Boston – Day 10

Our last day!  We had a lazy morning as we started packing up a bit in case we got home late tonight, then caught the train into the city for the Samuel Adams Brewery tour, and then over to the museum of Fine Arts to see the Chihuly exhibit.  Super bonus at the museum as we bought our tickets – someone had left behind a pass they couldn’t use and we saved $30 bucks!  woo hoo, good karma!

The Chihuly exhibit was great – really well laid out and it was fun to see folks from all over the world awed by his work.

To cap off our visit we back up with the Hall family at the Union Oyster House (the oldest restaurant in Boston), and then with Bjorn over at Newbury street for dinner.  It was fun to spend one last night out with friends, enjoying some classic Boston spots.  A great trip!

Boston – Day 9

Caught an early train into the city and grabbed a quick breakfast in the North End before checking in for our bike tour.  The tour was great – we covered a lot of ground and saw many different parts of the city which was fun.  And doing it on a Sunday morning meant less traffic to dodge when we were on busy city streets One of the detailed spots we stopped at that I probably would have missed on my own was the finish spot fo the Boston Marathon, whose stone also depicts the route everyone runs:

 

After the tour we got a small lunch in the North End and finally tried the Florentine cannoli at Mike’s based on Bose’s recommendation.  This one has a lacey carmel cookie as it’s shell instead a regular cannoli shell – sinfully sweet and delicious. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Museum of Science which was great.  Much bigger than our Seattle Museum with some very interesting exhibits, including the theater of lightning.  Yep, they have a room (and machine) tha actually produces lightning inside:

 

We easily could have spent more time there, but we had to catch a train home for dinner with Erin & Jeff back in Waltham.  A couple of their other friends joined us as well at their favorite Mexican joint – excellent way to cap off the day – sipping margaritas outside along the river…

Boston – Day 8

First thing in the morning we had to return our rental car to the airport, and from there we caught the Silverline back into town for brunch at one of Mar’s recommendations, Flour.  Super yummy – we each got a refreshing fruity, then sandwiches, cookies, and a couple scones for later.

Tummies full we walked along the water over to the aquarium which was actually a bit disappointing.  I think when it first opened it was probably really impressive (they have a great central tank with a circular walkway all around it) but now it’s pretty dated and has had a lot updates to it’s concrete structures.  We both love aquariums though, so it was still fun – they have a large collection of penguins and we saw the biggest turtle I’ve ever seen:

Nearby was a small craft fair on the greenway as well a grilled cheese truck we thought would be the perfect afternoon snack.  I chose the blue cheese sandwich though which hardly had any cheese on though – booo…

Next we caught the train out to Cambridge to walk around a bit.  We stumbled across a cool building at MIT – imagine our astonishment when we discovered it was the Gates Building.  (We can’t escape!). 

We capped off the afternoon with a cruise on the Charles River which is much wider than I expected.  It was fun to see so many folks out on the water in so many different ways: sail boats, paddleboats, motorboats, kayaks, windsurfing, etc. 

After a hot day of wandering around we just headed home to Erin’s for the evening to hang out, order pizza and watch old episodes of Modern Family…

Boston – Day 7

We started the day at Modern Diner, recommended by my Providence/Breakfast expert Sallie Lin and it was pretty good – I had French toast, BK had the Sausage & provolone omlette. The diner is built in an old train car just outside Providence, so it was the perfect stop as we drove towards Boston. Our next stop was then the Costco in Waltham – I know many of you are surprised we would take the time to go to a Costco for no apparent reason while on vacation, BUT if you know us well, it’s not that surprising after all This one was interesting in that it seemed to be built in a former hospital. From Costco we were just a couple miles from our home for the next few days, my friend Erin in Waltham. She & her husband live in a cute house near Brandeis University and a commuter rail station, so it was a great spot for us to crash and explore Boston from. They don’t lock their doors which was weird for us super paranoid city folk, but we settled in for a couple hours and then it was off to the city for the Mariners/Red Sox battle at Fenway.

as you know, the East Coast has been broiling and this day was no different.  We endured a hot, brutally inefficient subway ride to Fenway and were actually happy to emerge from the underground into the 100 degree humidity.  We made a quick beeline for the Boston Beer Works to cool off with a refreshing Watermelon Ale – yep, a big slice of watermelon in your beer.  It’s pretty good.

