Hair troubles!

Why is it that when you get your hair done at the hair dresser, you come out looking like a million bucks... but the next day when you get out of the shower you look like a poodle on display at the local human society?

Honestly... I love getting my hair cut and styled, probably because I just love having my hair played with in general. Going to the spa and paying someone to shampoo and massage my scalp is my idea of a very good time.

On top of the scalp massage, the stylist then combs through my hair multiple times, working in some product between the cut and drying stages. I absolutely love it! By the time she is all finished, I have a ton of self-confidence, and after leaving half my life savings in the cash register, I walk out of there with the biggest smile on face, which lasts well into the evening, and even comes back the next morning as I glance in the mirror, pre-shower.

However... the fun stops there when I must turn on the shower and unwilling wet my head as part of my daily cleansing routine. As I look in the mirror, post shower, the smile fades drastically, especially when I attempt to regain that vibrant shine, bounce, and style I left the salon with the previous day.

It's so frustrating... I go from LOVING my new cut, to hating my attempt to recreate the hair magic (while telling the mirror to #&$% off a few 100 times). And to make matters worse, while I spend 45 minutes on my hair, PC showers, shaves, insert third 's' activity here, brushes his teeth, and hip checks me out of the way for his 30 second gel job - GRRRRRRRRR!

I don't have a difficult style... it's a layered cut, versatile, and somewhat trendy... but:

WHY on earth can't I recreate what the stylist did the day before? WHY can't I operate the round brush AND the blow dryer at the same time... producing the sleek, straight, smashing, non-puffy, non-frizzy, non-average look with every section of hair? And while I am on this rant, WHY is it that stylists never use a hair straightener... they only use the round brush to achieve the straight look?

In the back of my head I know that hair styling is a profession, and that is why I go to a salon in the first place, because I want a professional look - but for the love of god, I would do community service, give blood, or whatever it takes, if I could just get the hang of a half decent blow drying technique that didn't make me swear at the world before I considered myself satisfied with the appearance of my hair!

Have you heard enough yet? Cause I could go on? Perhaps let's hear from you... does anyone else suffer from this hair styling frustration? Time to weight in ladies (and metro-sexual males) ... what are your hair troubles?

Tricking ourselves into eating less....

The story below, aired on the CBC news last week, and I found it to be somewhat eyebrow raising. A food researcher from Cornell University points out many interesting facts about research he has done on eating and over eating. Basically he concludes that we eat way more than we need to... SURPRISE SURPRISE!

It's a bit long, but I really found that the researcher's comments and remarks hit home... especially towards the end of the piece. All I know after reading this, is that it scares me... one donut a day ... is an extra 28 pounds at the end of year... if that is not enough to scare you, I don't know what it!

The entire piece is excellent... but I have highlighted the areas that I found most interesting if you don't feel like reading the whole thing.

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CBC: Maybe this has happened to you; have you ever wolfed down something, then wondered why did I eat that? Well, it turns out there are plenty of reasons why we consume the food we do. Unfortunately hunger or common sense isn't always in that mix. Bad news for anyone thinking of shedding a few pounds. However, in this food fight, there are ways to win. Here's Kelly Crowe once again with "What we eat, why we eat."

REPORTER: Guess how many times a day you make a decision about eating; at meal time, a snack here and there, a couple dozen times at most? Not even close. Each of us makes more than 200 decisions every day about what to put in our mouths. It's a scientifically-proven fact, and Brian Wansink is the scientist who proved it. He's a food researcher at Cornell University in New York.

BRIAN WANSINK (Food Researcher Cornell University): They're often decisions that we're just really unaware of. We have been influenced by, say, the people we're with or the plate size we're using or the variety of food that we're given, and the problem is we don't realize these things are influencing us so, at the end of the day, much of what we've eaten ends up being determined largely by what's been around us in our environment, not necessarily our own conscious, specific decisions.

REPORTER: Things that affect those eating decisions, well, like the size of a plate. A serving of pasta on a small plate looks like a normal amount. On a larger plate, it doesn't look like as much so the natural instinct is to serve up more, and if you have company, you can eat up to twice as much as you would if you were eating alone, and those are just a couple of the environmental cues that cause us to unconsciously eat more than we think, between 20 and 50 per cent more.

