Boston: Second Anniversary Trip!

Our anniversary is coming up in a few weeks, but we decided to celebrate early because things are going to be hectic these next few weeks with Adam’s imminent departure. To be honest, we weren’t sure what we were going to do for our anniversary trip this year. We had planned to go to Boston, like we had done last year, but we were considering an apartment hunting trip to Pittsburgh instead. This is going to be a long post, so bear with me...

We had stayed at a Kimpton Hotel, Hotel Triton, when we were in San Francisco back in June (I promise that trip update is coming next!) and we had signed up for their loyalty program to take advantage of the free wi-fi they give. A few weeks ago, I got an email with some summer special rates at their three hotels in Boston. I forwarded the email to Adam and as soon as we decided that flying out to Pittsburgh, getting a hotel room, renting a car, and apartment hunting was not really how we wanted to spend our anniversary trip, we booked a room at the Nine Zero hotel in Boston. I’m glad we decided to do this instead.

Just look at that bed. I was in love with it and the awesome faux fur blanket. So plush. 

The room was nice and spacious, which was a huge difference from our room in San Francisco, which was more boutique-y (ie. smaller and quirky) than the Nine Zero. I was really impressed with the huge bathroom too. I was not expecting such large rooms for a hotel in downtown Boston!

The Nine Zero is in an awesome location right in the heart of the historic Government district and right on the Freedom Trail. For those of you familiar with Boston, we were about a block away from the Park Street T line. On our first night we ended up walking around near the hotel and had dinner at Boloco, which is Adam’s favorite burrito joint (the one near the hotel had one of those new Coke Freestyle machines, which is AMAZING). 

After dinner, we walked around Boston Common and Boston Public Garden. The big blue building that blends in with the sky is the John Hancock tower. On a clear day it almost disappears into the background.

I've been to Boston a number of times, but I've never seen the Make Way for Ducklings statues. They're actually kind of creepy looking if you think about it. 

It was a gorgeous night. We spent some time walking around near the swan boats in Boston Public Garden and even got to see a swan swimming around in the water. 

On our way back we passed by the State House. I think this is one of my favorite pictures from our trip. This fountain was lovely.

The next day, we headed out to the Food Truck Festival by way of Harvard. The building below is the Harvard Lampoon, the comedy publication that has a number of famous comedian alumni. I overheard a tour guide (in a historical costume, by the way) say that this isn't the oldest comedy magazine in the college circuit, Yale's is 4 years older.

After the Festival, we stopped at the Granary Burying ground, which is part of the Freedom Trail. Some notable people who are buried in this place are Sam Adams (as in who the beer was named after), Paul Revere, Mother Goose, and John Hancock. The big obelisk in the background belongs to Ben Franklin's parents.

 We could see this from our hotel window. Those big trees you see are located on the grounds of the cemetery.

The clouds were starting to roll in by this time and we wanted to hit up Mike's Pastry before the rain came. We walked down by the water in the North End and through Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park. I loved the arbors on this path all filled in with beautiful green vines.

The line for Mike's was crazy long, but we only waited about 15 minutes to get our pastries. I had read before we went that the lines inside aren't single file, so you better be somewhat aggressive or you'll be waiting forever to move up to the front. As soon as we were allowed inside (there was a girl acting as a bouncer at the door telling people outside when they could go in and where to stand) we fanned out (to make sure we had no cutters in front of us) and just kept moving up when the line moved. You can see how packed the place was and how necessary it is to do this. We ended up picking a lobster tail (which weighed like three pounds), a ricotta cannoli and a strawberry cannoli. Woah. I generally don't like cannolis because they're way too sweet. These were perfect. I was amazed at how light and delicious the filling in these were. The lobster tail was hands down our favorite, it's filled with a light and fluffy cream (similar to a cream puff) and the flaky pastry was perfectly crispy. We pretty much devoured that thing as soon as we opened the box.

On our way back we walked through the Haymarket Square open air market. I loved the metal newspapers and vegetables that are displayed in the cement outside the market. I've heard of the market, but never walked through it before. I couldn't believe how busy it was and how large it is. 

That evening we had torrential downpours so we had to stick with a restaurant near the hotel. We looked online and found that UBurger was just a few blocks away and had pretty favorable reviews. It reminded me of Five Guys, but the burger was surprisingly non-greasy and the fries were thin cut, which are my favorite. I would definitely eat here again.

On our last day we drove out to Cambridge to go to our favorite breakfast place, The Friendly Toast. We've been here a few times over the last couple of years and we've always had a good meal here. It's a pretty interesting little place. It's got lots of weird vintage finds, like a giant barbie mannequin that greets you at the door. Barbie's weave is looking a little ragged. Poor Barbie.

Even the tables are vintage. We had a Pepsi-Cola table with Spanish writing on it. I think it said "Ask for Pepsi". We both had the basic breakfast, which was two eggs (any style, we got them scrambled) home fries, and homemade toast. I also asked for a side of bacon. Yum.

After breakfast, we decided to take the T out to Newbury Street. On our way to the T, we found a Steve Jobs dedication plaque. Of course I made Adam take a picture with it, I mean, the guy is moving to Pittsburgh (and leaving me in MA) to work for Apple. :)

The main reason I wanted to check out Newbury St, was because Georgetown Cupcake had just opened a shop there. We've never actually been to one of their stores, but we've had the good fortune of eating their cupcakes a few times now. I follow them on Twitter and saw that their secret (free) cupcake of the day was lavender earl grey - one flavor we've never tried before. I also bought a plain vanilla cupcake.

We didn't end up eating the cupcakes until we got home, because we were so stuffed from breakfast. The lavender earl grey was so good. Probably one of my favorites from their shop!

It was a great trip and I'm sad we won't be able to visit Boston on a whim like this anymore when we move out to Pittsburgh. It's a great little city filled with so much amazing history!

Signing out. Until next time (YAY California trip!).