New England Air Show

This past Saturday, August 18th, Ed and I met up with Kent, Jae Rin, and Wesley Parks at the New England Air Show at Pease Air National Guard Base near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The day was unusually chilly and windy, but still sunny. We had a great time at the air show and Ed had a wonderfuly time being bossed around by the Parks' little one, Wesley, during our lunch break. Don't worry -- Ed loves being bossed around by little kids (namely, my niece, Ambria -- she's definitely the best at being bossy -- last time we visited my sister, her phrase was constantly "YOU'RE FIRED!" and she would proceed to yell it at you while being less than an inch away from your nose AND pointing with her right index finger in your face -- quite a talented child:-) And no, she did not pick up the phrase from Donald Trump. It came from a Hanna Montana episode). Okay -- back onto the subject at hand -- The air show had tons of planes, but none I could identify (I read National Geographic (skipping over any articles relating to planes or space exploration), The Economist, People (don't tell anyone), etc.). Luckily, I had Ed there and he could name every plane and knew all about the artillery or anything that went along with it -- I, of course, just nodded in agreement...

Sunday, Ed and I didn't do much -- I was too exhausted from working all week and the air show on Saturday. So...we just ran a few errands and stayed at home the remainder of the day.

I don't believe that we will post next week. Ed and I will be using next weekend for preparation as his parents' visit over Labor Day weekend.

Aquarium & North End Markets

Well...we've done it! We joined the New England Aquarium. I'm kind of excited about the prospect of visiting the aquarium as much as I want. We are even able to jump the line -- so long tourists! And yes, even if some of our friends wish to tour the town of Boston, we will kindly take them to the aquarium with us (Ed and I are such "givers"). We're allowed to take up to two guests with our passes.

Some friends of ours told us about the membership at the aquarium. So....Ed and I thought that it would be a good idea to join (after living in DC and going to the Baltimore Aquarium a lot). And hey, if we go to the Aquarium twice, the membership will be paid for AND it's tax-deductible (and I'm always looking for a tax-deduction).

Not only did we go the the aquarium on Saturday, we even went to a 3-D movie at the IMAX (where we able to get a small discount on our movie tickets because we belong to the aquarium). We watched the movie "Deep Sea" and I loved it! 3-D isn't like what I remembered when I was little -- it's even better now! Most of the kids in the theatre seemed to like the movie until the giant squid "eated" them. Once the giant squid "eated" some of the kids, they started to cry and had to be carried out by their parents. Don't worry, most kids stayed, but they definitely didn't want to see the squid again.

Later on Saturday, we went to the North End's "Little Italy" and picked up some supplies (ie olive oil, pancetta, canolis, etc.). I'm really happy that Ed and I went on the tour of Little Italy in July -- now we know where to buy all of the good stuff! If anyone is interested in Italian food or finding out more about Boston, I would recommend the tour...(http://www.northendmarkettours.com/html/markettours/markettours.html).

Recent Weekend Adventures

July 28th was another adventure day for Ed and I. We went biking around the town of Lexington and Concord, MA and the Minuteman National Park. Ed likes to torture me by making me always go look at forts, battlefields or airplanes. So...historically, everything was great -- they had signs posted every couple of yards (we actually stood where Paul Revere was arrested by the British). We also saw several grave sites -- even a couple for British soldiers, which I didn't quite understand because they were imperialists at the time, but whatever... Biking around the battlefields and towns was tons of fun even though we were caught in two downpours (as evidenced by Ed's and my beautiful photographs). And I must say, that I loved biking in the rain -- the puddles were lots of fun! And yes, I do understand that the Massachusetts roads can be toxic -- not to worry, I bathed when I returned home:-)

August 4th, Ed and I decided to go to the Portuguese Festival in New Bedford, MA. Fortunately, we were only there for the day because New Bedford isn't the kind of place that you want to be stuck in during the night because in the morning you would be driving away on a couple of rims (if you're lucky). The festival was interesting, we paid $5 to some guys to "watch" our car. And yes, when we returned, all wheels were still attached to my vehicle. The festival was okay -- we ate some good Portuguese food and had to tolerate some poor US music. You would think that they would've had some sort of traditional Portuguese song/dance, but I guess my expectations were too high. The decorations on a few of the streets and the church were fabulous, but as for the rest of the festival, it has turned in the US version of a fair -- cheap rides and even cheaper games. It was kind of unfortunate. I guess that I was expecting too much from the festival. We also checked out some of the Whaling National Historical Park and historical downtown New Bedford. The National Park even had some pamphlets on the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska -- most Alaskans (minus Ed) don't even travel there much less someone in the Eastern US -- do you actually think that Bostonians know what an Inupiat is and mostly importantly, can they find Barrow on a map? In Ed's class, there are even some people who grew up in Boston and have lived here their entire lives that have never been to New Bedford (1.5 hours outside of the city).

Commerce Street - New Bedford, MA