had already begun to twinkle its lights, casting its reflection on the water and lighting the way for me, while subtle shades of green and red danced here and there.

The holiday season had finally arrived.

Tags: cannolis, cars, chinatown, city, holiday season, justice, little italy, park, parking, pizza, seaport, street
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So Sunday I crossed the entire breadth of Long Island under the reasonable assumption that if I just drove out east far enough, I would find a completely unobstructed view of the horizon for the harvest moon, as well as get some nice snapshots of the scenery. Under that logic I decided to drive, and drive, and drive, and drive, until I ended up at a place called Montauk, which is about as far east as you can possibly go in the entire state of New York before driving into the Atlantic Ocean.

The trip was nice, until it turned into one lane and I had drivers up my ying yang while the guy in front me of course has to drive 20 miles an hour, because what’s the hurry, really? So I’m feeling myself getting squeezed by tailgaters and slow pokes the whole last hour of driving before I finally and mercifully pulled into the town/village/hamlet(??) of Montauk.

Since I had a couple of hours to kill I decided to explore the area, beginning of course with:

Nothing says small town like a good old fashioned burger.

I walked in and the place looked like it was 100 years old. I placed an order for their specialty burger and watched as a few more people came in, still dressed in summer clothes, all of them barefoot.

Clearly there were hicks in New York too. I waited like 10 minutes for my burger, and when I finally got around to eating it, it tasted a bit… fishy to me. No, I mean it really had a fishy taste to it. Bleh. And I HATE seafood too.

Ah well, I made up for that by having pizza instead.

Californian pizza in New York? FAIL

I took a walk through town, not much to it really, just a few stores sprinkled here and there, though I did find an amusing junk store with these signs on the door:

Heh.

I could live in this store forever.

Also passed by a florist too:

Preeeeetty....

So prettttttyyy...

After walking around town a bit, I decided to chance a quick trip down to the harbor before going out to Montauk Point to set up my camera for the moonshot. As I pulled out, I saw this in my sideview mirror:

Thank you world for all these constant reminders that I'm single. Douche balls.

I found a beach that offered a vantage view of the channel boats navigate through in order to enter Lake Montauk, but the beach was infested with flies. I only managed to get two or three shots off before I decided to flee and get back onto the parking lot.

Why yes, the branch DID have carvings of stupid skanky teen couples professing their love for each other. OMG, can I fricking DIE now??

I didn’t take two steps onto the parking lot before I sprained my ankle and spiraled almost face first into the cement before finally catching myself. Oh my goodness. PAIN. I limped the rest of the way to my car and I just knew this day was going to get worse before it got better.

I could still walk though, albeit a bit tenderly, so I started to drive my way back to the state park about an hour before sunset. The water was really amazing. Everywhere you went you were surrounded by water:

Man, don't make any wrong turns here.

The park included the famous Montauk lighthouse, and after paying $6 for parking(??!?), I was finally able to take a photo of it for the first time:

Gee, it looked a lot bigger to me in the postcards...

That’s when I realized I had a problem. The lighthouse was closed at sunset, and the rest of the area was covered in shrubs and trees. It was almost worse than being in the city. I simply had no idea where to find an ideal spot so I could watch the moon rise. So I went up to the beach and started walking around the lighthouse, carrying my camera with the tripod attached. This is what constitutes a beach in this area by the way:

I'm supposed to walk on THIS?

And yep, while I was walking across, I sprained my ankle again. Not as bad as the first time, but just enough to aggravate me and remind me once again that I suck.

The fishermen apparently LOVE to fish in these areas though:

You'll never catch anything! NEVAH!! Ahhhhhahahahahah!

What the flips is this thing??

