Winter Won't Let Go in the Northeast

It does appear to be quite cold outside. As you can see, the weather is actually quite beautiful - clear, sunny skies with no clouds whatsoever. The view towards Cambridge doesn't tell the whole story as it's around 7 degrees outside with "refreshing" 30-40 mph gusts. Sounds just like Houston, doesn't it? This weather makes my recent trip to Allentown sound like a trip to Cancun. The high today was supposed to be 14 degrees but, from what I heard, it never got that "warm". I suppose it's all just the same from a hotel room. It could be 90 outside and I probably wouldn't know the difference.

Of course, the wind gusts made for a nerve-wracking landing. My brother is holed up in his room with the flu - not a good way to start a business trip - so I walked across the street from the Marriott Cambridge to the MIT Press bookstore to pass the time. I looked through some sale books and picked up Houses of Asia and Graphiscape Tokyo - both interesting architecture and design books.

Across the street is the MIT Co-Op, a nerdy version of the football temple known as The University Co-Op at UT. You can find plenty of books but, unlike the UT Co-Op where you can find everything for tailgating, partying and showing off your Longhorn pride, you can find hundreds of different shirts and sweats with essentially the same "M.I.T." design.

Granted, I did come across a couple of cool Boston guides that are worth checking out the next time you visit Boston or Cambrige... eat.shop.boston and NFT Boston 2007 (Not for Tourists). Unlike your run-of-the-mill Fodor's or Frommer's guide, these guides provide a different take on destinations like Boston. I won't have time to see anything so I left them where they are but they might be worth checking out the next time you visit Boston.

EDIT...

OK, I actually came back from dinner and a workout. Strike the "I suppose it's all just the same from a hotel room. It could be 90 outside and I probably wouldn't know the difference" comment. That is so not true. It is freezing in this hotel and at one point I was sitting in my room wearing my overcoat. At dinner, my hands felt frozen. Granted, I am more cold-natured since I lost weight but, as Gob would say, c'mon...

Anyway, I ate at MC2, the hotel's restaurant. You never know what to expect at a Marriott restaurant. That is, you can expect the food to be relatively good. However, my entree was actually excellent. I had a garden salad that was relatively pedestrian but my roasted salmon on lentils and sauteed spinach was scrumptious. The total bill, with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, came out to about $32 - not bad and well within reasonable limits.

After dinner, I worked out in the hotel's fitness center. I got a great leg workout (pretty much killing my legs) and then received a reminder of how much I miss a rowing machine at my gym. Since I couldn't chase my workout with a protein shake, I had room service bring up a tall glass of skim milk with a bit of coffee. Time to wrap it up and get ready for tomorrow's meetings.