Boston: My Favorite U.S. City

Derek and I went to Boston for Valentine's/Presidents' Day Weekend, and neither one of us had been there before, but we both loved it. We stayed at the Bulfinch, which was comfortable, clean, modern, and well-located. Boston is as historic, picturesque, and cozy as I imagined it would be, and then some. And it has a distinct personality and soul.
Night 1
Activities for the first night included a Boston University versus University of Maine hockey game (Go Terriers!), and I saw what it would have been like to go to a large, private university that consisted of students that were actually college-aged (as opposed to middle-aged commuters) that all had a lot of spirit and enthusiasm for their school. In one word: fun. Oh well.
After the game, we went to The Parish Cafe, whose claim to fame is sandwiches created by various eminent chefs around the city. They were huge and delicious; I polished off the other half of mine for breakfast the next morning. It was a casual place, but the majority of patrons were dressed in classy business attire--this is Boston, after all, not Portland. Sweatsuits and slippers just don't fly, thankfully.


Day 2
First thing in the morning, we rented a car and drove out to ridiculously (and beautifully) historic Concord. I swear, it was perfect, like a postcard. If all small towns were like Concord, I would love to live in one.
Our first stop was the bridge where the Revolutionary War started. Could a winter scene be any more perfect than these?




Next up was the Old Manse, which sits right beside the aforementioned historic bridge. The Old Manse was owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson's family, and populated by Nathaniel Hawthorne and family for a few years. It's also of Mosses From an Old Manse fame. We thought the house was closed for the season, circumnavigated it peeping in the windows for a look, and just as we were about to leave, a woman drives up and says that it's about to open in five minutes or so. What luck! She's the tour guide/historian, and gives us a private tour of the home, complete with anecdotes. It was amazing, and felt like a very personal glimpse into the daily, ordinary lives of great authors. All the furnishings were left behind by either an Emerson or Hawthorne. In two different rooms, Sofia Hawthorne (Nathaniel's wife) had scratched poems and messages into the window panes with the diamond from her wedding ring. In some cases, Nathaniel likewise wrote back. The guide told stories of the inhabitants' quirks, such as Hawthorne running to the back of the house when he saw people coming up to the front, or having to face the wall while writing (as opposed to looking out the window at the beautiful lake) in order to have inspiration. In one instance, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emerson all went out skating in the lake behind the house (pictured in photos above). It was a great, great tour.

Photos of Concord:




Ah, on to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery: it was packed full of famous Romantic and Transcendental writers and their families. Alcott, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau. I thought there was also a Melville monument, but Derek realized I had misread it (it was small print, and I'm starting to get old, OK?), and that it was actually a Melvin monument not Melville, a family of architects or something. Oops. Comic relief.









Our final stop in Concord was Walden Pond. Below, Derek and I pretend to be Henry David Thoreau in a recreation of the little one-room shack he lived in while writing Walden.



Walden Pond was frozen over, and families were suiting up to play hockey on it. Again, can anything possibly get more perfect?


From there, we drove up to Salem, wandered around a bit, and toured the House of the Seven Gables, as made famous in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel. It was interesting, but the guide was just a guide (rather than someone with a big historical/literary passion for the place), and was honestly rather cheesy.


The home Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in was moved to the Seven Gables site, pictured below.

Photos of Salem:



We got back to Boston in time for dinner, and this sight greeted us on our walk up to the North End (aka Little Italy). What the??? It was a mess! Like a produce market exploded or something. The next day we figured out that it was, in fact, the remnants of a middle-eastern street market shutting down for the night.


The North End is awesome: it's Little Italy, it's completely packed, but it's not exactly touristy, as it appears that the majority of its patrons are local, and it hasn't been gentrified--yet. After a nice dinner, we stood in line at Modern Pastry for cannoli for dessert. Yes, stood in line. There were two incredibly popular bakeries in that neighborhood, Modern Pastry and Mike's Pastry, that ALWAYS had a line out the door and down the block. But it was good and worth it! I previously thought that I didn't like cannoli, but I discovered it's just because all the previous cannoli I had had was crap. At Modern Pastry, we tried three different kinds: one filled with custard, one with the traditional ricotta, and one with whipped cream. All three were dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with almonds. No weird cinnamon flavor like I've always had in Portland.




