while marco took my bike (with rear baskets) to do some holiday shopping (MIT gift shop and the galleria mall), i spent a little time fixing up his bike. i replaced the broken bike bell and added a spare rear light. he returned around 3:00 but left again, this time to target and then to visit his office one last time to say good bye to some coworkers he missed seeing yesterday and to return his office key.

i left the house just once to get a few things from rite aid.

meeting marco at MIT - arriving via a new way - broadway down portand to albany to mass ave - gift of MIT keychain

biking upwind across mass ave bridge - an especially windy night

mcgreevy's (991 boylston) - magners hard cider & guinness - large bottle, almost a wine bottle - asked if i wanted served with ice - cute bartenders and waitstaff

copley square mall - yvonne sighting - hustle and bustle of fast moving holiday shoppers and commuters passing through on their way home - copley square shaws liquor store - buying a bottle of samuel adams barrel room collection new world tripel for marco's brother-in-law - i volunteered to pay because marco forgot his passport but the teenage cashier asked for both our id's and accepted marco's italian driver's license so he ended up paying

riding down boylston street towards boston common, navigating through the gauntlet of taxis (advanced biking) - looking back every once in a while to make sure marco was still behind me

cutting through boston common to see the state house, the christmas tree display, and the minimum creche scene

down winter and summer street to south station - empty dewey square behind barricades with a few police guards

across congress street bridge to children's wharf park - crossing back over seaport boulevard bridge

down atlantic avenue to india street to harborwalk - east boston across the harbor & logan airport

quincy market - least amount of people i've ever seen - only 7:00 a few eating places already closed - started to rain a little bit at that point - not too many shoppers, mostly teenagers

returning home on congress street, stopped at the haymarket station souvenir t-shirt vendor - marco bought a $10 green irish boston t-shirt with shamrock - i paid because he didn't have any cash left

crossing longfellow bridge back to cambridge - upwind again! - marco takes the lead (guy pedals fast)

returning home to pick up passport - wing works in davis square: 10 pieces each of garlic & parmesan (gourmet) and rochester - downtown wine & spirits - bigger on the inside than what it looks on the outside - woodchuck amber hard cider & smuttynose old brown dog ale - didn't even look at marco's passport

marco's first wing experience - wished he got the 14 pieces - wished he knew about wings earlier - marco thinks smuttynose is okay, prefers samuel adams - learned that he regularly donates blood