Cooled down, we started strolling around and in Fenway before finding our seats.  It’s a pretty fun atmosphere at Fenway, and the old stadiums are interesting to explore.  Folks didn’t even care BK was wearing a Mariners hat.

Our seats were upper deck, but in Fenway that’s really only like 200 level.  we were sitting at the far end of the first baseline, with sun blaring directly on us through about the sixth inning – with a first pitch temperature of 97, it was a hot night.  The Mariners took a quick lead in the first, 1-0, but the quickly squandered it and lost 6-1.  We enjoyed the obligatory Fenway Franks and sang Sweet Carolinetowards the end before scooting off to catch our train home.

Cape Cod & Rhode Island – Day 6

Our last day on the Cape and Chris cooked up a pancake feast to send us off, as well as fortify all of us for the morning’s supreme mini-golf challenge over at Pirates Cove Adventure mini-golf, the spot me & BK missed out on a couple nights before.  It was still pretty busy as we arrived, but not as bad as before.  The actually course was much tamer than it looked from the road – not many holes with exciting obstacles, but we still had fun.  Despite playing with Gunnar strapped to his chest, Chris had an impressive back-9 to storm past me & Kari into second place but he couldn’t quite catch BK.  I started off with a Hole-in-One right at the beginning, but faltered on a couple others to land in third.  BK now owns the current lead in our continuing battle, 2-1 (but all games have been very close).

Back home we packed up the car and hit the road for a short detour into Rhode Island, but as we arrived in Newport it was pretty foggy and did not provide the picturesque photographic scenes I had envisioned for BK.  So, we grabbed a quick snack, drove along the water and past the mansions seeing what we could see as best we could, then headed north pretty quickly up to Providence (where it was nice and sunny).  The last time I was in Newport with Mar it was pouring, so apparently I’m never meant to really enjoy the mansions of Newport?

We had started the day much later than anticipated so we didn’t really have any time to walk around explore Providence either.  Instead we hopped on our phones to search Yelp and picked a spot for dinner.  We did walk through a bit of downtown and along the water to find it, but didn’t see much except an actual gondola floating down the river:

We chose an Italian spot called Bacaro - you can never really go wrong with Italian in Providence, and this was a newer spot started by a chef who go this start at one of Providence’s classic spots.  The dining room was full so we sat at the bar and shared lots of little things as usual:  meat & cheese plate, squash blossoms, arancini, dates and a pasta carbonara.  All was delicious, and topped off with these cute “bombolini”, little doughnuts filled with orange curd:

Then it was home to the hotel to enjoy our first night of internet connection in 5 days!

Martha’s Vineyard – Day 5

Today we got up early and caught the fast ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard for the day.  It was a tough call between the Vineyard and Nantucket, but MV won out with it’s higher chance of celebrity sightings   First though, we needed a snack of course.  We wandered along the main drag and stumbled upon a section of the town where all the house look like super ornate gingerbread houses, and then found a big park near the other ferry dock.  Finally we found the bakery known for it’s ‘Back Door Donuts” where BK had an apple fritter which he says is the best donut he’s ever had.  I had a cranberry muffin which was good too. 

We had planned to rent bikes to tour the island, but there were some farther out spots we wanted to explore, so then we decided to rent mopeds, which kind of freaked me out but made the most sense so I was willing to give it try.  But then the guy at th rental place explained it would actually be cheaper to rent a Jeep for the day instead of a couple mopeds, so we jumped into an open top, black Jeep wrangler and began cruising the island for the day.

There aren’t that many roads on the island, but the ones that are there aren’t well-marked so its kind of stressful navigating at times.  Nonetheless, we managed to cover a lot of ground.  First stop was the lighthouse at Oak Bluffs and the the one at Vineyard Haven, followed by the farmers Market in West Tisbury.  From there we went all the way to the southwest corner of Aquinnah to visit another lighthouse (above a nude beach!).  This lighthouse was especially interesting because it was made of red bricks from the clay cliffs below.

