Boston for the 4th

My daughter's birthday is July 4th, so we always find a way to have a holidayish get together. This year we came up here this morning and are spending the evening. Tomorrow we will go to Martha's Vineyard for a few days.

July 4th is one of those holidays that make cities kind of unbalanced. Depending on where you are, it's either really crowded or completely deserted. The area where we are hanging out, near Fenway Park, is mostly deserted with a decent-sized group of people clearly going someplace in a hurry. We're not too far from the river, where they are currently having a patriotic type concert leading up to a fireworks show. The hotel has a rooftop terrace, where we were eventually able to go up and watch the fireworks.

One thing with a fireworks show compared to any other kind of show is that nobody ever shushes anyone at a fireworks show. You can talk or comment, and the goings on are noisy enough that nobody really cares. The Boston fireworks were good. They were fireworks. You shoot stuff into the air and it explodes. Sometimes accompanied by a loud bang. I don't mean to sound blasé. It's cool, but there's a certain sameness about it.

One fun thing about watching from where we were was that you could see reflections on a nearby building.

That was cool. And I could record that while looking at the actual fireworks.

We had a nice dinner tonight at a restaurant called Row 34. It was a seafood place that had a great beer selection. I had something called the Cat's Meow, an unfiltered IPA that went very well with my extremely unkosher cold seafood plate.

I did not take a picture of the oysters that preceded this. Nothing I ate was even kosher style this evening. Perhaps that will cause God to smote me. I like shrimp, but I'm always on guard for the watery shrimp cocktail. I guessed that this place would have a good one and I was correct.

We're staying at a Marriott Residence Inn. It's an extended stay type hotel, meaning it has a kitchenette with a stove and dishwasher and full sized refrigerator. And more than one place to sit, unlike most hotel rooms. This room, while not huge, has 3 different places to sit. For someone who does not like sitting in bed, this is extremely important so I will give this hotel a very nice review. There's nothing fancy about it, which is fine because I don't care about that. Clean and functional works for me, and this is a very well designed place.

I'd include a picture, but in my usual fashion I've trashed the place. I guess Ronnie participated but I am a highly skilled trasher of hotel rooms. When I used to travel for business a lot, I couldn't help but marvel at how I could explode into a room within 15 minutes of arriving. Lord help me if there was a second bed in the room because that would be covered with stuff strewn about instantly. This isn't like that because I have someone else here with me.

It's been a good day overall. My daughter was grateful because we came and cleaned her apartment as a birthday present. I got to clean the refrigerator, which was without a doubt the worst I've ever smelled. It didn't look that bad, but I'm surprised the neighbors hadn't complained. I've changed diapers so I'm never too concerned about what I get on my hands, but this contained a number of former vegetables that time had melted, plus something so moldy that the mold had gotten moldy, if you can imagine that. It therefore required rubber gloves and a cleaner with bleach, but it's bright and shiny and clean inside now.

Off to Martha's Vineyard tomorrow. Will have both girls and boyfriends there as well, and hopefully my sister too. I'll check in from there tomorrow.