Our Four Days in Boston

We've just completed the fourth full day in Boston, and we've had a great time!

Tuesday: first we went to Kupel's Bagel shop for breakfast, where we used to love to go when we lived here. I can't remember what day we'd usually go, because it seems that Saturday would have been a logical choice, but they are closed on Saturdays. Because it is a Real Jewish Bagel Shop. So, I don't know when we used to go, but when we'd go it'd be crowded in the shop and we'd buy our toasted bagels with flavored cream cheese and go sit on the steps on the funeral home across the street to eat them. Yes, it did seem somewhat disrespectful, but that's what we did. This time, it was 10:30 before we got there (it was only 7:30 at home...) and so we sat in the uncrowded shop. I was halfway through my bagel when I realized that the funeral home was now a ReMax. I guess it wouldn't be disrespectful now?

Off to our friends house--we'd gotten in too late to go there the night we got in, but we stayed with Matt and Laurie starting on Tuesday evening. They have a cute little flat in Somerville, where we have enjoyed their great hospitality and their beautiful little girls. Plus it's very public transit accessible, which has been very useful as we're trying to do as little as possible with rental cars this vacation! We'd planned to get a zipcar to go to the beach, as we knew of no good beaches within the city when we lived here, but I heard from two sources about Revere Beach, and it was truly a find. Especially in the hot, humid weather we had our first two days here. We went there on Wednesday. But first, the rest of Monday....we arrived at Matt and Laurie's house and had a delicious lunch with them. Later we left to take a Duck Boat tour, which was fun but not as fun as the risque NashTrash tour that we took in Nashville two years ago. ;-) Oh, also there was ice cream at Cafe Vanille that was so good and, more importantly, cold. I had the Triple Chocolate, which was thrice as good as regular chocolate (which is pretty darn good).

Best tee-shirt quote so far, spotted on Monday:

Jesus Saves.
Jews Invest Wisely.

After the duck tour we walked over to North End for some yummy Italian food at Famiglia Giorgio's. Huge portions of good food for not too much money (for North End standards, anyway)...what more can I say?

Tuesday: we went on a walking tour of the Freedom Trail, which included a trip back to North End for pastry. We opted to not go to the more famous Mike's Pastry but to follow the suggestion of Maria's when she said to go to Caffe Vittoria. Oh, she was right. Tiramisu, an eclair, and a pistachio canoli were had, along with Italian Vanilla Cream sodas and coffee. Just what I wanted.

I can't leave out one of Zac's favorite parts: running through the fountains at the entrance to North End. It was so hot and humid that I wouldn't have guessed getting wetter would feel so good, but it did.

The water at the beach was cold but not bone-numbing like the Pacific ocean is. It cooled us off very nicely.

And Thursday was much cooler! A very pleasant day, weather-wise and otherwise! We bummed around Harvard Square and Central Square in Cambridge. Looked through two different bookshops. Had hot chocolate and a croissant at Burdick's. I didn't mention yet that Hibi, our vegan, is not with us this week, did I? Yes, we are enjoying not having to ask the question: what do you have that's vegan? Come Monday I'll have to think of that again but we're living it up while we can. :-)

After lunch, Paul and Zac left me in Central Square and headed to the Charles River. Zac had been wanting some not-so-urban adventure, so Paul found a place where they could go kayaking! Woohoo! They had a great time. I got some time to myself, which I used just to walk, mostly.

On Thursday evening we went out to dinner with Matt and Laurie to a Meditteranean restaurant in their neighborhood that we'd noticed on our way in, and Matt said he'd wanted to try out. The food was quite good, and we all took turns carrying the baby outside, as babies are wont to begin fussing when their parents are eating, especially in a restaurant. :-) She was perfectly happy outside, though, so that made it easy for turn-taking and saved the mama from all the non-eating.

Today we finally visited the seminary campus, where we made our home for four years and where Zac was born--literally, as he was born at home. The place was kind of deserted, but we did find a professor of Paul's there, and enjoyed having a few minutes to chat with him. I don't think either of us had seen him since we left 9 years ago, though we've enjoyed befriending his sister, who is married to a priest in our diocese.

We looked all around our old apartment, though we didn't feel comfortable to knock on the door and ask to see inside. But we walked around to the back, where we found wild turkeys! Zac brought a feather home that one had dropped. That was the same spot where Hibi spotted some "puppies" once when she, at age 2, was looking over the balcony so intently that I asked what she was doing. "Looking at these puppies," she told me. When I looked, I saw a mother skunk and the cutest little brood of babies you've ever seen.

Went into the chapel, which was unlocked even though there was no one around, and into the admin building, where also there was no one around (except the professor in his office...I suppose there could have been people in other offices that just didn't make themselves known). We did a forbidden thing and went on top the roof. (Shh!) Someone took us up there when we first arrived, I don't remember who, but the view is just amazing. Of course they don't want anyone up there, which is why it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. :-)

That was all we had time to do today, besides eat lunch at Orinoco on Harvard in Brookline (yum!) and do some food shopping for our train trip tomorrow. Because the seminary isn't exactly public transit-accessible. And we had a long walk. Two of them, there and back, which didn't leave much time or energy.

And now, everyone else is in bed, and here I sit finishing up this post! I need to get to bed too, and tomorrow we're headed to Washington DC! I love train rides, so I will enjoy tomorrow.