My friend Annette hooked me up with this picture taken at rest stop 3 on day 2 of the Lifecycle this year. I'm pretty sure this proves I'm 100% glamour.

I headed off after work Howard to 11th to Harrison to 18th to Alabama.  There's a bunch of interesting things I hadn't seen on Alabama. 

Brightly colored decorative Victorians:

I don't know what it is about this building that seems off.  I'm not quite sure what it is.  Some renovation has changed it and made it look like this:

These great murals are all on the same building.  Love love love them.

I continued on Alabama to Precita to Mission to 30th to Dolores.  This is Dolores Street from 30th:

I took Dolores into San Jose to Wilder to Diamond to Monterey to Plymouth to Wildwood to Faxon to De Montefort to Ashton to Legion to Urbano to Mocada to Cerritos to Winston to Buckingham to 20th to Ocean to Lakeshore to Skyline to Sloat to the Great Highway to Vicente to 18th to Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola.  This is Portola from Laguna Honda.  Fogtastic!

I continued on Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                         27.8
Week to date                              41.8
Month to date                             41.8
Year to date                           7,043.8
Remaining to Goal                  2,956.2
Over (Under) plan                  1,032.9

We got in super late and I slept in as late as possible so I just came down Market into work.  Ran into Michael S.  who had his helmet attached to his handlebars as opposed to his head so he wouldn't mess up his hair on the way to work.  Seriously, what's that all about??  I headed home for lunch with the dogs and then home after work.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                         14.0
Week to date                              14.0
Month to date                             14.0
Year to date                           7,016.0
Remaining to Goal                  2,984.0
Over (Under) plan                  1,032.4

We got up and got on the 10AM ferry back to Boston for a long, long day.  The bay was a bit choppier than it was on the way over and we stayed inside the whole time.  It was hard to take pics from the ferry but I did my best:

USAir landing at the airport:

Ominous clouds over the city:

We got to the ferry terminal and then took a water taxi to the airport which was only $10 a person and far preferable to a cab.  We got to the airport in 10 minutes and were in the terminal in another 10.  We were really early because I didn't want to risk being late because of a late ferry or trouble getting from the airport.  So we had lunch and hung out.  I took some pictures:

Magical Mint Air Canada:

I love Fedex.  Their aircraft look so cool.  I"m guessing this is an A300:

Our ride:

Tue, Aug 5 Delta 717 Dep BOS 3:30 Arr ATL 6:31 737

Our cheap cheap itinerary had us changing planes in Atlanta on the way back.  But that was OK I guess.  Much better than JFK if you ask me.  Our flight took off on time and was in Atlanta a little early.

Parting view of Boston:

Views of Atlanta.  Delta, Delta, and more Delta:

Our 737

Unusual non Delta aircraft in Atlanta.  Must be cargo.

We had a two hour layover in Atlanta so we got some food and waited around for our flight

Tue, Aug 5 Delta 1035 Dep ATL 8:20 Arr SFO 10:35 757

I was really hoping it was going to be a 767 but our flight was a 757 which is probably better than a 737 for a transcon but still.  It had PTV's at every seat but I only looked at the map.  I read my comic book anthologies and tried to get some sleep.  We got in on time and didn't have any trouble getting our luggage and then we headed back home.  Mimi barked the most when we got home.  Ashley cried the most.  Rufus was beside himself with delight.  We all went right to bed.

We got up for our last day and got on bikes and headed for the cemetery.  Which was very picturesque and seemed unusual to me in that it wasn't walled off or fenced off in any way and I don't know that I've ever been to a town that had houses ten feet from graves without a fence between them:

Then we went riding in the beech forest which is really pretty and includes a picturesque pond:

Finally we headed over to the beach which we accessed from a 1.2 mile long stone jetty.  Hello gorgeous:

Gorgeous salt marshes:

We went out to dinner with Russ.  And then went to bed early.  I was sorry we had to go the next day.  We had a wonderful time.

We slept in a little because of the previous night's liquoring.  Mostly mine.  We got up and went to the top of the Pilgrim Monument which had views forever:

Same view from the base:

We met up with Mr. Nick and Jess and headed out to see the cool lighthouse outside of Truro, the next town down the cape from Provincetown.  Mr. Poe enjoyed it immensely:

ME with the sea behind me:

The lighthouse:

The cool aircraft monitoring radar dome.  OR SO THEY SAY THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR....

We headed down to the beach and it was really nice.  There were a whole bunch of seals feeding on something from the seaweed beds just off shore.

Jess and Nick in the far left hand corner.  I can't believe this is the only pic I took of them:

Mr. Nick dropped us off and we went to dinner and then went to bed early.

We got up a little late and had breakfast at the Moffett House.  Then we walked around town and waited for my friend Nick to join us.  He had come up from Albany with his girlfriend Tara the night before and they stayed at a campsite.  This is the inside of the town hall:

Commercial Street:

The Pilgrim monument:

Mr. Nick brought his car with him so we headed to his campground to go pick it up.  This is the view from the walk to the campground:

We headed out to Race Point Beach.  Mr. Nick and I went for a walk while Jeff and Jess sat on the beach.  This is an old shipwreck rescue station that is now a museum.

Mr. Poe built a sand castle in honor of our dog Mimi.  He christened it "Castle Kissington":

My big, clompy foot collapsed the moat.  Relax, he let me keep it.

We went out to dinner where a certain quantity of liquor was consumed.  Let's leave it at that.