WANSINK: Every one of us believes we are too smart to be influenced by the variety of food at a buffet or the size of a serving bowl, the shape of a glass. That's what makes these things so dangerous.

REPORTER: This is Brian Wansink's own video taken during one of his eating experiments, a Superbowl party designed to measure how much people will eat from an unlimited buffet of food. As you can see, they keep on eating because that's what everyone else is doing. The
same thing happens in a movie theatre.

WANSINK: What happens is there's all these cues around us that suggest it's time to eat. In the case of the movie like this, you're sitting down at the movie. It's part of the script. You eat popcorn when you're at a movie. The people around you are eating. So that's another cue to start eating. You've got a big bucket of popcorn on your lap. That's yet another signal to start eating. It's because we're not paying that much attention, you do what comes natural which is, in this case, eat.

REPORTER: Wansink did a study to prove that people will eat popcorn at a movie even if they're full and even if they don't like the popcorn.

WANSINK: So we went to a movie theatre, took people who had just finished eating lunch and gave them popcorn that was 14 days old. It was terrible. It didn't even have a crunch to it. What we found is that if we gave them large popcorn containers versus medium popcorn containers, the typical person ate 35 per cent more popcorn during the movie even though they hated the popcorn.

REPORTER: The size of the package can affect how much people eat. In a study using M & M candies, the researchers discovered people ate twice as many from a big bag as from a smaller bag.

WANSINK: We eat with our eyes.

REPORTER: That means people decide they've eaten enough when the package or the plate or the bowl is empty. And science has proven if the bowl doesn't empty, people just keep on eating.

WANSINK: So we devised these refillable soup bowls where tubes came up in to the soup bowls from underneath the table. Were filled in to a six-quart vat of soup. So as people ate, the soup level would go down a little bit, but imperceptibly it would start rising again. They could eat up to six quarts of soup and would never hit the bottom. What we found is compared to people who ate out of normal bowls, these people ate 63 per cent more soup in just 20 minutes.

REPORTER: Twenty minutes. That's how long it takes for the stomach to tell the brain it's full. Many people eat their entire meal in less than 20 minutes.

WANSINK: What happens is there's a delay in our body's ability to detect how full we are. So the faster we end up eating food, the more we can eat before our body can really register that we've eaten. If you're a very fast eater, it can take up to 20 minutes before your body can tell you how much you've eaten, and in 20 minutes there's an immense number of calories that you can eat.

REPORTER: And the calorie is the key. A calorie is a unit of food energy.

WANSINK: The average person needs in the range of 2,000 calories a day just to maintain weight. If you go 100 calories above that every single day for a year, you've gained 10 pounds at the end of the year.

REPORTER: It's the simple math of calories. The Cornell researchers have calculated that if someone eats just three extra jellybeans a day, they will put on more than a pound in one year. That same person would be over 10 pounds heavier in ten years all because of a few extra jellybeans. Drink just one more can of pop a day, that's 15 pounds at the end of one year. One more large latte? 26 pounds at the end of the year. One extra doughnut a day, 28 pounds at the end of the year. Because it only takes 3,500 calories to make one pound of fat. That's just six large orders of fries. That's eight banana muffins, and it doesn't matter whether you eat them in a day or in a year. If you don't burn it off, it's fat. Trouble is, most people have no idea how much work they have to do. to burn off just one of those muffins you'd have to run for more than half an hour and, to make it worse, most people then reward themselves with even more food.

WANSINK: One thing we find out is typically when people start exercise programs, oddly enough they start gaining weight right away, not losing weight right away. One of the reasons we found this happens is that once a person goes out and, let's say, runs a couple miles, they come back and two things happen. First of all, they estimate they burned a whole lot more calories than they did. The second thing is they come back and they say, man, that was a big workout. I really deserve something. I really deserve to sort of compensate for all that effort i put out. So that 2 miles that they ran ended up being about 200 calories, but in reality what they do to compensate is they end up eating 400 calories worth of food to kind of reward themselves for the 200 calories they burned up running.

REPORTER: The good news is if you reverse all of this, you can lose weight. Eat three fewer jelly beans a day, you lose more than one pound in a year. One less can of pop a day? 15 pounds will vanish at the end of a year. And one less doughnut a day, 28 pounds will disappear in a year.

