Glass Pumpkins and Street Pianos

This past Saturday, my friend Ana and I decided to take advantage of the perfect Fall weather and spend our day outside. Our first stop was at the Glass Pumpkin Patch on MIT's campus. The Glass Pumpkin Patch was exactly what it sounds like- a small field of pumpkins made of glass, by MIT students, for sale to the public. Some of the pumpkins were really cool, but since most of them cost upwards of $100, we just looked and didn't buy. :)

After the pumpkins, we had ice cream and discussed our next move.  Boston has this really fun thing happening right now called "Play Me, I'm Yours." It's part of a worldwide art movement where these "Street Pianos," painted by local artists, are placed throughout a city- in parks, subway stations, popular street corners, etc. - and open for the general public to sit down and play.  There are 75 currently in Boston and Cambridge, and they're awesome. http://www.streetpianos.com/

We decided, after listening to someone play a street piano next to where we had our ice cream, to venture into downtown Boston to find more pianos. We found a map online of where they were all located and decided the one near the Berklee College of Music was probably getting a lot of action, so we headed there first.

From there, we wandered up Boylston Street, into Copley Square, then through the Public Gardens to the Common. I can't remember how many pianos we saw along the way- maybe 6 or 7? And at each one we saw at least 1-2 different people sit down to play. The one in the Common had a line of people waiting to play!

 Our favorite piano of the day. It wins for design and location.

Of course Ana and I had to play a little too, even though we are both ex-piano students who unfortunately don't have a lot to show for our years of lessons. :(

The pianos are only here until October 14th, so Boston peeps- you better get out and find some before they're gone!

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent in the apartment. Chuck did homework all day Saturday and Sunday. I spent my Sunday doing laundry and going to the grocery 3 times to get ingredients for a Turkey Pumpkin Chili. We have a busy weekend coming up though to make up for the not-so-busy one we just had.

Happy Fall!