A man may stand there and put all America behind him

A man may stand there and put all America behind him
-- Transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau, about Cape Cod

I can recall maybe around six or seven times in my life when I have suffered from somewhat severe sunburn; but this particular time is different for several reasons. One, it is a cheerful reminiscence of a perfect and relaxing weekend, chillaxing - chill and relaxing at the beach by experiencing the Atlantic with all of my senses, in addition to some care-free napping, is the way to enjoy a warm summer day. It is definitely a nice escape from the daily grind of professional, stressful work behind desk, working on AutoCAD.

Two, I’m proud of the fact that I have become a part of the prominent, long tradition of the New England summer vacation on the prestigious Cape Cod, an arm-shaped Massachusetts peninsula located not far from Boston. And lastly, but most importantly, I have not planned this spontaneous treat, and I have met many great people along the way.

We are staying at a Mid-Cape town of West Dennis, a quiet but great community where some of the most prominent residents from all around New England have built their summer homes. Only a one hour drive from Boston city center (not counting the weekend traffic though), the Cape, as New Englanders would call it, naturally becomes a jewel of the comfortable Northeast summer culture, with some 550+ miles of pristine shorelines to choose from. Fortunately, some of the shorelines are protected, like the Cape Cod National Shore, so the impact of human use on the Cape is minimized.

Nights at the Cape are amazing. Although I expected a couple of typical New England things, such as eating some excellent Clam Chowder and a Scallop dinner at a laid-back local restaurant/bar called Wooden Shoe, lack of city development also means brighter stars in the sky. Sitting by the fire, generated by broken plywood and crumples of newspaper in my buddy Joe’s summer house's backyard, we are discussing the north sky constellation, lead by our new French friend, Lauren, who has outstanding astronomy and mythology knowledge. Just like that, I start to learn about le Grand Ours - the Big Bear, known to us as The Big Dipper. We are enjoying Joe’s stories about his mishaps on his last visit to Key West, which sounds more like a sitcom episode of 'Seinfeld'.

Boston itself hasn’t changed a bit since the last time I visited a couple years back. One can’t help but feeling a little more patriotic when moseying around Boston. It is littered with historical places from US History and significant names from Revolutionary America, such as Samuel Adams (the person that is, not the beer!), James Otis, Paul Revere and John Hancock, to name a few.

A citizenship oath ceremony was taking place at historic Faneuil Hall when I was planning on going there on my first day in Boston, an interesting concept and place to experience patriotism. So instead, I had a thorough visit on my second day - and after seeing a board advertising a Blood Drive that day at the Faneuil Hall marketplace, I am glad that I did my part and decided to participate by donating blood there.

Boston has transformed itself into a sport cult - literally, almost every other person in Boston has some kind of Boston professional sport team’s logo on their clothing, mostly the MLB Boston Red Sox and NBA Boston Celtics (and some NFL New England Patriots). In professional baseball, the Red Sox, for the first time, are the 2007 World Series Champions; Boston couldn't be prouder of the team. Game tickets are sold out long before the actual game day, and in some games, especially those with the rival, New York Yankees, it is almost impossible to acquire a ticket at a reasonable price.

Boston is one of the oldest established cities in North America, and has claimed many American firsts - the first public park (Boston Common, 1634), the first public library (Boston Public Library, 1653), the first public beach (Revere Beach, 1896), the oldest current Major League Baseball stadium (Fenway Park, 1912), the birthplace of the Christmas Carol ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ (Trinity Church, 1867), and too many more to list on this blog.

On my fourth day in Boston, I managed to meet my high school friend, Yulia, who is pursuing her Master's degree at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is very interesting to tour the campus with a current MIT student. I have been exposed to the MIT Sailing Club (which she is actively involved with), the notorious pranksters, MIT Hacks (there are excellent displays at Frank Gehri's Stata Center), and Mr. F.P. Salvucci (a famous civil engineer who was in charge of the controversial Big Dig project in Boston).

Nights in Boston are also interesting - we had the opportunity to hang out at two bars on two different nights. The first night's bar was called Charlie's Kitchen, a dimly-lit but lively bar where I recalled scenes from 'Good Will Hunting', due to the bar's atmosphere and the number of Harvard students all around us. The second night's bar was the White Horse. It was predominantly occupied by Boston University students (unfortunately, our buddy Josh was a little too tipsy and got kicked out off the bar - so it wasn't exactly a nice end to our day).

Having said that, Boston always lives up to my expectations, and I can't wait to experience more of New England.

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