WANSINK: We gain weight at the rate of two or three pounds a year. That ends up being probably the best way to lose weight is at the rate of 20 or 30 pounds a year because that way we're not going to feel deprived. That way things won't backfire. That way we're not going to mindlessly eat to the point where we say after ten years, man, how did i get this way?

REPORTER: Another trick, if the food is out of sight, it's out of mind.

WANSINK: We did a study with secretaries where we put candies in a candy dish on their desk. They ended up eating twice as much that was on their desk than if it was just six feet away from their desk. Simply moving something a little bit farther away or a little bit out of our sight line or a little bit out of our traffic pattern ends up tremendously decreasing how much we eat.

REPORTER: From Wansink's lab, an unflattering image has emerged of a society of human robots mindlessly munching through life, responding to external cues that have little relationship to hunger or the need for food. The good news is the robot can be reprogrammed to eat less by fooling the eye with smaller plates, smaller spoons, smaller glasses, by eating more slowly, by reducing the number of food choices. In other words, by tricking ourselves in to eating less.
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What do you think.... can you relate to any of the research findings?

PG Bachelorette Photos!

Q: What do you get when you put 15 women in a room with one man named Peter Pecker?

A: 156 pictures worth of laughs to last a lifetime, only 7 of which can actually be shared with my faithful bloggy readers.

This weekend, we headed to the honeymoon capital of Canada to give my good friend KL one last fling before her ring! We did her bachelorette party up in style... out on the sweet little town of Niagara Falls. The day began in Grimbsy... where our sport for the day KL was accessorized with fitting items for a bachelorette. The crown, the veil, all things that she could be identified with in public! It seemed harmless to begin with, but before leaving the driveway, KL's date for the day showed up to escort her around. He was a rather muscular man, who introduced himself as Peter Pecker, and he had just that... a giant one... one that you couldn't miss! He rode with KL to every stop, as she was forced to get out in high traffic areas to do a two man chinese fire drill... just her and Peter Pecker... doing laps all. day. long!

Although I would like to share the complete details of the weekend with you, this is a PG blog (for the most part!), so out of respect for my friendships with my 130-O girls, I thought I would refrain from posting the conversational photos from the weekend on here - sorry to disappoint!

I will say, KL was a good sport, as was Peter Pecker - life of the party, he keep things movin' and a shakin' all. night. long - OKAY, I know... enough!

It was quite the trek home for team Ottawa on Sunday, hungover to the nines, and fighting Niagara/Toronto traffic all the way... but it gave us all plenty of time to piece together the events from Saturday night!

Without further ado... here are the few photos I can share with you from the weekend... once you spot Peter Pecker below, you'll see why there is an embargo on the rest of the photos!

Enjoy... we definitely did!

Spicing up salad

I have been on a bit of a salad kick lately... buying large amounts of lettuce (from Costco), and cutting up veggies, like it's my only profession.

I find that I can add a few different things to spice up my salads, but what really makes them unique is the dressing. A salad can just be a salad, but when you add in the dressing, it becomes a whole new ball game.

The only thing is.... there are sooooooo many dressings to choose from these days, I don't know where to start.

For instances, I have been in love with KRAFT's Sundried Tomato and Oregano for quite sometime, but now the taste feels old, and when I actually eat salad with that dressing, I find it kind of boring and blah. I seem to like to mix my vinaigrette dressing a lot with KRAFT's Three Cheese Ranch (TCR). PC swears by the TCR and Sundried combo... in fact today I tried to trick him with a no-name brand, and he was completely disgusted - he's hardcore about the Sundried.

I seem to enjoy KRAFT's Creamy Poppyseed light. I use to find the regular one a little too sweet and heavy for my liking, but the light version is so much better. I have also fell in love with PC's (President Choice's, not my PC) Sweet Thai dressing ... it's delicious... giving my salad's a whole other sweet/spicy taste. I love it. Not to mention my new romance with KRAFT's Mandarin Orange with Sesame. From time to time I also like to whip a lettuce-less greek salad... and love love love KRAFT's Greek Vinaigrette.

