The British are coming & the birth of a great nation...

Jay and I toured the Freedom Trail today. We saw every site along the trail - it's so rich in history - truly awesome. My favorite part was Paul Revere's house and the North End - Italian restaurants and cobblestone - hello that is Fantastic! I just want to know how horses and carriages navigated that cobblestone without breaking their legs or wheels? And who the heck laid out all those bricks? Talk about hardwork grandeous! Jay really liked the north end as well and the birds eating fish at the charles river.
I won't bore you with all the details of each site you can read about it online I'm sure. But here's some of the pictures we took...

Old North Church and Paul Revere

Bunker Hill and a cannon in the Boston Naval Yard

Jay and Bunker Hill.
The Cobblestone at the North End
Cobb Burial Ground. How cool are the old headstones.
Me and a donkey.
Boston Meeting House.
Fanieul Hall & Me and Sameul Adams
Ben Franklin and the Courthouse
Jay and a Puritan
Birds fishing.

Looking for Property in Newport...

and lucky me the Breakers Mansion is furnished, and nobody's lived there since the Vanderbuilt's. lol
We had a marvelous time in Newport today. I'm totally sold that I need one of these mansions right there on the water shoot I'd take one of the "little cottages" - not likely anytime soon but it's good to have goals. We only got to tour the breakers mansion which was perfectly fine with us we really enjoyed it. One of our favorite parts was that the limestone covering the external portions of the mansion is good old indiana limestone - doesn't that make you feel like butter - we did. After our tour and a quick walk along the cliff walk - we decided it would be better to come back and walk the cliff when it was warmer. So instead we drove along ocean drive and went to Benton Park - rated one of the best places to fly a kite and someone was flying one too - a big and fancy one too (see pics) - unforunately no kite for us. Newport is gorgeous even when it's cold if you ever get a chance you should visit and if you don't believe me check out the pics. I took so many I had to just share some of my favorites...

Carvings in the good old Indiana Limestone.

Jay talking oh his cell phone. Can you tell he's thrilled to tell his dad about the mansion.
Jay and I in front of the mansion. Look you can't even see the mansion.
This is the front of the mansion. It's three floors but there's a "hidden" fourth floor where servants lived.
kite at benton state park. look how fancy it is?
view from ocean drive.
I think they catch lobsters or crabs or something in there aren't they fun?
cliff walk. no that's not Jay and I those are strangers they wouldn't stay out of my photos.
shells. I found a few smalls ones worth saving.

I love this little fishing boat.
these rocks had stairs carved in them that took you down right to the water - how fun.
jay and I at a rock beach along ocean drive.
and Jay all windblown. look how fun the water and moss is.

My chinese adventure...

no I didn't fly to china yesterday or anything. But my project manager and good friend Lili took me to the chinese "hot pot" restuarant Shabu Zen. I love me some chinese food but she keeps telling me that it's really americanized in most places so we headed out for the real deal last night. When she explained it to me that you cooked your own food of course I was like "oh like hibachi only I get to do it". She told me no it was like a pot of broth I cooked in. So here I was imagining myself making some chinese stew with wontons and bean sprouts and water chesenuts and all sorts of yumminess like that.

Well I certainly am clueless about some things as it was not really what I expected. The menu is really very simple you pick a "broth" and a meat(s) as well as noodles or rice - of course they have fabulous chinese names for all this but I'm so "indiana" I couldn't even attempt to prounce them or remember them. I ordered with the help of the server and Lili and a few minutes later the server brought us these pots of "broth" they set it right in front of you and it will start to boil.

And then a few minutes later they brought a plate of vegetables, rice, meat, and "kim chi" (sp?). So here I am with this giant spread all laid out and Lili is showing me how it works and telling the names of things in Chinese. You basically take the various items and cook them in your broth although not all at once as they cook very fast and you don't have a giant bowl to dump them in. So you cook a few things and then you eat them. You also can mix your own soy sauce or BBQ sauce to dip things in as well although warning the pepper that they bring is lethal I love me some spicy and just a smidge of it goes a long way. Well it was all sorts of fabulousness (although I am not a fan of the chewy mushrooms that look like bean sprouts) I got to try Lili's too since she got a different "broth" her's was just as yummy only not spicy but a little sweeter.

So after we ate our spread of hot pot goodness. I couldn't not have chinese dessert. Lili explained to me that they have something called "mochi" and it's ice cream, covered in sticky rice. So I'm like "chinese cannoli perhaps?" She of course laughed and said sort of. They had two flavors red bean and green tea. Well with a name like red bean I couldn't bring myself to order that as I kept invisioning eating kidney bean ice cream and the idea did not sound pleasant (more "indiananess" I guess) so I went with the green tea. They brought out my green tea mochi (how can you not want to order something that sounds that cute) and it did not look anything like a cannoli nor what I had invisioned as sticky rice, but rather it looked like a tiny cookie or cake you might find at a tea party. And sticky rice let me tell you is sticky but it doesn't look like rice at all. I think it's actually just a rice dough of some sort. Well it was delish.

After all this real chinese restaurant experience I got to go to Lili's house since it was right next door practically. I got to meet her sons who call each other "gloabal" which is brother in chinese of course I'm sure i spell it wrong, but now I can call on my brothers in chinese so how can you not like that. And her husband was home as well together we all watched some Chinese soap operas in their living room. You know how I so love foriegn soaps so of course I was sucked in even though I couldn't more than a lick of it . But with Lili and her sons translating I got along just fine. Who could not love it with all the bright colors and the singing! So it was the perfect end to my chinese adventure evening. And also you will be happy to know when I got to real China I will be able to say ice cream in chinese so I won't starve there.

And what would an adventure be without a few photos so now you too can feel like you were there.
The "hot pot" and some meat.

The spread, look you even get a fancy strainer!
Mochi. It's is really small in real life that's a itty bitty fork not a big one.

My other place...

So here's where I will be living for the next few month. It's not the world's biggest place but I'm just a few blocks from a train station. It comes with housekeeping, a pool, a gym, nearby parking, free breakfast, newspapers on "my stoop" and more oh what fun! BTW it's not really all sideways like this but wouldn't it be cooler if it was?
And one more thing... I got a promotion this week I'm now a "senior" education consultant. I was hoping this came with discount meals and cheaper movies but alas it does not, no additional vacation either.
Tomorrow I will share all about my adventures at a Chinese Hot Pot. Not only am I looking all senior and stuff but I'm also getting all cultured and such too. More soon.

All Polaroid Easter!

No digital shots today I only took polaroids today. Mental note that the cold does not help with the developing it makes it slightly blueish. Happy Easter!

Easter with Mom and Lita

We went to the park yesterday for a few easter pics isn't this tree fabulous! I wish it wasn't so muddy so we could have climbed it higher. We also took a few easter pics at Joann's why wouldn't you when they have cool props. Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Birthday Jay!

I took some early birthday photos of Jay yesterday since I was going to be in Boston today. We were going to go downtown but when I saw he was wearing his reds hat and reds shirt we had to go to the little league field.