Final Leg of the Tour de Northeast - Boston

Now that it has almost been a month since our "Tour de Northeast", I figure it's about time to wrap up the details of our trip.  If you've been reading along, you know that we fit a lot into those 5 days!

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

We took our cupcake and cannoli to go and continued our walk through Boston to Faneuil Hall, where we enjoyed them in the cooler air under the trees.  Both the cupcake and the cannoli were very tasty, but not any better than Modern Pastry.  And, I will admit that neither cannoli in Boston was as good as the ones we had from Termini Bros in Philadelphia.  Hands down, those were the best I've ever had!  If you love Mike's Pastry, take solace in my disclaimer that I was still not feeling 100% when I ate the cannoli from Mike's Pastry. I may have to reevaluate when I'm back in Boston and feeling better!

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?

Lots of Upcoming Travels!!

Happy almost long weekend to all!!

It's going to be in the upper 80's this weekend so Colin and I are headed to the outer banks this evening!!  The plan is to stay with our friend's parents tonight and then head down the coast to find a campground with room for Saturday and Sunday night reservations.  I know that I always look forward to camping, but never sleep well in a tent.  But, I am just so happy to have a long weekend ahead of me and we haven't really spent a lot of time of the beach since....gosh I can't even remember.  I'm guessing some time last summer, or maybe even before that.  No wonder I can't wait!

We've also been planning other fun summer adventures the past few weeks. Colin's got a work trip to Fort Lauderdale in early June (yes, right around the corner!) and his conference finishes up on a Friday.  I'm very excited to go and spend a long weekend at the beach (3 full days).  And that trip will be even better than the outer banks because 1.) we will be more comfortable in a hotel and 2.) it will come at the end of a very busy time at work (which I am in the middle of now!!).

At the end of June and into early July, my dear friend from college is getting married in Burlington, Vermont.  So, we've got a whirlwind of a trip planned to fly into and out of Boston, visit friends in the area, spend some time in RI and be in Burlington for the weekend.  All of that is planned in just 5 days!!  I wish I could go longer to visit with more friends in the area, especially since there are so many babies I haven't met (and some are already 2).  But alas, we're trying to save up some vacation time for a big trip in the fall (I won't disclose until we are sure we are going).  Thankfully, many of my college gal pals will be with me at the wedding (though none are bringing their babies) and they all live fairly close to each other in Boston. To make things easier, I'm trying to plan a day (or night) with each set of friends along the route between RI and VT.  New York friends will have to wait until a visit in that direction.

And if these three trips were not exciting enough, I had a meeting today at work regarding a conference in Asheville in September.  I love that town because the vibe brings me back to Burlington and always get excited to spend some time there.  The best part about the conference is not that it is in Asheville, but that we are all staying in The Grove Park Inn!  My friends in the area will need no explanation, but for those of you unfamiliar with the resort, it is a large antique resort spa that boasts a "bed and breakfast" feel and is located in the middle of the mountains with amazing views all around.  The spa is supposedly a-m-a-z-i-n-g and September is usually a fantastic time of year in the mountains of North Carolina.  Though I do have to present at this conference on Sunday, I'm getting excited at the prospect of going up early to enjoy the area, especially since all rooms are discounted for conference attendees.  I hope I can convince Colin that it is an opportunity he does not want to miss.

I'm sure that by now you know that I love planning trips and getaways.  With the beautiful weather we've been having in Raleigh, we've been enjoying "staycations."  Now that the weather is getting a bit too warm, it's time to escape to places that offer more comfortable temperatures (like the mountains) or places to cool off from the heat (like the beach).

I'll keep you posted on how Darwin does with his second attempt at camping.  We will definitely be taking the "chew-proof" tie out cable and stake to prevent him from chasing night time critters in case he's still scared of the tent.  And we are taking our big tent in case it rains and he needs to sleep with us.


What are you up to this long weekend? 
Any summer vacation plans being made?