A multi-pronged Aug-Sep 2018 trip to Boston to visit Allie, then to Lisbon via Dublin to spend time in Portugal with Laurie, culminating in a return to Boston to meet Barb for a long weekend.
Friday, September 7, Boston
Note: I’m slowly learning that these posts are not a good place for making comments or assessments of actual individuals. After all, who am I to judge? I do want to capture a bit of what we did, but will refrain from saying much about anyone in particular. To the extent that my snarky opinions shine through, I apologize in advance for any offense. None is intended.
Barb came up to Boston to have a weekend together with Allie. She pulled herself away from Manny, left him and Busty in neighbor Mark’s capable hands, and got herself to BWI for the flight north. I checked out of the Hampton Inn at noon and headed over to Logan Airport to meet her 1pm flight. We had no trouble connecting, then caught a taxi to our new hotel, the Harborside Inn near Fanueil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market. We checked in, found our decent little room and chilled in the hotel, waiting for Allie to finish her half-day at work. Allie reluctantly drove into town, parked nearby and we connected at the Marketplace for lunch, after determining that Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall are not quite the same things, but nearly. We shared chowder and lobster roll at the Oyster Bar, a proper touristy intro to Boston.
After our afternoon snack, we walked over to the waterfront park and found a bench to sit and talk a while. Allie and I decided to create a drinking game for every time Mom mentioned Manny. If we’d actually had alcohol we would still be on that bench, but it was a pleasant time catching up. After a while we drove over to East Boston and Allie’s new apartment to drop some things off. She had just moved into the place two weeks before and it looked like she still hadn’t really moved in (to be fair, this photo was from move-in day). It’s been a busy time of transitions for Allie, with a new job, new apartment, new roommates and more piling on top of each other. And we won’t mention various automobile issues.
This was our evening to actually meet boyfriend Dan, whom Allie’s been seeing for nearly a year. We met at Bootleg Special (main page), a quasi-Cajun place serving massive crawfish and seafood boil pots for dinner. The boil and a couple of sides were more than enough to share. Allie and I tucked into the crawfish and we gave most of lobster to Barb, but there was plenty for everyone. We all enjoyed the dinner and enjoyed meeting Dan. Afterwards, Allie tucked Barb and me into an Uber back to our hotel. Someday I will get the Uber app myself but for the time being I’m happy to crib off of Allie (and try not to harm her rating).
Saturday, September 8, Boston
For breakfast, Barb and I headed over to the Boston Public Market to forage among the stands. There were lots of good choices. I ended up with a bagel with smoked salmon while Barb picked a pretzel roll breakfast sandwich. This market was on a smaller, friendlier scale than the Time Out Market in Lisbon. It felt much more comfortable and I’d be happy to go back there. In fact, I wish there was something similar closer to home.
We’d kept the weekend agenda open for any sightseeing or other activities that caught our mutual fancies. Barb and I decided that today’s mission was to help Allie get settled into her apartment. We navigated the T to Allie’s place and assessed what she really needed and what could be accomplished. We decided to drive out to Natick where we knew the stores, and bought a healthy stock of apartment goods at Target and the Container Store. We caught a quick lunch at the Natick Mall food court then returned to apartment. That afternoon we worked on Allie’s closet, kitchen, TV, lamp, storage cubes, etc. It was a useful afternoon and things looked a lot better by that evening.
Barb and I T’d back to the hotel in the afternoon then met Allie and Dan for an Italian dinner in the North End at Ristorante Saraceno. It was a pretty ordinary Italian meal; my sole meuniere ended up tasting nearly identical to Barb’s veal francese, which is not easy to do. But the company was good. We stopped just down the street for a sorbet for Barb before heading back to the hotel while Allie and Dan went off to meet some of their friends.
Sunday, September 9, Boston – Home
Getaway day. We checked out of the hotel and Allie picked us up, under some protest again for having to drive. We headed over to Chinatown for dim sum at Hei La Moon. We got a table upstairs and plowed through a variety of our favorites in record time. Allie dropped us off at the airport and we said our goodbyes. We were a bit early for our flight and for once were in the same terminal as a Delta Club, so I took a shot on getting in based on my “lifetime membership” originally gained through Pan Am. After some discussions with one agent, we were passed on to a more senior, experienced person who remembered how to find my type of membership and we were in. But they told us the rules would be changing in 2019 and we would have to be flying on Delta in the future. We had a pleasant enough hour or so before catching our Southwest flight to BWI. With a quick drive home we were reunited with Manny (oh yeah, and Busty)!
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