Red Sox country - Boston, MA - May 2010 through April 2011

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The city of BOSTON is dear to my heart because I am a die-heart Red Sox fan. After moving to the east coast we made a quick day trip to Boston to explore the city. Just like New York we have not scratched the surface of this city.

Our first stop was CAMBRIDGE, a suburb of Boston - home to Harvard University. During the summer this is an incredible campus to walk around. The Charles river runs right through campus. On a nice day you will see people running, walking, rowing, sitting around, reading, etc. It just seems like an incredible area for summer time. HARVARD SQUARE is right there with stores galore and students and tourists mixing at all hours of the day. Walking around campus you will run into several very, very historic buldings - MASSACHUSETTS HALL and SEVER HALL (considered one of the architectual masterpieces of our time). HARVARD YARD is as historic as they come and the best way to explore the area is through a student guided tour. It is just one of those things that we have found in our travels. We both love to explore on our own and we prefer to not do organized tours since we like to do our own thing on our own time and at our own pace, but.... we also love to know the stories, the reasons, and the history behind things since we both enjoy to be knowledgeable about the things that we visit/ see. So we have learned that doing a guided tour is one of the best things you could do to get to know the area you are visiting - even though it will cost you a pretty penny sometimes. We did not do a guided tour this time around, but I am sure we will go back for a tour at some point.

We were lucky enough to be on campus during HARVARD GRADUATION weekend. The university puts its best foot forward and everything is decked out in crimson. WIDENER LIBRARY is "decorated" with 3 massive flags. We also paid a quick visit to FOGG ART MUSEUM to view some priceless collections of art.

BOSTON'S NORTH END was next on our radar. It is just a fun area to walk around. Very Irish and very Italian. We grabbed the obligatory pizza and calzone and saved some space for CAFFE VITTORIA. If you have a sweet tooth you should stay away from this place. It was heavenly with some scrumtous tiramasu and dark espresso. Walking around you also run into ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH with an interesting history. During the summer BOSTON'S WEEKEND STREET FAIRS is not to be missed. Always something happening over the weekend.

Unfortunately the beloved Sox was not in town, but...

Well as luck would have it my birthday is pretty close to opening day so my lovely wife bought us tickets for OPENING DAY at FENWAY PARK for RED SOX vs. YANKEES. What more could you ask for. OPENING DAY against the Yankees was a dream come true. Fenway Park is truly an amazing sporting venue. Yawkey way outside is as rowdy as ever before game time. The park is old, the seats are old, the seats are tight, there are poles everywhere blocking the view, and... and yet you can't help but absolutely love this place. Nikkie has never been so it was pretty overwhelming when we walk through the entrance and the first thing she saw was THE GREEN MONSTER. She got a little emotional and I think that moment branded her a SOX for life. Man we had crappy seats, but the beer was good, the company was better and the game was even better - taking care of the Yankees at home opening day. What an experience. Other things to see while at the park includes the RED SEAT FOR LONGEST HOME RUN in right field and PESKY'S POLE in right field. Also don't forget to have a Sam Adams while at the park - this after all is the birthplace of Sam Adams.

A couple quick tips on Boston. Well hotels are expensive. Very expensive. But this is also not the worst thing since the second thing is that parking in Boston is rediculously expensive. If you thought New York parking was expensive then go to Boston and see what expensive parking is. So you have in essence 3 options for exploring Boston. Get a hotel in the city and use the subways and railcars (valet parking at the hotels run about 40 - 50 dollars). This is an option we have not explored yet, but we are told that the public transportation in Boston is really good. It seems like a fairly spreadout city so we have always preferred to have a car. So Boston has many small suburbs about 10-15 minutes away. Hotels are a lot cheaper in these areas. This is what we have always done. The hotels are nice and cheap. So every day we would drive in for exploration. We literally paid 80 dollars for parking one day. If you do take the car option then it is probably best to find a fairly "central" location park there for the day and use the public transportation. We tried the "metered parking" option, but there is just not that much options available - especially in the more popular parts of town. So that is Boston tips for you in a nutshell.

