I went on my very first "official" work trip November 1 - 9. It was for the APHA conference in Boston. I couldn't have picked a better place myself to have a work conference. The only thing that would have made it even better was if Ryan came along with me - next time he will.
Friday, November 1
We caught the 9:40 am flight direct to Boston. I flew with Pam and Courtney. The flight went quickly, we had little TV's on the back of the chair in front of us which made the time go quickly. When we landed in Boston, it was 4:30 pm, we got our luggage and took a taxi to the hotel by the convention center. We stayed at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, it was very nice. Courtney and I were on the 13th floor. The hotel was in the Seaport district, a "newer" area of Boston. We walked over to Legal seafood for dinner that night. It was so good. Funny story, we walked into Legal and they ladies at the front told us to go upstairs, so we did. When we got upstairs, the ladies up there asked us if we had been there before. We told them "No" and they said they would explain the menu to us. Turns out, the upstairs is a more formal/classy place and we didn't fit into that crowd. :) So we went back downstairs and sat in the bar area at a table, since there wasn't a wait for that area. We sat close to the oyster opening area, so I walked over to the window and watched them open the oysters. One of the managers come over and started telling me about the different types of oysters and how each one tasted. I didn't try one, but was very fascinated to know all about oysters. We went back to the hotel and went to bed. Flying takes it out of you.
Saturday, November 2
We went over to the convention center to set up our booth. It took a couple of hours and I was glad that everything made it there in one piece. The rest of the day was spent walking around Boston. The Red Sox won the world series a few days before we arrived in Boston. There was a parade Saturday morning celebrating that. We started to talk toward the parade, but were side tracked by the Boston Tea Party Museum. We explored that for a bit and then continued walking toward the parade route.
There was confetti in the air, people everywhere and everyone was wearing Red Sox stuff. It was a fun atmosphere and an a fun thing to experience. I talked to a guy handing out posters who was the coach of the US ski team and he had been to Utah many times for competitions and trainings. He told me to email him and he would take me skiing next time he was in Utah....I don't think i'll be doing that. We walked past the State House, walked along the freedom trail, ate lunch at Faneuil Hall at Pizzaria Regina. That pizza was amazing! We walked Pam back to the hotel so she could rest.
Courtney's aunt flew in to visit and so we went back out on the town. We walked through a fun farmers market, supposedly one of the oldest in the country.
We went to little Italy and stopped in Modern Pastry. Funny story about that - we were walking along and an older couple dropped their groceries. We stopped to help them and ended up chatting with them for a minute. They were locals and we told them we were looking for Modern Pastry since that is where everyone tells you to go. She told us in her cute elderly lady Boston accent, "Don't go to Mike's, go to Modern, it's better." It was so funny. So we took her advice and went to Modern instead. The line was out the door at both places so it didn't matter too much. We stood in line and the store was so fun. There were cute pastry's everywhere. I ordered a chocolate cannoli and it was so good. As I was making my way out of the shop an older gentleman stopped me and asked who had tied my box. I told him, I wasn't sure since I didn't want to get anyone in trouble if that was what was going to happen. He told me to stay put and he would be back. He went behind the counter and grabbed me a pistachio something or other and brought it out to me and said it was on the house. He went on to explain he was the owner and thanked me for coming. Of course I had to get a picture with him. He was so cute.
We continued along past Paul Revere's house, stopped at the Old North Church, bought a little painting from a local artist, saw an amazing sunset and started walking back to our hotel. I'm not joking when I say we probably walked 7 miles total. We picked up Pam and Alicen from the hotel and went to dinner at No Name which was close to our hotel.
Sunday, November 3
We didn't have to be to the convention until 2:30 pm so we had planned to go out in the morning to explore. Unfortunately, it was very rainy, cold and windy. So we spent the morning in the hotel taking it easy and chatting in Courtney's room. We met up at 1:00 pm to head over to the convention center, which was right next store.....so nice!
Convention fun ended at 5:30 pm so it wasn't a long first day which was nice. We changed and took a taxi up to Little Italy again for dinner. We went to Giacomo's Ristorante. This place has 13 tables total, they don't take reservations or call ahead, only open for dinner, they only take cash and you have to wait in line outside for your turn at a table. It was very cold, but we had heard great thing about this place. So we knew it would be worth the wait. If I am ever in Boston again, I will be going to this place for sure! It was soooo gooood! I had the butternut squash ravioli. Our server is the sister of the owner and has been working there for 28 years since it opened.