For some reason I actually thought there would be a manmade sidewalk because I could see a fence in the distance, so I continued trucking along, gingerly walking/limping over rocks until I finally found myself on a rocky ledge behind the lighthouse. Did I say sidewalk before? Well not quite:

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I was already halfway on this ledge before I realized there would in fact be no smooth-as-silk sidewalk waiting for me, and it actually would have been more dangerous for me to turn back since there was a bunch of snot nosed little turdlings that were hopping the rocks around me and blocking the way. I couldn’t believe how unsafe it was. One slip and your boom booms go bye bye as you plunge 30 odd feet to your certain death. On top of this there were fishermen all over these ledges, tossing back their fishing poles at random moments so that God forbid you had the misfortune of being behind them as the bait and line flew over you. Can you say fish food? Oy.

The sun was already beginning to set now, so I made my way through as fast as I could on this crazy obstacle course, with a twice sprained ankle and a camera + tripod leaning on my shoulder. Hop, hop, hop, hop, OW! *&^%, hop, hop, hop…

I finally made it off the ledge, which of course led to an area where I was now sandwiched between two small cliffs, obstructing my view even more. Sigh. There was an unpaved road that led upwards, so I rested a minute or two to catch my breath, than made my way up the road. I still could not see any moon, just shrubs and trees and cable wires and whatnot. I might as well have been in an Amazonian jungle. I walked and walked, the light of the sun slowly fading away, until I came across a gigantic pool of MUD that covered the entire road. There was absolutely no way around it.

Why, God, WHY?

I just stood for a few minutes and looked at it, before finally letting out my breath and deciding that it didn’t look too deep, so maybe if I just hugged the side enough my shoes wouldn’t go that deep into the mud.

So I got as close to the side as possible, then took my first step.

*SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Oh Mommy. The pool of mud was like a foot deep. I was completely submerged up to my ankles. I groaned as I plopped through, one SPLOOOOSH at a time until I finally made my way past the pool.

Squish, squish, squish, squish. And then of course I sprained my ankle AGAIN, almost dropping my camera as I stumbled a few feet before catching myself. Man.

By this time, dusk had finally descended, and yes, of course, I still could not see the moon.

I finally gave up and squished back to my car. Before leaving I decided to see if I could get a glimpse of the moon and finally at long last I saw it, even though it was now past its harvest peak. Since I didn’t want to leave empty handed, I swung around and drove back into the park. I must have done several circles trying to find an ideal spot but I just could not find any, except for one spot that was already taken up by some dweebie photographer, and of course he has a girl with him sitting adoringly at his feet while the man gets himself the perfect moon shot. God in heaven, should have driven off the road so I could nail his bony little …

But anyhow, I decided to just go back into the parking lot and get whatever shots I could from there. This was one of the only moon shots I could manage:

Yes it's fuzzy. Yes it looks like the sun. But it's the moon, I assure you.

As for the rest of the photos, I used a bracketing technique on my camera to get shots with different exposures, then used a software program to merge them all together to create what’s called an HDR image. It’s not perfect, but overall, I guess I could have done far worse considering the day I was having.

Probably the best photo I took then.

The final result. Yes that's the moon, not the sun. Shut up already.

With night fully upon me now, it was time to take the long trip back home. I stopped by a Carvel since a day of having pizza and burgers simply cannot be complete unless it’s topped off with ice cream.

The Carvel was empty, so I walked inside an ordered a chocolate cone. Suddenly it was instantly filled up by 30 people. I’m not kidding, in the space of a minute, it was PACKED, including some weird looking elephant-man type dude who felt it necessary to stand two inches behind me while I was waiting for my order. Finally I looked back at him:

“Dude, seriously, a little space?”

He stepped back once, about 4 less steps than I would have liked. The crap was taking my ice cream so long?

Ah, here we go, sheesh. I grabbed my cone, licked and limped back to my car again, and steeled myself for the long, lonely drive back.

Maybe next year will be better.

Tags: beach, burgers, camera, clouds, couple, day trip, driving, flowers, harvest moon, ice cream, ledge, lighthouse, montauk, new york, ocean, photo, Photos, pizza, rocky, town, water
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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