When you add these dressings, and some form of nuts, fruit, peppers, and onions... to a regular ol' bowl of lettuce, life is good, but I have to wonder if there is some secret dressings I am missing out on?

What is your favourite dressing, and what special ingredients do you put in your salad to spice it up?

If you haven't already guessed, this my attempt to nonchalantly get you share some salad recipes with me!

***NOTE*** Birthday wishes go out to Clapper, as in Erica D. Clapp, of the McMac-Clapp family. We celebrated her big day over the weekend, but couldn't let the actual day go unnoticed. As well Mrs. Alexis Riordan is celebrating her special day today too! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADIES.

Calling all farmers!

Please, enlighten me?

How does this happen? Every year around this time the corn fields become extremely prevalent on my drive to and from home. Honestly... back in May, I think the farming community plants their fields, and by June I start to notice a bit of height, and then I don't really pay much attention until August, when I feel like a horse, with blinders on, while driving down the back roads lined with corn stalks, for miles and miles.

This is not a dig at farmers, but I really have to wonder, what in the world do they do with all of the corn they grow?

I have been told that they use it for feed, but has anyone ever stopped to think about how many cobs of corn they get out of one field? It must be in the hundreds of thousands... well beyond the limits that any one cow can tolerate for the duration of his life span. Now... I am no cow (move along people, no joke here)... but cows have got to get sick n' tired being feed corn all. the. time.

And... what about the corn that stays in the ground well beyond prime corn growing season. I am talking about the stalks that turn brown and are subjected to the frost in November. They become wilted and gross looking - in my opinion, rotten... surely, cows aren't forced to eat the rotten corn?

I mean don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of corn on the cob, in fact I picked up a dozen cobs last night for dinner, but, the most we eat in one summer sitting is two to three dozen cobs. And I come to find out (recently), that the sweet corn that humans eat, is not the same type of corn used for feeding. Sweet corn is apparently too good for the animal community!

It's a confusing little topic... and I would really appreciate a farmer, or two - or someone with more knowledge than myself, to weigh in on this topic. Please explain the whole corn growing industry to me, would ya?

Large double double... Charge it!

I am somewhat shocked to see that Tim Horton's is now accepting MasterCard. They have gone right over debit and straight onto the ol' charge card. I have been lobbying for this change for almost a decade, and yet now that it's here, I don't think I will be using it.

The way it works is... if you make a purchase under $10 (which many of us do), you don't have to sign your signature, you can have your MasterCard's swiped or your pay pass scanned and stroll out with your double double, no questions asked! It's quicker than counting out your change, or waiting for the cashier to figure out the correct change. The idea is good... but I have two problems:

1. I don't have a MasterCard. I am a VISA girl, TD VISA to be exact. I use to have a MasterCard, but then canned it, as I thought who needs two charge cards... I like all my debt to be in one place, like an anchor... dragging along behind me to every. single. store. I visit.

2. I have stopped frequenting Tim Horton's on a daily basis.

(***GASP! A silence falls over the crowd***)


I know, I know... you can hardly believe this... but it's the honest truth. Since PC has been working back in the office, he is on a coffee kick. I always hated brewing a pot of coffee just for myself, but since he will take a cup now, it seems worth the effort to make coffee every morning. Although we brew Tim Horton's coffee at home, it's not the same as visiting an actual Tim Horton's, but making coffee at home has decreased the number of visits I make to Tim's in a week.

If this MasterCard pay pass business had been introduced when I was making daily trips to Tim's, back in the horrendous days of my French training, I think I would have ran naked down Rideau street over the whole thing. I can remember various occasions when I was short on change, and was desperate to scrounge up enough dimes and nickels to get my large coffee, half hot chocolate. I would literally consider asking for a quarter from a stranger, if it meant the difference between having a coffee in hand to go to French class, or walking in empty handed, on time, and grumpy! The pay pass would be the answer to all my prayers... but somehow, I am through that phase of my life.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy to see that Tim Horton's has evolved from it's CASH ONLY means of payment... but this change is long over due, and frankly I am little perturbed that it's taken this long to get beyond the borders of a single payment form.

Has anyone used their MasterCard at Tim Horton's? Are you happy to see that Tim's accepts a charge card for coffee and donuts?

