Viva the Revolution

The last thing I wanted to do while I was at home was to finally see the New England Revolution play at Gillette Stadium. I’ve been following the team since the last couple years of Steve Nicol’s tenure, when they were signing old European players, playing bunker ball, and generally playing their way out of the playoffs. I followed the team as they hired Jay Heaps, signed a bunch of players in the Superdraft, picked up MLS rejects, and played their way into the MLS cup final in 2014. Then I watched as they failed to make it to the playoffs last fall due to goal differential. [The Revolution would have gone to the playoffs over the Union if they beat Montreal by thirteen goals in the last game of the season. Totally doable. Not really.]

Part of their problems stemmed from the offense not clicking (and also hitting the goalposts twenty-three times during the season – if there was a contest for that, the Revolution would have won), but a larger part was the defense. When your defensive depth is shallow enough that after a couple injuries, the coach, a former Revolution defender, has to joke that the only solution off the table is him playing, I think that’s a problem. Teams playing under Jay Heaps also have a tendency to go on losing streaks in the summer, then magically improve as soon as fall arrives.

But the New England Revolution is my team, so I went to see them play near the end of their latest summer losing streak. Bizarrely enough, at this point in time, they were also advancing through the US Open Cup and winning those games. I’ve stopped trying to understand this team.

One of the (few) good things about not having their own soccer-specific stadium (SSS) yet is that Gillette Stadium is impressive. The stadium itself is less impressive when the upper bowl is closed, sections are covered in tarps, and the sections that are open are half full of Revolution fans, but having Patriot Place right next to the stadium is nice. There’s a lot of infrastructure (shopping, entertainment, restaurants) that the Krafts might not probably wouldn’t invest in next to a new SSS.

Revolution vs. Union at Gillette Stadium

We arrived at the stadium early to park and walk around a bit before the gates opened. It was drizzly through warm ups but stayed dry through the game. As for the game, that was a mess. The Union scored early, late, and in between. MLS claims the Revolution had 18 shots (4 on goal), but there was maybe one shot that could have been a goal (okay, there were a couple, plus a couple wide shots and the mandatory shot off the post). Sadly enough, even though the Union had almost twice the number of shots on goal, the Union goalkeeper had more saves than the Revolution keeper. Let’s not think about that one too much.

So the Revolution lost by a lot, couldn’t shoot or score, defended horrendously, the weather was damp and humid, and the stadium was over half empty. I had a good time and it was a fun experience. Next time hopefully I’ll at least get to hear the goal song. I don’t think that’s asking too much, is it?

Final score.

It might be. This is the Revolution we’re talking about.

Under the Sea

Since the past summer was my last completely free summer for the next few years, one of my requests for places to go was the New England Aquarium. Mainly, I wanted to see the penguins, but the hundreds of other fish and animals were cool too. The New England Aquarium has three species of penguins – African, Little blue, and Rockhopper penguins. All three species live in more temperate climates than Adelie and Emperor penguins, which breed on Antarctica itself. Little blue penguins are the smallest penguin species, reaching an adult height and weight of twelve inches and two to three pounds. They’re kind of adorable. New goal: hug a penguin.

African penguins.  Just standing?  Or plotting their escape?

Other things of note we saw: the sea lion show, baby sharks, tiny lobsters, sea turtles, and lots of fish. Sea lions are fast, have great flip turns, and will work for fish. The baby sharks look a bit like a cross between a fish and an eel, and they look like they have way too many fins, but I guess that’s actually how many fins sharks have. (Six, if anyone was wondering – pectoral, first dorsal, pelvic, second dorsal, anal, and caudal.) The lobsters were interesting because the aquarium had a series of tanks showing the lobsters at different stages of growth. They start out looking like shrimp or crayfish before growing into their lobster-like selves at adulthood.

Little blue penguins

The fish and different habitats are always interesting. The New England Aquarium had a tank with a whole bunch of mackerel or some other schooling fish showing how they move. While looking up schooling fish, I found out that fish shoal if they hang out together, but they school if they perform coordinated movement. English is weird.

Anyway, I enjoyed the aquarium. I like aquariums in general, even if you are mostly seeing a variety of fish that you’re never going to remember unless you’re actually an ichthyologist. In terms of less common exhibits, the National Aquarium in Baltimore (I was in the city for a conference) has a whole room of jellyfish, and the aquarium in Singapore has one of those tanks that’s also a tunnel you can walk through. And Boston has penguins.

