Weekend Report: DC Breweries Bike Tour

DC's breweries -- Chocolate City, DC Brau, and Atlas to name a few -- are all realatively new and all in super obscure locations, as breweries tend to be. So clearly the best way to hit them all in one day is by bicycle! This genius tour de beer was devised by SpeedyKate, and it is a must if you're in DC and enjoy beer and biking and fun.

Liz, SpeedyKate, B-Riel, me (duh), Hannah, and Caroline at DC Brau.

After borrowing a friend's bike for the day (mobility! It's glorious!), I met SpeedyKate at noon on Saturday. That may sound like an aggressively early time to start touring breweries, but between biking and beer tasting the whole experience took allllll afternoon and I'm really glad we started when we did. Also, most tasting rooms close at 4pm, so plan accordingly. Joining us on this venture were a couple of my grad school friends, plus one of my friends from college.

Sidenote: Though I can see some of you raising eyebrows (drinking and biking Mollie?!? Is that really a good idea?), it's actually very little drinking. Since most breweries (except Atlas) only offer tiny tasting sizes, we probably each drank a total of three beers over the course of five hours. See? Safe.

Anywho, the 11.7-mile route was devised by SpeedyKate (and questionably navigated by myself). We started in Colombia Heights because that's where we live, and biked three miles to Chocolate City in Brookland, then about five miles on to DC Brau (north of the Arboretum). We then headed about a mile south to Atlas Brew Works, which is just a few doors away from New Columbia Distillers (aka Green Hat Gin). Green Hat was closed by the time we got there, so we'll have to try again another time. Also, our original plan (see route here) had us ending at Bardo, a beer garden in Trinidad, but we decided to forgo that stop in exchange for ice cream at Union Market. Always a good idea.

This bike ride is by no means scenic. It covers parts of the city I only vaguely knew existed and traverses some busy roads and a few strip malls and warehouse areas. But though the ride is not exactly nice, it really is the best/only way to get to these places. And it's fun!

So about the breweries. Chocolate City was the first and most low key. We just showed up and walked into what looked like a small warehouse/garage and a woman at a table offered us tastings of three beers. I wasn't especially wowed by any of them, but it was a nice way to start.

Next was DC Brau, probably the most well known of the three. I feel like their standard The Public Pale Ale is just a generally solid beer but nothing special. But in addition to that, for tasting they had El Hefe Speaks, a really delicious hefeweizen, and also an imperial IPA called On the Wings of Armageddon. When you walk into DC Brau they give you four drink tickets to use for tasting, and the tasting sizes are about 4oz each, so that's pretty great. Also they have an excellent local pride logo. 

Our last, and my favorite, stop was Atlas Brew Works. It's a brewery but also has a bar, and just this weekend started serving pints. Hallelujah there was a food truck outside, so we shared some fries and proceeded to taste. The bad news is that the tastings are not free, but the good news is that for $7 you get four tastings and one half-pint and it is ten thousand kinds of worth it! Their beer was unique and really good -- my favorites were the Rowdy, a rye beer, and NSFW, a double black IPA yummmmm. Atlas is a pretty big space and has tables and corn hole and a few (nowhere near enough) fans. And for future reference, I'm pretty sure you can get their beers at Nats games. 

The beer portion of our tour ended there around five o'clock, then we made our way to Union Market because Trickling Springs Creamery! 

We sat in the air conditioning enjoying our ice creams, basically the perfect end to a perfect tour. Then of course we had to bike ourselves home. What a great day! 

Weekend Report: Fun With Fletcher Friends

That alliteration pretty well sums up every weekend and most weeknights since I've been in DC.

While many of my classmates jetsetted off this summer to intern/work/research literally all over the world (Nigeria and Nepal, Dubai and Dominican Republic, Geneva and Guatemala, and Kosovo and Egypt and Tunisia, just to name a few locales), a critical contingent converged on DC and it is so much fun all the time all the time!

