East Coast Wanderings

After being home almost an entire month, I decided I needed a vacation. My friend Brent called me to see how I was doing. I asked how he was doing, what was coming up for him. He said, "I'm going to a business conference in Boston in a few weeks." I said, "So you have a hotel in Boston paid for?" Ten minutes later I booked a one way ticket to Boston. I'm 98% sure Brent was not inviting me.

Boston:

First stop- JFK Library and Museum

 Second Stop - Bunker Hill

View FROM the Monument

View OF the Monument

Being Adorable ON Bunker Hill

 Third Stop: USS Constitution

 After all that playing, I decided to get some work done. This is my office, day 1

 Later we stopped at an Irish Pub - Mr. Dooley's. Honestly, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a dining experience more. It was wonderful. Music, atmosphere, food was incredible, servers were actually Irish, it was bliss.

 The next day I wandered around the city a bit. Here is an alleyway- literally between two buildings, and it's turned into an open-air bookstore! It's fantastic.

 My office day 2: The Boston Public Library

 The next day I wandered around Cambridge and through Harvard's campus

 Found the Boston Marathon finish line (I found the places where the bombings happened, there is no sort of memorial or anything, which I was surprised by)

 Later I went to the Mary Baker Eddy Library, where there is a Map-arium. Yeah, I didn't know what that meant, either. They don't allow photography unfortunately, but it's really neat. You stand in a spherical room, 30 feet in Diameter, and all the wall is a map made from Stained glass. It is amazing. When you look at a globe, half of the world is facing away from you, but in here, every inch of the world faced you! They did a neat light show with the countries and glass.

We also wen to a show in Boston- the longest running Broadway show ever, Sheer Madness, a fun murder mystery that the audience participates in.

New York

When Brent's conference was over, I looked for my next place to squat: New York! A friend of mine from a previous ward and her husband live in Harlem, and were nice enough to let me join them in their studio apartment. The three of us had a great time in those close quarters :) The first day there my friends Amanda and Tressa met up with me, a short weekend trip for them.

I finally saw Wicked! It was wonderful. In NYC we also saw: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (probably my favorite of the week), Once (starring someone famous from Dr. Who), and Kinky Boots (hilarious)

Christmas decorations were going up, we're looking out onto Columbus Circle here

These girls are so fun. We had such a good time together. We saw a million things, yet we never felt rushed. It was perfect. 

I stayed a few days after they left, working mostly at the NY Public Library. While there, I got a phone call that I would be moving to Germany! So I decided to come home and hang out with the family, but still had one more stop.

Philadelphia-

This guy is another friend from Alaska, Ryan Shay. He left Juneau early in August to pack up and move to Philadelphia for graduate school. Unfortunately, he is a really good student, so I did most of these adventures solo. Here we are eating Philly cheesetakes!

 I saw that there is a temple in Philadelphia, and I was really excited to go. Turns out the lovely picture online is what they hope the temple will look like once it's built. Did not see the text saying "Expected completion 2017. Oops. Here's what it looked like as of Nov, 22:

 Saw the Home of Edgar Allen Poe (I saw another one of his homes in New York)

 Some beautiful old churches. We also went to Penn's landing, Betsy Ross's house, Independence hall, The first post office/Ben Franklin's home, the Rocky Statue, Reading Terminal Market, watched a Christmas light show in Franklin Square, ate at Geno's, the National Constitution Center, saw ELF the Musical.
 Later in the week we drove through Amish Country, which was beautiful. I worked at Villanova's campus a few times. Ryan lives alone and far away from his family in Washington, so we had Thanksgiving dinner for two on Wednesday. I flew home on Thanksgiving day. Whew. What a trip. About 3 weeks in all, I took public transportation everywhere except when Ryan and I drove to Amish country. 5 Broadway shows, a lot of excellent food and excellent people.