Rapid Bridge Replacement

Talk on Ottawa radio and television today, is centered around some construction taking place in the Nation's capital this weekend. The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) is replacing a bridge on the 417 Queensway, and is attempting to use state of the art technology to complete this task in only 15 hours.

FIFTEEN HOURS, ten plus five, under two working days merged together... can you believe it?

Apparently this type of bridge replacement is the first of it's kind in Canada. According to various news sources, the actual replacement bridge is being built off-site and... starting tomorrow at 8:00 pm, the 417 East and West will be shutdown, the old bridge will be cut out, the new bridge will be dropped into it's hole, secured into place... all before 12 noon on Sunday.

Unbelievable!

The project management team, Mammoet, will use heavy lift rapid replacement technology to do the work. This piece of technology will allow work, that would normally required two years, to be completed in under 2 regular working days.

Perhaps this is not as exciting to you, but being the daughter of a man who oversaw road and bridge work for the majority of his career, I am rather intrigued with the entire process.

I am pretty sure when Timbo gets the low-down on this, he'll probably need a stiff drink! Seriously... if technology of this kind was available and affordable 25 years ago, my Dad may have been available to attend a few more of my baseball games and figure skating lessons!! AND, had this technology been used in Northern Ontario, we might not have had to take our summer vacations in places like Wawa, Hornepayne, or Marathon!!!

On the other hand, we might also have been in the poor house, as it appears that technology like this is eliminating the need for human resources, and if his pay cheque was only worth 2 days of work, instead of 2 years... I am pretty sure I wouldn't have been wearing Beaver Canoe jogging suits and Nike Air's the majority of my young life!

The cool thing about the whole project, is that the MTO has setup a webcam so that interested parties can view the bridge replacement project from the comfort of their own home. They have even setup bleachers in the Island Park area as they are expecting thousands of nosey citizens to be live on the scene to watch the all of the action.

I personally won't be vying for a seat on bleacher's, but I will probably check out the webcam a few times just to see if this project really goes off without a hitch! The interesting part will be if something does go wrong, the 417 is the major road artery for all of Ottawa, so... if the project takes longer than expected, head's will roll somewhere, as this road closure will create numerous headaches if the project carries over to Monday morning.

Here's hoping all goes smoothly for everyone invovled. I guess we will have to wait and see how it all unfolds....

Ba-da-ba-ba-baaaaaaaaaaa... I'm lovin it!

Every morning I start my day by reading media clippings. When I worked in income tax, this wasn't too exciting, because journalists were highly consumed with the stories about how the CRA ripped the rug out from under some low-income family, while letting a member of high society get away with tax murder (not always truthful, but nonetheless... the media loved these stories). It was pretty standard... and at times boring from a communication's lens. However, since arriving in the health field, the media clips are far more interesting, and I always seem to be amazed at the research and studies that are done in this field.


Yesterday's clippings included the headline 'Wee ones' taste buds easily fooled by McPackaging'. The article reports on a study done by a Standford University researcher, who studied the choices of 63 low-income children, ranging in ages from 3 to 5.

As the article stated 'The study included three McDonald's menu items - hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries - and store-bought milk or juice and carrots. Children got two identical samples of each food on a tray, one in McDonald's wrappers or cups and the other in plain, unmarked packaging. The kids were asked if they tasted the same or if one was better.

McDonald's-labelled samples were the clear favourites. French fries were the biggest winner; almost 77 per cent said the labelled fries tasted best, while only 13 per cent preferred the others.

Fifty-four per cent preferred McDonald's-wrapped carrots versus 23 per cent who liked the plain-wrapped sample.'

As a child development specialist stated 'you see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating'.

I can't say I find this research surprising... I myself had a craving for McDonald's on the weekend only after seeing a McDonald's bag on the side of the road on a late night drive home. My headlights flashed by it, and all of sudden I was on the back roads to Casselman to get me some Chicken McNuggets. Brutal, I tell you.

However, I do have to commend Mickey D's for their advertising campaigns in recent years. If kids or adults are salivating at the simple spotting of the golden arches, then the fast-food chain must be ecstatic.

