Boston - the "cold and flu tablets: 1, Kirsti: 0" edition

The day after we arrived in Boston, I woke up feeling like someone had gone over my throat with razor blades during the night. I had high hopes that it was just the effect of the air conditioning in the hotel room, and stuffed a bunch of throat lozenges in my mouth. After making good use of the hotel's buffet breakfast (complete with waffle machine!), we made our way over to the nearby train station. There, we bought train tickets. I was forced to use a $20 note for a $10 ticket, and received my change in pirate gold. 

Also known as US $1 coins. 

We headed to downtown Boston, with the intention of walking the Freedom Trail and seeing Boston's significant historic sites. Wheeeeee, nerdiness! Sadly, it started to rain as we got out of the train station at Boston Common. Thankfully, I'd thought to pack the $7 umbrella that I'd bought in Chicago, although we couldn't fit all four of us under it. We decided to hide out at a Starbucks for as long as it took us to drink a coffee and see if the rain passed. So of course, the rain waited until we left the Starbucks, and then got worse. 

We decided to at least walk the two blocks to the Bull & Finch Pub, which was the inspiration for Cheers. We hid under a portico there for a while, and took some photos of ourselves with the Cheers sign outside. 

Bloggy friends FTW! 

When the rain hadn't eased, we decided it was time to change our plans. Instead of starting with the Freedom Trail, we caught the train over to the New England Aquarium and hung out with some sea beasties for a while. 

Paulie patting a stingray

Australia: here be dragons

When we'd finished at the aquarium, it was still raining. (UGH.) We headed in the direction of Faneuil Hall. On the way, we stopped off at a 7-Eleven for the purchasing of umbrellas. I bought a packet of tissues because my sore throat had progressed to snottiness that required immediate rectification. 

Clerk: That'll be $1.03

Me: *hands over $1 coin and 3 pennies*

Clerk: *stares at $1 coin* I don't think this is real.

Me: I got it from a ticket machine in the subway! Who would forge $1 coins?!

Clerk: It looks too shiny to be real. Do you have a $1 bill?

Me: Oh, for the love of God...

It would seem that pirate gold is not legal tender in 7-Eleven... 

Upon reaching Faneuil Hall, we decided to be tacky tourists and eat at the recreated Cheers. Paulie wanted to ask the waiter if he knew his name. Kat, Lauren and I begged him not to. The food was decidedly average. We wandered around the stalls at Faneuil Hall and then decided that we needed chocolate, so headed to Godiva, where this happened:

Lauren: I'd like a chocolate coated strawberry please.

Clerk: That'll be $7.

Lauren: *has heart attack*

Me: I'd like a chocolate coated strawberry please, and one of the raspberry truffles.

Clerk: That'll be $9.

Me: *has heart attack*

Paulie: I'd like four chocolate truffles, please.

Clerk: That'll be $8.

Paulie: *is smug because he got more chocolate than we did for less money*

Also, Lauren had decided that she didn't want to carry a handbag around all day. By the time we reached Faneuil Hall, she was a little sick of having pockets crammed with stuff. So she asked for a bag at Godiva. Then turned it into a handbag. Genius, no? (It was somewhat worse for wear by the time we finally got back to the hotel)

The rain had finally stopped, so we picked up the Freedom Trail. We headed past the Old State House and the Old South Meeting House before coming across a CVS. I was in rather desperate need of cold and flu tablets by that point, so we stopped in there so I could obtain some, a shit ton more tissues, and a bottle of water. Paulie hadn't been into an American pharmacy before, and was totally intrigued by how it was basically a supermarket with less fresh produce and more drugs. For some reason that now escapes me, we went to the TJ Maxx over the road after we left the pharmacy. Kat modelled this truly awful stunning hat and wished she had an event to go to that required the wearing of such a hat:

Sorry, Kat. It's too horrific a hat to keep to ourselves!

I, in the meantime, felt like I had a head full of cotton wool, and was struggling to get my cold and flu tablets out of the packet. They weren't a standard blister pack, but I was convinced that if I pushed hard enough, the tablets would pop out regardless. Instead, I wound up basically turning one of the tablets to powder. Assuming it was a lack of strength, I made whining noises and a pathetic face at Paulie. 

Something like this. Also? OH HI, DAVID TENNANT. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?
Also also? Source.

He took the packet from me, actually LOOKED at it, and discovered that you had to peel off the thick backing paper before you could pop the tablets through the foil. Cold and flu tablets: 1. Kirsti: 0. 

We kept wandering along the Freedom Trail, eventually reaching the Granary Burying Ground. 

Me: Oooooooh, cemetery! Can we go in? Can we can we can we can we?

Everyone else: If it will shut you up, YES.

It was totally worth it. There was a guy buried in there named Increase Sumner. Best. Name. Ever. From there, we headed past the Park Street Church to the Massachusetts State House. 

Yes, we're very mature. Why do you ask?

Then we went to Finagle Bagel and bought a bagel we didn't really want just so we could see this happen:

Pretty awesome, no? 

Then. THEN. THEN came quite possibly the nerdiest thing I've ever done.

Me and Lauren: We need to go back to Beacon Street and find a pizza place somewhere near there.

Paulie and Kat: Um, WHY???

Me and Lauren: SO THAT WE CAN PRETEND IT'S BEACON STREET PIZZA.

Paulie and Kat: What are you talking about?

Me and Lauren: Um, Two Guys and a Girl. DUH. 

