restaurant.com week

We had to use up our restaurant.com certificates before we left town, so we had our own private restaurant week this past week. In case you aren't familiar with restaurant.com, I'd highly recommend trying it. You buy $25 certificates for $10 (at most). We bought them at 80% off for $2 each. That's right: $25 certificates for $2 each. Pretty amazing (and legal, too).

We went to (in reverse favorite order):
- Atasca near Kendall/MIT (a beautiful outdoor garden patio or a cozy plates-on-yellow-wall interior) for Portuguese fare (our bill was $10 for the two of us for dinner!),
- 75 Chestnut in Beacon Hill (cute little tavern-type place) for sandwiches,
- Mela in the South End (hip and stylish with high ceilings and hanging paper lanterns) for more Indian food than we could possibly stomach,
- Zocalo in Brighton (colorful Mexican art and exposed brick walls) for upscale Mexican,
- Dalia in Brookline (purple walls with silver mirrors and painted flowers) for perfect scallops and steak, and
- Dante near the Museum of Science (with a great patio overlooking Boston and the Charles River or a modern, understated high-ceilinged interior) for some of the best Italian I've had in Boston (I'd recommend the squid primi and truffle secondi). Also, if you want to splurge on a nice dinner, the three-course menu is a good value at $35 for the quality of the food, even without the $25 certificate.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and did a good job fattening ourselves up, in preparation for conversion into frugal backpacker mode. But it's yet another sign that we are running out time here in Boston.

Yesterday, we had brunch with some of our oldest Boston friends (back from when my partner and I first met as wide-eyed first-year graduate students), one of whom we may not see for a while. My partner told me later he was sad throughout brunch, our friend who we won't see for a while was visibly sad when we said goodbye, and it really started to sink in that we were leaving. But also that we had created some great friendships and were lucky to have met such wonderful people.

(So, friend-who-we-won't-see-for-a-while (and I know you're reading this on your google reader), I guess we'll just have to see you here in Beantown in the next year or two when you get married. Ha ha. Kidding. Sort of.)

Anyway, back to travel. I just came across this incredible LA Times slide show, and while I know Australia is on many people's To Go list already, this is just another (very compelling) reason to go. Some of the most beautiful photos I've seen in a while. Even the captions are worth reading.

Our movers and packers come tomorrow and will transform our little one bedroom from Home into a Vacant Flat. Exciting and sad and wonderful and terrifying. Thanks for joining me for the ride.