When you think art museums, New York probably comes to mind first. Well, we discovered a little gem of a museum - the ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM. Nikkie was not greatly excited about visiting the museum, but I dragged her anyway - since it was in the book. Well she was pleasantly surprised (me as well) as to what we found. So this lady - Mrs. Gardner - came into some money through her husband in the early 1900's and steadily started to built an art collection. Just a couple examples include: TITAIN'S "EUROPA" (what a magnificent painting), REMBRANDT SELF-PORTRAIT, MICHAELANGELO, RAPHAEL, BOTTICELLI, MANET, MATISSE, DEGAS, SARGENT'S "El JALEO", FRA ANGELICO's "DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN", CELLINI's "BINDO ALTOVITI", PIERRO DEL FRANCESCA "FRESCO's" & "HERCULES" and a JOHN SINGER SARGENT PORTRAIT OF GARDNER. Wow that is a mouthful and we are not talking regular museum size here. We are talking big house. So she in essence collected these pieces and put them up in her house as a private collection and subsequently left it all for the public to admire in her residence. I believe she lived to be quite old so she lived on the 4th floor of the residence while the other 3 floors was open as a museum/ art gallery. We were blown away by the plants and the lay-out of the museum. The residence/ museum has a massive COURTYARD in the middle and everything evolves around this courtyard. The courtyard is exquisitely maintained with flowers for all kinds of seasons. When we were there in April the NASTIRTIUM VINES & NARCISSUS were spectacular. There is water flowing and she has all these different statues and rocks and artifacts that she collected over the years so she turned every room into it's own little exhibition space. Mrs. Gardner was extremely well connected. There are letters on display to her from past presidents, famous writers, etc. The highlights include a T.S. ELIOT LETTER and some DANTE MANUSCRIPTS. A little gem of a museum that we thoroughly enjoyed. One drawback is that they don't allow any photography. We love taking pictures so this was a pretty big discouragement for us, but we will definitely go back. Sometimes you just need to forget about the camera and take your own mental pictures.

It was a fabulous couple days in Boston. Boston is a seafood heaven, but for some reason we have not tried the restaurants yet so we made an effort to go to LEGAL SEA FOODS for some CLAM CHOWDER (ok), FRIED CLAMS (really good) and RAW OYSTERS (good as always). For those of you not knowing Legal Sea Foods in essence catches their own fish and processes it themselves and distribute it themselves. A couple chain restaurants have sprung up along the east coast. It was a beautiful spring day (after a long dreary cold New England winter) so we had to take advantage of the sun. We walked through THE PUBLIC GARDEN which was packed with people out and about enjoying the sunshine. The "MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS" BRONZE STATUE in one of the corners of the garden is a perennial favorite with children and adults alike. They also have a GEORGE WASHINGTON STATUE at one of the entrances to the park. Unfortunately it was still early spring time so no plants or flowers in the garden even though we can only imgaine what it would look like when all the trees are in bloom and the tulips stick their heads out. We did a quick stroll through the area (lots of shopping opportunities), but unfortunately we had other things on the agenda.

