Go Boston Card

As I was researching the things I wanted to do in Boston, I came across this Go Boston Card from Smart Destinations. A lot of the things I wanted to see or do in Boston were free or had a minimal fee, like the Freedom Trail and Paul Revere’s house, but then other things, like the Duck Boat Tours, had real admission fees. All in all, I figured things would add up, so I started looking around for deals. :)

I considered trying to buy Groupons (I found a couple for the Duck Tours and a guided Freedom Trail tour) but since Groupons come out sporadically, I missed some, and you have to read the fine print about when they’re valid, etc, because once you buy them, you’re stuck. So I wasn’t sure if Groupons were the right thing for this trip.

Somehow in my Googling, I stumbled upon the Go Boston Card. I’m often pretty skeptical of these “deal” cards, wondering if  I’ll really get my money’s worth and whatnot, but there were so many attractions listed on it, along with a guide to the attractions. I saw it was also sold on Costco.com which was a point in its favor (as not being some kind of scam, that is!) :)

As I was deciding whether or not to buy the card, I looked around for reviews…so I thought I’d post my own here. A little giving back to the internet community.

I loved all the options of attractions on the card, and I really wanted to make this a sightseeing trip.  We didn’t end up doing/seeing quite all I wanted to on the card, mostly because places are only open from 9-5ish and there’s only so much you can do in that time, and eat lunch, and travel from point a to point b; but I’m so happy with the flexibility it gave us.  We always had ideas for what to do next, and we could decide to do something different if we wanted.  We took a Boston Harbor cruise and rented bikes for a day: two of our favorite things that we wouldn’t have done without the card.

I ended up buying us each a 3-day pass with a bonus attraction. I’ve noticed there are different sale prices all the time, but I paid about $100 each for our cards, so $200 total.

Here are the things we did with the card:

We got a discount at the Green Dragon Tavern. ($8)

We got free glassware on the Sam Adams tour. ($16)

We rented bikes for the day and got admission into Paul Revere’s house. ($64 + $7)

We took a Boston Harbor Cruise to the USS Constitution. ($39)

We took a Duck Boat Tour!!! ($66)

We took the Fenway Park tour. ($32)

We visited the Old State House museum and Boston Massacre site, complete with tours. ($15)

All of which totaled about $247! So we got our money’s worth for sure. Having the card inspired us to do just a little more than we might have if we didn’t have it and felt like being lazy. You know, we would say to ourselves, “Let’s just go to the Old State House. There’s time and it’s on the card!” So that was a sightseeing bonus in itself!

There are lots of other tours and museums included on the card, so I think if we ever go back to Boston, I’d really consider getting the card again!

Do you buy into these deal-cards when you travel?

Whew!

What a busy couple of weeks! We’ve begun taking down our fence (that used to enclose the “dog-yard” but has been rendered pretty useless by Grounder anyway) and we just got back from a road trip to Harrisburg (PA, for those of you who don’t know your state capitals) :) for a  friend’s wedding!  Couple all that with general lack of sleep and busy days for both of us at work, and you’ll find someone who’s behind on her blog!

Here’s a little photo summary of what’s been happening over here:

Taking down our fence!

Pennsylvania’s State Capitol, Harrisburg

Happy Wedding, Pat and Tara! Good thing you have such normal friends! :)

So, I do have more to share about Boston, this fence project, and other stuff of course! Stay tuned and I will keep chatting at you! :)

Boston!

The day after Labor Day, Brandon and I headed to Boston for a little trip to celebrate my 30th birthday. Brandon’s been there for work several times, but I’d never been and I wanted to get in on the action! Paul Revere, This Old House, fresh seafood! Boston just seemed like the place I needed to see.

I’ve got a few things to post about our trip, so to start, here were some of the highlights. :)

We rented bikes one day and took this picture on a bench in Boston Common, the oldest park in the US.  Since we live so close to Chicago, and my last city trip was to NYC, I loved that Boston was busy, but not-so-crowded, smaller, and bike friendly! It made for great touring.

We went to the Boston Public Library, the first publicly funded library in the US, where I was pretty excited to find a real, working card catalog.  I was and am absolutely in love with Boston’s history!  The Midwest is comparatively new, so as a history-buff, I adored everything that was “America’s first…” or “America’s oldest…”

We stayed near the Craigie Bridge on Monsignor O’Brien Highway, which opens and closes, and whose control panel Brandon helped build and start-up. He’s pointing at the part that opens :) and standing in front of the control tower where the panel is operated. He pretty much hated that I was taking this picture, but he played nice and smiled. :)

I was pretty excited to take a Duck Boat tour!! Brandon had talked about them when he was working on the Craigie Bridge (the Duck Boats are amphibious and go underneath it!), then I saw them featured on This Old House. I love an informative and historical tour, so I was sold.

To commemorate the trip, I made a photo book on Shutterfly with a coupon code I got from TravelZoo for a free book! (I am signed up for a LOT of email lists…and I never unsubscribe from them because of little gems like that one that come along occasionally! I am an email hoarder!) Even without that coupon code, though, Shutterfly is always running specials on photo books. They’re great quality and a great way to remember an occasion, a year, or special people in your life.