For lunch we went to a nearby fishing village, Menemsha, recommended by the guy at the rental place.  We went to Larsen’s fish market where boats were coming in and out to pick up and offload fresh seafood deliveries.  We ordered a lobster to share which was pulled fresh and live from a tank, then steamed and served.   MMM….

From Menemsha we drove across the south end of the island, past the cemetary where John Belushi is buried, over to Edgartown, the central spot of the island.  We hit one more lighthouse (4 out of 5!), and then cruised the town a bit where we found a cute little cupcake shop to purchase dessert at fo the evening (blueberry pie – mmm).  Last stop of the day was South Beach, before driving back to Oak Bluffs, via the shoreline and across the bridge from Jaws:

 

It was a great day cruising around the island.  Reminded us of Lopez a bit, with cute little towns, beaches, farms, laid-back vibe, beautiful scenery, etc.  It would be a fun spot to hang for a week or so…

Cape Cod – Day 4

Tuesday we jumped in the car for a big day of exploring the cape after a quick stop at the local coffee shop, Nirvana (owned by a couple of Seattle folks).  From there we meandered on the highway 28 through lots of little towns over to the Chatham lighthouse.  The lighthouse was set back from the beach though, so it didn’t provide the setting BK was searching for with his photographers eye.  There was a nice beach down below from where we parked, but it was early and we weren’t ready for beach time yet – plus Chatham is where the sharks have been hanging out

From Chatham we headed north, first to the Nauset lighthouse, and then all the way to Provincetown, at the very tip of Cape Cod.  This where the Pilgrims actually landed first before Plymouth, and there’s a giant 253-foot granite tower to commemorate that as you arrive in town.  It’s a cute little town with long stretches of beach and long stretches of shopping, surrounded by the Cape Cod National Seashore park which provides lots of hiking, biking and beach options.  We got lobster rolls for lunch at the Lobster Pot, then strolled up the wharf and down Commercial Street checking out the shops.  It was hot out, so we ended our stroll with some ice-creams of course before jumping in the car to explore the national park.

First stop was the visitor center at Race Point to pick up a map, which then led us to a nearby short hike in the Beech Tree forest, where BK wanted to snap some photos at the pond.  Next we began cruising back south, driving through the artists community of Truro, and then exploring the nice beaches in Wellfleet, along with Uncle Tim’s Island, another short hike.  And then our final stop in the park was Marconi Beach, site of the first trans-atlantic telegraph message.

Continuing south towards home, our plan was return to a spot we had seen early this morning along Hwy 28:  Pirates Cove Adventure Mini-Golf in south Yarmouth.  But first we needed a snack, so stopped by Captain Frosty’s for an order of clam cakes, which are a treat I discovered on my last trip out here with Mar.  Essentially they are like hush puppies with some clam in them – Yum!  Satiated, we drove towards Yarmouth to continue our mini-golf challenge, but when we arrived the place was super-packed, so we delayed the challenge to another day.

Cruising home, we stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up some dinner fixin’s and wowed Kari with the corn recipe we learned in cooking class just before coming out here.  Long, fun day!

Cape Cod – Day 3

We are staying up in the loft space of the house and it’s a good mix for us – with the big windows open, skylights, trees rustling, birds chirping it’s almost like camping, but with shelter, bed, running water.  It’s great!

It was overcast today, so we had a lazy morning before heading out to explore Hyannis with Chris, Kari and a couple of their friends who were in town briefly.  We got a late lunch at the BBC (British Beer Company), then strolled the main drag and wandered down to the waterfront to get ferry tickets for Wednesday.

Back home the lazy day continued as we all just hung out playing with the kids, eating leftovers for dinner, and catching up.

