On Sat Jan 7 (yesterday) we held a meet up in Boston. I did the organizing so I’m doing the initial “trip report”, but hopefully the others who attended will chime in here or do separate postings. . 11 people originally expressed interest when we started planning in early December, but with changes to schedules and priorities, the pending snowstorm, (ah..typical Boston weather in January), and a few people not feeling well at the last minute, we ended up with 4 people. The night before and morning of we were still discussing whether to cancel but decided to go ahead. The four were Diana, Raji (crazyone), Jill (Jamc), and me Chris (Chris 987). It was too bad more people couldn’t make it but with just four we were able to shop together as a group and really get to know each other a bit. So much fun to meet IRL! It really was lovely.

Early that morning, predictions for Boston were 8-12” of snow, starting at mid day, with temps in the low 20’s.. We were all prepared with warm coats, boots, hats, scarves, gloves. Two of us live near the city and travelled by public transportation. The other two live further out and did various combinations of driving and public transportation. All four of us had lived in the Boston area long enough to be good at handling this
kind of weather, so we put on our snow gear and headed out!

We started at the Flour Bakery, where I think the last big Boston meet-up began, and had our meet and greet and some breakfast. We took the shoes & bags photo there: 4 pairs of snow-worthy black footwear! We then spent quite a bit of time at Nordstrom Rack. By the time we left at
noon it had started to snow, and that’s when we got a stranger on the street to take a group photo. I had to lighten up the photo a bit since it really was a grey day. From left to right: Chris (Chris987) in the crooked
hat, Raji (Crazyone), Jill (jamc), and Diana.

It continued to snow moderately hard through the afternoon. A few of us experienced a little slipping underfoot but no too bad. Every time we went into a store we had to do the snow stomp, shake the snow off our hats and coats, and peel off some layers, and when going back out had to “suit up” again. Much more work than shopping in warmer months

We had lunch at Piattini Café, a wonderful suggestion by Raji with delicious food and surprisingly moderate prices for Newbury St. With just four people we really felt we got to know each other a bit. We discussed families, jobs/careers, travel (between the four of us we have been to a LOT of different parts of the world!), shopping, YLF, where we had grown up and lived now, and lots of other topics. Really great time all around. We did a little more shopping after lunch and then went our separate ways.

We shopped at Nordstrom Rack, Club Monaco, Ann Taylor, Madewell, and Uniqlo…

What a great day! As I said earlier, having just 4 people made it feel like were old friends which was really lovely.

Keep an eye out for responses or separate postings from all of us on what we wore, bought, etc.