Day 2 - 5/5/13 (Cinco De Mayo!):
In the morning, we were pretty hungry so we checked the GPS for nearby places and found a McDonald's a couple of minutes away. They had some good specials! We got 2 strawberry and cream pies for $1 total, 2 egg white McMuffin sandwiches (never had these before!) for $3.33 total, a medium iced coffee for $1, and a small hot tea for $1.59 but with free refills. After eating, we washed up in the restrooms and got ready for our race!
Sean and me at the Great Bear Run start/finish line before the race (my 1st 5k!):
Note: There was so much more grass, flowers, foliage, and life than in southern NV and surrounding places (AZ, SoCal, southern UT). We even saw bluebells and tulips!
Bluebells:
The race was so hard for me! We started at the very front so people kept overtaking me at the beginning of the race and I ended up going to fast trying to keep up rather than finding my own pace. I think I finished my 1st mile just under 7 minutes in. By the end of mile 2, I was hurting. My 2nd mile and finishing times were pretty bad: 17 mins 50 seconds after 2 miles and 28 minutes 57 seconds at the finish. x.x I think I'll get it down next time I do a 5k though and do much better!
Runners lining up just before the start of the 5k race:
At the finish line, Sean was already waiting for me with his 3rd place age group medal. They'd distributed the medals a bit wrong so after I finished they explained to me that they were out of the ones that said 3rd place on them but that I'd gotten 3rd in my age group as well. They still gave me a cool medal but it didn't say "Third Place" on it. :( On the bright side, I got some pics of the finisher info pages which included name, hometown (mine: Vegas - we'd traveled farther than everyone else there!), time, pace, age, age group (mine: 20-24), race number (mine: 402), pace, overall place, AND age group ranking (mine: 3rd). It'd been my 1st 5k race ever and I was DYING! I could barely stay conscious let alone stand up. I'm so out of shape! Sean sat me down though and he and others brought me water. n.n;
Once I was recovered enough, we went to pick up our free Great Bear Run shirts and food! The free food included grapes, strawberries, tangerines, apples, Nutri-Grain bars, pretzels, cherry tomatoes, small chip bags, Goldfish, Animal Crackers, Gatorade, and water. Yum! Sean and I raided that and took lots of snacks for later. Sean ate some of the various foods on the spot but my stomach wasn't ready for anything but water, Gatorade, and grapes.
We took a bunch of pics around the event and hung around awhile to recover before continuing on our way. All in all, I'd say this was VERY much worth the $49 total paid for both of our race registration!
Sean and me with our 3rd place age group medals and free t-shirts!:
Next, we went back to McDonald's to use the wifi and get a mini bite to eat. Our batteries on my laptop and our phones started dying though so we continued on to Starbucks where we used their internet and outlets!
It was after 3pm when we left Starbucks headed to the Bunker Hill Monument - part of the Freedom Trail - in Boston. Parking directly near the monument was full but we found a spot a couple blocks down next to an Irish pub called Sullivan's. There was a 2 hour parking limit but only until 6pm, after which point it'd become unlimited, and it was 4pm when we parked so we were all set!
We jogged up the mini slope of a hill toward the monument on the side facing the Battle of Bunker Hill Museum. It was too late to climb the monument or spend much time in the museum so we took some pics and vids, rolled down the hill on the opposite side of the monument, and read up on the info written on the signs in the area instead, making plans to return for the rest another day!
The Bunker Hill Monument:
Note: A lot of houses have basements here! I don't think any have basements in Vegas or where I grew up in Cali.
A few minutes walk from the monument and also on the Freedom Trail was the historic ship USS constitution located in the Charlestown Navy Yard/Boston Navy Yard. Nicknamed "Old Ironsides", the USS Constitution is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat! It was just early enough to visit her so we took advantage and hurried over. We had to go through metal detectors and security, kind of like airport TSA, but admission was free, the ship was gorgeous, and we had the option of a guided tour (deck and below deck) or self-guided tour (top deck only)! With only 18 minutes left until the ship's visitor hours were over and having studied up on her a bit already, we opted for the self guided tour.
Charlestown Navy Yard (click photo to enlarge):
USS constitution:
We saw some really cool places, such as the Commandant of the First Naval District's house, in the rest of Charleston Navy Yard and on the way back to the car.
Commandant of the First Naval District's house:
Back by the car, we stopped in Sullivan's for a "cheeky pint" as Sean would say. Lol I wanted a little something so we shared a quick drink before driving on to the next spot on our list.