Apparently not everyone watched a rather obscure 90s sitcom as religiously as we did... But everyone SHOULD because it stars Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillion and it's AWESOME. 

Yeah. That happened. 

By the time we finished our (frankly, delicious) pizza, it was time to head to Fenway Park. I've had about ten different people ask how we managed to score tickets to a Red Sox homegame. To them (and you) I say, I looked up the dates we were going to be in Boston in about June, went onto the MLB website, and bought them. That was it. We were sitting between home plate and first base, so they were pretty great seats. Sadly, the rope that holds up the mesh that stops the people behind home plate from getting hit in the face with baseballs ended up in all my photos as a result. 

That said, it was a really enjoyable game. Sure, the Red Sox lost, but we got to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and Shipping Up to Boston and eat vast quantities of soft serve out of helmets for a very reasonable price! 

Ice cream dishes make excellent hats!

Course, we then went and spent a millionty dollars on Red Sox themed nonsense in the shop, so the memory of the reasonable price swiftly faded into the dim dark past...

Up next, the most ridonkulous museum of EVER, pizza that had to be drained before consumption, and we go to Haaaaaaaahvard.

K xx

Colorado, the "doing touristy things in Denver" edition

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive. I'm currently on a train from Washington to New York. Sadly, there's no Wifi on the train, and Wifi at our hotel in New York is $13.95 A DAY (WTF?!), but I have high hopes that I'll be able to steal make use of some poor unsuspecting person's unsecured internet to at least post this, because I've been an epic slacker of late. [It didn't. I'm now in Boston...]

I don't really know where to start with Denver. Perhaps with the fact that it was about 10 degrees C hotter than Chicago when I arrived. And I was wearing jeans. #terribleidea Or perhaps the fact that Hello Kitty takes on an ENTIRELY different meaning when you're talking to a three year old who pronounces her Ks as Ts. That, incidentally, was a couple of days after I arrived, when Lyndsy and I took her little cousin to the zoo. Small children and their amusing speech impediments aside, the zoo was fun. Insanely hot, but fun. The tigers had just been fed when we got there, so we got to see them chewing on enormous chunks of bone. And the hornbill was going crazy, flying all over the place. 

The Sunday after I arrived, Lyndsy had a Pampered Chef party, and I inadvertently bough $60 worth of cookware #whoops (It's okay, it's all small stuff that'll TOTALLY fit in my suitcase!!) 

Obviously, with me being me, a trip to the museum was on the agenda. I was crazy excited mildly entertained to find that the palaeontology curators in Denver are just as smutty as the ones in Chicago. Sure, they may not have had a rape-tosaurus or skulls with knobs on them, but you could "Fondle a foot", and there was a "Bone Bar" that asked you to please touch gently. *snigger* (Lor/Sweeney, does making smutty jokes equal a #hosuspension??)

The museum also featured the largest gold nugget ever found in Colorado. 

Lyndsy: Wow, look how big that is!
Me: Awwwwww... It's so little and cute! 

Largest gold nugget ever found in Colorado:

(Replica of the) Largest gold nugget ever found in Australia:

Source

Yeah. Ours wins.

About a week after I arrived, Lyndsy and I went to the Taste of Colorado Festival downtown. It was kind of like the Multicultural Festival in Canberra, only with Denver based restaurants. I'm kind of sad that I missed out on seeing ASIA play on the Friday night, solely because Heat of the Moment reminds me of a very entertaining episode of Supernatural. I also missed out on seeing Boyz II Men play on the Monday night. I'm not particularly sad about missing that though. Anywhendredidtheyfindthosebands, the Festival was fun. And being a total failure of a blogger, I neglected to take photos of anything. Which is probably for the best, because I have a sneaking suspicion that I mostly just ate cupcakes. They were mini cupcakes, so it was okay that I ate like four different kinds. Oh, and I ate beignets. I passed on the alligator, the pickle on a stick, the rattlesnake bratwurst, and the deep fried turkey drumsticks. I *did* get some food from the first Indian restaurant in Denver - established in 1989 #really??

Eventually, the Festival became exhausting, so we headed over to the Art Gallery, because it was the first Saturday of the month and therefore entry was free. #epiccheapskate They had some pretty fun pieces, including this salt cellar:

New aspiration for when I'm an actual adult (rather than the fake kind that I am at the moment): to own a salt cellar shaped like a sailing ship. Because it's AWESOME.

The following Monday was a public holiday in the US (Labor Day, which should totally contain a U, for those of you playing at home). The Rockies happened to be playing at home, so it was time for America's favourite pastime: baseball. 

Baseball = cricket, only BORING. I'm pretty sure more time was spent changing sides than was spent actually playing baseball... Oh, and this happened:

Announcer: Please be upstanding and remove your hats for the national anthem!

Me: Australians all let us rejoice for we...oh CRAP, wrong country... *stands around awkwardly*

Despite all of that, and the fact that I managed to get a one inch strip of my right leg sunburnt, it was pretty fun. I have no idea what the score was in the end. I *DO* know that the Rockies scored at least seven home runs because there was a big fireworks display on the big screen about how that meant we could now get free tacos at Taco Bell. I also know that they didn't win. But I sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" like a champion, and did my best to avoid sniggering during the line about rooting for the home team. #thingsthatmeandifferentthingsindifferentcountriesdespitebothbeinginEnglish #longesthashtagever

Next up, Colorado Springs!

K xx