So it has been a busy summer already, and it's just starting.

Over the past month I went to my in-laws in Indiana.  Came back home but left my wife in kids in the midwest to continue their visit.  They finally came home just in time for me to leave for Tech Ed.  Then I got back from Tech Ed in time to go on a family camping trip to the Metolius River.  I think that I'm actually rested now, though.

I've already posted a couple things about Tech Ed.  Looking back, the conference just flat out rocked!  I would definitely recommend going if you have the means.  The local County that I work for should somehow work it in their budget to send a few more people.  At least one developer, dba, and tech services type person.  There is so much information there that it is just exhausting trying to take it all in.  I only took a few pictures there.

Tech Ed was held in Boston this year.  Great town.  Great People.  Not a straight road in the whole city.  Lots of Dunkin Donuts (as I've mentioned before).  The conference kept me pretty busy, but I did manage to take some pictures walking around the city one day.

We spent one evening at Fenway Park.  That night was crazy.  I don't know how much it cost but BillG sure knows how to throw a party.  Pictures.

Finally, the family camp out.  So it has been raining in Oregon since last September.  But the weekend that we decide to go camping the weather decides to wake up and shoot up to 100 degrees!  Actually, it was nice where we were.  I think the hottest that I saw it was 95, and the river helped to cool things down.  Camping pictures here.

I had time to spend the first part of the day walking around Boston.  I didn't get really far.  I saw a bit of the North End at this little park out by the water.  I went to Faneuil Hall which is a big marketplace.  It was fun.  They had a lot of street performers out doing their thing and they were all pretty good.  If I try to relate it to Portland, it’s kind of like Pioneer Place, Waterfront Park (a small part of it anyway) and Saturday Market all smooshed into one place.

I also got to see the Boston Common.  It is a pretty nice park.  It’s very good sized.  There were a lot of people there but it didn’t feel crowded.  Boston Common is fairly wide which I think helped out in not feeling too crowded.  This would be the opposite of Waterfront Park in Portland which is long and skinny.  So when you get many people in there, bit feels crowded really fast.

I stopped by a graveyard along the way and there I got to see where Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere and John Adams were buried.  As I was walking around the graveyard, out of the corner of my eye I caught my last name on a gravestone.  Turns out my first name was on there too!  That was kind of….I don’t know what it was.  Maybe weird, although I don’t know why.  Google for me, and you’ll see there are a bunch of us.  We should form our own voting block.

Finally I ended my day of sight seeing at Cheers.  It’s a total tourist trap.  I took the obligatory picture outside of the sign and the stairs going down.  Then I went down into the bar.  They have the wooden Indian outside the door!  But once you step inside, you aren’t in Cheers.  I wasn’t really expecting it to look the same, but even still it was kind of disappointing.  I should have bolted when I saw the menu had Frazier Fries on it, but I stayed and had a beer and a sandwich.

I threw some pictures that I took throughout the day on Flickr (yeah, I put one of the tombstone out there).

One final note, and something that has kind of been nagging me.  What the hell is with all the Dunkin Donuts shops?  Their freaking everywhere!  At any one place in the city, you can’t be more that five blocks away from a Dunkin Donuts.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the Boston Beer Works.  It’s a whole lot like Rock Bottom Brewery, only way better.  Food was better.  Beer was better.  I have to get back there one more time before I go.