Food from around the Puget Sound. It is about good sources, great eating and unusual foods.

Monday, November 8, 2010

On the Road Again

I just made it back from the east coast, I went to see my daughter for parents weekend in Boston and picked up the van she drove out this summer with her friends. It was a great time to see her in school and get the tour of all the things she is so exited about.

We arrived Friday night with windy and cold conditions but it didn't stop her giving us the tour of the North End and eating an Italian meal, of course no visit there doesn't finish with an Italian desert. Walking quickly through Faneuil Hall Market Place, mainly to get out of the wind, we cut through the light crowds to emerge into packed streets of Friday night revelers. We not only there with groups of Parents and their kids, but that weekend was the Head of the Charles Regatta and a lot of rowers were carbo loading. After the meal we were taken to the place for desert, Mike's Pastry, everyone had cannoli's except me, I had a selection of macaroons.

The next day we met up with her as she was giving a tour of the campus for perspective students and parents. Some great questions and a great job of providing information for potential students. We then walked over to Newbury street and had a great brunch at Charley's Eating & Drinking Saloon. the price of brunch included you choice of beverage and it was worth half the cost of your meal.

Next it was off to retrieve the van for me and shopping for the others. I was off to Randolph by public transportation, up the orange line and down the red to Quincy Center Station and on to the #238 bus until the stop in front of the storage place. If you ever have to store or park something in Boston I can highly recommend Extra Space Storage, I shopped around and they offered some real bargains.

Once I had the van I drove back to our "neighborhood" and explored all the streets on foot, it is the South End, Boston not to be confused with South Boston. Right next to the Back Bay, it was centrally located and walking distance to most things. I do think they work on making it hard for the none locals with naming of all these tiny neighborhoods.

The up side was some great restaurants but very little parking. I rounded up the girls and we had dinner at a near by restaurant, being a Saturday night it was not just a hard choice of what we wanted to eat but how to get in. So we settled for the wait and restaurant we wanted, Hamersley's Bistro on Tremont street which had restaurant after restaurant. This meal was cooked precisely, presented professionally worth the wait and the money, we would recommend it. If you would like to get to a more of a neighborhood experience in Boston this is it.


On the way to meet Isabel the next morning, we saw the usual sights and monuments you expect to see in Boston. History is everywhere.



 She met us at the Christian Science Plaza reflection pool in the Back Bay. We wanted to see the Mapparium which is in the Mary Baker Eddy Library, if you don't know about it read about it on the link and if you get a chance take the tour to see it. You get to stand inside this three-story glass globe of the world as it was in 1935. You see another perspective of our world and see how close we are in proximity to each other. My daughter made the observation the it is because we usually see the world from the outside as in a globe, not from the inside out. The building is also a great example of fine architecture and craftsmanship.

 


 From there it was a walk to the Commons with a stop at the Thomas Moser store next to the Arlington Church just as the bells were tolling. Then is was on to the Swan Bridge, over the lake nearing Beacon Hill, then my wife want to see Joy street and Louisburg Square, when she was young she read about Boston through Frances Parkinson Keys, as an added bonus we saw where Louise May Alcott stayed when she first came to Boston and later stumbled on her own residence and Robert Frost's house all on Beacon Hill. We learned about the back filling of the bay and the Black freedom trail, a lot of history in on morning.


 And then more food, we met up with my daughter's friends and waited in line for what seemed like days, for a wonderfully late brunch at the Paramount on  Charles Street in Beacon Hill. The usual fare, but I had Reuben on Marbled Rye, good and filling as the rain started to come down and the wind picked up, just what you would expect in Boston.


Back into the Commons and on to the other side we called it a day and rested for dinner. The it was off to a local restaurant and an early evening for a 6:30 flight and a road trip waiting to happen.



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