Boston: A Recap

Hello again, friends. We are both feeling somewhat human again. Did you know that if you don’t sleep more than ten hours over three nights, and if you spend a lot of time on an airplane, and then you don’t eat anything but half of an omelet, some chips, a chili dog, and a naughty cupcake all day, that you might not feel very good the next day? True story. There may have been a few cocktails in there too. It was New Kids day!

The trip out to Boston was fine and uneventful. By the time we made it through security we had 75 minutes until our flight boarded. Did you know that the MSP airport doesn’t serve alcohol until 8 am? So we wandered the concourse for awhile… This was the creepiest stuffed animal we’ve ever seen [in a megaclaw machine, or – really – ever]. Her name is “Catrina Gloss.” The tag reads: “This feline phenomenon was born in the ghetto and clawed her way out. With her glamorous gowns and vivacious voice, she is truly the cat’s meow. She put the purr in perfection and just may be the [unintelligible] animal icon.”


This is how big our luggage was. We shared a bag because we thought we’d have to pay to check one, and we couldn’t fit our stuff in our carryons. Little did we know that if your tickets are bought with World Perks miles, you get free checked luggage! Thanks to Alexis for preserving my knee by carrying this behemoth the entire way from the airport to the hotel (3 trains!).


Once we got checked into our hotel room, we figured we should strategize how we spent the rest of our time before the show the following day, so we headed to our hotel bar - Characters. We had nothing but excellent service from the staff there. I was more than impressed with the way Alan (Allen? Allan?) the bartender washed his hands WITH SOAP at least twice and how he actually used the ice scoop correctly. Jared remembered our names all weekend. Thanks for putting up with us, guys! We didn’t get photos of Alan or Jared, but this is Chris, the assistant manager


We decided to head out to do some sightseeing. Alexis wanted to hit Charlie Flynn’s, a place she spent a good deal of time at while in college at Emerson. She nearly cried when she saw that it is now the Intermission Bar, and has been completely remodeled. Yet again, I was impressed with the staff… the cooks kept their water glasses outside of the kitchen! A scoop was used for ice! I’m easily impressed, I guess.

It rained all weekend. We walked quite a bit and did a little bit of shopping, but we had to take breaks because our feet were getting so wet. At Daisy Buchanan’s we found a newspaper that had our horoscopes in it:

Kim’s (Taurus):


Alexis’s (Scorpio):


We didn’t catch the bartender’s name, but we did catch that a $3 High Life and a small screwdriver with a splash of cranberry juice equaled $14. Oh really, Mr. Bartender?


My friend Jessica came down to visit us for the night. We’ve known each other since junior high. She lives in Maine now. We met her at North Station, then grabbed a drink at The Greatest Bar to dry out for a few minutes. We headed back to Cambridge and had dinner at Grendel’s Den. We headed back to the hotel after that and stopped in to see our friends at Character’s.


The next morning, we headed out to find some brunch at Tommy Doyle’s. I don’t think this is where our concierge actually told us to go, but it was raining and they were open. Afterwards we took a little walk and did some more shopping.

By then it was time to get ready for the show! (!!!!!!!!)

We tried (and failed) to meet up with Coach Corrie from Florida before the show… sorry Corrie!

We did manage to meet up with Sarah Rodman from the Boston Globe and her friend Sean (Shawn? Shaun?). It was nice to meet you in person, Sarah (And Sean/Shawn/Shaun too, of course)!


The action figure version:


Some other people we met and/or ran into (sometimes, quite literally). If you see yourself here, let us know so we can put a name to a face!




Somebody forgot to hit focus on this one, I think
















The show was absolutely amazing. I had been waiting almost 18 years for it, and I was not disappointed. The energy in the house was unreal. Everybody was smiling, dancing, hugging, screaming… I’m smiling just thinking about it. Although our seats for this show weren’t great (the 4th row on the aisle in the section in front of the soundboard), they were perfectly located for the rotating “B” stage on the back of the floor. Here’s a short clip of Dirty Dancing from that stage:

Don’t you think that I need a new camera? Please vote. I’m all in favor, but my husband is mostly opposed to the idea.

We didn’t get very many fantastic photos this time around, but here are a few that are worth sharing:









Um, Hi Pink Sign. In my way much? (Note to all sign-bringers: please use them sparingly. There are people behind you who might want to see the show, mmmmkay?)






Somehow we always get the best photos of Joe


And somehow Donnie always has robot eyes


Donnie points a lot


Colleen and Julia, two lovely ladies with whom we boogied. It was Julia’s first concert!


How cute are we?


I just realized that this sort of reminds me of that video for This One’s For the Children, sans fake puffy clouds. Huh. I really like this photo but that video makes me smirk. When did I become so jaded?


This is what the arena looked like behind us.


Aaaand, goodnight


Sigh. And then it was over.

We checked out the merch on the way out, but the hoodie that Alexis wanted wasn’t available in her size. We’ll look for it this weekend.

So… yeah. This weekend! In approximately 48 hours we’ll be boarding the Megabus headed to Chicago for round two!

I’m very excited.