This weekend is an excellent example of this (uniquely?) Fletcher phenomenon. Friday night, after a long week of researching and writing and interviewing and editing, I started my weekend with a bit of Bikram yoga (oof, but it’s getting better!). Then a quick shower and not so quick 90 Bus ride later I met three friends at Union Market for the first drive-in movie of the summer. Forgetting Sarah Marshal was projected on the side of the huge building and people drove in and watched from their cars in the parking lot, or, like us, walked in and sat on blankets or beach chairs. There were drinks and snacks and the weather was perfect – the best way to spend a chill Friday evening outside. Next week is Life Aquatic, so I think the plan is to go back.

We didn’t stay out too late, which was great because I started Saturday with a late-morning long run on the trails of Rock Creek Park. I have a race in the not-too-distant future, so 10 miles was a necessary (and not as bad as it could have been) experience.

On Saturday afternoon 8 of us made our way down to Bluejacket Brewery (so good!) and then went to the Nats game. The weather was perfect for baseball—not sweaty! Aka magic!—and the Nats won against the Brewers with 8 runs.

The socializing really never ends and so of course by Sunday we were still going, capping off the weekend with a bluegrass concert at Hill Country. Mipso is this bluegrass band from UNC and they’re so cute and really good! They’re on tour so you should go see them (if you’re in Boston they’re at Johnny D’s this week).

Some of my friends are almost done with their internships and about to leave (Callie don’t go!!!), but one just arrived (welcome Pat!), and at least a few of us are staying in DC to the end. So if you need me until then, I will be eating Ethiopian food and fro yo and going to concerts and enjoying rooftops and barbecues until September!

Post-Finals FUNemployment

Well well well, I'm happy to report that post-finals funemployment is treating me gloriously. I wake up every morning to no class to go to, no required reading, no meetings to attend, no problems sets to agonize over. I wouldn't want to be funemployed always (at that point it would just be unemployed), but for a brief concrete period of time I am so in. Also, many of my friends are sticking around for a bit post-finals, so I have all my favorite people to hang out with!

What exactly have I been up to, you might wonder? Biking, rock climbing, reading, playing catch, friends-time, dancing, playing softball, and snacking.

Walden Pond from my bike ride on Sunday.

Let me tell you about my week -- feel free to live vicariously.

I started Monday early with a 22-mile bike ride to Bedford and back on the Minuteman Trail. Then in the afternoon I met a friend in Harvard Square for frozen yogurt followed by frisbee in the park. I am happy to report that I can now throw a frisbee both backhand and forehand, and about 4/5 times it goes where I want it to! Then finally, most of Fletcher convened in a backyard in Cambridge for a rather epic summer evening barbecue. I want summer nights for all the time always!

Tuesday was nowhere near as warm, but just as active. We had yet another barbecue (this time at school), followed by a solid game of catch, followed by a first- v. second-years softball game. The bad news is that my experience with softball is incredibly minimal. The good news is that a) my dad taught me how to throw and catch as a kid, and b) I recently watched A League of Their Own. So basically I was all set.

In a spate of spring cleaning last week, RoommateRachel and realized that we'd acquired five containers of real maple syrup over a year of pancake parties. There is only one solution to this "problem:" another pancake party! So I had people over on Wednesday morning to eat allll the pancakes -- inputs included bananas, blueberries, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Yummmm.

Then yesterday afternoon I was ready for yet another bike ride -- this time to the Arboretum via Marky Mark (BUXC you know what's up!). It was bright green grassy, pink tree blossom-y, and fields of yellow tulip-y. Lovely.

So basically, my week has been awesome. The plan for today is to go rock climbing, then eat southern food, then dance the night away at the final Los Flecheros concert.

Weekend Report: Delta Rae, Long Running, and Arepas!

