Please come to Boston for the spring time.

AM I REALLY ABOU TO FINALLY POST ABOUT MY BOSTON TRIP?  Yes!
I have a list of excuses why I haven't done it yet.  Wanna hear them?  Okay!  I had a bunch of assignments, I had finals, I moved, it took me forever to get the photos uploaded onto my computer, and because I've moved I've been trying to get used to a whole new life.  I mean, I not only moved, I migrated.  It's true.  I learned all about it this semester in my Sociology of Population class.  Riveting.

Anywho...last Christmas (I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away) The Captain (having newly earned himself an exclusive relationship with me) decided that my gift would be a trip to Boston.  We'd probably been talking about going to Boston for years and more seriously about it for months.  He paid for the airfare and hotel(s).  I couldn't have him spend that much without contributing, and I got a good tax return, so I bought us Red Sox and Celtics tickets (which he would have done, had I not).  Almost everything else was on him, with the exception of a few meals and cab rides.  The four and a half months waiting for it were grueling.  And so, without further adieu, I present to you my trip to Boston (photos included, since I'm fancy).

Day 1:  We arrived in Boston in the afternoon.  We were hungry, and dinner wasn't until 8, so we swung by a restaurant which I no longer remember the name of (sorry) for slider happy hour!  Sliders were only a buck each!  So we got one of each (there were only three to choose from), another couple of appetizers, and a couple of beers (Sam Adams for me, thanks).  From there, we headed to our hotel to clean up and get gussied up for the most expensive dinner we'd have our entire trip.  Before dinner, we stopped at the Prudential Center (which was a block from our hotel, conveniently) to see the view and have a drink at the top.  From there, we headed to dinner at O Ya.  I won't tell you how much money he spent on this meal.  All I'll say is that it was a once-in-a-lifetime (or maybe decade) type of thing, and the quality of the food, the skills required to prepare the dishes, and the experience made it worth it.  For the record, he picked this place out.  And it was divine.  We had 21 courses.  There was gold leaf.  There was caviar.  There was foie gras.  There were truffles (ew).  Some of them haunt me to this day.  We were given a copy of the menu to always remember what we had, so if anyone is THAT curious, I'll be happy to let you look over it.  On our walk back to the hotel, we discovered that there was a bowling alley directly next to our hotel.  Bad news.

Day 2:  Ah, my favorite day of the trip.  We began at the Sam Adams brewery.  It was a must for me.  Cherry Wheat is my poison of choice (in the beer department).  We went for the free tour (they only ask for a donation to charity), which came with free samples of three of their best selling brews (for the of-agers) and free sampling glasses to take home!  We even got to taste the barley and smell the hops.

We had a food tour to go to later that afternoon, so we decided a quick but yummy lunch would do.  We went to Legal Sea Foods (there are many locations, but we went to the one in the Prudential Center since it was so close to our hotel) and split a crab cake plate, which came with two crab cakes and a salad with fruits in it.  Fantastic.  We thought it might be too tourist-y, and it probably was, but it was so delicious that it made up for it.  Plus, we had a really cool waitress at the bar.  She helped me decide to drink sangria, and I don't think I've wanted to drink anything else, alcoholic or non, since then.
Then came our food tour in the North End.  This is Boston's own Little Italy.  Our tour guide was excellent.  He taught us a lot about the history of immigrants in Boston before the tour began.  He was obviously quite familiar with every establishment there.  We began at Maria's Pastry Shop where we sampled lots of goodies.  From there, we went to a pasta shop (where they make their own pasta), a spice store (where I had the opportunity to show off my supreme agronomy skills), a produce shop, a prepared foods store, and a wine shop.  We learned about history, tradition, and how to pick out the right ingredients, all while sampling some of the goods.  This was my second favorite part of our entire trip.  We ate dinner at a restaurant called Mamma Maria's that evening before heading back to the hotel.
That night was the Celtics game, my very favorite
part of the trip.  Here's why:  Imagine Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night football game.  Now imagine it's condensed down to the size of the PMAC.  That is what it was like being at that game.  I didn't know basketball fans could be that enthusiastic.  Now I know, and I'm afraid I'm a Celtics fan forever.  Plus, I'm almost certain I went to middle school with one of the players on their team.  PLUS, the game went into overtime, and the Celtics won.  The best kind of game to be at.  I loved it so much, I bought striped knee-socks and wore them the next day (it was chilly).