Sullivan's Pub:
Hi-Fi Pizza was next! I'd heard of the place via a link I found when using Google to research significant NKOTB spots (old houses, hangouts, favorite restaurants, places with dedications to them, etc). Apparently, they used to eat there back in the day! Once we arrived, I walked in taking pics and an employee there named Wally said, "you must be a New Kids fan." I wonder what gave me away? XD Sean and I got into talking with Wally and the owner Maureen Doherty about the New Kids a bit. Wally told me they still stop by for a bite when they come to town every couple months. I had so many questions! The 1st thing I asked was what the New Kids usually ordered there. Wally said they usually order "slices" so I asked for a couple of those and a few minutes later they handed us 2 big, thin, delicious slices of cheese pizza ($3.90 for both!), saying it was still the same recipe NKOTB used to eat when they were growing up. I could see why! It was definitely one of the best thin pizzas I'd tried. We were still hungry after it though so Sean went up to get us more to eat. He got talking to Maureen about various things including fish and chips and she gave us a big to-go box completely full of fish and chips (fries and fried cod), a salad, and 2 Pepsi bottles (20oz each) FOR FREE! Of course we tipped her $5 but it was nothing on the amount of food we had. We had leftovers to last us through the night! Talking to Wally a bit more, we learned that they used to get calls from Germany, other parts of Europe, and other far away places about the New Kids at Hi-Fi. Somehow, we ended up discussing things like travel, what we do for money, the crafts I make, etc so before we left Maureen asked us to bring her a keychain next time we came to visit. We actually promised to mail her one and include a little something for Wally too. We'll also probably send a note for NKOTB. :p
Hi-Fi Pizza:
Munching a slice in Hi-Fi:
Wally throwing dough!:
A couple doors down was Dorchester Youth Collaborative (DYC) where NKOTB used to dance! It was closed but we managed to get a few pics of the outside before leaving the area.
Dorchester Youth Collaborative (DYC):
Dorchester sign at the end of the block:
Note: So many tolls here! I've never seen such frequent tolls aside from in France. Luckily, the ones we saw in MA (between $1.25 and $3.50) were much cheaper than France's.
Note: We passed a Saver's Thrift Store! I didn't expect them to have a location in MA. Crazy!
Before our trip, Sean and I had been invited to a lock-in style event scheduled for tonight, $15/person for unlimited gaming from 5pm to midnight or so at a game store/arcade called Game Underground (GU) in Framingham, MA.
Game Underground
1251 Worcester Rd
Framingham, MA 01701
game-underground.com
It was after 8pm when we arrived there but we didn't mind being late because we'd accomplished a lot of neat things during the day and still had plenty of time for meeting the community at GU and playing games! When we arrived, we were almost immediately greeted by our friend Anthony Capobianco and other friends and new acquaintances followed not long after! We saw/met/took pics with so many people there including Steven Strasser (Steve Reen), David Lee (9Volt), Anthony C. (TGA), Sigma, Squeak, Charles Lawrence, Allen (Catastrophe), and lots more. They were all so chill and really made us feel welcome. =) Some of them got to chatting with us more than others, asking what had brought us to Massachusetts, how we heard about GU, what games we play, etc. Allen even took time to show and tell us about the custom Dance Maniax program he'd made from scratch and had running on the machine there. He gave us the source code and invited us to assist him in creation, addition, and improvement of game content as well! Of course, it wasn't all business and socializing for us. Sean and I spent a decent amount of time seeing what the games of GU were all about, playing a game or 2 on each of the following: Initial D Ver.4, Defender (old school!), DrumMania V8, Pop'n Adventure, DDR X3, and DMX (Allen/Catastrophe's version). We were surprised that there was no ITG but then we discovered that the DDR X3 they had running was usually their ITG2 upgrade and that they'd just put X3 in for everyone to enjoy for the night!
Some of us posing for a pic in Game Underground:
Some of GU's arcade games as seen from the far corner near the rear exit at the end of the lock-in after the lights had been turned back on:
At the end of the lock-in around midnight or 1am, we said goodbyes to everyone who was still around and hadn't yet said goodbye to us. Charles had been super nice and said he'd house us for the night and let us stay over at Ellen Scepansky??'s house in Marlborough, MA where he was renting a room so we followed him back there in his Pokemon car. XD The house was big and beautiful! Inside, we met Ellen's dude Ben, played with Ellen's cute doggies, and kicked it with Charles for awhile til we were all pretty sleepy. Charles had set us up with the spare room next to his so after saying goodnight to him Sean and I arranged our sleeping quarters, ate our leftover fish from Hi-Fi, brushed our teeth, and got some damn good sleep with warm, comfy blankets! Ellen, Charles, and Ben: THANKS, GUYS!
No comments:
Post a Comment