"Your weekends always sound like entire weeks to me." -- Sister2

My very observant sister is right. But between the things I need to do (schoolwork, life-work), want to do (friends! parties! activities!), and love to do (running! skiing!) I just don't see how my weekends could be any other way.

Friday night, after two solid weeks of having some sort of activities every night, I stayed in and it was pure introvert gloriousness: some cooking, some homework, some reading, some writing, and a lot of sleeping.

Saturday day was heavy on the schoolwork because grrraaahhh midterms! But my friend KatieHat came over and we made Econometrics fun (well now that's a stretch but work with me here) by turning it into a homework brunch. I made these peanut butter and jam muffins yummm, and we had eggs and hashbrowns and all the coffee to go with them. And then we learned everything. Or some things. Or maybe a few things. Perhaps (though hopefully not) nothing at all...

Saturday night I was SUPER excited to see Delta Rae at Royale in the Theater District. I first heard about this band a couple weeks from my friends in DC, who said they were amazing in concert. So then last week I finally looked up their songs, was immediately obsessed, checked tour dates, realized they would be in Boston on Saturday, and decided that I HAD to go.

It was an excellent choice. They were the most energetic performers and powerful singers I think I have ever see. Their songs have been in my head for three days now and I am not even a little upset.


Alright so what's next? Well I did my first 20-miler on Sunday morning and it felt awesome!!! The weather was nice (i.e. above freezing and nothing coming out of the sky) and I met up with my running friend for a lovely progression run out to Lexington and back. I've had some questionable workouts recently, so it was definitely a confidence-booster to feel so good in my first really long run (our longest until yesterday was 15).

Accompanying me on this run were some sweet new shoes. Finally! I always put off buying new shoes for waaaayyy too long. (More on shoes in this post.) So far so good with these guys -- Gel Cumulus 15.

For runners out there who care, here's my opinion (and I am definitely not a shoe reviewer): They're neutral (but I wear orthodics), a nice amount of cushy, and the top part is really light and breathable. Plus they're quite the snazzy color combination, no? As I'm sure you know, running shoe companies are constantly updating and discontinuing models and driving me crazy. So I tried on a lot of shoes, while the man helping me looked confused at my repeating, "well they just don't feel like my shoes, you know?" These were the closest I could find to what feels right, so hopefully they work out! 

I was worried that after the run I would be completely comatose, but nope! I felt good enough to hop in the shower, haul out my bike, and ride over to my Venezuelan friend's arepas brunch. For those of you who don't know, let me tell you: arepas are fried cornflour flatbreads, filled with cheese, chicken, avocados, or turkey. Aka absolutely delicious!!! 

We were supposed to do a salsa dancing lesson post-brunch, but everyone was in such a cornflour coma that we kinda just lounged around instead. The perfect way to spend a post-run afternoon.

And now here I am, procrastinating more studying with blogging...hope you all had a good weekend too! 

Winning at the Weekend: Skiing and Running!

Weekends are my favorite! And this weekend -- involving skiing, long running, and a hedgehog -- was especially awesome. 

It started eaaaarrrrly on Saturday when I got up at the crack of dawn (ok ok, 6:45 am) to load my stuff into a car and get on the road to New Hampshire for the day. A group of eight took the day off homework and reading and Somerville/Medford/Camebridge life and things and escaped to the mountains! 

It was a Saturday in February (dun dun dunnn), so the parking situation was ugly and the lines were a bit long, but by 11ish we were on snow and loving life and sunshine and hero snow. We skied at Loon Mountain (which is not bad at all!) until we were the last ones on the snow and sitting on the very last chair at 4:20. 

We were only out there for a day trip, so we drove back that evening -- a little bit sore, a lot tired, and very pleased with ourselves. By the time I got home it already felt like I'd had a whole weekend...but nope, there's another day! 

After stretching, some quality foam roller time, and a very deep sleep, I awoke Sunday ready for my next project:  LONG RUN! 

