Well, I returned from Boston lastnight! Kristy and I had a great few days in Beantown. Enjoy my full photo tour here, but below is a little itinerary with links to more info if you're interested, followed by some general observations.
Friday, Nov. 9th
Lunch at Durgin Park Restaurant at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace
Walk around the marketplace, visit to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall
Dinner at Fajitas and Ritas with our friend Steph
Saturday, Nov. 10th
(we slept in a bit on this day!)
Lunch and shopping in Prudential Center with Steph and her daughter Olivia
Walking tour of Beacon Hill
Pastries at the infamous Mike's Pastry
Sunday, Nov. 11th
Snacks at Prudential Center
Train to Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Back to Boston for walking tour of the North End
Drinks at Bell in Hand Tavern (oldest continuously operating tavern in America)
Dinner at Union Oyster House (oldest restaurant in America)
Monday, Nov. 12th
We intended to make a quick visit to the harbor before we had to go to the airport, but our transportation did not work out. So it was just a traveling home day for us!
Boston is a very interesting city; a mix of old and new not just with its buildings, but also with its people. It's much more diverse than I imagined, with active Irish, African American, Italian and Chinese communities, but also more recent Mexican, Vietnamese and West Indian populations. At first blush it might seem quite a contrast to the stiff, wealthy country club ladies...but in actuality Boston is an academic city with Democratic politics that really do follow in the footsteps of its Revolutionary founders. It's a city very proud of its history, and they have made it very easy to find landmarks by making the city very walkable and the transit system easy to use. The Freedom Trail literally leads you to various landmarks by a red line marked in the sidewalk; all you have to do is follow it. A person could spend days and days combing through all of the history here - we only experienced the tip of the iceberg.
Overall our experience with Bostonians was extremely pleasant. People are pretty tolerant of tourists and were very friendly giving directions, snapping a photo, pointing us in the right direction for the subway, or just making general conversation. Often we did not even have to ask; someone approached us. The Boston accent is fabulous, and we really got a kick out of listening to people talk. There seems to be no letter "r" in the Boston vocabulary...such that words like "chowder" sound like "chowdah" and "apartment" sounds like "apahtment." We especially loved when people could guess where we were from, because of our "accent."
Speaking of the chowdah, the food was fabulous. I'm not a big seafood fan, but I did have some clam chowdah. The best was by far at Union Oyster House, where we also tried scrod, a traditional New England fish that we found out is just a really unappealing name for baby cod. The Italian food in the Italian district was, as you might expect, excellent.
Overall, the best part of the trip was that Kristy and I got to spend a lot of quality time together, talking and laughing and just catching up. I could sum it up in one conversation, had Saturday night as we were walking back to our train stop after a leisurely Italian dinner, with Mike's Pastries in our hands:
J [scarfing a cannoli]: "Do I have powdered sugar on my face? Because I don't want to look like an jerk on the train."
K [looking at my face, while holding her toffee bar]: "No. Do I have anything on my face?"
J [looks at her face] "No." [double take] "Wait, yes! There is a big chunk of chocolate on your cheek!" [wipes off, wild giggling ensues]
Thank heavens for girlfriends!
8 comments:
Sounds like a great time!! Glad you were able to take some time off and relax (or not, I'm exhausted just reading about everything you did!) Glad you had fun!
It was actually quite relaxing. We didn't overplan (a mighty feat for two planners) and just kind of went with whatever we felt like, and didn't feel that we had to stay out late. The key though, is that I also had today off!
Wow- I read the blog and just laughed out loud at the comment at the bottom of the blog about Mike's pastries- we are quite a pair when we are hungry! We cannot refuse our sweets, can we? It was such a great time- and I am really glad that we did it- more memories to come.
Talk to you soon!
Sounds like you a had a good time. I've never been to that dump of a town, but many people I know like it.
PS. I hate the Red Sox.
Sounds like another town I've heard of-- New York City--Where if you have enough money you can buy anything, except maybe a World Series!!
PS. Go Red Sox and every other Major League baseball team except the Yankees
I'm jealous! That looks like a great trip! I loved Boston!
Sounds like you had fun....and I believe a cousin on the other side was in Boston the same time as you!!! You probably passed each other and had no idea that you shared a cousin!!!
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