The New England Aquarium isn’t very large, and could be seen in a couple hours if you rush a bit. If you really want to read everything about every fish, and go to a lot of presentations, this could probably be stretched to half a day (4-ish hours?). I had to leave after two and a half hours because the group I was with wanted to get lunch. So I had to say bye to the penguins.

Strawberry Fields

Not much to say here besides “I went strawberry picking over the summer.” I’ve also been apple, pear, peach, and blueberry picking. We went to a farm reasonably near to my house on a nice (read: hot) summer morning and picked a lot of strawberries.

A lot of pounds of strawberries

After the strawberry picking, we had a picnic lunch and got apple cider donuts. If you’re ever in New England and someone offers you a fresh apple cider donut, the correct answer is yes. If someone offers you a not-fresh apple cider donut, the correct answer is still yes, but you would be missing out on a bit of the experience. I also have strong opinions about Dunkin’ Donuts vs. Tim Hortons vs. Krispy Kreme donuts¹. Because donuts are an important part of a nutritious diet².

Next to the picnic area there was a playground, and also goats. We visited with the goats (and chickens, and a very angry/noisy bird-thing) for awhile before heading home where I returned to spending most of my time sprawled across the living room.

Goats

¹We ate at Tim Hortons a couple times while driving around Canada³. Their special donuts can be pretty good but I’m not sure about the others. I had a chocolate glazed donut that was below average. I wouldn’t refuse it, but I wouldn’t seek one out. With one exception, I’ve only had glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme, and never hot. Those are definitely good, but I hail from the land of Dunkin’ Donuts, so I’m contractually obliged to remain irrationally attached to their donuts. Same for Hoodsie Cups (with the wooden spoon) and Carvel ice cream cakes. All are good, but you don’t have to look very hard for better ice cream or donuts. One last note in the donut debate – Wegmans makes surprisingly good filled donuts. Their bakery department also makes a number of their cakes and cookies with naturally colored frosting. To sum up, Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme both make average to good donuts. Go to Wegmans for filled donuts. Actually, just go to Wegmans because Wegmans is great. And yes, I realize I wrote more about donuts than strawberries in a post about strawberry picking.

²Not scientifically proven.

³Most of my family would not be described as “food people.” Once a meal is cooked with a certain level of competence, we’re good, which is why we ended up at Tim Hortons multiple times rather than any number of local eateries. I can, however, talk extensively about dessert. See above.

New York, New York

In the spirit of adventure and because I really wanted to see a Broadway show, I travelled with my mother and visiting relatives to New York City after only a week at home. We rode the bus down, which was mostly okay until we exited the highway and travelled a hundred blocks in Manhattan traffic. At best, you can make it four blocks per green light. I spent the next hour counting down the blocks to the bus drop off point.

While planning for the trip, we decided to see a Broadway show on our first night in the city. Based on ticket availability and price, I chose The Phantom of the Opera. We got seats in the rear mezzanine, which were just fine for me. I could hear and see all of the show, excepting parts missed because the people in the row in front of us kept moving. Other people had complained online about everything from the ushers shining flashlights in peoples’ faces for cell phone use to an ancient subpar sound system to not being able to see anything without a telescope from the rear mezzanine, but I didn’t have any of these issues. The show was great; the only thing I would have liked was to see more of the pit. Yes, I am aware you go to a Broadway show to see the stage, but I’m a musician¹.

The Majestic Theatre, home to Phantom on Broadway

Day two was spent at the Museum of Natural History, crossing a large portion of Central Park, and at Times Square. The Museum of Natural History is my favorite New York City museum, because they have a giant whale.^2,3 We also saw lots of other animals and rocks, and an entire hallway full of the mussels of New York. Very exciting. The crossing of Central Park was partly thanks to my fabulous wayfinding skills. My home city is Boston, okay? I don’t know how to navigate if I can’t turn kind of left onto a one way street. The grid makes too much sense. And our last event of the day was stopping by Times Square to see vast amounts of people and lights. Why so many people flock to Times Square just to see it, I don’t know, but the lights kind of make it look like year-round Christmas.

Obligatory photo of Times Square at night, since this is a post about New York City

Day three featured the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the Empire State Building. I did not go up the Empire State Building because I’d been not too long ago and it’s a glorified, expensive elevator ride. (See: previous post’s comments regarding the CN Tower.) I had been to the 9/11 memorial a couple times previously, but this trip was the my first time seeing the museum. There was a lot to see; the main exhibit is a detailed walkthrough of the events of 9/11 with photos, recovered items, and audio and video clips. After the Empire State Building, we called it an early night.