PROVINCETOWN. Provincetown has always been this "mystical" place that I have only heard of. We slowly made our way along the CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE - from CHATHAM to PROVINCETOWN along OLD KING'S HIGHWAY on ROUTE 6A. It is an extraordinary drive. Really pretty drive with white washed houses, quaint little towns, and the SUN SETTING in the west. Driving the 60 miles along the coast takes forever. Traffic lights, small towns, cops and winding roads makes this a slow but appreciating drive. We finally made it to PROVINCETOWN. Small touristy town. As we drove down main street (one way) all we saw were art galleries, restaurants and... lots of gay people? Yes Provincetown has a big gay population and it is very evident in some of the stores. We finally found the LAND'S END INN located towards the end of town. Provincetown is the Hampton's for Boston. During the summer you can sit in traffic for hours and to get a hotel or any somewhat decent accomodation is almost impossible. We went in April so it was a lot more affordable and also a lot quieter and easier to get around. The inn was incredible. We got there a little after sunset and booked into our room - the library room. The inn itself was impeccably decorated and our room had rows upon rows of books and a 180 degree view of the waters of Provincetown. We could not see much since it was dark already so we settled in for the night. The inn has a "happy hour" every day from 5 - 7 where they serve wine and cheese. We got there well after 8 and were still treated to a bottle of wine which we enjoyed all by ourselve in silence at the bay side window overlooking town. Breakfast was also nice and we met some people from all over the country (even though we don't do many inn's and bed and breakfast places I would have to say that this is something that we will probably start to do more and more. It obviously has a different feel to it since you are in a house with 10+ other couples so at breakfast/ dinner you meet some real interesting people.

We got up the next day and explored Provincetown. They have a breakwater wall that leads to a little stretch of beach with a lighthouse. It was a real interesting walk actually since it was low tide when we started the walk so for most of the walk we actually walked on the sand that was covered by 4-5 feet of water a couple hours ago. We saw millions of shells and all kinds of birds going for the pickings left behind by the receding water. Lots of crab leftovers and broken shells as the seagulls pick everything up and drop it on the rocks to get to the inside. The walk was long, but very rewarding. Our gift was an almost deserted BEACH with hardly another soul. We encountered our first of many beautiful LIGHTHOUSES. After spending some alone time on the beach we also spotted some whales in the distance. Perfect end to a very special couple hours. On our way back across the breakwater wall the surf was back so we had to walk on the uneven wall, but we made it back without any problems (just be warned - the walk is longer than it seems). It took us a good 3 - 4 hours to complete the roundtrip journey. Back on land we did a quick WALK up COMMERCIAL STREET. Commercial street is the beating heart of Provincetown. Some very interesting shops to say the least, but then again not really that much different from any other small coastal town. We found the LOBSTER POT and had some CLAM CHOWDER (good), Russian oysters (really good), hot seafood combo (extremely delicious), sole rockefeller (extremely disappointing). So we had a lot of good food. The drive back is always the hardest. We slowly made our way back through TRURO TOWN where we did a quick side trip to the CAPE COD HIGHLAND LIGHT. We also made a couple minutes for the NAUSET BEACH LIGHT at EASTHAM. Lighthouses might become our new photo favorite since it can take on so many shapes and forms with an always constant - the light.

So our little Massachusetts rendezvous had to come to an end. On our 2 trips we managed to cross 11 things off the list including Boston's North End, Harvard Square, Visiting Harvard Yard, Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, Legal Sea Foods, Cape Cod National Seashore, Fenway Park, The Public Garden and Provincetown.

Hopefully this will be it but we (I) are adding 4 more books to the list. We discovered the National Geographic Books - 500 Journeys of a Lifetime, 500 Drives of a Lifetime, 500 Food Journeys of a Lifetime and 500 Sacred Places of a Lifetime. So this would now bring the total places to visit to/things to do/ things to experience to 5325.
So 103 things down and 5,222 left.

Til next time from Bean Town

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Photos

Land's End Inn
Good picture babe

Boston
Cobble street in Little Italy

Cambridge
The river Charles

Cafe Vittoria
Oh this was soooooo good

Legal Sea Foods
We love oysters

Lobster pot
We really love oysters... Russian style

Fenway Park
Sporting the new gear for opening day

Fenway Park
A grand ol' ballpark - the grandest of them all

Fenway Park
Following the action closely

Provincetown
Mussell shells as far as the eye can see

Cape Cod
A lighthouse in the distance

Provincetown
One of the many many lighthouses we saw

Provincetown
Wandering along the dunes

Provincetown
Chillin on our own little "private" beach

Provincetown
Relaxing after a long walk