Oh hey I have not really blogged about this yet -- mostly because I haven't really been blogging at all, and also because I don't want to jinx the things -- but I'm marathon training again! I registered for The Boston Marathon way back in September and am finally feeling good and on my way. Yesterday was my longest run to date: 15 miles. 

Route details here.

Much like skiing the day before, the conditions were perfect. Warm (50ish) and sunny and not windy. (Dear Boston, Can the rest of winter be like this please? Ok thanks. Love, Mollie) And the miles felt fine! I think we averaged around 7:50 pace, and all felt great until afterwards when post-post-run omelet I lounged on my couch and "reading for class" immediately became "napping."

[One sec -- let's talk about my post-run omelet: Cremini mushrooms, garlic, spinach, jack cheese, adobo sauce, avocado, ketchup, sourdough toast. It doesn't get any better than that.]

And then I ended the weekend eating all the snacks and watching the Super Bowl with a bunch of Seattle fans who have a pet hedgehog THAT WAS DRESSED UP AS A SEATTLE FAN. I know guys. I know. 

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Weekend Report: Birthday and Bollywood

I know I say this every time I write now, but, hello! It's been too long! School kicked into gear hard, I dropped off the face of more than just the internet earth, and this silly little blog that used to be my favorite thing to do every morning fell by the wayside. I miss it! So here I am, back again. Let's pretend like I never left. Ok? Ok.

This weekend I revisited another one of my favorite things from my past life (i.e. pre-school): baking epic birthday cakes!

The only picture is blurry...sorry. Just pretend it's purposefully Artistic.

Friday was looooonnnggg -- I had class starting at 7:30 am, and then a big presentation at 4:30pm. Ick. Needless to say, I got home feeling like I'd been to war. So I made a beeline for the kitchen, cranked up my favorite song, and made frosting.

I'd made the Red Wine Chocolate Cake the night before, in a quick break between readings, and plastic-wrapped and froze the three gorgeous layers. Friday was creativity time: I had an idea for Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting that involved straining the raspberries, because yum (also, straining = no seeds). And it worked! It worked SO WELL. Forgetting the day behind me and looking forward to the birthday party ahead, I danced around the kitchen licking the beaters and marveling in the fact that frosting can be sooooo good!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz (1 block) cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temperature
• 1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon rum
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Microwave the raspberries, then puree them in a blender. 
2. Pour the raspberry slush into a fine sieve, and push it through with a spatula to get all the raspberry and none of the seeds.
3. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla, rum, raspberries, and cream until smooth.
4. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If it's too thick, add more cream; too thin, add more sugar. 

Like the out-of-practice blogger I am, I totally forgot to take pictures of this gorgeous masterpiece. But trust me on this, it was beautiful! And everyone agreed that the cake was delicious. And that perhaps baking cakes should be my post-grad school backup plan (you know, in case this whole International Relations thing doesn't work out.) And the birthday girl (HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!) said that I won at her birthday.

What else this weekend? Four of my friends hosted an Inaugural Movie Night on Sunday, because they have a projector! Like the whole huge set-up: big screen and sound and everything. Their living room is literally like a movie theater. 

To start off what I anticipate will be a series of projector-supported movie nights, we watched Barfi! a Bollywood hit. I've actually never watched a Bollywood movie before, and it was hilarious! Like the style of a Charlie Chaplin film, with plot elements from The Notebook, and just a smidgen of the Borne movies thrown in there too. Completely silly, and thoroughly entertaining! There were not epic dance scenes, which I thought was a requirement of Bollywood, but the whole movie was set to music with very little talking, so it was kind of like watching a 2-hour dance scene.

And with that I conclude my Weekend Report. Hopefully I'll be more regularly blogging soon!

Happy Thanksfriendzing!

Thanksfriendzing is upon us! That wonderful pre-Thanksgiving holiday where friends hang out, eat delicious food, and get warmed up for the big day. RoommateRachel and I hosted our own Thanksfriendzing yesterday, and I'm happy to report that it was a HUGE success. 

