I remember some time during the Summer of 2003, I went on an impromptu trip to Boston to visit Eddie. The reason being that I had just broken up with my girl friend from college and I felt like I needed to get away. I called Eddie up as I was getting my plane ticket situation settled and he sounded glad to have me come out. It was definitely a memorable visit. I'm glad I had written down the the details (originally written on July 14, 2003):
On Friday night my brother picked me up from the airport and we went straight to a bar named Wonder Bar. It's a really nice atmosphere, live jazz, good people, good service, and not to mention it was smoke free (it's illegal in Boston to smoke inside public establishments now, pretty damn cool). Well, my brother and I simply kicked back in the bar where he introduced me to this waitress. She's pretty cool cuz when we ordered two Red Deaths (a sweet shot, dunno what's in it though), she came back with 3, and so we proceeded to drink together. She even gave us a complimentary KMX & Vodka (better than Red Bull & Vodka). My brother is a semi-regular there, so that's probably why he knew the waitress and why we got all these little perks. Well, after Wonder Bar we went back to his place, cleaned up, and went straight to bed
On Saturday, we woke up at 9:00am EST and I proceeded to wash up once again. My brother's friends were coming to pick us up because we were headed to Newport, Rhode Island! I didn't expect much from it really, I've heard of it of course but didn't know what to expect. I'm told it's a much better version of Cape Cod, but I've never been there either heh. The ride consisted of me, my brother, and his friends Aaron, Vanessa, and Helen. Apparently Vanessa's (Vanny) parents, had purchased a condo right by the ocean, which is sooooo big and immaculate. The drive took an hour, but I didn't care cause I was still so sleepy =). When we got there we went straight to the condo and went to the roof deck, where we met Vanessa's parents (really cool people) and drank some iced tea. When Vanny and Helen put on their beach wear, we headed out to the beach (the real beach, not like the man made North Ave), which took us like 30mins to get to. Did you know that some parts of the ocean has a reddish tint to it (due to the red seaweed I believe)? Interesting eh? hehe. We simply lounged around and caught some sun and headed back to the condo about 2-3 hours later, where we washed up a bit. Again, we headed out and went to the local little shops they had. The first stop was at this huge antique store, where it even had a mint condition check written by Walt Disney himself for $30,000, selling for $2500. I spent most of my time looking for a particular book though. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to look as thoroughly as I would have liked. I did however, find the first edition (I think? Printed in 1952?) of Charlotte's Web. After the that, the girls went around looking for sun dresses (or whatever), while my brother, me, and Aaron went to the only shopping place guys can really go there... the benches. After a couple of more shops we decided to have dinner at this outside restaurant by the pier. I figured since this was a rare opportunity I would splurge and go for the lobster and clam chowder. It was simply declicous, so so fresh. After eating, we headed back to the condo and nearly passed out, but we had to get back. We arrived in Boston at like 9pm. Where my brother and I washed up once again and got ready to go to an apartment party hosted by Aaron's friend. For the people who know how apartment parties at C-U were... this was nothing like it. To UIUC standards this would have been considered broke, but it was mainly for friends, with guests welcomed. The hostess was names Asha, and she was a really cool person. She proceeded to tell her story about her bad hair day, which if anyone else wants to hear it, just lemme know ... it's sorta sad =/. All in all, it was a cool night, got to see how people party in a different atmosphere =). We didn't stay at the apt for too long though because we were all pretty worn from RI. So that ends my Saturday. This description of this day has been severly abridged because there were too many things and feelings to type out.
Finally, Sunday, my last day in Boston. My brother and I woke up at 10am? Where we started laundry, and watched the Bourne Identity. It hit around 1pm where we then headed out to the Copley Place (a mall). We first went to Legal Seafood, where I again bought clam chowder and Lobster (still goooooood). My waiter even congratulated me on being able to completely finish the 1.6lbs. Afterwards, I was intending to buy a single outfit (shoes, pants, and a shirt), but I didn't get anything because I didn't see anything I really liked, except for these slacks from fcuk ($70). Since all the pants were the same length, they would need to tailor them for me, of course I wouldn't be around long enough for that, so I plan to go to the fcuk here in Chicago. After more looking around, we headed to Newberry street were we checked out the Guess store, but as most guys know, they pretty much only have a hole in the wall for men's clothes =P. So we walked around Newberry for a while until it hit 4pm where we had to go back to my brother's place and head to the airport.