We wandered through town a bit, near Quincy Market, the Financial District, and finally made it to an awesome Irish bar called Mr. Dooley's.




Mr. Dooley's was great. It was totally packed, like everywhere else, had a live Irish band, and everyone was very friendly. For the first time in my life, some guy bought me a drink. Guess he didn't realize that I was there with my boyfriend. But he ended up paying for Derek's drink too, so that was nice.



Day 3
What a day! We were exhausted by the end of it. But I'll start at the beginning instead.
We aimed for Beacon Hill, but along the way saw the Liberty Hotel, which had been on my list of things to see, but had forgotten about by the time I got to Boston. It's an old prison that's been converted into a super-swanky hotel (Rolls-Royce in the parking lot). It still retains its jail-cell bones:


OK, now we made it to Beacon Hill. It was the beaming epitome of New England picturesque-ness. Beautiful brick apartments, cute coffee shops, old churches, people walking dogs...man oh man, if I was rich I would live there.






The next two photos depict an apartment building in Beacon Hill that Louisa May Alcott lived in.




All right, now we're at Boston Common. It too was perfect. The Frog Pond was frozen over and people were skating on it. Derek wanted to, but, per usual for Boston, the line was a mile long to get in, and we had things to see.


At this point, we start on the Freedom Trail. It's a 3-mile walk through the city along a stripe that alternates between red paint and red brick that leads tourists through a bunch of big-time historic sites.
Below is the state capital. I lost a bet with Derek that Boston was the capital of Massachusetts. I really thought it wasn't. I was wrong.
Ancient cemetery called The Grainery where Samuel Adams and Paul Revere were buried. Many of the graves date back to the 1600s.




The Omni Parker House Hotel: where Boston Cream Pie and Parker House Rolls were invented. I thought it would look a bit more impressive.




We took a little break from the Freedom Trail for an hour or so, going to Neptune Oyster in the North End, since it was Valentine's Day. We got a dozen, all east coast varieties, mostly Massachusetts, with a couple from Rhode Island and Prince Edward Island thrown in. What could be better than Prosecco and oysters? We also had a lobster roll each. Mine was hot with butter, Derek's was cold with herb mayonnaise. (He took more photos there than I did, so if you want food pics, talk to him.)

Back to the Freedom Trail, where we tour through Paul Revere's house. Pretty cool.
Another ancient cemetery. The building on the right side that looks like a school (and used to be a school) is now apartments. Weird. But I guess there aren't enough children living in the North End anymore, so they converted schools to apartments.
Crossing the river heading towards Bunker Hill....
There it is, off in the distance.
This neighborhood across the river from the North End is called Charlestown. Very picturesque, of course.
Views from the top of Bunker Hill:






An old bank building in Charlestown.
We finally got back to our hotel, and decided to rest for an hour or so, maybe catch some Olympic action on TV. But as soon as we turned on the Olympics, we both feel asleep. The Freedom Trail really takes a lot out of you.

After our nap, we head back out, intending to catch a Frank Sinatra impersonation at a South Boston bar called Lucky's Lounge in the Fort Point neighborhood. But it was ridiculously crowded, I started feeling punchy, so we ran across the street to Boston's answer to Clyde Common: Drink. (I think whoever designed the menus had been to Clyde: same color and shape of paper, same font, similar style of food.) Drink is a hip bar in south Boston with an interesting concept: the waitress asks what base spirit you would like, and what sort of flavor you're feeling like, citrusy, spicy, etc. and the bartender makes a custom drink for you. Pretty cool. The food there was good too; we had steak tartar and dates stuffed with nuts, wrapped with proscuitto, and sitting in a creamy gorgonzola sauce.

See? The menu is the same style as at Clyde.
Day 4
It's our last day in Boston, half day, really. We try to go to the Maparium, but it was closed for the Presidents' Day holiday. We decided to wander down Newbury Street instead. Swanky stores and cute cafes inhabit former row houses.


We finished the afternoon in Chinatown, lunching at a really good (and popular) Taiwanese restaurant. Then it was time to head to the airport and say goodbye to Boston. I really didn't want to.