Double Eyes

Ma and Pa Isaacson came to visit! We were treated with family in town for another 7 days. We enjoyed lots of Starbucks, Tchiakovsky at the symphony, yummy dinners, a visit to the farm where we've been getting our summer produce, a Fall/winter Foliage trip and visit to see Dinah in Vermont, whoopee pies and cider donuts, and plenty of in-town Boston fun. Check out a few pic updates in the October slideshow, and these:

The corn maze at Farmer Dave's

I'm in there somewhere! Click to make it bigger!

Driving through start of snow to Vermont

Brattleboro cemetery by Dinah's house

Dinah! The birthday girl yesterday too.

The Church

Dinah's running grounds!

Back in Boston along the Charles

A rainbow of color across the street from our apartment

Fall has nearly come and gone here! I will try to get glorious pics of the river treeline I saw on Saturday, if it's not gone by Wednesday when I have a little time to go there. Soon winter will be upon us, as it is in many other homes across the country. (I'm all ready with my new down birthday jacket!) A nice Fall to end on. Thanks for visiting Isaacsons, we loved seeing you! We should be visitor-free for awhile now, but anyone can interrupt that whenever they wish. Happy wintering!

DC

Right after Kate and Jesse left, we hopped on a plane to visit our UPS friend Erik in DC. Plus this was Tim's first time and it was a whirlwind of blastness! I think we did everything but Arlington in the end, at least in part. Sat and Sun we spent on the Mall going through all the museums and seeing the famous sites. Thumbs up on the National Gallery and the Lincoln Memorial.

Can't get enough of VIA on the go....(or a little promo), who's on top, DUNKIN???

some Supremity

crazy art made all out of Red Bull cans (NOT COOL, DON'T DRINK THIS STUFF!) at Union Station

Some Rothko for Tom Llewellyn

Stradivarius for Steph

There was also a cool exhibit of a college solar power house competition. Our favorites were from CA and MN.

I think this one won for its ugly factor. Looks like a fridge, but who knows how efficient it is!

Also liked the botanical gardens (as always).

Look Tom, bleeding hearts.

Generally cool foliageness

Erik took us through some cool side neighborhoods near his apartment as well.

The famous chili dog bear

creeeepy dolls in an antique store

Monday we ended with the National Cathedral, Georgetown, and what felt like the first day of winter. It's been BRRRR on the East Coast ever since Columbus Day.

Now we're enjoying the first parental visitors (and I'm fighting a cold) and hope to have more weekend fall foliage adventure pics and stories soon. Happy Fall!

Marble Heads

Kate and Jesse came to visit! We had a blast romping around the Northeast, from apple-picking in NH to Maine coast to Marblehead, MA (arrived in the dark, but I heard it's a gorgeous coastal MA town!). We experienced driving in Boston in its true form - boo form. No wonder we don't have a car here! "It no easy, honey" as our landlord would say. We had some good food and adventures. Thanks for making it out, guys! We'll never tire of the Freedom Trail as long as we get North End cannoli's! Check out more pics in the slideshow.

New Song Posted

Hey friends, we just put up a new tune on our music site. You can get there by clicking on the "listen to our music" tab to the right, or by going to www.myspace.com/theeyesinboston. Happy listening.

Double Triple Notch

Last weekend we made it back to our second annual Triple Notch hike. This is an area called Franconia Notch in the White Mountains of mid New Hampshire. There are three peaks - Lincoln, some other L name, and Lafayette - that complete a ridge loop trail. There's even an Appalachian Trail cabin along the way where you can pay $80 for a bunk and hot dinner and breakfast if you are on a long adventure.

Last year we went two weeks later, and there was snow and ice on the top and colors all over the whole region. This time it was warm and green. And both Tim and I think the 10 mile trek felt a bit easier this time as opposed to near muscle torture the first time. We knew what was coming.




Our friends Michelle, Kathryn and Amy came with us. The three hour journey there and four hours back was a little rough, but it was all worth it. Bye Franconia! We won't be here next Fall to enjoy your splendor.

ONE YEAR

We've been in Boston for one fabulous year! We've had our lonely moments, but we have had some awesome adventures and praises (and more to come):

• Hiking Franconia Notch (and Abby camping in New Hampshire, Maine) = Fall awesomeness
• First visit to Cape Cod
• (Joanie and Josh's wedding!!!!)
  