Boston & the Cape – Day 2

With no cats pouncing on us at 5:00am we slept in and enojoyed a leisurely start to the day.  BK hit up the Dunkin Donuts across the street and then we hopped downstairs to the Bliss Spa for massages at 9:00am which BK arranged a coupel weeks ago.  At Bliss they start your massage by dipping your feet in warm paraffin wax and wrapping them up all toasty warm which is so nice.  Afterwards, they also have a steam shower to sweat it all out in, and yummy bites of cheese and brownies.  MMM, so good – an excellent way to kick-off vacation!

Back in the room we packed up and enjoyed our other two cannolis for breakfast before catching a cab back to the airport to get our rental car. This took process took a little longer than expected as the first car was giving all its info in Spanish and Kilometers and no one could figure out how to change it.  Once they moved us into car #2, we were on our way – only to miss a coupel turns and get sidetracked briefly as our GPS was set-up to avoid toll roads, which is nearly impossible in Boston.  Our detour led us across a Calatrava bridge though which is always a nice experience.  Eventually we were on our way to the Cape!

Along the way we stopped in Plymouth to check out the famous Plymouth Rock.  Cheesy I know, but one of those things you have to do right?  The rock is not very exciting.  I envisioned it as a large boulder just offshore, kind of like the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen.  Nope.  It’s large rock, on a pile of sand, gated off from the sea, under a large mausoleum like structure, with a big crack in that that they seem to have super-glued back together.  Oh well – can check it off the travel list anyway

We got a late lunch at the Lobster Hut, stumbled upon Cupcake Charlies which had been featured on Cupcake Wars apparently, and enjoyed some soft-serve ice cream before jumping back in the car to Chris & Kari’s, which was only about another 35 minutes away.  It was a great drive across the Sagamore bridge, and through the little town of West Barnstable where they live.  Their new house is great, especially after all the work Chris has done to it.  Big deck, funky shape and look, cool space.  We are officially their first guests – woo hoo!

We hung out on the deck a bit, then packed up the car and drove over to Sandy Neck Beach.  Chris has an off-road permit so we stopped to let some air out of the tires, then drove right onto the beach and parked along with everyone else.   This particular beach stretches about six miles through the Bay, pretty impressive.  It was quite breezy so we had sand blowing everyone on us, but so nice to just sit on the beach and be warm.  Drew & Brian had several races to the water and back, while Gunnar just took in his surroundings.

Back home, Kari put the kids to bed while the boys went grocery shopping for dinner fixins – Chris made a delish yakisoba, we tried some of the cupcakes (pretty good), and then called it a night.

Boston – Day 1

I hope we never lose our MVP benefits – Exit row makes all the difference.  W jetted off to Boston today and even though we didn’t get upgraded to First class we had been able to book exit row and its so nice to have that extra leg room on a long flight.  Plus, inflight wifi!  I also finally started reading “The Help”  which is pretty good so far – I’m hoping to finish it before the movie comes out. 

Landing in Boston I quickly realized Saara meant business in our “Foursquare-off” vacation challenge as she had checked-in at the TSA security point at Sea-Tac, so I quickly started checking in everywhere I could – this should be fun   My most interesting check-in so far is probably the Ted Williams tunnel as we cruised into town in our taxi, arriving at the always swank W hotel for the evening.  (where upon check-in I earned an extra 250 starwood points by using foursquare!).

We had no real plans for the evening so we just wandered around downtown a bit, over to Faneuil Hall, grabbed some food at Quincy market and sat around watching all the other people for awhile.  Then we strolled over to the north end in search of cannolis for dessert.  The last time I had been to Boston, the stroll to the north end was quite difficult given the highways and construction between the two areas.  But all of that work is now down and there is a great new park that makes it easy get across.

The north end was bustling, folks hanging out of doorways forming lines at many different bars and restaurants.  We found the line we wanted about three blocks up at Mike’s Pastry.  It stretched down the block but moved pretty quickly.  We got four cannolis for the next two days:  chocolate chip, pistachio, amaretto and limoncello.  They boxed them up safe with string and we headed out the door back to the W, walking along Govt square and Boston Common along the way.  We dove into the limoncello and amaretto for dessert and both were good, especially the amaretto.  Then we snuggled up in our big King-size, cat-free bed for a restful nights sleep.