For me, the entire "Ba-da-ba-ba-baaaaaaaaaaa... I'm lovin' it" jingle is one of my favourites. They have managed to incorporate it into all of their marketing attempts, and the entire campaign is something that has definitely instilled product/brand recall within me. I loved that they kicked it off a few year's back with Justin Timberlake singing the jingle, and now it has carried over into the instrumental version... as most people know the words, just by hearing the music. It's down right genius.

Getting back to the study... the article I read in my clippings goes onto talk about how advertising targeting children needs to be limited because children are unaware of the persuasive intent of marketing. To some extent this is true, but in my opinion, parents become a huge factor in controlling how effective marketing targeted towards children can be.

Not being a parent (yet), I don't know how realistic my views are, but I would like to think that parents can decide (in the case of McDonald's) when their children can eat there, what to have while they are there, how often they go there, etc. I know as a child I liked going to McDonald's, but it wasn't something that my parents let me do every time I mentioned it. I think they probably had to argue with me a few times, and put up with a few tantrums every time we drove by the Golden Arches and didn't stop (as McD's was strategically located on the only road exiting Sault Ste. Marie, so we were forced to drive by it), but the point being, my parents were the ones who decided when I could or could not have McDonald's - as a child I had no choice in the matter.

I also don't think that McDonald's has really done anything wrong in their marketing. In fact, in the marketing and communication's world, I would expect this fast-food chain is on a bit of pedestal for the success of their I'm lovin' it campaign.

I find all of this very interesting, but what do you think? Are you surprised that children thought carrots in McDonald's packaging tasted better than non-branded carrots? What do you think about McDonald's marketing in general? Do you think the results of this study is something we should be worried about?

Wrapping up New Hampshire!

Alright... the trip is almost complete! You will be thrilled to know that I won't bore you with any more day-by-day details of the rest of our trip. I frankly believe I was tired of taking pictures from Boston, so we didn't take too many more the rest of the week. I had meant to take a few of our resort, but every time I thought of it, it was night time.

Anyways... here's a brief summary of the final few days:

Tuesday coming back from Boston, we just stayed at the resort, and took advantage of the pools, and the hot weather. PC had a hard time just laying in the sun, so we decided to head into town that evening and hit the adventurous 18 hole mini putt golf course. It was quite the adventure, I managed to get 3 hole-in-ones.... but still couldn't beat the consistent 2 to 3 putt of PC on each hole. He destroyed me in the later holes of the game, which allowed him to claim the victory.

Wednesday, we hit the real links. A quiet little 18-hole course tucked in the middle of the mountains. This is where today's pictures were taken. I don't think the camera does the scenery justice - the mountains were huge, and absolutely beautiful. It was a hot hot day, but we had a riding cart, and the small river and streams that outlined most of the course provided some air. I was little apprehensive about golfing 18 holes... but the day couldn't have been better. PC and I actually had a good time, just taking our time around the course, and giving each other a mulligan (or two or three or four in my case)! I actually discovered that I would like to golf a little more (but of course haven't since we were on our vacation). PC ended up beating me by about 30 strokes.... but it was still a good round for both of us.

Wednesday evening we hit the local pizza joint for some slices, and then took in a movie (I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry) at the little theatre in town of Lincoln. This little theatre operates thanks to one lady... this would be the same lady that sold us our tickets, also scooped our popcorn, and then took our tickets at the theatre door - it was hilarious, but a well-run operation.

Thursday, we were off to the outlets, and we put in a full day there... shopping our little hearts out. We stocked up on quite a few items that we both needed, and of course a few things we didn't need, but thought were necessary to buy anyways. We did so much shopping, that when we got home we were able to purge 2 garbage bags full of clothes, and another 2 bags full of shoes (it was so rewarding to clean our closest, and the refill it with our newly purchased items - good times!).

Friday was spent back at the resort... another pool day! We actually ended up swimming at teh pool until close... it was so in the mountains... the moon provided an outline of the landscape, which was absolutely gorgeous.

Saturday was check-out day, so we spent Friday night packing up the car in the cool mountain air, and then on Saturday we were able to pull-out on time. Of course, we couldn't very well leave the US of A without making a pit stop at a TJ Max's (for those you who don't know this chain, it's the equivalent of Winner's in Canada). PC was in heaven, spent almost 2 hours in the store going over everything! We finally made our way across the border at Stanstead, and were given a small car search from our friends at CBSA. However, the custom's agent couldn't be bothered to go through all of the items in our over-loaded trunk, so she sent us on our merry way, without so much as a second glance!

