Trip to Boston with Barb to celebrate both girls’ birthdays, for Barb to see Allie’s place, and generally commune with our newly working daughter. Then Bill went on to Nova Scotia for week including music of the Celtic Colours festival.
Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017
Barb and I drove to BWI, arriving a little later than I’d planned, having dallied slightly at home. By the time we got to Southwest check in, we were just inside 45 minutes to 1:40pm takeoff and they tagged our bags as late. The flight was on time, and my bag made it fine, but Barb’s didn’t. Lesson: get to BWI counter at least an hour ahead like they tell you to.
Fortunately, it was less than an hour until the next flight arrived so we had a snack at Boston airport and Barb’s bag popped up on the next flight. Caught a cab to Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill hotel and waited a little while for Allie to get home. We connected with her, then walked to North End to Mamma Maria restaurant where we had 8pm reservation. This was supposed to have been our big birthday celebration for both girls, it being Allie’s actual birthday. The meal was nice, higher end Italian, but nothing spectacular. Barb deconstructed a Veal Francese, I had scallop risotto, and Allie had a shrimp pasta, I think. We walked around the corner to Caffe Vittoria, next to Mike’s Pastry, for gelato (pistachio ice cream still nothing compared to San Sebastian) and coffee. The evening ended up being low key, but enjoyable, and everyone seemed fine with the idea of spreading the eating out at several nice places through the weekend. We walked back to hotel, then after a while I walked Allie back to her apartment.
Friday, Oct. 6
We reserved the morning to do any house supply shopping needed, but it ended up involving CVS only. Got that done in morning and went over to Allie’s apartment, with Barb seeing it for the first time. We all approved. Allie seems admirably moved in after just a few months, and seems to be getting along reasonably well with her roomies. The neighborhood is decent and she enjoys being in the city. Especially nice is being adjacent to the Charles River park and walking trails.
We walked across town about a mile to the Langham Hotel for the girls to have tea at 1:30pm, only getting mildly lost. Meanwhile, I scoped out the highly rated Sam LaGrassa’s for lunch (#1 of 2,448 restaurants in Boston on TripAdvisor, Yelp, Zagat). Is it really the World’s Best Sandwich? No, but it was good. I got the pastrami/corned beef combo and dripped my way through it. Pickles and chips were good. Worth going back sometime, when in the mood for belly busting sandwich, but it’s not really the landmark it promotes itself to be. The restaurant itself is a stand in line deal with no special ambiance or anything. I finished lunch in 30 minutes and had a long wait for girls to finish tea, so I hung out in the park outside Langham, people watching for a while before joining the girls. They had a very nice time at the tea, it seemed.
We walked back to hotel in time for naps and relaxing. Then we mustered our strength to head out for dinner. Allie and I headed out for a walk along the Charles while Barb wrestled with work emails. Al and I had a pleasant time watching what seemed to be sailboat teams from various universities practicing. They didn’t seem to be very good at it, but that made it more interesting to watch for near collisions and capsizings.
We had 8pm reservations at Post 390 and decided to walk the 2 miles there, taking Barb along the river for a ways, then heading to Eataly in the Prudential Center Mall. Eataly is a high end Italian food and kitchen equipment market chain founded by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and partners. I only learned about it recently, but it’s been prominent in New York and elsewhere. There are several restaurants and we’d thought about bringing Allie’s roomies there the following evening, but after scoping them out decided they were too noisy and casual, or too expensive. Not sure I’d ever really do any shopping at Eataly, but it’s fun to browse the aisles. We headed on to dinner and sat in a corner table in the lower level Tavern at Post 390 (website). We ordered various small plates to share, none really outstanding, had a decent evening then walked back to the hotel. By the time we got back I was weary of hikes. It was a 27,482 step day for me, which I think is a record. Allie decided to join us for the next two nights, which was fine and made the next morning’s logistics a little easier.
Saturday, Oct. 7
We slept relatively late, then Ubered over to our 11:30am brunch reservation at Island Creek Oyster Bar. We were among the first seated and proceeded to cumulatively share the lobster roll, fried clams, clam chowder, and fish and chips, I believe. And a good Bloody Mary. A nice meal.
We then Ubered to the JFK museum for our first visit there. The museum is on the same South Boston peninsula where Kristen lived and went to U-Mass Boston. We’d often thought about going there, but never made the time. The museum’s focus is naturally on JFK’s presidency, though I wanted to learn more about his background and family. The exhibits are very well done but I got the feeling only a positive, pro-JFK story was being told.
It’s inevitable, I suppose, being his dedicated library and museum, but it seems like nearly every display case and episode could warrant full volumes of background, context and conjecture. JFK is a mighty complicated character, as were his times.
That evening we had dinner with Allie’s roommates, Edmee and ???. We walked to a new place by Boston Common which Allie wanted to try, the Explorateur Cafe. It was a good choice, with Steak Frites for me, onion soup for Barb, and burgers for the girls. I think everyone had a good time.
Sunday, October 8
For our final day in Boston, we roused ourselves to head out to dim sum, walking one more mile through Beacon Hill and the Common to Hei La Moon which Allie recommended as the best in town. It a large, old place with an enormous lower room, bordering on Boston’s scruffy Chinatown. We were able to get a table quickly and soon figured that we were best off chasing down the carts with items we wanted. 
The food was quite tasty and we quickly filled up, while the restaurant filled around us. By the time we were ready to leave, there was a substantial crowd in the lobby waiting for tables. And it was raining. While we waited for Uber, Barb scoped out the carryout place next door which was doing a booming business in pork ribs and other goodies.
We packed up at the hotel and checked out while Allie retrieved her car to take us to the airport. We bid farewell to Allie and got Barb tucked into her flight home on Southwest, then I headed for the Alamo rental counter to get wheels for my Nova Scotia adventure.
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