Boston Day One (July 24):
We took the train from Kingston (RI) to Boston in the early afternoon
Didn't mean to get Mom & Candace in the shot, but alas :)
On the train....Boston here we come. Yay!
It was a really nice ride, we almost wished we'd had more time to just relax on the train! It was only a little over an hour. MUCH different than our Amtrak ride about 10 years ago (THE RIDE FROM HELL).
When we got to South Station we mapquested our hotel and realized it was less than a mile away, so we decided to walk it. We got lost so many times it's not even funny. The hotel was in the financial district and they kept telling us to turn on all of these side streets and it was just madness. A couple people helped us, but it was still ridic. And a few times when my Mom would ask for help she'd start naming the wrong streets (for example she asked someone where Wrigley was, umm this isn't Chicago! lol). It was a littttle frustrating.
We were looking forward to resting in the room for a little, taking a shower, unpacking, etc. and then getting our food and shop on. Welll, plans changed a little. They weren't able to give us a room until 3 pm and it was probably 1 at this point? I forget exactly. So we just checked our luggage with the concierge and went to eat and shoppy shop right away. Fine by me!!
Again, we decided to walk because the area we wanted to go to (Quincy Market/Fanueil Hall area) was SO CLOSE. But, of course, we made ONE stupid, wrong turn and kept going in circles. Idiots! FINALLY I realized where it was, but by this point my mom was in a MOOD, lol. She acted like she may die if she didn't get some ice water asap, and the drink Gods answered in the name of none other than....Starbucks!
Iced soy latte with cinnnnnamon for me. YUM.
Then, my Mom was back to her cheery ready to eat & shop self. We quickly decided on seafood and went to the Salty Dog. It was busssy, but luckily we got a table right away.
2 raw delisssssh oysters
fried clams (soon after I asked for more cocktail sauce instead of tartar)Back when I lived in Boston my Mom and I took a weekend trip to Cape Cod and I tried fried clams for the first time and had the HOLY GRAIL of fried clam strips. Oh-em-gee they were delicious. (My Mom also ordered me a Sam Adam's Summer beer, as I was only 20 at the time, and it was even better lol). I've been searching for that deliciousness ever since, but have yet to find it. But still, these were pretty good.
My mom had to make fun of me by pretending to get the knife stuck in the ketchup like I did in Newport if you remember. LOL. This place was smart at least and had wide mouth bottles. Not quite the same!
delish clam chowder. Mmm.
self-explanatory
Random Quincy Market Pics:
That large noodle certainly was never there when I've been there before. So random!
You can't reaallly tell from this pic, but this was the most crowded I've EVER seen the area. And it's always pretty crowded. Crazy.
SO, after we spent $$$ at Gap & American Eagle (I know, I know, stores we can go to anywhere), we made it back to the hotel for a little R&R. NOT. That would have been just too easy.
So when we tried to check in at 1-ish the lobby was empty except for MAYBE one other person? Um yeah. When we walked in around 5 it was PACKED. With a bachelor/bachelorette party complete with champagne bottles, beer bottles, and coolers (who brings a cooler to a nice hotel? LOL), plus other guests. We soon found out that the computers had been down for awhile and were just now working. AT least 100 people were in line to check into their rooms. Greeeat. The line went almost out the door and we were one of the last people. Awesome.
When we FINALLY got into our rooms my friend Mike and I were discussing when he'd head on down to meet up with us that nite. Our other friend Marie got off work at 8, so we had 9:30 dinner reservations, and she had plans to meet us at the restaurant. So Mike decided to come somewhere around 8:00. So my Mom and I had a couple hours after check in to gather some strength back up.
My Mom came with me to meet Mike 'cause she had some work-related questions to pick his brain on & she wanted to see Marie as well. My Mom, Mike, and I went to a pub at Quincy Market & sat on the patio and had a drink. I had a glass of cabernet..
Marie convinced her co-worker friend to drive her to meet us rather than have to wait for buses and subways, so we got to see her a little earlier than expected. Yay! We all chatted & chatted until we realized it was time to make our way to the North End (aka Little Italy) to feast away!
Marie picked an AWESOME choice that was rec'd to her by some Italian coworkers: L'Osteria. It was SO good. I had a seafood pasta dish with allll sorts of seafood...calamari, mussels, clams, shrimp, fish, the works over linguini and a red sauce. It was huge, I was the last to finish and barely put a dent in it, but man so mmm mmm good. Great choice! I also had a glass of chianti. We all had a really good time. We left about half an hour to an hour before they officially closed, but we pretty much shut the place down. It was one of those times where you feel bad being one of the only one's still there, but again, it's not like it was their time to close, so oh well.
Crappy quality, I know.
After that we decided to grab dessert at the famous Mike's pastry. The line wasn't as ridiculous as usual (but still long) and went by really quickly. I got a chocolate chip cannoli, but saved it for breakfast the next morning.
On our way back to Quincy area we walked through the Holocaust monument area-thing. I was glad, as I really wanted my Mom to see it.
When we finished up there, my Mom took a cab back to the hotel, but Mike, Marie, & I headed to Cheers for one last drinkie. I had a vodka soda. There was a band playing riiiight by us, so it was hard to talk, but we got some interesting stories in.
Finally, Marie had to go as she had an early church meeting the following morning. Mike and I were walking back to my hotel, but AGAIN took a wrong turn. Ugh! I felt so incompetent that I STILL kept messing up the side streets LOL. Luckily he was parked right over there, so he nicely just told me we'd go get his car and he'd drive me there. I got to see his new car, which was really nice and still smelled like new car. The best! We found the hotel easily from there. I swear that hotel kept moving places lol. Sometimes it was easy to get back to and other times it was IMPOSSIBLE.
So Boston day one = success! A few bumps here and there, but it was good to be back. I missed it SO badly. It's easily my favorite city. *hearts*
xo,
Amanda
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