Most Balloons - Nic Cave’s Augment
It was a colorful conglomeration, a meditation on the amalgam of American culture, simultaneously joyous and macabre. It was also, technically, a whole lot of balloons, and it made us really happy.
Best (and only) Presidential Library - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
What do you do when a history buff and presidential specialist friend comes to visit Boston? You take him to the JFK library, of course! Wonder at the beautiful I.M. Pei architecture, remember a more civilized age of American politics, appreciate the grace and composure of Jackie O, think about an age marked by the fear of mutually assured nuclear destruction, and remember the tragic assasination that shocked and scarred the nation. It is even better when you get to go with someone who is truly passionate about presidential history!
Best Game - Candlepin Bowling
We have developed quite a love for candlepin bowling, which is a northeastern variant on bowling that is vastly superior to the mainstream American version. If you come visit us, we will definitely use it as an excuse to go throw some balls down a lane! (Not kidding, we forced the game on almost all of our visitors - Preston and Adriana, Dallas and Brenda, the Stirling family, and Kate and Joe). The pins are thinner, the balls are smaller, the fallen pins don’t get cleared between frames, and the stakes are - honestly - just about the same.
Most Museums - Washington, D.C.
Real talk, guys. We went to so many museums this year, and we couldn’t pick just one “best museum”. This was the year we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum in New York City, and the year we finally went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum here in Boston and revisited the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art. But we definitely saw the most museums during our trip to Washington, D.C. in February. We hit 6 museums (National Portrait Gallery, Natural History, American Art, American History, Holocaust, Folger Shakespeare) in 2 days, and Abby took an extra day to see 4 more (African American History, Hirshhorn, Air and Space, and the National Archives). We love museums!
Bonus Best Thing:
Biggest blunder goes to Braden for booking his return flight from DC on the correct day, but the incorrect month. Don't worry everyone, he got back to Boston in time for his Monday afternoon class.
Most Accomplished New Year’s Resolution - Abby’s 45 Books
She read, she tracked, she conquered.
Best Line Cut - David Sedaris Book Signing
We have been David Sedaris fans since the beginning of our marriage, when we bought a copy of We Talk Pretty One Day and kept it in the car to read to each other on long car rides. (I know, cute, right?) So when we heard he was coming to Cambridge, we snagged some free book-signing tickets. When we got there, we stood in the back of the line and almost immediately, he started to stare right at us. He began whispering to the couple at the signing table and pointing at us, and we pretended to talk amongst ourselves. What else are you supposed to do when a famous author is clearly talking about you?! Then someone came and tapped me on the shoulder and said, “He wants you to sign your books next.” We were shocked! We were excited! We were a little trepidatious, because we weren’t sure what was going on! Everyone in line stared enviously as we walked past them to the front of the line. We approached his table, and he said, “Where did you get that amazing tote bag? I love it!” We laughed and told him we had gotten it at a museum in Spain. We talked about Picasso and Spanish, and how much we love his books. He even wrote a very inappropriate phrase in Spanish in Braden’s copy of his book. Best $0 I ever spent.
Best Girl - Cleo
Cleo wins this category every year! She is just a very good girl! Hey Cleo, maybe this year you should try being a worse girl and give someone else a chance.
Windiest Roadtrip - The Cape with Dallas and Brenda
Honestly the best part of this road trip was just being in a car with Dallas and Brenda for a day and talking. We saw some lighthouses and historic sites (including Plymouth Rock and the site of the American end of the first transatlantic telegraph wire), ate some mighty fine seafood, and witnessed a very funny traffic stop. Oh yeah, and it was extremely windy.
Best student - TIE! Abby and Braden (JK it’s Braden)
Braden is in his second year as a PhD student at Boston University, and Abby is in her first year as a Master’s student at Simmons University. While they have both had their fare share of late nights and never-ending projects, only one Clinger student regularly works on schoolwork for 40 hours per week, while the other has watched all 5 seasons of 90 Day Fiancé on Hulu. We’ll let you figure out which is which.
Best Dancing - Kate and Joe’s Wedding Dinner
It was a beautiful wedding. They are one of the cutest couples we know that aren’t us. We’ve been known to cut a rug from time to time, but something about celebrating love, eating some of the best surf and turf of our lives, and then that beat dropping really got us out there on the dance floor. We danced like there was no tomorrow and it was lovely.
Worst idea - Abby, for letting Braden cut her hair
He told me he had watched some YouTube videos, and would just do a trim. I thought, “What could go wrong?” As it turned out, he had only watched half of one YouTube video, and it went very wrong. I should have put the kibosh on the whole thing when he didn’t even know how to use the comb. Never trust a bald man to cut your hair.
Best Play - Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning
This one was a last-minute black horse entry, just barely squeaking in under the deadline. Abby got us tickets for the New Year’s Eve showing at the American Repertory Theater and it was breathtaking. The production is almost as leviathan as the novel, and the music was a beautiful hodge-podge of American styles. Grappling with madness, nineteenth-century and contemporary, the show definitely earns its 3 1/2 hours of runtime! Our only regret is not having the courage to volunteer for the audience participation bit---we could have squeezed some spermaceti!
Best Play (Runner-up) - Beetlejuice
We both have a little bit of a soft spot for dark humor and puppets (maybe more so on Braden’s end than Abby’s) and so when the chance to see Beetlejuice on Broadway came up, we jumped for joy. The puppetry was superb, it was interesting to see how they adapted the plot for the stage and 2019, and we left the theater happy. The only concerning thing was how much we could relate to the Maitlands’ song “Ready, Set, Not Yet”. Like seriously, we get them on a real level.
Coldest night - Hut in the White Mountains with Margaret and Julie (Abby’s grandma and mom)
Fall in New England makes for some amazing views, but as we learned in October, it also makes for some pretty cold camping (even if it is in a fancy canvas hut). Even with about 20 blankets and triple the amount of clothing you would normally find any of us in, we got pretty chilly in the middle of the night in the White Mountains. But it was sure worth it for this morning view.
Hottest day - July in Boston with the Stirlings
Julie was with us for both extreme temperature awards. Poor Julie. The hottest day of the year in Boston was July 20, and July just happened to be Boston’s hottest month on record! It also happened to be the month that the Stirling family came to visit Boston. We took a toasty walk around the city, went on a sweltering boat ride, and tried to stay cool with some air-conditioned candlepin bowling and a dip in Walden Pond. It was fun, but we were feeling like roast chickens by the end of it!
Best Bums Round-up