As this was a Fletcher Thanksfriendzing, we asked our friends to bring dishes from their home countries to share. Result? The traditional Thanksfriendzing dinner plus palak paneer and naan plus Japanese barbecue plus rugulah plus edamame plus so many more delicious things! For serious, people brought their A-game hard -- American traditionals included cornbread, cornbread cranberry stuffing, bacon/Gorgonzola/almond Brussels sprouts, macaroni and cheese, roasted squash, eggnog, and mashed potatoes of course! 

I made Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with cream cheese frosting filling, Rosemary Sweet Potato Gratin (this recipe but with Parmesan instead of Asiago cheese), homemade cranberry sauce, and string beans with caramelized onions. 

RoommateRachel made a delicious and BIG turkey (expertly carved by Michael), bruschetta, and lemon meringue and apple pies. 

We ended the night going around and saying what we are thankful for -- SO MANY THINGS. It's been a pretty epic year, both for for me and most of my new friends. What a perfect way to start the holiday season!

Things other than Thanksfriendzing happened this weekend too, but they were mostly homework related so that is womp womp boooooring to everyone but me (and sometimes boring to me too...). Countdown: I go home for Christmas break in exactly 17 days. Yay! But also oooooh man, standing between me and Christmas are finals. Sheesh. 

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

Weekend Report: SpeedyKate's Birthday in Shenandoah

Hooray for mini-vacations! I flew to DC on Friday afternoon and spent the long weekend in Shenandoah with SpeedyKate, Chris, John, Andy, (aka a solid chunk of the Ragnar Relay crew) and many many others. It was suggested that I live-blog the experience, but for a number of reasons, including my time/effort and of course potential for major embarrassment (not necessarily mine), I vetoed that idea and opted to wait until I was back in the cold comfort of Boston, procrastinating my Role of Force reading.

 

So! SpeedyKate is 30! Yay! Big birthdays are such a great excuse to do something awesome, so she rented a huge and beautiful house out in Shenandoah for three nights and invited all her friends for the weekend. I have no idea how many of us there were -- friends came and went, and some only stayed for a night, but a core group of champions stayed the whole time.

This is the house. I know, right!?! My friends do things right.

Our Saturday hike was to Big Schloss (lolz), just four miles round trip. We were there about two weeks too late to experience the perfect fall foliage, but it was sun-shiny and hiking-in-a-T-shirt warm, so I'm not complaining!

There was an excellent view at the top. To the horror and dismay of many, when I'm not climbing up rocks, I like sitting on them. Basically I love dangling my feel off edges. Don't worry guys, my butt is solidly connected to earth at almost all times!

Back at the house everyone paired up and took responsibility for meals -- enchiladas, barbecue, and jambalaya for dinners, plus an epic brunch of Texas-shaped savory waffles, hash browns, and cinnamon rolls on Sunday. We sat on the front steps, eating waffles and sipping coffee and looking out at this. Pretty perfect, right?

Everything smelled like campfire all weekend, thanks to the patio fire pit and a lot of wood to burn. I really enjoy it -- to me campfire smells like outside and warmth and staring into embers and relaxing and friends and fun. We sat around a lot (on the porch, by the fire, in the hot tub), talked a lot, played some games (Cards Against Humanity mostly), and just generally hung out. 

But this is an active group! So our Sunday hike, fueled by the aforementioned epic brunch, was a bit more ambitious. We hiked the Signal Knob/Elizabeth's Furnace loop (I've done this one before), minus the knob because we didn't want the sun to set on us in the woods. Oooh the downsides of the slow and inevitable approach to winter. (Who am I kidding? I'm not sad about winter, let's go skiing!) This hike is about 7-8 miles of rocky and hilly trails -- just enough focus required to make it interesting, and long enough to accommodate many conversations and daydreams.

