Boston.

I've been to Boston three other times in my life, and all of those times my trip centered around beer and baseball.  Not that there is anything wrong with beer and baseball, I love them both dearly, but my most recent trip had a much more worthwhile purpose.  Amanda and I went to Boston for Memorial Day weekend to watch her sister Steph graduate from New England School of Law.  Pretty impressive, I must say.  Steph is a pretty impressive girl, so I wouldn't expect anything less, but let me start off this ridiculously long blog by saying congrats on your well deserved accomplishment.  Okay, now on to the highlights of the trip (with a very minimal focus on alcohol and/or sports)...

Amanda and I lucked out with our selection of hotel.  We stayed at the Westin Copley which was right in the heart of Boston and central to just about everything you could imagine.  The room was incredible and the view from the 17th floor was pretty killer.  Here is me loving "The Heavenly Sleep System" and a view from our window:

We got into town Thursday night and things were pretty uneventful.  We hit up one of Steph's favorite bars and got something to eat but turned in pretty early.  Friday morning was the graduation and Amanda and I woke up early so she could stop by the Apple store and pick up Steph's graduation present before the ceremony.  I was in heaven.  This is the biggest Apple Store in the country, and the second biggest in the world.  If you know me, you know why three floors of Apple makes me happy.  Here's me in front of the Mecca:  

After an hour or so of drooling over white, plastic, shiny things we headed to the Wang Theater for the NESL graduation.  The venue was incredible!  I imagine it was quite an honor to graduate here.  Larry Lucchino was the guest speaker, so that was pretty cool.  I guess I didn't really expect to go a full two hours in Boston without some reference to the Red Sox or their rivalry with the Yankees, and graduation certainly was not a haven from this.  The moment belonged to the graduates though, and here are a couple more photos from the paparazzi (a.k.a Amanda):

The wicked theater

The Sauer Fam

After graduation on Friday we had some lunch and then hung out in the hotel room for a while.  Steph opened her new MacBook from Amanda... welcome to the team Steph!  We headed to Quincy Market in the evening.  We did some walking, a little shopping, some more photo taking, and had dinner at Cheers.  After the parental units turned in for the night we headed to Jake Ivory's, a dueling piano bar next to Fenway.  After a couple drinks there we headed to some other bar that Steph frequents.  Here are a few pics from our good times on Friday night:

Me and Steph

Amanda, Steph, Steph's BFF Katie (and Katie's brother Tim making an appearance)

Saturday started off with an attempt at the ever-popular "Duck Tour."  When we tried to buy tickets around 11am were all pretty disappointed to discover it was sold out for the day.  I guess if you snooze, you lose.  Plan B was to take the T to Harvard Square instead, see the University, and grab some lunch.  It was a beautiful day and the back-up plan was a lot of fun.  Here are a couple more pics:     

Steph and I with John Harvard

The Girls and Me on some rocks

Okay, so I am going to end this incredibly long post with a story.  I've told this story a dozen times or so since I've returned from my trip, but for those of you that haven't heard it, it's pretty good.  Here goes... So on Saturday afternoon Amanda was napping in the hotel and I was wandering around the city by myself.  I ran across some half price tickets to see The Blue Man group's 10pm performance and I couldn't pass them up.  Amanda and I were super excited and the theater was even walking distance from our hotel.  We got to the show about a half hour early and were very surprised to see how small the theater was.  We had balcony seats that were probably the furthest possible seats from the stage, but still really close due to the small size of the theater.  Let me just say, if you haven't seen The Blue Man group, do it! The show was absolutely incredible.  Here's the cool part though.  I'm going to give you the abridged version, if you want to hear it with all the exciting details you'll have to call me or talk to me in person.  So about 3/4 of the way through the show one of the Blue Men appears on the balcony about 30 feet from where Amanda and I were sitting.  The two other Blue Men were on the stage with huge spotlights shining on the 3rd guy on the balcony with us.  The creepy looking dude covered in blue paint stared at me, locked eyes, and came toward me.  He put his hand out to me, and pulled me out of my seat.  He brought my down the stairs and up onto the stage.  While on stage with the Blue Men they put me into a white coverall suit that completely covered all of my clothes, my arms, and my legs.  Then one of the Men locked eyes with me for what felt like an eternity, but was probably about 5 seconds in reality.  He put his thumb on my left cheek and a blue thumb print remained on my face.  They then put a black helmet with a blacked out visor over my head and I was completely blinded.  At this point they led me off stage into what seemed like the basement of the theater, and covered my white suit with blue paint.  They then tied my ankles together and hung me upside down.  They then proceeded to swing me into a canvas and create a painting out of me.  When we finished making our work of art they helped me into a cart that had a gigantic Jell-O mold on top of it.  I climbed INTO the cart and stuck my head up into the oversized Jell-O structure.  They finished this bit by rolling me back out onto the stage, jiggled the Jell-O to the beat of some music, and clawed into it so my head was then exposed to the crowd.  They helped me climb out of the cart, handed me a huge clump of Jell-O and led me off stage.  That was it.  Every word is mostly true.  Unfortunately they are rabid about not allowing pictures to be taken, so although Amanda took a couple great ones, they literally stood over her shoulder and made sure she deleted them.  Here is Amanda and I outside the theater after the show with the only amount of proof I have: 

The Blue Man touched my face

So that's our trip in a nut shell.  I can't imagine ever posting a blog this long again, but it was such a great time I wanted to at least share some pictures, share my Blue Man story, and say congrats to Steph.  Stay tuned for an update after this coming weekend when Amanda, Jeff, Michele, and I head up to NYC to see the Mets and Dodgers play at Shea!