Highline Park

The next morning, our last day, we went to Highline Park. It’s an interesting concept – the entire park is built on an old elevated railway bed – but it was surprisingly crowded, and there was a lot of construction in the surrounding neighborhoods. Large portions of the park were surrounded by plastic sheeting and you could hear drills/hammering/large machinery a lot of the time. I’d like to walk it again after the revitalization happens. After lunch, we made another quick stop at Central Park, then caught the bus back to New England. We got caught in traffic. Again.

¹Debatable
²I haven’t been to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which I’ve heard is also good.
³Favorites of the Smithsonian museums in DC are the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. I’m also a fan of giant Lincoln.

O Canada

Turns out our family vacations to Canada were all before I started blogging, so I get to use this post title. I really thought I’d used it before, but I guess not. After graduation, I did not get to go home and collapse on my un-air-conditioned living room floor for the remainder of the summer. Yet. That is what I mostly did when I finally made it back to New England, but before that we made stops at Niagara Falls and Toronto. I had relatives visiting for my graduation and after driving all the way up to Ithaca, we thought we might as well make the side trip.

We first stopped on the American side of the falls and walked around Goat Island for a few hours before crossing over into Canada. Following dinner, we went to see the falls from the Canadian side, enjoyed the lights and fireworks, then returned to the hotel. The next day, we walked more on the Canadian side and did the Journey to the Falls (the equivalent of Maid of the Mist on the American side). I also got pancakes for breakfast, a donut at lunch, and samosas at dinner, so it was a good food day. The last time we were at Niagara we did the Cave of the Winds, where you get to walk around near the bottom of the falls. The cheapest way to see the falls is to just walk around Goat Island/on the Canadian side, but if you really want to see the falls up close and personal and/or spend some money, Cave of the Winds and either boat ride are all recommendable. You get to do Cave of the Winds on your own time, but it is undeniably kind of cool to go right up to Horseshoe Falls.

American Falls at night

The next day was spent half in transit. Upon arrival in Toronto, we proceeded to spend the afternoon at a Chinese shopping mall. My travelling companions all enjoyed the food. I did enjoy the mini-eggs as well as watching American Ninja Warrior at the hotel that night. The following day, we went into Toronto and walked to Chinatown in search of dim sum. Spoiler alert: we found it. It wasn’t bad, and as an added bonus, I think it was pretty cheap.

In the afternoon, we navigated our way to Casa Loma (literally, Hill House) on the subway. An aside about the subway: I’ve ridden on the subway systems of DC, New York City, and Boston, and despite the crowds in NYC, my inability to make the turnstile read my MetroCard (also NYC), and never remembering how much money I have on my Charlie Card (Boston), Toronto has the dubious honor of having my least favorite subway. Buying fare was, for whatever reason, unnecessarily complicated, and we encountered some of the ruder staff and passengers I’ve seen on public transportation. As for Casa Loma, the rooms are very well done, and there’s an informative self-guided audio tour available. The only thing I would recommend is going in the morning or early afternoon so you can take your time. If you’re there at closing, the staff is extremely eager to get everyone out. As in, follow you and escort you to the door eager.

Casa Loma

From Casa Loma, we returned to downtown Toronto where the CN Tower is located. I normally do not buy tickets to the top of tall buildings to see other tall buildings (previous exception: the Empire State Building because when we went to NYC, we bought the CityPASS to spend a week doing all the tourist things) but this time we decided to have dinner at the 360 restaurant. Because we needed dinner, my relatives really wanted us all to go up, $65 for an elevator ride + dinner is better than a $35 elevator ride, and how often do you get to eat a fancy dinner in a rotating restaurant at the top of the CN Tower?

Dessert, from left to right: white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate tart,
and meringue with a milk chocolate and peanut topping

I had chicken, because I always get the chicken, and dessert. The chicken was good and dessert was delicious. We watched the sun set from the restaurant, then went to the observation deck. The view was nice, but not worth $35 (sorry, CN Tower) unless you really, really like going to the top of tall buildings.

Night falling on Toronto, as seen from the CN Tower

After the CN Tower, we returned to the hotel and the following day, we made our way back to Syracuse. From there, we had one last stop in Ithaca to collect my belongings from my apartment and then we were homeward bound.