Walking around Boston

Saturday Dan and I headed down to the aquarium to meet up with our friends Wythe and Rebecca. Unfortunately, we forgot that it was a three day weekend and the line was insanely long. So we decided to forgo the aquarium and had a nice little walk around Boston instead.

Here are a few pics from when we wandered down by the water.

Me fixing Dan's hair


Dan and me in front of the bridge




And Wythe and Rebecca sporting their bike riding gear


Alright, back to writing my papers....

Monterey

Last semester I received an email from the SAR listserv that a professor at another university was looking for students to participate in a graduate student discussion panel for the Society for the Anthropology of Religion conference. I sent along my abstract, was accepted, and thanks to BU footing the bill I flew out last weekend to Monterey, CA to present at the conference. It was held at Asilomar which is a conference center/nature reserve. Other than the bland and sometimes unusual food choices, Asilomar was a really wonderful place. Deer wander around the protected dunes and it is a short walk down to the beach which was just breathtaking. I won't bore you all with the details of the conference, but I wanted to share some of the photographs I took of the area.

I shared a room with two other girls who were presenting in the panel (and Amy joined us the last night we were there so she didn't have to camp in her car again.) The rooms were pretty decent - this is only half, there are two other beds on the other side. And outside that glass door is a nice porch.


Deer grazing outside one of the cabins


The path along the protected dunes


Menzies' Wallflower - an endangered and quite rare species


A short walk down the path leads to this beach


Another beautiful beach scene


Swirling around the rocks


Surfing out here must be beautiful but scary. Imagine hitting these rocks



More beach


Walking a little further up the beach


The view right before I headed back in for dinner


Saturday morning my roommate Saiba and I walked down to check out the beach before breakfast. There was still a little color in the sky from the sunrise


There was a lone surfer


But no one else was out on the beach yet


Sunday after our talk, Amy graciously offered to take me to the airport for my evening flight. We decided to explore the area a bit first and James, a professor with similar research interests as Amy, joined us.
We first wandered down the beach paths, enjoying the view.


Amy taking it all in


The water lapping at the rocky shore


James


The view from the path


Amy again


We stumbled upon some loose rock sculptures that some visitors had made. James decided to contribute to the art.


His "masterpiece"


After being windblown around the beach, we grabbed some coffee and then wandered around the Fisherman's Warf sampling nine different clam chowders. We had a great time exploring and thanks again to Amy for the ride to the airport!

I'm glad to be with my husband again, but the wet and nippy weather of Boston makes me long for the beaches of Monterey. The conference was of course academic and all of that, but it was also a nice little getaway. Now back to end of term papers... Sigh.

PS I added a few more pictures. I still have tons more but I have to stop adding at some point. For those of you who were at the conference if there were any specific pictures you wanted just let me know. And as always, for those who are visiting you're welcome to use my pictures as long as you give me credit. :)