Monday, November 4
For breakfast each day I went to Starbucks in the hotel. I have only been to Starbucks one other time before this trip and I ate there almost every day for breakfast. I had their hot chocolate and steamers with a pastry or banana. Convention was from 9:00 am - 5:30 pm. We wanted to go to Newbury Street and walk around since we had heard there were a lot of fun shops there. We had also heard that Stephanie's was a good restaurant, so that's where we ate dinner. We made reservations for 8:00 pm. We took a taxi over there and walked around. There were a bunch of fun shops. Dinner was once again, soooo gooood. We didn't eat at a bad restaurant in Boston.
Tuesday, November 5
Convention was from 9:00 am - 5:30 pm. That night we had a Utah get together at the original Cheers Bar in Boston on Becon Street. So fun to go "Where everybody knows your name..." My college friend Sherri Staley was at the conference for her work and she came. I hadn't seen her in probably 8 years, so we talked for a long time and caught up. When that was done, we walked across the street to the public gardens and saw the Make Way for Ducklings statues. Courtney, myself, Alicen, Jim and Jim's wife Anita were going to walk back to the hotel. They all wanted to stop by a local bar Seven's. We got back kinda late, but it was still a fun night.
Wednesday, November 6
Last day of convention and it went from 8:30 am - 1:00 pm. Pam and I were in line at 7:00 am to get signed up for next years conference in New Orleans. We packed up our booth and went to lunch at Legal Taste Kitchen which was also close to the hotel. We walked along the water for a bit before a few people needed to leave for the airport. We went back to the hotel, answered a few emails for work and went to dinner at the hotel lobby.
Thursday, November 7
Packed up our rooms and checked out of the hotel. We changed hotels to the Marriott on Long Wharf in the North End. We walked over to Faneuil Hall for lunch. I had Clam Chowder, and it was very good. We tried to go to the top of Marriott's Custom House but it was to rainy so they weren't doing tours that day. We walked over to Little Italy and stopped at Mike's Pastry to try them out. We ate at Al Dente for dinner and that was also very good. Went back to the hotel and crashed.
Friday, November 8
Got up early to catch our trolley tour of Boston. We bought tickets online before leaving on the trip which saved us some money. We went all over Boston on this tour. These are the places we walked by: Faneuil Hall, Beacon Hill, USS Constitution, Symphony Hall, Paul Revere, Bunker Hill, Boston Bruins, State House, Freedom Trail, MIT, Fenway Park, Cheers, Back Bay, Children's Museum, Copley Place, Copley Square, Sam Adams, Theatre District, Boston Tea, Seaport Village. We went around the whole tour before getting off. We wanted to see where we wanted to get off next time around. We decided our first stop would be to go on the Skywalk. We walked through the Copley area to get to the building. This was one of my favorite things we did. It was so neat to see the city from a birds eye view. We hopped back on the trolley and went around again. We stopped off at Fenway Park the next time for a quick stop just enough time to get pictures. The trolley stops for the day at 4:00 pm so we didn't want to get stuck so far away from the hotel. We went around on the trolley 4 times. Each driver had their own take on what we were seeing. It was interesting to hear the different guides. We crossed Harvard bridge that takes you to MIT, drove by the famous intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Constitution. Learned that the monument of Bunker Hill is not on Bunker Hill, it 's on Breed's Hill. Boston Commons is the oldest public park in the United States. Everything in Boston is either the oldest in the US, or in the top 5 of being the oldest in the US. There are a few buildings by the state house on Commonwealth Ave that have purple glass windows. They are normal windows that had an excess of manganese oxide in the glass. Boston has the most colleges and universities in the city than any other city in the US. There are 83 current faculty and students at MIT that have the Nobel Peace Prize. We ate leftovers from last night for dinner and tried to get things ready to go before leaving tomorrow morning bright and early.
Saturday, November 9
Courtney and I had the first flight out of Boston on Delta - it left at 7:00 am. We got up at 4:00 am to get ready and catch a taxi to the airport. We made it with no traffic and no problems. I had hot chocolate from Dunkin' Donuts and a bagel with cream cheese. The flight was long and I was ready to be off the plane. We landed at 10:30 am in SLC where Ryan and Nolan picked me up. I was glad to be home and see them. I missed being away from them. We went straight to Target to get grocery's and then dropped Nolan off at Charlotte's while we went to the U game. They played Arizona State and lost.