• First Red Sox game (against Yankees!)
• First visit to NYC
• Thanksgiving feast with the Campbell friends in NJ
• Noah and Anna's winter wedding in Iowa
  
• Christmas in Boston, then New Years in Naples!
• Abby getting a full-time job at BU!
• Visit to CO for Becka's graduation from CU Boulder
• Lake Winnepesaukee
• Kayaking in midcoastal Maine
  
• Montreal
• Camping in the Berkshires
  
• Billions of awesome visitors

And of course it was about time to celebrate by going back to Tacoma to visit our dear friends and family. The first five days were super relaxing:

The Isaacson fam resumed its card-gaming traditions and stories for a night

and of course we had to visit hangout with Miles (and Steph)

and resume Sunday (or Monday) night dinner gang fun (don't worry, nothing violent. Elisa and Andy, we missed you!)

and have way too much fun with old kiddos: Lincoln is all words and lots of smiles

Owen's not too sure about sharing his toys but he does like fort-style peek-a-boo.

and I met a new member: Lincoln's little sis, Adahlia!

The next five were more demanding but just as rewarding: REACH Camp 2010. Tim and I lead the Young Adult times for about 30 campers. It was good to be back. We didn't get much sleep, hence perhaps why we both came back with the flu, but it was a great NW homecoming nonetheless. Just a few more years before it's ours again...God knows. Thanks to everyone who made it great and loves us from afar!

Right before we left for Tacoma, I spent a couple days with Dinah and her mom as Dinah is moving into VT for grad school. We went to Rhode Island but it was during hurricane Danny remnant so a little wet and windy:

We were safe in the end. It will be nice to have a good friend living so close for our last year.

Peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches (and the Berkshires)

The fun keeps coming. The Broweleits are in town for Katie's sister's wedding, and we got a little bit of hang out time last week, looking forward to one more night this week. I met the fam at the New England Aquarium, and we ate imaginary peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches with the kids in the jellyfish exhibit. We saw a giant sea turtle that was awesome.

Then Tim and I headed out in our Scion zipcar to camp in the Berkshire mountains of Western Mass. Four hours later, we arrived in the dark:) Traffic wasn't the greatest but we made it. Luckily it didn't start pouring until we were already sleeping inside the tent (meanwhile it was nice and sunny in Boston...) and it didn't stop raining at all! Actually that's not true, Saturday it stopped for about 3 hours just in time for us to go hiking.

North Adams, MA

Saturday morning in our tent playing Scrabble, we were waiting for the rain to stop to go hiking. We decided it may never, so we got in the car and drove to the Greylock Community Club in North Adams where we could park. We had to sign in, so we walked in, and it was like a movie: A dark bar (this was before noon) filled with people drinking beer all turned their heads toward us obvious out-of-towners at once, and stared. It was funny. So we meandered across the railroad tracks toward where we were told the AT (Appalachian Trail) picked up north toward Vermont. But we were just walking on a sidewalk along the road following the signs and could tell we were lost.

Perfect for Abby and Tim to go hiking on the AT!!! It was meant to be!

The start of the trail

Several people figured out the same thing and finally someone came out of a house, which was having a 'Tag Sale" (yard sale), and directed us up through someone's yard to the trail. We never would have found it! And that's when it stopped raining. About a mile in, the sun came out. It ended up being a nice smooth hike.

already changing...

We cut it short though with the hopes of the weather holding out and our being able to return to the campsite to swim at the lake. Turns out the beach was closed and under construction - probably the reason this campsite still had room to make a reservation last week, unlike almost every other one which was booked! Oh well. We wandered around a trail that led us to a clearing on the lake, which was covered in lillypads and would have been hard to swim in anyway. We enjoyed resting and reading there until the clouds rolled in again. They never left.

We ended up going into town for dinner since it was pouring so hard! We got more games of Scrabble in and tested the waterproof nature of our tent. All was well in the end - good down time, time to escape from worklife in the city - our first NE camping experience! Hopefully there are more to come.

view of MA/VT from the Mohawk Trail

Next stop, Rhode Island with Dinah on Friday before flying to Tacoma on Sunday!!