We arrived home after supper on Saturday night, a bit tired, but nonetheless overly satisfied with our trip. We got to see the sights, shop, and relax - so it was very enjoyable, something we would do again without a doubt.

Special thanks to Mom & Dad C for giving us a week of their vacation plan to enjoy New Hampshire... greatly appreciated, and it was put to good use! THANKS!

So... this post wraps up our vacation. Here are the last of the of pics from the golf course. I am hoping to get back to some regular blogging for the rest of the week ... you know more bitchin', opinions, and regular Coleman nonsense!

Cheers.

Boston Part III

The final leg of our Boston trip.... we got up on the Monday morning, with some fog & mist in the air. It was overcast, but it did not deter us from more sight-seeing.

We checked out of our hotel, but were able to leave the car there for the day, so we set out on foot and using the T, to get around the city.

First stop was for breakfast. The previous day we wandered into a place called Buerger's. It looked like good little sandwich shop. PC fell in love with a breakfast sandwich there... he said he would eat it everyday if he lived in Boston. So... the next morning he wanted to return to the same place (which we did), but I had my eye a little place down the street called Finagel a Bagel. We compromised... he had his Buerger's special (because he didn't want to have regrets if Finagel a Bagel wasn't good), but agreed to accompany me to my bagel shop.

Arriving at Finagel a Bagel, I experienced the BEST breakfast sandwich ever. They had every kind of bagel you could imagine, and you could basically ask them to make any concoction you wanted. I opted for the French Toast Bagel (tasted exactly like it), with egg n' cheese on it. Sweet and salty all in the same bite.

OMG... It was sooooooooooo good. The coolest thing about the place, was that when you selected your bagel they dropped it down on this conveyor belt that had a saw blade going at mach 10 speed... it sliced your bagel in half in the blink of an eye, and whipped it down to the toaster guy - HOW COOL IS THAT? (see photo below of the saw).

Anyways... after I got over the sheer joy of breakfast, we hopped on the T and headed out to Harvard University. The T goes underground through the middle of the city, but then is above ground when it gets outside of the downtown core. We crossed the Charles River, above ground, and the view was absolutely beautiful.

PC and I were both interested in seeing Harvard. It seems we have seen so many movies that were shot there, and it's a bit of a historic landmark for Boston, and of course, the educational world! We got to touch the famous golden shoe on the statue of John Harvard himself, and since then we've felt pretty darn lucky!

We spent some time in the Harvard Bookstore, known as The Coop. We bought a few souvenirs, and then just toured around the campus a bit. I was highly impressed with the school and their love of tourists. As soon as we exited at the T stop, there were Harvard reps right in front of us, asking us if they could help us get around. We got pointed in the right direction, and were able to maximize our time there. It was great.

As early afternoon approached, we jumped on the T, and headed back to Faneuil Hall for lunch, and into parts of the Boston Harbour, which is beautiful. I love that Boston is so accessible to the water, it's gorgeous! We walked around Christopher Columbus park, and just took in the scenery for most of the afternoon.

As the day progressed, we decided we should make one final stop at Fenway Park (again), just to see it without all of the crowds. We hopped back on the T, got off at Fenway, and took some time to see the history in and around the park. That was our final stop for the day, before walking back to the hotel to get the car.

It was nearing 5 o'clock when we decided to hit the road, which was right in the middle of rush hour, but we managed fine (my directions to the driver were the bomb this time around). We got stuck sitting on the Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill bridge for about 10-15 minutes... for me, it was scary and beautiful all at the same time, but it gave us a chance to see the last of the city, from an interesting perspective.

By 6, we were outside of Boston, and crossing back into New Hampshire: Live Free or Die!

The day couldn't be concluded without a short stop at some outlets in Tilton, NH, that we had noticed on our way down. We were able to drop a few dollars at several stores, and capped off the night with a late dinner at Applebee's: shake n' bake baby!