We packed up and headed back to DC on Monday. Overall the weekend was an epic success. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPEEDYKATE!

Weekend Report: International Crisis, My Life as a Snow Leopard, and One-Legged Vinyasas

I swear that the title will make sense by the end of this post....What a weekend! I am exhausted.

Roommate Rachel is Mr. Mondavi (of the wine).
I am a snow leopard, obviously.

Friday evening and all day Saturday I participated in a crisis simulation "game"...because that is totally normal right? Aah grad school. How it works is that participants are organized into (mostly) country teams, and given background reading on the international context. Then everyone is given the scenario of a realistic international crisis in the year 2017, and has to work together within teams to come up with a strategy and carry it out. The point is for  us to play roles as decision-makers and to experience the problems, dilemmas, and processes of managing a crisis or resolving a conflict.  (More info here if you care.)

I was given the role of Chechen terrorist (my name tag: “Miss Mollie, Terrorist Organization”), which was exciting and interesting, but also deeply disturbing when you think about it too hard. Turns out that in the context of a crisis game, I am pretty good at devising seriously destructive scenarios…eek? We issued press releases, video press releases (hilarious), and carried out actions over the course of 3 2-hour "moves." I was allegedly assassinated at one point, but don't worry, I came back to life. It was definitely an experience.

With just a couple hours recovery, I traded my terrorist garb (!?!? I can’t believe I just wrote that) for leopard print and headed out to celebrate Halloween! I went as a snow leopard because a) I already owned the pants; and b) snow leopards are the most bad-ass animal out there.

My school’s dorm (I do not live there) throws a huge Halloween party every year and it was pretty epic! I can’t remember the last time I actually did Halloween, but I do enjoy a good excuse to dress up.

Sunday was far more normal, and involved neither an international crisis nor a costume – just some good old fashioned doing homework at my dining room table, interrupted by mid-afternoon power yoga and rock climbing. So many one-legged vinyasas! There is a reasonably good chance I will be unable to lift my arms tomorrow.

You should definitely try these -- here's how:

Just keep going through that, one side at a time, until everything burns so much that you have to stop. (If the pictures aren't enough, here's a more detailed description.) Told ya it was fun! 

Weekend Report: The Electric Run, Boston

On Friday night a few classmates and I did the Electric Run, and it was so much fun! It's one of those running(ish) experiences -- not a race at all, just thousands of people dressed in neon and splattered in day-glo on a lighted 5K course. 

We all registered in the first couple weeks of school (me: new friends! running! I'm in!). But then fast-forward to this past Friday (holy bejeezes it's already October!), and I was just not in the mood. It was gray and rainy and the venue (Gillette Stadium) is far from Boston. But as I left school, composing my "I'm out, have fun" email in my head, I ran into a couple of the other runners and was talked into going. 

Long story short: I am so glad I went! 

The un-timed "run" was 5K of mostly walking, which was a-ok with me. The course wound around the stadium and would have been completely boring in the daytime, but was surreal and awesome at night.

We ran through a glowing forest, a tunnel of overhead neon lights, and a ceiling of light-up umbrellas, all alongside thousands of people dressed in day-glo, decked out in glowing accessories, smeared in body paint, and splattered with whatever the chemical is inside glow sticks. 

The course ended in the stadium and turned into an epic rave-esque dance party. Electronic music isn't usually my thing, but I do love dancing and neon things -- aka it was so much fun!

For the rest of the weekend, I adopted new grad school weekend strategy: work all day, and then DO NOT WORK. So I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at my dining room table, staring at various books, articles, and websites, writing a paper, and learning calculus. I know. Ick. 

But then, by 7:30 pm each day I was done (academically at least), and on my way to fun things with interesting people! Saturday night a house of students hosted a pizza party, aka they provided the dough and sauce, everyone else brought toppings. Yummmm. And Sunday night I went to a formal(ish) sit-down dinner party with grad students from other schools: fancy 3-course meal, a set table, everyone dressed nice, and a host-directed mandate: you will have interesting conversation. (Sometimes I feel like I'm playing adult...but I guess technically I am an adult.) 