We had to get up pretty early to get the 8AM ferry to Provincetown.  We took Bay State Cruises and the ferry was really nice and the view was incredible:

Mr. Poe on boat.  Hello gorgeous!

The Airport:

Landing at the airport:

We got into town and headed over to the Moffett House which is owned by my friend Russ and is super cute and highly recommended. It's a ten minute walk from the ferry but it's back off of Commercial Street so it's really quiet.  We went out to lunch and then got on Bikes and headed over to the beach.

Hello gorgeous!

Lots of beach:

Me on it:

Lighthouse from over the wetlands:

Squarecuts aren't for everyone:

We headed back into town and stopped for grocery and then went and got cleaned up and went to dinner.  Fun, fun day.

Boston is a very, very pretty city.  Much prettier than San Francisco.  There.  I've said it.  San Francisco is a very pretty city also, but Boston is significantly cleaner and there aren't cracked out homeless people running around everywhere you look.  I'm not sure why this is but I think it has something to do with San Francisco's mild winters making the homeless crackhead population perennial as opposed to annual in Boston.  Poverty might also just not be in the middle of the city in Boston like it is in San Francisco.

We had breakfast and then walked around.  I'm not sure what all of the things I photographed are, but I loved them all:

  

Commonwealth Ave:

Unitarian Universalist Church.  What's interesting about this church is that they built a new church on the site of a 19th century one that burned and they built around the shell and even left some of the charred wood up in the rose window.  You can read more about it here.  The pastor showed us around and was super nice without getting all churchy on us.

  

Beautiful building:

Boston Public Garden:

I was feeling so crappy about San Francisco because Boston is so much cleaner and nicer and more orderly.  Luckily, I saw a crack pipe on the ground on some steps at the Boston Public Garden Lagoon and I felt right at home again.

We headed over to Beacon Hill which is more of a lump by San Francisco standards.  The buildings were much older than in Back Bay which was filled in swamp land that was developed after the Civil War.

Amazing stuff downtown:

  

  

Spiral staircase fire escapes!  What a glamorous way to escape a tragedy!

  

We had lunch in Chinatown.  Which is kind of like San Francisco's Chinatown.  Except with less odor.

Local trade:

We went to the top of the Prudential Tower.  Fabulous views. 

The First Church of Christ Scientist.

  

Mr. Poe enjoying the audio tour.  I couldn't get past the fake Boston accent of the guy doing it.  At least I hope it was fake.

  

We headed over to the First Church of Christ Scientist and looked around.  There's a lot to see.  The tour guide made a point of letting us know that this church isn't affiliated with Scientology.  Good to know!  This is the 1905 wing:

This glass is from the 1885 wing:

Exterior of the structure:

More fabulous Boston:

Our luggage finally showed up that night.  We went to dinner and then to bed.  Long, hot day.

We had to get up at 3AM to be at the airport for our 6:30 flight.  It's a big pain in the ass getting up so early to fly to the east coast but you get in very late if you do not and we were not flying non stop due to the cheap, cheap tickets that I found on Delta that came to $240 each.  Round trip to Boston!  In the summer!  Crazy.  So we were up at 3AM.  We parked at the cool long term parking building and took the bus to the terminal.  It was crazy at 5AM which is pretty much how it always is which but we managed to get our luggage checked and into the terminal without too much fuss.  Terminal 1 is pretty crappy at SFO but it's improving.  I wonder if another airline will be moving in one Delta and Northwest merge because I can't imagine they will need all their combined gates.  I took a few pics in the early morning light.  I believe this was our aircraft:  a 757:

A 767 at the next gate going to Atlanta:

Wed, July 30 Delta 612 Dep SFO 6:30 Arr JFK 3:05 757

More delta stuff taken from the aircraft:

The view as we headed for the runway:

Some USAIR. 

Continental and Virgin America:

We took off from the runway that is closest to the park that I like to
hang out in at the foot of Millbrae Ave.  Pretty soon we were over the
fog and off to JFK.  The flight was on time and about what I expected. 
PTV's, two drink services and food for sale.  I'd brought these bound comic book anthologies.  They weren't in color which kind of sucked but there was a lot of them.  I made it through the entire Captain Marvel series from the 60's and a big chunk of the early Avengers.  Then we landed in New York.

Aer Lingus:

JFK control tower:

PIA 777.  Such great livery:

El Al:

A whole bunch of Virgin Atlantic:

Delta:

We landed at JFK's storied Terminal 3.  Back in the day it was Pan Am's Worldport.  Today it is incredibly cramped.  They've spruced it up quite a bit since the last time I was there but there are too many people for the size of this terminal:

Wed, July 30 Delta 81 Dep JFK 4:25 Arr BOS 6:06 MD88

We spent more time in line for takeoff than we did in the air which seems to me to be a terrific waste of fuel as well as everybody's time.  I don't see why they can't make the New York Airports slot controlled.  I think it would make everything a lot easier.  I hadn't been on a Delta MD88 since I flew from Savannah to Atlanta back in 2006 and I really like them.  I love the five across seating.

Outside of Terminal 3

Olympic A340-300:

Lufthansa:

Air France:

Royal Air Maroc:

A bunch of Skyteam:

We we're like 50th in line or something but we were finally in the air eventually:

A few shots as we came into Boston:

Boston's pretty airport:

The terminal

Delta lost our luggage and it was a pain in the ass but we made it to our hotel and then went out to dinner.  There aren't a lot of vegans in Boston so I got a funny looks when I ordered a cheeseless calzone.  Maybe it was my odor.