(I wasn’t paid for that endorsement! I just love these books for capturing memories. I put a lot of work into them, but for me, it still is easier than traditional scrapbooking.)

All in all, we had a pretty good time on our Boston trip. :)

Have you been on a fun trip lately?

Fall and Flowers

Fall is in the air!

I know we’ve got a few days left of summer, but the weather is changing, we’re battling our yearly mouse-in-the-house, and I’m sipping pumpkin spice coffee as I type. :)

Our lawn hasn’t been mowed in who-knows-how-long since our mower broke. I’ll hopefully get to that soon, because I know our neighbors must hate us. :)

And even though the leaves are starting to change (or in the case of one of our cottonwoods, fall), I’ve still got some pretty wildflowers bringing new color to our un-mowed yard! And if I remember correctly from last year, I should have pretty colors for a while longer.

How’s your yard looking?

(Check out these pictures bigger on flickr!)

Aerogarden Update #12: Biggest Basil Ever

Boy oh boy! After 9 months, my basil is looking amazing!!  I can barely believe that the plant has lasted this long, as well as looking better than ever. This big ol’ basil beauty is the original one I planted in January!

The leaves are just huge, dark green, and begging to be cooked into something delicious. This is much more like what basil looks like at the store. I’ve been doing something right! I suspect I need to give the bowl a more thorough cleaning more often! (Read about my basil trials and tribulations here.)

Here’s what the whole garden is currently looking like:

The cilantro is tall but droopy…but I’m just gonna hang in there with it as long as it hangs in there with me.

The little basil is growing like a champ.  After trimming off some of the big basil to use, I turned the big plant to allow more light to hit the cilantro and baby basil. Hopefully that will help them out a bit.

And lastly, here are some leaves I cut off before I took the pictures of the whole plant/garden. They’re huge! They and some more big ol’ basil clippings went right into some yummy turkey meatloaf. It was so much more delicious with fresh basil instead of dried!

Who would have thought that basil would be so exciting?

Here’s to you, Grandma.

On Monday, Brian’s Grandma left us for the great TV-watchin’ couch in the sky.

She was an amazing woman, a true matriarch. We’ll miss her dearly.

Today, we’ll be saying our last goodbyes to her.

Here’s to you, Grandma.

Grandma - A Lion of a Lady
by Krysten Fane

A pot spoon, a loud TV, a tom cat, or TC.

A doll house, a rotary phone, family photos abound.

A stack of newspapers, a TV guide, a cigarette

Curtains closed till noon.

A set of dice, a strong mind, a witty comment soon.

A sense of humor, a sense of style, a set of clip on earrings,

A next door neighbor, a grocery list, a love of back-seat-only driving.

A family dinner on Sunday, a John Collins, an RC soda,

DQ pints, fried chicken and her secret potato salad.

Nothing ever wasted, nothing taken for granted. 

Loyal, kind and caring, 

Stubborn, strict and fair,

Your presence felt forever.

Edna Fane was here.

Sewing Room Organization Part #1: Shelves

So this will be part 1 of a very long long process of really putting my sewing room together in a functional and organized way. Every sewer or crafter knows just how easily their craft room turns into a tornado zone! I know you all have paths through the messes like I do. :)

I’m starting my process with some shelving for the bins upon bins upon bins of fabric that I have. :) These shelves aren’t adorably styled or anything, but they are functional and the bins are labeled. That makes for a happy me. :)

I don’t have real before pictures of what this section used to look like, but here’s what most of the sewing room looks like (this isn’t even the worst corner really, believe it or not!).

To make the shelves, I started with some pre-made shelving uprights from Menards and 1”x12”x8’ pine boards, two per shelf.

I put the unit together temporarily (with just a few screws) outside for painting. Grandpa helped me with all this, so even though it was hot and muggy, it wasn’t too bad.

I painted the unit with some old oil-based paint we found in the basement (with a pretty cool label, and like many oil-based paints, it mixed up like new! I don’t know if it had ever been opened, really) in, you guessed it, Grandpa’s trusty Wagner Wide Shot Power Painter. What would I do without that thing?

I was very happy that just a nice, thick coat was all I needed. (Granted, I knew this shelf would be housing large plastic bins in the basement, so I wasn’t being too picky.)

Then, I somehow man-handled all the individual pieces into the basement by myself and installed it there. It’s held together mostly by itself (as the shelves screw into the uprights, they sturdy the whole unit up and keep it pretty plumb and level…though I helped it along of course!) but I did put a couple of concrete screws in it, too, to hold it to the wall and stop it from tipping. I think I used 1 or 2 concrete screws straight through the uprights and a concrete screw in an L bracket somewhere else. Just those 2 or 3 screws into the wall make a huge difference!

Once everything was secured together, I filled them up!

I have some more plans for shelves like this elsewhere, some plans for shelves on wheels, and I’ll hopefully come up with some other fabric and notions storage solutions along the way as well. I will keep you updated in this long process, which I’m sure will be very drawn out. :)

What have you been building lately?