Car Shows and Furniture Hunting

As I’m getting increasingly settled in Boston, I’m trying to find balance between fun playtime activities and all the logistical stuff that needs to get taken care of after a move. Lucky for me, a lot of the logistics stuff has turned out to be pretty fun too.

To start…a trip to a car show! No, this was in no way part of moving logistics since I am not in the market for an extremely expensive classic car. But it was fun! Throughout the summer, the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline has been hosting car shows. Each week, there is a different theme and cars are displayed on the museum’s lawn. Noah likes cars and I like it when he tells me things about cars, so we went to an Italian car show there!

There sure were a lot of cars! There was a whole section of Ferraris that seemed to be getting a lot of attention…

I recognized the name of this car right away from doing crosswords…

I was interested in the crazy door action on this car, but Noah said he prefers a more classic look:

There were a lot of Fiats at the show as well, but this one caught our eye in particular:

This car was built for Gianni Agnelli, the chairman of Fiat. The car was designed because Agnelli wanted a car that he could carry aboard his yacht, so he needed something small, light, and that could be easier lowered off the boat and used for transportation on land. This car – a Fiat Jolly – was the result, and less than 400 were made between 1958 and 1969! They were sold only briefly in the U.S., so they are very rare here. Check out the inside!:

We also went furniture shopping! This was, obviously, a matter of necessity (#no furniture #movingin5days), but it ended up being a lot of fun. 🙂 We went to two stores (so far), but we’re planning on going to at least a couple more places before making a decision. For this shopping excursion, we ventured out to Natick because there were two big furniture places we wanted to check out there: Bob’s and Jordan’s.

We went to Bob’s first and spent about an hour sitting on various couches and asking sales people information about delivery, fees, etc.

Bob’s had some stuff I really liked (especially this extra wide chair that was soooo comfortable)…

…but there was also some stuff that was pretty gaudy. Leather couches with cupholders? No, thank you.

Jordan’s, however, was quite the experience. First of all, the store is on top of a big hill that seems to overlook the rest of the town, so even when we were at Bob’s, Jordan’s was literally looming over us. When we made our way up the hill to go to the store, even the outside was way beyond expectation. It kept going…

and going….

and going….

Noah said it best, “This is the Taj Mahal of furniture stores.”

Inside, there were more surprises:

What is that?!?! 

It seems as though the inside of this Jordan’s has a New Orleans theme. And an IMAX Theater. And an escalator where paintings of paparazzi “take” your picture (complete with camera flashes and shouting). No big deal.

After the initial shock of our surroundings, we looked around at furniture. That endeavor, however, proved to be no less overstimulating.

Wow – what a store. The search for furniture continues, but I think it’s pretty likely we’re going to return to Jordan’s furniture warehouse (cheaper priced furniture) for a couch. Stay tuned!

Celebration of love – 60 years strong!

This weekend was a special occasion…Noah’s grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary! We were lucky enough to get to go to Vermont to celebrate the day with them. And it was a celebration indeed! The festivities focused around a wonderful dinner.

The main event was a grilled trout that was stuffed with herbs and scallions and marinated for about an hour (we speculated that longer marination might have resulted in an even stronger flavor):

The fish was a bit startling to look at – (EYEBALLS!) – but the yummy smells got going as soon as the fish was cooking. Getting the fish on the grill required a somewhat involved process of moving the fish from the pan to the grill without letting all the herbs and such from the inside spill out:

Success!

Meanwhile, the indoor preparations were also underway: setting the table, preparing a cucumber/radish/yogurt dressing side dish, and cooking a “salad” of sauteed peppers and green beans over lettuce:

Soon enough, the fish was done!

Everything was delicious, and it was really nice to see three generations of the family there!

The happy family – 60 years strong!

Plus, there was lemon cake with passionfruit filling for dessert so…who could ever complain? 🙂

❤ ❤ ❤

Boston Highs and Lows

I’ve been in Boston nearly three weeks now, and – my – what a whirlwind it’s been. Here are some of the highs and lows…

High – finding an apartment!

After a relatively painless few days of apartment searching, Noah and I have our own place! We’re moving September 1. Yay!!! (side note: photo below is to trick you and is actually not of the apartment we’re moving to…)

Low – stolen bike 😦

My beloved bicycle was stolen while it was locked to a bike rack and I was at dinner. Major bummer…but in optimistic spirits, this can become a high…

High – a new bike!

I got a new, beautiful, Trek FX Disc 7.2. I love it. 🙂

High – exploring the city with Noah!

One of the highlights of our explorations so far has been an architecture cruise on the Charles River with the Charles Riverboat Company. The cruise lasted about 90 minutes, and we got a Groupon deal for it so it was pretty cheap! We went up and down the Charles, getting some great views of the city skyline, learning about the prominent buildings and history of the city.

High – a visit to Martha’s Vineyard 

We spent a lovely 5 days on Martha’s Vineyard with Noah’s family, and it was the perfect relaxing vacation – lots of reading, game playing, bike riding, and delicious fresh fish!

(thanks, Paul, for this great photo!)

Low – sleeping in too late!

I’ve been enjoying my lazy schedule a little too much and have been sleeping in! This has, unfortunately, meant that I haven’t been getting up in time to go to the November Project with the full group. I have, however, still been going to the Harvard Stadium once a week to run the steps on my own – my time has gradually been improving!

High – learning the little things

One of the most fun things about moving to a new city is learning the little personality traits of the place. I’ve really enjoyed learning little things about Boston and its eccentricities. For example, we’ve seen some of these solar-powered Soofa benches that have been installed throughout Cambridge recently. The benches have hook-ups for you to charge your phone while you’re out around town!

Here’s to many more “highs” during my Boston years. 🙂