Vermont is for blogberries

Don't call it a comeback! Okay, you should probably call it a comeback. We didn't forget about this blog, exactly, we just ... thought we would do more things from the list during the past 10 months. In truth, we did a lot since the last post: I got a job (whew!), we moved to Dorchester (hooray!), and we unpacked all of our things for the first time after moving from Minnesota. So really, we did a lot of things; we were just using a different list.

Now, back to the real list.

Burlington is not on our list - neither, in fact, are the next few posts - but we've wanted to go there for a while now. When we lived in Minnesota, we had a yearly project called Tour Of The Midwest, in which Lizzie would pick a midwestern city for us to see. These trips always took place in February or March, the months when we most wanted to get out of Dodge. We visited such picturesque places as Duluth, Des Moines, Fargo, and Madison. We decided to continue the tradition (Tour Of The Northeast!), and Lizzie picked Burlington. We went there about a month ago.

All we knew about Burlington was its reputation as a liberal college town. We also knew it had something to do with Phish (they started there) and Ben & Jerry's (they started nearby). It's a lovely city, with lots of shops, restaurants, and lakeside views. We got a few restaurant recommendations from a friend who went to St. Michael's, and because we got very attached to one suggestion, we didn't need the rest. Oh Magnolia Bistro, can we marry you? (Side note: in Burlington, we probably could.) The eggs were perfect, the coffee delicious and plentiful, the waitstaff awkwardly funny. (We had the same waiter two days in a row, and either he didn't notice or didn't acknowledge it.)But I'm getting ahead of myself. We started the weekend with a Friday night performance by P.O.S., our favorite Minneapolis rapper. (I know that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it's not - the Minneapolis hip-hop community is pretty amazing. So there!) The opener was a very bad rapper named Astronautalis. I wouldn't go out of my way to insult him if he wasn't so damn arrogant and just plain terrible. Yikes. But P.O.S. was amazing as always, giving it his all for a group of kinda-interested college kids. Great way to start the weekend.
We spent most of the trip wandering around the downtown area, especially Church Street, which has lots of little shops and restaurants. We also went to Shelburne Farms, a huge functioning farm with walking trails. It was gorgeous, even though the day was gray and drizzly. The view from Lone Tree Hill (which I kept accidentally calling "One Tree Hill") was especially beautiful.We checked out some other sights, such as the Magic Hat brewery and the Lake Champlain Chocolates factory, but they weren't too interesting. Not compared to amazing brunches, anyway. (We are so old!)

Anyway, Burlington. Go there. Eat some eggs, walk up Lone Tree Hill, see a show. We recommend it. Onward!

Arnold Arboretum (E&D)- June 20th

Dave here. In the comments for our post about The List, Becky pointed out that, compared to our previous blog, we have very few items about food. Why is this? Have we grown less lazy in the past month? Is food simply better in Minnesota? Have our tastes changed? We may never know the answer to this question (but one thing is certain: we are not less lazy).

In fact, not only are there fewer sit-around-and-eat items on the list, there are some downright active and outdoorsy items – such as the Arnold Arboretum.

Located in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, the Arnold Arboretum is 265 acres of nature; specifically, amazing trees – mostly from North America and Asia. Since its inception in 1872, the Arboretum has been owned by Harvard. The arboretum was set up by trustees for the will of James Arnold, a whaling merchant (!) from New Bedford. The deed stated that the land was “for the establishment and support of an arboretum, to be known as the Arnold Arboretum, which shall contain, as far as practicable, all the trees [and] shrubs . . . either indigenous or exotic, which can be raised in the open air."

We went to the Arnold Arboretum last weekend, for their weekly free tour. The tour was led by Bob, a volunteer who knew a lot about trees. He told us about where the seeds for trees were found (many of them were in Asia) and about how they got their names. He told us about when certain trees bloom and what their blossoms look like. Bob is awesome.
The Arboretum is open in the winter, and I personally can’t wait to take a walk through the beautiful landscape while it’s covered in snow. We’ll definitely come back throughout the summer and fall, too, especially since it’s so close to our house in Newton (and Lizzie’s office).

Here’s to free and amazing things to do.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: The List!

Here's the list of things in New England that we've never done despite a combined 48 years of New England residency. It's funny how you can miss experiencing some of the most obvious parts of your home town/ state/ region, especially when you've been living there for so long. We discovered how fun it was to go exploring in Minnesota, and we're excited to explore again a place we should have known better from the start.

They're marked with initials, for the person who hasn't done/ seen it yet. And we're open to suggestions! (So far poor Connecticut and Vermont are severely underrepresented. Is there anything cool at all there besides the Merritt Parkway and syrup, respectively?)


Acadia National Park (E&D)
Arnold Arboretum (E&D)
Big E (E&D)
Blue Hills (E&D)
Desert of Maine (E&D)
drive up Mt. Washington (E&D)
Duck Tour (E&D)
Edward Gorey House (E&D)
Emily Dickinson Museum (E&D)
the Fells (E&D)
Fenway Park tour (D)
Freedom Trail (E&D)
Gardner Museum- free on your birthday; $2 off if wearing Sox apparel (E&D)
Georges Island (D)
Glass flowers (D)
ICA- free Thurs 5-9 (E&D)
Jacob's Pillow (E&D)
Lowell Spinners (E&D)
Mapparium (E&D)
Mass MoCA (E&D)
Minuteman bike path (E&D)
Mt. Greylock (E&D)
Mt. Katahdin (E&D)
Nash Dinosaur Tracks (E&D)
New Bedford (E)
Newport mansions (E&D)
Opera House (E&D)
Patriots game (E&D)
Phineas Gage (D)
Plimoth Plantation (E)
Sam Adams brewery tour (E&D)
Scooperbowl (E)
Topsfield Fair (E&D)
whale watch (E)

Pigs 'N' Cream (E)

Ultimately, this blog is supposed to be primarily devoted to our explorations of places in New England we've never been before. But we haven't been up for too much exploring this week, so I'm posting on two categories that I've been hyper-aware of during the past two weeks: Things That Have Changed, and Things That Have Stayed The Same.

A prime example in the Things That Have Changed category: last Sunday, Dave played at a bar called The Squealing Pig. I've been there on multiple occasions and used to go by it every day on the T on my way in to work. But on Sunday, I could not find it. I called multiple current Bostonians, all of whom confirmed that it was right where I was looking for it; none of them had any idea why I couldn't see it. Ultimately, it turned out that sometime in the past five years, a giant building (Mass College of Pharmacy) was erected (that's right) right in front of The Squealing Pig. It was still where it belonged; I just didn't know how to look for it. And that's what being away for five years will do to you.On the other hand, there are Things That Have Stayed The Same. Kimball's still has the best ice cream known to man. A small cone is still approximately a pint, perched precariously atop a dwarfed sugar cone. Coffee Oreo ice cream is still the best ice cream flavor known to man. It is inexplicably unavailable in Minnesota; I've made up for this injustice by eating it three times in the past two weeks.

In addition, the most beautiful spot in the world has stayed the same. I have no idea why this spot is allowed to exist, it's that gorgeous. It's right on the way to Kimball's from our hometown. Every time we pass, all I can think is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful and yet again, wonderful.

You found us!

Welcome to Blogberries for Sal, in which, having just arrived home after spending five years in Minnesota, we embark on all the New England adventures we never got around to having before we left.