Being that I turned 29 (again…I’ve had years of practice) yesterday, Al took me to Boston to celebrate.  I’ve never lived more than 45 minutes away from the city, but this was the first time I spent the night.  Specifically we went to Quincy Market and the North End.

It was so much fun!  We started out getting a drink at Durgin Park.  The bartender was talking our ear off about horse castration and other equally disturbing topics, so we quickly finished and went to the Union Oyster House.  That was a much better experience!  If you want the best chowder (no, I will not call it chowdah!) Boston has to offer, that’s the place to go.

After walking around and doing some shopping, we got dinner at Strega.  I don’t think I’ve ever had bad food in the North End, but Strega is by far the best I’ve had!  We only just managed to save room for dessert at Mike’s Pastry.

When we first arrived in town I left my camera in the car.  I’ve been so many times I didn’t think it was worth lugging the darn thing around.  Also, it was gray and overcast.  I didn’t think I’d be inspired to photograph much.  I immediately regretted my decision.  I tried taking a few photos with my cell phone camera, but that just didn’t cut it.  I went back for my DSLR and got a few decent shots in before I’d had enough of carrying it.  I went back for it when night fell and got a few more decent shots in.  I won’t bore you with the whole collection, but here are some of the better ones.

[Show as slideshow]

Perhaps later I’ll see if any of my cell phone pics are worth sharing.  I should also take a picture of my beautiful birthday present!  We’ll see…

I was playing around with Scribbles some more.  This time I worked from a photo of Al.  I spent a little more time on the shading with this one.  It’s hard to see some of the detail in the image below, so you can click on it to see a somewhat larger version.

Okay, I’m having a little too much fun with this program.  I’ll try to talk about something a little more exciting in my next post…like what Al has in store for me.  Tomorrow is my birthday.  Check that…I just noticed it’s after midnight.  Today is my birthday then.  Al’s taking me somewhere to celebrate, but he’s given me no clue other than that it will involve an overnight stay.