yk

My parents were visiting me this past weekend, and since I recently moved back (after 10 years away) to the Boston area, I figured I'll write a quick report. My parents have visited Boston many times before, but neither have been here in the last many years.

FRIDAY-
We started off in Beacon Hill. We took a free (1-hr) guided tour of the MASS State House. Very interesting tour as the State House has been around for over 200 years and of course there's lots of history.

After the tour, we walked around Beacon Hill (Mt Vernon St; Louisburg Sq), then followed the Freedom Trail to the Old State House.

From there, we walked to the New England Holocaust Memorial, Haymarket (it was Friday, so there was a lively farmers market going on), and finally to North End.

My parents' last visit was years ago when the ugly I-93 was still around above ground, so it was a pleasant surprise to them of the contrast. The whole area is now much nicer, with parks and fountains, and generally a much more open area.

For lunch, we ate at Neptune Oyster in North End. Neptune's Lobster Roll is recently written up in Boston Globe as the best lobster roll in town. We first started with a couple of cherrystones from the raw bar. My parents then shared a clam chowder and a hot lobster roll (comes w/fries). I had a cold lobster roll w/salad. Oh my. My mom, who loves clam chowder and lobster, was in heaven. The clam chowder was amazing, and the lobster rolls were full of chunks and chunks of juicy lobster meat. Total bill was just under $100 for 3.

Neptune Oyster
63 Salem Street
Boston
617-742-3474
www.neptuneoyster.com

After lunch, we walked thru Faneuil Hall back to financial district, then headed home.

For dinner, we ate at a tiny Japanese restaurant in Arlington called Toraya. We love this place as the fish is incredibly fresh. We shared an appetizer which is pan-fried beef tongue. Then the 4 of us ordered 2 sashimi entrees and 2 deluxe sashimi entrees. The portions are not big but the quality of the seafood as well as the variety are just great. The deluxe has tuna, red snapper, yellowtail, giant clam, uni, scallop, octopus, salmon (and 2 or 3 more which I can't remember).

Not much to say about Saturday as we drove to CT to visit my in-laws for the day.

SUNDAY-
In the morning, we visited the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy.
http://www.nps.gov/adam/
It can only be visited by guided tours, which last for 2 hours.

We first started at the visitors center, then we boarded a trolley which took us to the BirthPlaces (2 houses) where John Adams was born in and grew up, then lived with Abigail for 10 years. We were given a 30-min tour of the houses by a Park Ranger. At the end of the tour, we boarded the trolley again which then drove us to the Old House.

The Old House is where John & Abigail lived after their return from England, and also where 4 generations of Adams had lived since, including John Quincy Adams. Unlike the BirthPlaces houses, the Old House contains all original furnishings, paintings, and belongings. Again, we toured it with the guide of a Park Ranger. The items inside the Old House is estimated to worth around $30 million. Next to the Old House is a small garden and the library, which contained many of the Adams' books.

Overall, the Adams National Historical Park is a wonderful visit.

For lunch, we drove down the street to China Pearl Restaurant, which is an outpost of the original dim sum restaurant in Chinatown. We arrived just around noon and were very lucky to get a table right away as it is very popular for dim sum on Sundays. The 4 of us had a total of 10 dishes. The quality of the dim sum is very good, at least for Boston's standard. Total bill was just around $40 for 4.

As it was very hot and humid in Boston this past weekend, we called it a day after dim sum.

We ate dinner at Rendezvous in Central Square. On Sundays, they offer a 3-course prix-fixe for $38. There are many dishes to choose from (5 cold apps, 4 hot apps, 6 entrees). I was very very pleased with my dishes. I had halibut ceviche to start, followed by a vegetarian bollito misto with spring veggies and morels, and polenta. It was a very earthy dish with excellent flavor of the morel mushrooms. Dessert was a lemon-buttermilk pudding with huckleberry sauce. That was amazing too.

Rendezvous
502 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge
MA 02139
617-576-1900
http://www.rendezvouscentralsquare.com/

MONDAY-
After a simple lunch at home, we set off for Peabody-Essex Museum. Our main goal was to visit the Chinese House. We were at the museum for about 3 hours. Apart from the Chinese House, we also saw some of the maritime exhibits, the Chinese export porcelain, and the new special exhibition on weddings.

After the museum, I drove my parents to Logan where they took a late flight back to Houston.

Anonymous

Nice report, yk, a good supplement to our other Boston threads. I was glad to see that you reported on the Adams sites, which are often overlooked; I just wanted to add that the Visitors Center (where the guided Trolley tours originate) is very accessible by public transit, since it's right across the street from the Quincy Center stop on the subway's Red Line.

MarieF

Hi yk: Have you had the lobster roll at B&G Oysters? We absolutely love theirs and have to go every so often to get our fix - I saw the write-up in the Globe about Neptune Oyster's and have it on my list to try. I am curious if you've had both and how you would compare them?

Also, I have heard that attendance at the Adams Historical Park is way up after the recent TV series (another thing on my list to do!).

Thanks for your report - I love it when we have guests because we do all the "tourist" things with them that we normally don't do otherwise. Sounds like you gave your parents a great tour and had lots of fun also.

cigalechanta

yk, next time try the restaurant at the Peabody outside in the courtyard.
I'm happy you loved the Rendezvous. I'll be there on Saturday. Put yourself on their mailing list. They have wine tastings, once, Vermont cheess, and art exhibit openings.

yk

Anon- Yes, I am quite ashamed to say that I have never been to the Adams site in the past despite having lived here for 10 years before. Glad we finally made it there.

MarieF - No, haven't been to B&G yet. I had thought about going months ago, but was put off by the high price of the lobster roll (i think it's $29?).

The Adams site wasn't that crowded the Sunday morning we visited, but we got there quite early (~9:30am). Its website did mention that it's gotten very popular due to the HBO series and tickets can be sold out for the day.

cigale - We'll try the Garden Restaurant at the PEM next time. We've only seen it from the door, and the setting looks lovely.

Have you been to Rendezvous lately? The current art exhibit is by a photographer, and we sat next to a beautiful photo of a cliff by the sea somewhere in Italy.