Travel: 4 Days in Boston

We left Portland for the drive to Boston on a sunny March morning with weather reports that mirrored early June. Glorious sunshine and hot weather that called for another off the motorway roadtrip through a couple of outlet malls (hello new Nike Cortez, Adidas gear and Shamrock Shakes!) We found places called Bald Head and Manchester to visit and drove through Salem too!
Eventually we arrived in Boston to our Airbnb in Brookline and found the nearest Liquor store for a few local beers and snacks! 

Our first day in Boston was spent in a super warm rain storm. One that threw our wardrobe choices into chaos as we’d only got snowboard jackets and winter layers, so in wholy unsuitable clothing for rain we set off to explore Boston.


First up we went on a bit of a Fallout 4 tour with Jim regaling me with swing songs about nuclear war and telling me about how the locations looked in a post bomb world. This took in some city centre libraries, the Hatch Memorial Shell, the Charles River Esplanade, Boston Common and the State House!

General hookers entrance  - Boston, MA

I could not resist taking a photo of this. I mean, could you? But also, where do the high class hookers go in?


Then we caught T over to Fenway Park for a little look about the
baseball park. That evening we took a walk to
Deep
Ellum
, a restaurant Jim had seen on DDD and we both wanted
to visit. And my god it was worth it. We had a series of starters including the
root beer pork belly with was maybe the best thing we ate on the trip!
 So, so good! 



Our next day was spent taking a late brunch locally, then we set off to take in the Freedom
Trail in the sunshine. We bought a $3 map from the station on Boston Common and
set off following the red line on the floor to do some historical
sightseeing. Apparently the brass markers on the floor are part of Fallout
too so we had lots of pictures taken of those too.



We made it as far as the Paul Revere house and then I twisted a
nearly fixed ankle, I swore a LOT (apologies to any kids nearby) and we
abandoned the walking tour for Oysters at Neptune. We went with a platter of 12 mostly
local oysters and a beer rather than anything bigger because, honestly, after
two weeks of being on holiday, we were getting conscious of how much we’d spent
and it was not cheap in there! But the oysters were delicious and the beer was
just what I needed after my trip! The oysters were followed by an evening
seeing one of our favourite artists, Brian Fallon (lead singer
of the Gaslight Anthem) at the Royale. The gig was in an awesome small venue
with a balcony we could watch from (and space to rest my by now turning
blue, swollen, ankle).



The next day we brunched at @Union on Harvard Ave where Jim had
Lobster Eggs Beni. Yup – lobster breakfast. Then we picked up the Freedom Trail
where we’d left off the day before. The second half of the trail took in the
Copps Hill Burial Ground where we learnt about old fashioned headstones and
found wifi, we made a stop at the Converse HQ for some custom trainers, Jim bought some more
NHL tshirts, we walked to Charlestown and climbed the 294 steps to the top of
the Bunker Hill Memorial. We saw some beautiful views up there and we learnt
some history. Just do not get Jim started on the American Revolution. It’s now
a looooooong topic of discussion!


That night we headed back to Allston for some pretty great taco’s
at Deep Ellum’s sister restaurant, Lone Star. If you’re ever in Boston I would
really suggest checking both these restaurants out as they are so good – busy,
but really good! I wish Jim liked avocados because the guac looked amazing, but
there was so much of it I was scared to order it alone!

Our final day in Boston,
and the final day of our trip was spent in Harvard trying to soak up some smarts. Our
flight was at 6pm so we caught an early-ish bus over to Cambridge to explore
the university. Being a Sunday the museums were shut, which was disappointing as
we saw a few things we’d have loved to have popped in to see, but it was really
interesting to just wander round and see the buildings and read about the way
the town was created! Lunch was sushi at a jazz and sushi restaurant, and we
then made our way back to the apartment to pack and leave for the airport.


I hadn’t been sure what I’d think of Boston, I was excited to go
but didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I did. Maybe it was the sunshine, but
the city, whilst feeling really big, also felt really relaxed and friendly. I
loved saying out in the suburbs so we got a feel for somewhere other than the
city centre too!

 _________________________________________________
Travel Info – where we stayed, how we got about, that sort of stuff;

Accommodation – We stayed in Allston in this cute little Airbnb. It’s a little bit out of the centre of Boston, but it was so close to the Harvard Ave stop on the T and in walking distance of some great restaurants.  
Getting there – We drove down from Portland on the 1 taking a little bit of a detour 
Getting about – We bought a 5 day Charlie card pass that we could use on the T, trains and buses. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy