After several false alarms, Connie finally made it out to visit me! These pictures were all taken with my iPhone.

Day 1

Straight off the plane, we headed to Cambridge and got lunch at the Friendly Toast. I'd heard great things, but it honestly didn't live up to the hype. MIT however is always fun to show off.

From there, we headed into the city, walking from the Common out to Copley, back through for a stop at the Brattle Book Shop, and looping around out to the harbor where we sat and watched someone clean his boat.

Th greenway has a new exhibit up featuring neon signs from all around Massachusetts. We admired that walking through a farmers market. Connie picked up some earrings—unique jewelry makes for a great souvenir.

No first trip to Boston is complete without a trip into the north end for Italian food and cannoli's at Mike's Pastry.

Day 2

Having originally planned to hike today, we decided to capitalize on the chance of rain and some tired legs and head instead out to Portland, Maine for a day of lighthouses and the coast. We stopped for Nubble and South Portland Light before hunger took over and we hit the city for poutine at Duck Fat.

Once fed, we stepped through some local shops and walked Commercial Street. Finally got to try a dark chocolate and coconut donut from the Holy Donut (cannot recommend enough)! We walked along the water until it go too cold to stay outside so, following the advice of one of her co-workers, we grabbed a lobster roll and some onion rings at Gilbert's. Even though it was pretty chilly, we couldn't leave without getting ice cream from Mount Desert Ice Cream. Their blueberry crumple and 7 layer bar are phenomenal (I run an ice cream store, you can trust me).

We ended the day with a walk by Bug Light until sunset hit and it got too cold for comfort.

Day 3

Today was so "hot" that most of Massachusetts was closing school early...which for us was a perfect day to go hiking. Hard to believe that people think 90 is hot. Either way, Connie and I headed out to Monadnock and there was NO ONE on the trails. With the mountain to ourselves, we had a really nice hike, making it almost to the top (neither of us realized how out of shape we are, oops).

Post hike we stopped in Milford, NH for a late lunch/early dinner at Red Arrow Diner. If you haven't had a burger with two grilled cheese sandwiches for buns, you haven't lived (and if you have, you might not live for much longer). The waitstaff there was very concerned about the heat and possibility of a tornado. It was interesting to hear people who have clearly never been involved with that kind of severe weather talk about it like they have. They were convinced a tornado was about to touch down on the street, which was definitely not about to happen. Good service though.