Anywho, back to work now for me. Or, to be completely honest, yoga, lunch, then back to work. Hope you had a nice weekend too!

Weekend(ish) Report: Red Sox, Walden Pond, and Martha's Vineyard

This Weekend Report is more of a Last Week report, since I have been a bit overwhelmed by all of the things and thus have neglected blog writing. I'm sorry, but I have to prioritize, and right now it looks like 1) school, 2) sleep, 3) exercise, 4) everything else. 

So here's to the everything else!

Last week I attended my first Red Sox game ever. I am fully aware that this is baseball blasphemy, considering I spent four years of undergrad within a mile or two of Fenway Park. But better late than never, right?

I and about 30 classmates bought three rows in right field and enjoyed the game (they lost, womp womp). It was really fun, but I am about to commit further baseball blasphemy here -- I have to admit that I prefer Nats games in DC...Nats stadium is just so much better!

Next up I did another Boston-area "first" and finally saw the famous Walden Pond! I've been taking time off running (some seriously strange low-back business going on here), so last Thursday, after many many classes, I walked out if the school building, realized how gloriously autumn awesome it was outside, and made the executive decision that I needed a bike ride. I started around 4:30 pm and peddled to the end of the Minuteman Bike Path in Bedford (11 miles from my house).

I was feeling good, so I consulted the map on my phone and decided to keep going. Let me tell you guys, Walden Pond is FAR. And the route is very very hilly. I arrived there at the most beautiful time of day -- the sun was setting over the water and swimmers were lounging on the beach after evening dips (it's a legit sandy beach! Who knew?). 

Sunset = beautiful. But sunset when on a bike ride about 20 miles from home = problems. I decided to take a different, supposedly faster, route home. But the roads were windy and hilly and not at all well-marked. I got lost SO many times and kept having to backtrack to re-find my way. By the time I got to the bike path in Lexington it was completely dark out -- way too dark to be on a bike path. So I cursed into the night and wiggled my way through some neighborhoods and side streets to find my way back. (In my head: I am never going to get home and it's dark and I'm in the middle of nowhere and I'm tired and hungry and I'm going to get hit by a car and die and it's all my own stupid fault for starting too late so I can't reasonably call anyone to whine/get help! Out loud: Ugggfhhhbbbllleerrgggggg dammit Massachusetts!!!)

Well, I'm happy to report that I lived (well duh) and made it home, 43 miles later, by 8:30 pm. Lessons learned: think of about time of day when choosing to depart on a long bike ride. Also, bike lights. 

Next up (this is the actual weekend part), I went to Martha's Vineyard. I've never been to the Cape or any of the islands in that area, so this was all new to me. Guys, it was beautiful! I hardly took any pictures, so you'll just have to trust me on this. The weather on Saturday was perfect -- warm and sunny and just the right mix of summer with a hint of fall.

Andy (remember our Asian adventure?) came up to visit, and we stayed in Vineyard Haven, a tiny adorable little New England beach town (not like SE Asia at all, i.e. same same but very different.) We rented bikes to get to the ocean-side beach.

No filters on this -- the colors were really that great!

I was talked into swimming (the air and water were warm...but not THAT warm), and did not regret it. And the route to the beach was so pretty! The island is a lot bigger than expected (post-ride mapping says that it was 15 miles to the beach), and also hillier than expected, but so nice that I didn't mind the long ride at all.

We had delicious brunch at Art Cliff Diner in Vineyard Haven (I highly recommend), and amazing seafood at Larsen's in Menemsha. Can I please have lobster mac and cheese and stuffed scallops all the time? Ok thanks.

And that, my friends, is that. It was a great weekend, during which I did no homework...a decision that I am paying for this week. But I think it was worth it!