Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A state highpoint, a walkabout and apartment hunting

Last Saturday we took a ride out to Rhode Island to hike the state highpoint. As readers of the blog know, hiking state highpoints is a hobby/goal of mine, and I'd been meaning to climb Jerimoth Hill ever since we got to New England. Of course, at 812 ft. I use the words hike and climb liberally. You park on the road, and walk about 1/4 mile to a small sign designating that you're at the peak. I don't think there's actually any elevation gain on the stroll. It's more strenuous than Ebright Azimuth (scroll down on the link), but it is one more highpoint off my list. (I'm up to 15 now.)
We did manage to find some legitimate hiking nearby though, on a group of trails built by visiting Australians in 1965. A group of Aussie navy seamen were stationed in Rhode Island waiting for delivery of a Destroyer so they "volunteered" to build a bunch of trails around some lakes. Called, appropriately, the Walkabout Trail, it was a very pleasant stroll through forest and lakes. Not sure if I'd make it a destination in and of itself, but if you're in the area where Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island meet you might check it out (how's that for a glowing review?).
We also checked out Blue Hills Reservation in Milton, MA, just outside the Boston city limits. It's a great park, that includes a ski area and over 125 miles of hiking and biking trails. We chose to hike it on a day where the temperatures got up into the high 90s and we were sweating within minutes of starting the hike. The views, however, made it worth it.
We have also been spending a lot of time looking for apartments around Boston, which has been somewhat frustrating, as the prices are high and the quality is low. We found one that we actually really loved, but by the time we called back someone else had taken it. I guess we'll have to be more aggressive next time, although the people who took it did look at it before us, so it's not clear that we could have gotten it even if we'd asked right away. It is a shame though because of the dozen or so places we've looked at, it's the only one I could see myself living in. The rest seemed merely tolerable (and most actually not even that) which isn't exactly what I was looking for in a place to live. Especially one where we'd be paying 50% more than what we were paying Seattle. I know we'll find a place eventually, and probably in the next week or so more listing will open up. The beginning of September is a tough time to look for apartments around Boston as open units get snatched up quickly by the myriads of college students in the area. But, if any readers of this blog know of any good apartments in the Boston area, definitely contact us!

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