After a relaxing morning and lunch in Albany, spent with Colin's parent's and his best buddy, Brian, we drove a little over 3 hours to my friend Erin's house near Boston. We had spent the weekend in Burlington with Erin, as she was one of the UVMers, but I had not yet met her 14-month-old daughter, Reilly. To meet Reilly and make it convenient for our flight out of Boston on Tuesday, we decided to spend Monday evening with the Leonard family. Their cute New England home sits just steps from the beach in Marblehead, on the north shore of Boston, and we enjoyed our evening with our wonderful hosts!
Erin and her husband, Paul, at the wedding in Burlington
Playing with Reilly
Reilly is such a sweet girl, and was very willing to hang out and play with Colin and I. She spent the evening taking care of her baby and showing us her toys and cars. She joined us for a delicious grilled dinner, but didn't quite make it through the whole thing before it was time for a bath and bedtime. In my experiences with babies, they do need to stick to their routine and we were not about to ruin that!
We adults did finish our meal and chatted for a bit, but didn't last much longer than Reilly before it was time for us to go to bed.
Tuesday morning, Paul was gracious to drive us to Boston's commuter train and we all took the train downtown. After grabbing some breakfast burritos from a local deli/breakfast bar, we walked to the waterfront to enjoy the view as we ate. The tall ships were supposed to be in Boston, and I looked for them, but could not see any. I've probably been to Boston (to hang out) a total of 10 times in my life and I'm pretty sure I've been there more times since leaving RI than when I lived there! Needless to say, I didn't even know where to look for the ships.
After enjoying our breakfast and walking along the waterfront for a bit, we found ourselves in the Italian section of Boston - the North End. Back in May, when Colin and I went up to RI and NY for Mother's Day (I didn't get around to blogging about it), my brother took us to the North End for dinner. On that trip, we ate at the Florintine Cafe, which served us two mediocre (and rather expensive) Italian meals. The highlight was obviously not the dinner, but rather the canolis and cookies from Modern Pastry Shop. My brother and his friend taught us about the pastry war between Modern and it's rival, Mike's Pastry, and I believed it seeing the long lines at both places. Since we had bought Modern Pastry canolis and cookies on that last trip, we decided to try Mike's on this trip. At 10am, there was no line and all the delicious pastries looked fresh.
Cupcake and Cannoli from Mike's Pastry
Enjoying desserts under the trees near Faneuil Hall
From Faneuil Hall, we made a quick stop at Boloco, a burrito joint found mostly in Massachusetts. Boloco was listed on the sustainable food website, EatWellGuide, and admits to environmentally conscious practices on their website. I'm not really sure what is meant by "naturally-raised meats" but they do use organic tofu, and claim to compost, reuse and recycle. We wanted to compare the burritos at Boloco with our favorite burrito shop, Chipotle. Chipotle, similar to Boloco claims to offer "food with integrity." I appreciate Chipotle's description that they try to support local, organic, and/or family farms and try to use antibiotic and hormone-free meat. I recognize the challenges companies face in producing food for the masses, but I prefer a company that is honest about what they are really trying to do. The word "natural" always brings out distrust in me because there is no definition for what this means.
With our Boloco burritos in tow, we decided to navigate Bostons' public transportation system to the airport, something we had not really done before. We took the blue line subway to the airport stop and then connected to the free bus shuttle to the airport terminal. While I may not know Boston, living in NYC taught us both a great deal about public transportation and using maps, and I'd say we looked like we knew what we were doing!
Navigating through the airport was not stressful, although our burritos leaked a bit in our bag, which caused security to investigate. Aside from that minor hiccup, we arrived at the gate with plenty of time to enjoy our lunch. The burritos were not as good as Chipotle, but again, I must admit that my senses were still "off." And, though we may have paid a premium in Boston, but I find Chipotle's enormous burritos (which sometimes give me 2 meals) to be much less expensive.
Our quick, but adventure-filled trip to the northeast ended with a smooth flight back to Raleigh. While the plane was calm and steady, my head congestion gave me severe ear pain and pressure on the descent, which lasted a few days after the trip. I was grateful to have Wednesday (4th of July) off to recover before the short, two-day workweek. But, once I felt better, I wanted to get back north because of the intense 100+ degree days that are frequent in July!
I hope you've enjoyed the recap of our trip. Stay tuned for details about an exciting trip we have planned for August! I'll be looking for suggestions on things to do and places to see and will be asking if anyone would like to join us! Expect the post on Friday.
Where have you had your favorite cannoli?
What is your favorite restaurant in Boston?
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