Day 3:  The day it rained.  We hoped the rain would be short-lived, but it was not.  We began with breakfast (the best one of the trip) at a bookshop!  Trident Booksellers and Cafe.  Remember that if you ever go to Boston.  Then go there and get the corn beef hash.  Tell them Ashleigh sent you.  They won't have any idea what you mean, but it might be funny.  They had good coffee, good food, and good music.  Plus, they were right by Newbury Comics (a nerd must).  After that we walked a bit while we were still being optimistic, then we decided we'd make that day our shopping day.  Or rather, my H&M day.  We did our (my) shopping then had dinner at a restaurant called Torro.  It was Tapas, and it was my favorite meal in Boston.  They had this corn that could kill you and these mussels that were served in tin cans that I cried about for days (and I till cry about them) and a red wine cocktail that could rival any drink I'd ever had.  GO TO THIS RESTAURANT.  It's owned by a chef named Ken Oringer, who has a long list of restaurants in Boston (we tried many of them).  At one point we realized he was sitting at the table next to us just ordering things off the menu (unbeknownst to the folks in the kitchen) just to see how it would all turn out.  He's our new favorite person.  We got back to the hotel room and immediately watched his episode of Iron Chef America from a few years ago.  And we fell more in love with him.  Then we hit up the bowling alley.  The had a Golden Tee machine.  It was as if time stood still.  TC needed another meal after bowling, so we went to another Ken O. restaurant, a sushi place called Uni, that had late night ramen.  It was perfect.  I saw an ice cream sandwich on the menu, so I got it.  More reasons to cry.  Sadly, I have no photos from this day.

Day 4:  (This is where the days began to jumble together.)  Opening day at Fenway Park!  We headed out to Fenway via pedicab (a first for both of us) a bit early because we wanted to have lunch at yet another of Ken O.'s restaurants, a Mexican place called La Verdad, which happened to be directly next to Fenway.  They had great guacamole, but after Torro, I could think of little else but that corn.  And hey, we saw Ken at this restaurant, too!  We had pretty good seats for the baseball game, but we were more interested in walking around the park.  The Sox were playing the Rays, who had a local St. Amant boy on the team (who I actually saw play in high school), and the home team won.  Afterward, we went and had oysters and drinks at the Island Creek Oyster Bar, then went for more bowling at a place called Lucky Strike, also in the area.  TC was hungry again later that night, so we tried to go to Uni for their regular sushi menu, but we were too late.  We headed for a steak place where TC had a giant steak and I had a cheese plate.

Day 5:  The day we went to Salem.  We started the day at The Thinking Cup, where I had maybe the best hazelnut latte of my life.  It was flavored not with syrup, but with actual ground hazelnuts.  The most amazing flavor!  Plus, they put a heart of foam on top!  We intended to ride the train the whole way to Salem, but the tracks were being worked on.  We ended up taking a bus most of the way, then a train at the end.  When we arrived, we ate at a place that Guy Fieri ate at called The Lobster Shanty.  I got a lobster for 20 bucks.  And it was good.  TC made me order some awful drink called a Lobstertini.  It came with a huge lobster claw on top, though, so all was not lost.  Then we went to the Maritime museum, a destination I was sure TC would love (him being a riverman, after all), but that sort of fell flat.  At that point we headed to the Witch Museum just in time for a showing.  It was pretty juvenile, but cool nonetheless.  We missed our train out by about ten seconds (literally--and not figuratively-literally but literally-literally), so we went to a restaurant to sit at the bar, have a drink, and watch some hockey while we waited for the next one.  That night, we finally made it to eat at Uni.  We had about nine courses there, and it was amazing.  Definitely worth trying.  I think we went bowling again that night.  We're wild!

Day 6:  We headed into Cambridge on Sunday to stay our last night just around the block from Harvard at a boutique hotel called Hotel Veritas.  (Fun Fact:  "Veritas" is the Latin word for "truth" and is part of Harvard's school crest.)  It was so adorable!  TC picked it out all on his own because he claims he knew I'd love it.  He was right.  We had brunch (sorry, nothing comparable to Mason's here in Baton Rouge), and on the way we saw an ice cream store who claimed to have the best ice cream.  I looked up reviews, and it seemed legit, so we got a scoop after, then I wanted to vomit for the next couple of hours.  We then went to shop for TC (he had gotten khakis earlier in the week and wanted some brown shoes to go with them), and headed back to the room for a quick rest.  Well, I rested, unpacked, and reorganized (the last time I ever saw my hair straightener), while TC headed to the gym.  We ended the night with Italian food (where everyone wished up good luck in the marathon the next day) complete with a cannoli in the North End again.  It was a night after that.  We were pooped.

Day 7:  For the last day of our trip, we began with breakfast/brunch at a little place in Cambridge called Tory Row, which was open-air and wonderful.  We watched a bit of the marathon there, too.  We toured Harvard Yard and considered sitting in on a class, but we decided against it.  We bought souvenirs and hopped a cab back to the North End, yet again.  We had pizza for lunch, then made our way back to Maria's Pastry Shop to load up for my mama, who, bless her heart, only requested Italian pastries as a souvenir.  Then it was a hop, skip, and a jump to the airport to head home.

Sorry for the extensive delay in getting this blog post out.  Also, sorry that it's a million miles long.  I hope it was everything everyone wanted it to be.  Of course, if anyone wants to know anything else, I'll be happy to fill you in as much as possible.