Boston and Beyond

We had an eventful past week.

First, a good friend, CR, came to visit Beantown for a few days. It was lots of fun having our first official house guest, showing him around the city we had only started to discover in the past 2 weeks. Of course, we brought him for several runs along the Charles River, and took the opportunity to cross some of the hitherto unexplored bridges that span that water.

We also seized the chance to drive out from Boston over the weekend, and headed north

towards Rockport, MA. This is a quaint little town that is full of history, from tales of pirates to stories of the first settlers who crossed the Atlantic. For me, the biggest treat was to walk along the ocean front and soak in the sea breeze. We chanced upon a small little restaurant that was right beside the water, and had wonderful New England Clam Chowder.

Of course, no trip to this part of the continent would be complete without a sampling of lobster. The seafood was absolutely delicious, and this tasting of lobster was certainly on par, if not better, than my previous memory of delectable Maine lobster more than 20 years ago!

We spent some time exploring the town of Rockport, which was full of small shops selling all sorts of interesting items. Candy, hand-made crafts, saltwater taffy, ice cream, antique books and clothing items of all shapes and sizes were available for purchase. There were even a few small

sandy beaches along the otherwise rocky coastline (hence the name, Rockport).

Food-wise, we tried our hand at some home-made pizzas. Thanks to the ready availability of pre-made pizza dough at Wholefoods, we jumped in the deep end and hosted a little get together for some friends who also happened to be in beantown, and presented our home-made pizzas - Mediterranean and Mushroom :) They turned out much better than expected, and I hope that our guests left the place feeling satisfied...