I'm shipping up to Bostonia

Friday night after the Urban Promise Summit ended here in Camden, Jessie, Mike, Charlotte and I jumped in a car and headed for Boston. On the drive, we all took turns asking questions and making everyone in the car answer them honestly. It was quite interesting and made for the quickest 6 hour drive I have ever been on. When we arrived in Boston on Friday night, Jessie had to visit some friends so the rest of us decided to head into the first bar we saw and try to finagle a place to stay for the night. We sat at the bar and ordered drinks. After about ten minutes two guys sat down at the bar next to me and I struck up a conversation about what there is to do in Boston. The first guy, Pete, was a distributor for Miller/Coors and had a ton of advice for us about what to do and where to eat (he also bought all of our drinks for us on his Miller/Coors credit card). Mike wrote down Pete's suggestions on his hand so that we would not forget them. At some point we got to talking about where we might be able to find a cheap place to stay and the second guy, Kyle, blurts out, "Fuck it, you guys can just crash on my couches if you pay for my cab ride home". We couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Soon after this, after Pete had left, I saw that Kyle was talking to a couple of young women. Not wanting him to forget about us and leave, I walked over and joined their conversation. I convinced them that Kyle is the greatest guy on the planet for letting us stay at his house. I also tell them about what we do in Camden and they dub me Missionary Matt. I made sure that Kyle got a kiss from each of the ladies before they left and that we made it back to Kyles house with him.

Once we arrived at Kyles house, we played some ping pong before he decided to show us all of his cooking utensils (in his bedroom and not the kitchen), about which he was obviously quite passionate. He showed us some of his knives and his special potato masher. He then stops and informs us that he is about to show us the best cooking item he owns. He proceeds to reach into the drawer and pulls out a turkey baster... not any special turkey baster...the turkey baster that every single one of you has in your kitchen. He then proceeds to explain to us how a turkey baster is used as if none of us had ever heard of such a thing before in our lives. He was entirely sincere and it was rather surreal. At this point I informed Kyle that I needed to go to bed. Mike, Charlotte and I went to sleep on the couches in Kyle's living room.




Mike playing ping pong at Kyles



The next morning we got up and walked to the train station to take the Orangeline back into the city. We found a little farmers market and stopped for breakfast on the way. We got off the train in Boston and walked through little Itally where we got some coffee. We saw a big ass statue of Paul Revere, walked some more and saw some more touristy landmarks, and accidentally planned our walk on a map from 1852. . We then decided that the north end of Boston was a bit too touristy and headed to the south end. We soon found a little pub called JJ Foleys where we were able to get clam chowder, half a sandwich, and salad for 7 dollars. I was great. Our waitress had virtually the exact same tattoo on the top of her back as Samantha which freaked me out a little for some reason, but she was also possibly my favorite person from the entire weekend. We then ordered Irish Coffees which, combined with our lack of sleep, put us all in a sort of haze for the next several hours.



We walked in our haze to a gigantic, incredible church where we spent some time before heading to Starbucks to find wifi so that Mike could use his computer. After a couple hours at starbucks we were finally awake again and headed back toward the north end of Boston. As we were looking for some place that the waitress from earlier had recommended we go for dinner, we stumbled upon one of the restaurants Pete had recommended called Beantown Pub. Mike consulted his hand to make sure it was the right place and then we went in for dinner. We ordered boston baked beans and the steak tips that Pete had recommended. They were good not great and we had a horrible shrew of a waitress (the one and only unpleasant person we experienced in all of Boston). We then headed to another bar near the one where we started our weekend. We watched some ridiculous, over the hill cover band named Deizel and then Jessie picked us up.



Saturday night we stayed at some huge house that Jessie used to live at and is owned by the Salvation Army (the New Kids on the Block also used to live there). We had breakfast in the morning and then headed to Harvard Square. It was a beautiful day. We had a pitcher at a bar. Mike slipped on a rock and fell in the river. We sat and listened to a guy play guitar at a park. We ate dinner on the patio at Charlies Beer Garden and then headed south to Rhode Island.



We went to Rhode Island because Mike had never been there and wanted to say that he had. For him to be able to make this claim, something out of the ordinary had to occur there. When we got to Providence we walked around a little and then found a bar where Mike convinced the bartender (who happened to be a hot brunette) to give me a free shot and let us keep the shot glass. She took a shot with me and then informed us that there was a beach somewhat nearby that we should check out. She lied. The beach was not nearby. We went anyway. It was about an hour out of our way but it was an enjoyable experience. We all peed off the jetty into the Chesapeake Bay and then headed back to Camden. All in all, it was an incredible weekend and just the vacation that I needed.