I was there for about 4 days before Shawn arrived, rooming with a friend who was also attending the conference. The conference I was at was a communication conference of the International Communication Association. A paper I had written had been accepted to be presented. I was in what is called a "high density panel," which means I had three minutes to present and then I would stand by a poster to discuss my work with interested people. I didn't present until Sunday, which was toward the end of the conference, but our session had a pretty good turnout. Here is a pic of me next to my poster (that my awesome office-mate Laura helped me create).
Shawn then came to Boston on Monday, and we did a lot of sightseeing in only a few days. The first day we went downtown by our primary mode of transportation for the trip.
Then we went to the Boston Aquarium. I really enjoyed the penguins, but overall, I think the guidebooks over-hyped the aquarium. After that, we walked to Quincy Market and viewed a variety of interesting buildings along the way. We then made our way down to the Boston Common and walked around the theater district.
We got dinner at this great little pub that we had just found but I later realized was listed in some of the guidebooks as a great place to go. After dinner, we went back to the Common and listened to some live music before we went on a Haunted Boston walking tour and learned about a number of ghosts on the Common (and a lot of fun history!)
Day Two started off with an early whale watching trip. We only saw one whale on our way back, so that part wasn't amazing, but the view of the various parts of Boston from the Harbor were pretty cool.
We then went and walked the Freedom Trial. We particularly enjoyed Old North Church. After that, it was time for some lunch. We made sure to get some Italian food in the North End. It was delicious! We ate at a place called Bella Vista. My Chicken Parmesan has to be one of the best I have ever had.
Although we were completely full from the delicious food, we wanted to go to a place called Mike's Pastry. As we had been walking around the city, we had seen a number of white boxes with blue writing that came from Mike's Pastry so we knew it had to be good. We found it without too much trouble, and got ourselves two cannoli--one amaretto and one chocolate Florentine--and some Italian cookies. We were too full to eat it yet though so we headed back to the Theater District because we wanted to get tickets for Blue Man Group.
We were able to get student rush tickets for that night, which saved us about 40 bucks, and went to sit outside and eat our cannoli. It was good, but cannoli is not my favorite dessert. After that, we headed in to watch Blue Man Group. We enjoyed the performance, and since we stuck around for the crowds to clear out, we even got to meet the members. One of them came and sat on Shawn's lap.
After that it was time to hit the hotel and the next day we headed home. Overall, we enjoyed Boston. We saw a lot of sites, did a lot of walking, and ate a ton of great food!
