{"id":1929,"date":"2021-12-31T23:35:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T07:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/?p=1929"},"modified":"2021-12-31T23:35:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T07:35:40","slug":"life-first-visit-to-boston-and-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/2021\/12\/31\/life-first-visit-to-boston-and-cambridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Life: First Visit to Boston and Cambridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For reasons that I may\/not eventually disclose, I visited Boston and Cambridge in Massachusetts this month. I wanted to get a feel for what life is like there, so I bought some new “base layers” for winter weather (!), and headed out of the Bay Area for the first time since the COVID 19 pandemic began<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston and Cambridge each made a good impression on me. <\/strong> As a happy San Franciscan heavily integrated into the fabric of my multicultural, open-minded, caffeinated City, I wasn’t sure that Boston would feel comfortable. Happily, the diverse population, reliable subway system, and great vegan food won me over!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both towns were walkable. The subway system made sense, and my Charlie Card (their version of Clipper) made travel easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each time I ate in restaurants within earshot of others, other patrons were chatting at their tables about trying to get their research funded. (A good sign!)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t<\/a>\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t2021.12 Boston, Massachusetts\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPhotos representing my experience (casual, not too fancy, don’t get too excited)\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yes, many of the Freedom Trail sites were closed due to the pandemic, but I found other things to do. Yes, it got down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.6 Celsius?), but I was dressed very carefully (lightweight yet insulating base layers!), and I could handle it. It snowed gently, and that was kind of fun. Puddles froze and never thawed, and I caught other tourists trying to break one, which was hilarious (adults playing with puddles like children!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not fill my suitcase with art books. I did not go out to take photos at night when it was below freezing. These were good decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My masks were comfortable in all indoor settings, and I learned that masks are very cozy when it is snowing.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston and Cambridge are both booming, filled with new construction of businesses, housing, streetcar stations, and more. Infrastructure matters, and they are clearly planning for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a good time and a positive experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an awkward\/funny postscript. I was there before the omicron variant of COVID was well understood. I participate in CA Notify<\/a>, which is my home state’s bluetooth exposure tracking system. While I was in Boston, my phone asked me if I want to participate in MassNotify<\/a>, and I agreed.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MassNotify sent me a COVID proximity\/exposure warning 8 days after my return home (and three days after my negative home test). Someone with the right combination of proximity + duration on the day before I flew home subsequently tested positive for COVID. The instructions were clear, and since I’m both vaccinated and boosted, quarantine was never required – vigilant masking is enough. I’m impressed that <\/span><\/em>the system worked, even though I was just visiting!<\/span><\/em> Yaay, technology! <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For reasons that I may\/not eventually disclose, I visited Boston and Cambridge in Massachusetts this month. I wanted to get a feel for what life is like there, so I bought some new “base layers” for winter weather (!), and headed out of the Bay Area for the first time since the COVID 19 pandemic … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Life: First Visit to Boston and Cambridge”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[59,217],"class_list":["post-1929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-pandemic","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1929"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1937,"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teahousehome.com\/booksandcoffee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}