Bretton Woods

I really wanted to get in a bit of xc skiing before the winter was over, so for my birthday we headed up to Bretton Woods. This is our favorite xc ski area. Here's what my friend Rob L. has to say about BW: "Bretton Woods is the perfect place to mix cross-country skiing and cross-currency hedging."

I didn't have time to wax our skis yesterday, so I tried to get them done as quickly as possible this morning so we could head up. The weather ended up being much warmer than we expected, and I didn't use the right wax for the mushy mess around the xc ski center. But once we got into the woods and a little higher up, the snow was fine. We had a great time, and I always enjoy having the chance to xc ski or do an epic ride someplace warm on my birthday.



You may not know this, but ninjas are just like the rest of us. Sometimes they like to go xc skiing.



I was overwhelmed by all the calls (from as far away as Iceland and Hawaii) and emails and e-cards and FB messages, as well as the lovely dinner than Rach and Neilie made for me last night and the birthday pie from Kris and Brad. Thank you so much. I am truly fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life.

Portland

This time last week, I was heading up to Portland, Maine, with Rachel and Neilie for an overnight road trip. We had so much fun. Portland is a great place to hang out and we found some amazing places to eat.

One major difference between Portland and Cambridge: when people run out into the street, they're wearing light-colored clothing instead of black. So it's easier to avoid them. Also, people were wearing sweatshirts without coats even though it was below freezing. Maine.

Obviously, I had to take a picture of this:



At Soakology, we had tea and yummy snacks. Here we are halfway through our order of four "feet" of dark chocolate:



We managed to save some room for an incredible dinner at Fore Street. Everything we ordered was wonderful: wood-smoked mussels, shitake-turnip soup, scallops, Arctic char, meyer lemon/key lime mousse with blood orange granita, and chocolate cake. And the best surprise came at the end -- we were amazed how affordable it was compared to similar restaurants in Boston/Cambridge.



Rach and Neilie tend to be early to bed, early to rise, but the lure of Bananagrams kept us up quite late. (We were at the Inn at St. John, which I found out about from ask.metafilter.com and definitely recommend.)



Neilie had the presence of mind to ask our server at Fore Street where we should go for brunch. She suggested Caiola's, which was really wonderful. The French toast ("lost bread") and maple bacon were my favorites. Then we headed up to Freeport to hit some of our favorite outlets. Neilie had loaded up her iPhone with several podcasts of RadioLab, which kept us entertained on the drive home.

We had a great time and I'm sure we'll head back with the boys to go to those restaurants again. Mmm.