Staying with my friends Mike and Christen and their lovely flat in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee was the best way to say good-bye to Wisconsin. I now wish that I had a month to stay in every largerish city because I think that's just enough time to get your bearings and discover the hidden pockets and neighborhoods. Here is a list of my favorite finds and foods:
- Bradford Beach - many days were spent there because it required zero plans and provided lots of people watching. The architecture of the beach house is also nice on the eyes.
- Lakeshore State Park - spent 4th of July watching the big fireworks display there...pretty much by myself while Veterans park was brimming with the patriotics. Love the view of the Calatrava museum against the city backdrop...which brings me to my next.
- Milwaukee Art Museum - Kyle and I visited the museum on my last day in WI. It was a lot bigger than I expected.
- Urban Ecology Center - sustainably built structure on the Oak Leaf Bike trail. Something that Madison needs desperately.
- Comet, Art Bar, Lakefront Brewery, Good Life- Great diner food and half price bottled wine on Thursday is Comet, yummy soy hot chocolate and pbr at Art Bar, great location below bike bridge at Lakefront Brewery, and minimalist design and caribbean soul food at the Good Life.
2) Move to Boston
With the CRV packed to the brim, outfitted with a new bike rack (why didn't we do this 4eva ago), and the dogs happy in their space, we drove to Niagara Falls, Ontario. We left at 4 am so I was a little out of it to feel any sadness. Flew through IL tolls with the help of the EZpass and trucked through Michigan. Driving through Detroit was surreal, especially with the goliath of a building for the GM headquarters. That building, I believe it's called the Renaissance Center, seems like its compensating for something and is seriously out of scale with the rest of Detroit. We happily drove through the tunnel and crossed the border for Canada (yeah!!).
Driving through Canada was fine and it started to get a lot prettier when we got closer to the Falls. We stayed at a small b&b in Niagara and had a good time seeing the city on bikes and eating at a Pakistani/Indian restaurant. Woke up the next morning and drove the rest of the way through NY and Mass (thank-you EZpass). Arrived in Boston around 6 pm and unloaded everything. Played trivia that night at jj foley's, which is every Tuesday.
So now I've been in Boston for 1.5 months, omg time flies. Since then I've been to the Doctor, Dentist (yeah for insurance again), rode my bike, Internets, visiting farmer's markets, joined a gym, and overall trying to get healthy again. I'm getting close to being in great physical health, and working my way to positive emotional health. Closing the store and moving has finally caught up with me and it's not been fun going through the closure process. One big thing occurred to me, though, I can't believe what I accomplished. In reflecting on the past two years, it almost seems like I lived vicariously through Megan 2.0 and even though she doesn't exist now, I am left with the effects of the downgrade back to Megan 1.0.
The best days have the following generic sequence of events: gym, farmer's market, dog walking, biking, cooking dinner and eating with Kyle and watching a Netflix.
2) Camping in Green Mountain National Forest
Kyle took me here a couple weeks ago and it was crazy...especially Londonderry, Vermont. The smallest city in the world bursting with the best city planning and design. It's in the middle of nowhere and instead of seeing rebel flags and rusting pick-up trucks there was women playing tennis in their blindingly white outfits, natural swimming pools, orchards, and aluminum roofs. The forest was super dense and lush...a lot like New Zealand. We camped right on a river and cooled high lifes. Hiked with Gordo and Carmelita and they were in doggy heaven. Gordo even got in the river a few times.3) Forbes Lofts
We had a lovely Sunday this past week. Woke up at 7:30 and snuggled away the chilly, sunny air flowing through the window, and went running on the Esplanade (kyle biking). Made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs with goat cheese and onions, apple french toast and bacon, watched Sunday morning. Then I found this article on Inhabitat.com about the Forbes Lofts. After reading two sentences, I went to the Forbes website and was engrossed in the following:
- off the grid modern housing
- community oriented
- wind mill
- herring farm
- water taxi
I freaked out and demanded that Kyle and I bike there for the Open House. Biking to Chelsea was quite an adventure. We went down the Greenway, through the locks at Paul Revere Park in Charlestown, down Rutheford which turns into Alford, right on Dexter, next right into Chelsea, left on Park, right on Broadway, right on Crescent, right on Forbes. It was all fine until we crossed the bridge on Rutheford and it got majorly industrial and the road turned into pot hole soup. Chelsea surprised me with the Latino population. It's amazing how little feeling you get of a town by looking at Streetview on Google. Luckily, I love Latin, Mexican, South American, Caribbean, Jamaican foods...mmmm.
The Forbes lofts were inspiring and amoke an excitement inside me that's been sleeping for awhile. The place is genius, ahead of its time, magnificent and instills hope. If we could live in a place like that, I would feel like our lifestyles and example offset the selfishness and environmental burden of having a baby.
Today I started to 'volunteer' / work on my stuff (blog, greenmap for Madison, urban mafia) at Liveable Streets Alliance on the MIT campus. I find myself so much more productive because I am surrounded by people who are in love with urban design and community. Now I'll be able to post every day.
5) Park(ing) Day
I volunteered mostly as a lawn ornament or prop last Friday for National Park(ing) Day at the Government Center T stop in Boston. By turning a metered parking spot into an urban park, we raised awareness about the lack of public park space and presence of cars in cities. Read more about the day here.
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