Boston (day 2)

Jeff heads off early again for the conference and Courts, feeling refreshed after her recovery day yesterday, meets up with Caleb and Johanna for breakfast. We head to a nearby diner where we're informed there is a two hour wait for a table. The temperature is negative 7, but with a "feels like" temp of negative 13, teamed with 70km winds. It's positively frightening. We decline the two hour wait and head to another restaurant serving up pretty similar breakfast fare.

Over breakfast and 4 cups of bottomless coffee, we try and get a plan together for the day that involves as little involvement with being outside as possible. We do a bit of research and decide on the Samuel Adams brewery. Jeff and Courts were keen to check it out last time they were in town, but it was always closed.

We run to the train, faces freezing, tears streaming out of our numb eyes. A few stops later and we've arrived. We enter the brewery and are pleased to find out the tour is free and beer is provided. All they ask for is a small $2 donation towards a number of charities they support. We're happy to oblige. The tour lasts for around an hour and we have a pretty funny guide who takes us through the beer making process, let's us sniff some hops and eat some barley. The tour ends in the tasting room where we get to sample three different Sam Adams beers, which Caleb almost enjoys. We take lots of sips and notes in order to report back to Jeff later, as Sam Adams is one of his favorite American beers. We make some plans to catch up later that night for dinner and head back to our hotels to rest and freshen(warm) up.

We've got our sights set on a Japanese restaurant, but for the second time that day, we're told there's nothing available for a few hours. We make a call to a nearby Italian restaurant who confirms a free table. We rush quickly over there and and settle in for pizza, pasta and wine. Meanwhile, Jeff has dinner with his work crew and some other big wigs that are in town.

The night is still young, plus it's our last night in Boston with our friends. We head to a packed Back Bay Social Club and sit up at the bar and swap travel stories over a few rounds of drinks. Jeff's joins us a bit later and we have a few more rounds. We head back to our hotel where the bar is pumping. We meet up with Jeff's crew and down a couple more drinks and dance into the small hours. We say goodbye to Caleb and Johanna and wish them well on their next 6 months of travel. We finally call it quits in the even smaller hours of the morning and catch a couple hours of shut eye before our early morning flight.