When we finally arrived back to our resort, we were exhausted, however, we enjoyed every moment of the trip into Boston.... it's a nice city, that feels very safe, and has friendly people that make you feel right at home when you are there.

Here are a few pics from our final day in Boston... enjoy.

Next post: the rest of our week in New Hampshire... stay tuned (probably won't be until next week though, as we are taking in the 60th Highland Games this weekend in Maxville. Hope all the faithful readers headin' to the Th-dot for Community Weekend, have a great time... I will be there in spirit!).

The T

Finagel a Bagel Slicing Production

Arriving at Harvard

PC's initial thought: See Mom, I am smart... I went to Harvard!

Me in front of Harvard Hall

The Coop

PC & I touching the golden shoe of John Harvard

Everyone needs a Harvard Shirt... and a puck and a golf ball, and a...

PC in front of Samuel Adams Square...

PC at Long Wharf

A little fog...

As PC said: There's your uncle... let's get a picture!

A little stop at Cheers... where everyone knows your name.

Norm & I at Cheers!

Street parking is always maximized in Boston!
Leaving Boston, sitting on the Leonard Zakim Hill Bridge

Boston Part II

Okay.... where did I leave off... yes, right, the game at Fenway had finished up, and although that should have been enough excitement for the day, we decided to venture on, and take on Copley Square, the Prudential Centre, and Faneuil Hall.

It was a beautiful hot day in Boston, and I am so glad PC wanted to truck on, because we were able to cover a lot of ground in the time frame we had.

Fenway Park is centrally located (in my opinion) to many touristy things. Copley Square (which I pronounce Cope-lee, but the Americans say 'oh you mean Cop-lay Square') was very nice. If I was living in Boston, it would be a place I would come to hang out, just a nice space within the busy downtown core.

We went into the mall at Copley, which was very high end, and since it didn't scream DEALS, PC 'nor I could be bothered to waste valuable time looking at expensive items we had no intention of buying. However, while in there, we did come across an entrance into the Prudential Centre and I immediately wanted to do the Skyline tour I had heard about - and it didn't disappoint. We travelled to the 50th floor, paid a small admission fee, and saw everything there was to see. Given that it was such a bright clear day, we could see the entire city, and miles beyond. Boston, as I've probably said five hundred times already, really is a beautiful place.

Today's pictures are mainly from our experience there... in person everything was breathtaking.

After leaving the Prudential Centre, we hopped on the T (the subway), and headed down to Faneuil Hall for some supper. When we arrived at the T stop for Faneuil, we exited out at Boston's City Hall/Government Centre, which happened to be hosting Boston's annual free gospel concert. Were talking 5,000 black christens singing their little hearts out - Hallelujah, praise the Lord style! It was quite the scene, but they were very helpful and pointed us in the right direction of Faneuil Hall.

This place is famous, because it's one long, large hall with every kind of food you can imagine - all you have to do is make a small decision on what to have, and your all set. The only problem is, IT'S SO HARD TO DECIDE. I suck at making quick decisions, so I could linger on my choices for hours - but given that we got there a bit later in the evening, things were shutting down, so that made our choices a little easier. PC was all about trying the some Boston chowder, or as they say in Boston - Chowda! He had his heart set on it, so he got that, and I had some chicken and ribs. We decided it was worth a second trip, so we vowed to return the next day, and we did, just in time for lunch, where I had sushi, and PC had a lobster roll, and more Chowda.

We walked around a bit more in that area, known as Quincy Market. It was much like the Byward Market in Ottawa, buskers doing their shows, and small vendors selling cute little things. As the sunlight faded, when got back on the T, and made our way to our hotel room, to cap off an very adventurous day.

Here are some pics for this part of our trip... stayed tuned for Boston Part III, tomorrow!

Copley Square from above.

Charles River that runs through Boston.

Fort Point Channel and beyond.

Boston Financial District & The Boston Common (greenspace) Fenway for a distance.
I loved the housing in Boston... it was so neat looking; however, we did not see any single independent dwelling homes ANYWHERE in Boston... everything was attached townhouse style. PC loved the pool on the roof of these 4 story houses...
Inside Faneuil Hall... This is the sign I wanted to buy for our house...

And here is the one PC wanted to get....

Me... checkin out the map to get back to our hotel for the night!