We were heading back to Boston but not downtown Boston this time. This time we stayed outside of downtown in an area called Anderson/Woburn in order to make sure we got to a screening in IMAX 3D of The Hobbit. Tim purchased the tickets online and we made sure we were there nearly an hour and a half before the screening. Seating is important in these sorts of movies. It can have a significant effect on viewing experience. Yes we are the purist film going geeks you read about.

We saw the movie the day it came out and I personally enjoyed every minute of it. There wasn’t a second when I wasn’t engaged with this movie at all. In fact I was so engaged even though it had been going for well over two hours when it ended I was completely taken by surprise. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS IS A TRILOGY? 🙂 Damn you Peter Jackson and your long and drawn out yet inevitably highly rewarding filming process. Till next December then!!

We decided we would do another viewing in New York around Christmas and see it in the 48 frames per second format. Still 3D and IMAX. But for comparison purposes of course. We needed to research the formats carefully and ascertain our own informed opinion, wouldn’t do to just dismiss out of hand some possibly money grabbing gimmick employed by the entertainment industry without making sure it was dismissible.

We then moved onto Foxboro – still in Massachusetts and caught our first game of NFL at the New England Patriots Gillette Stadium. It was freezing cold and drizzling all night but I got to see the game first hand! They were playing the San Francisco 49ers and sadly they lost. It was not a good game for Tom Brady. Which is a shame because he really should be too pretty too lose.

Whether he’s in the great Patriot colour scheme of red, white and blue…

or not in it…

But I digress. Distracted for a moment…ahh Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots were losing from the get go, however they did rally and managed to bring the score back to tied not long into the 4th. Unfortunately less than 3 minutes later from one kickoff and one play they were down a touchdown again. Although I couldn’t feel my toes or my fingers I enjoyed a warming Patriots souvenir cup of hot chocolate and completely enjoyed my first NFL live experience. I wouldn’t mind seeing a game again in the future and I can only imagine what the Superbowl atmosphere is like. I have now carefully divided my loyalties between three NFL teams – Dallas Cowboys (their single star is very striking and I have a definite soft spot for Texas), Chicago Bears (their hoodies were too nice to resist and Soldier Stadium is impressive and I LOVE the city) and New England Patriots, the red, white and blue scheme is very striking and they have a very easy on the eyes QB, and they’re not doing too bad at winning 😉 Sadly – Cowboys and Bears are out of the Playoffs but I hope the Pats get up to win 🙂

We then drove on the next day to Milford Connecticut – which broke up the drive to New York. We had a great BBQ restaurant experience in this area at Joey C’s BBQ Smokehouse. Joey C himself, personally came out and asked how our meals were and we were nothing short of effusive in our praise. There was nothing that wasn’t above par in flavour and taste. Tim’s blog post here has pictures and details.