Boston Bound
26/05/08 07:14
Yesterday was a beautiful day here on the coast. We began with a bike ride down the coastline and we ended up taking an extended ride because it was such a beautiful morning. The coastline was pristine, the morning air cool and without humidity, and all with a cloudless sky overhead. The ocean was relatively calm and you could see all the way out to the Isle of Shoals which is some 6 miles offshore without so much as a squint. We thought about going to Boston since Evan was heading down to Foxboro, Ma., with friends to take in lacrosse championships at Gillette stadium. That is, for all unacquainted with same, home of the Patriots football team. Is mentioning the Patriots and football in the same sentence redundant? Maybe not on Memorial Day. Certainly not today.
It was too nice a day not to go for a ride despite the price of gas ($4 gallon) so off we went. I was interested in visiting the new Apple store in Boston so that is what we did. Finding a parking spot was more of a challenge that I had anticipated and we went round and round the city streets looking for a spot before we finally found one near the Prudential Center. The Apple building was but a city block away. It must have taken us 20 minutes to find a place to park. From there we walked cross town to the Quincy Market. It turned out to be a trudge of epic proportions but we were not alone. The city was bustling under the weight of visitors from around the world and we simply got on the treadmill and kept walking. I think we surprised ourselves at just how far and long we walked. We stopped long enough at Faneuil Hall to listen to a group of black beat boxers and to share a greek salad and we continued on. By the grace of god, the walk back seemed shorter as it always does. We didn't take a taxi or jump on the subway since I was not wanting to pay the price of a taxi when we could walk and Nancy did not want to take the subway. So we walked, and walked, and walked. And then we walked some more.
The Apple store was pretty cool. It reminded me more of a museum than a store with its expansive layout and glass facade. It is five stories high and the glass front extends to all five stories as you face the building from the street. If you have a fear of heights, you're better off not looking down the glass stairway or out the window and down to the street. We had a conversation or two with folks from their genius bar about the iMovie application and the use and control of fonts. We sat down at a 24" iMac and used it to visit Nancy's sites on the web and found the monitors to be exquisite. Wow! Look at those graphics! Have you ever seen text so crisp? The staff was very pleasant but if I had to guess I would say few if any of their employees could afford to buy one of their higher end computers. That is not a bad thing but just an observation. One fellow regaled us with stories about his prior job selling PC's and how he has moved up in the world. Over from the dark side I should say.
We ended the day with an iced coffee from Seattle's Best Coffee but we passed on a dozen bagels from Finagle-a-Bagel given the nuts and seeds warning pasted right on the counter next to the cash register. Ev will have to settle for blueberry bagels from Dunkin Donuts although they too are suspect now that the store sells peanut butter cookies. Have been for a while as a matter of fact. Toast and jam okay?
It was too nice a day not to go for a ride despite the price of gas ($4 gallon) so off we went. I was interested in visiting the new Apple store in Boston so that is what we did. Finding a parking spot was more of a challenge that I had anticipated and we went round and round the city streets looking for a spot before we finally found one near the Prudential Center. The Apple building was but a city block away. It must have taken us 20 minutes to find a place to park. From there we walked cross town to the Quincy Market. It turned out to be a trudge of epic proportions but we were not alone. The city was bustling under the weight of visitors from around the world and we simply got on the treadmill and kept walking. I think we surprised ourselves at just how far and long we walked. We stopped long enough at Faneuil Hall to listen to a group of black beat boxers and to share a greek salad and we continued on. By the grace of god, the walk back seemed shorter as it always does. We didn't take a taxi or jump on the subway since I was not wanting to pay the price of a taxi when we could walk and Nancy did not want to take the subway. So we walked, and walked, and walked. And then we walked some more.
The Apple store was pretty cool. It reminded me more of a museum than a store with its expansive layout and glass facade. It is five stories high and the glass front extends to all five stories as you face the building from the street. If you have a fear of heights, you're better off not looking down the glass stairway or out the window and down to the street. We had a conversation or two with folks from their genius bar about the iMovie application and the use and control of fonts. We sat down at a 24" iMac and used it to visit Nancy's sites on the web and found the monitors to be exquisite. Wow! Look at those graphics! Have you ever seen text so crisp? The staff was very pleasant but if I had to guess I would say few if any of their employees could afford to buy one of their higher end computers. That is not a bad thing but just an observation. One fellow regaled us with stories about his prior job selling PC's and how he has moved up in the world. Over from the dark side I should say.
We ended the day with an iced coffee from Seattle's Best Coffee but we passed on a dozen bagels from Finagle-a-Bagel given the nuts and seeds warning pasted right on the counter next to the cash register. Ev will have to settle for blueberry bagels from Dunkin Donuts although they too are suspect now that the store sells peanut butter cookies. Have been for a while as a matter of fact. Toast and jam okay?
