Friendship, fiddling, and freezing in Boston
Mar 2nd, 2015, 05:11 AM
#1
Original Poster
Friendship, fiddling, and freezing in Boston
It seemed like a good idea at the time. This year, instead of spending a weekend in New York as my college friends have done for many years, we decided to meet in Boston in February. We thought it might be easier. So what if it was cold? We all are used to the cold, we went to college in Chicago. True, that was over forty years ago, but still.
And then, in the three weeks before the scheduled gathering, Boston had more snow than Chicago has ever had in an entire winter. Public transportation came to a standstill for several days and was gradually creeping back toward functionality. My daughter Eileen expressed concern that we wouldn’t be able to walk on the sidewalks in Cambridge, where we were planning some activities. Her own neighborhood on the Cambridge/Somerville line was pretty much impassable, and her car had stayed put for nearly a month under piles of snow.
The day before our weekend was to start, I spoke to Eileen and she said the red line from Boston to Cambridge had been running, although it had fewer trains than usual and they were pretty crowded. Two of my friends were counting on taking that line on Friday, and it sounded encouraging.
So Friday morning I packed my bag, printed out parking permits for a garage in Cambridge, and drove to the airport with my husband Alan to pick up my friend Ellen, who was coming from the farthest distance. Really wishing I had told my friends that New York would be fine this year, and thinking of how much easier it is to get around in the snow there. But looking forward to seeing my friends.
And then, in the three weeks before the scheduled gathering, Boston had more snow than Chicago has ever had in an entire winter. Public transportation came to a standstill for several days and was gradually creeping back toward functionality. My daughter Eileen expressed concern that we wouldn’t be able to walk on the sidewalks in Cambridge, where we were planning some activities. Her own neighborhood on the Cambridge/Somerville line was pretty much impassable, and her car had stayed put for nearly a month under piles of snow.
The day before our weekend was to start, I spoke to Eileen and she said the red line from Boston to Cambridge had been running, although it had fewer trains than usual and they were pretty crowded. Two of my friends were counting on taking that line on Friday, and it sounded encouraging.
So Friday morning I packed my bag, printed out parking permits for a garage in Cambridge, and drove to the airport with my husband Alan to pick up my friend Ellen, who was coming from the farthest distance. Really wishing I had told my friends that New York would be fine this year, and thinking of how much easier it is to get around in the snow there. But looking forward to seeing my friends.
Mar 2nd, 2015, 06:20 PM
#4
Original Poster
Hopefully we will remember it. These gatherings are starting to blend together, we were trying to remember what we did last year. But yes, this one should stand out.
No food photos, sorry, in fact I took no photos at all. I've seen more than enough of the snow also.
No food photos, sorry, in fact I took no photos at all. I've seen more than enough of the snow also.
Mar 2nd, 2015, 06:21 PM
#5
Original Poster
We drive from the airport through some intense traffic and pull up into the small space that has been shoveled in front of the Eliot Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. We tell the doorman we would just like to check in and then get back in the car, so he watches the car for us.
Ellen and I are the first to check in to the hotel, where we have reserved one twin room and one suite for the five of us. This is a well-maintained older property and our room is very nice. In the European style, the keys are on large metal tags, and they are left at the desk when guests are out of the hotel.
We drop our bags and go back down to the lobby. The doorman has moved the car onto Massachusetts Avenue to get it out of the way, but it is now facing the wrong way. No problem, he just gets into the car and backs it around the corner against traffic on the narrowed streets. I hope Alan is giving him a big enough tip.
Our first planned activity is a visit to the newly renovated Harvard Art Museums. We drive down Massachusetts Avenue across the Charles River into Cambridge. I had been worried about parking, which is limited under the best of conditions. Originally I had thought Alan could drop us off and park in a garage in Harvard Square, but Eileen had me worried that it would be hard going from there to the museum on foot. So I had looked at the museum’s web site and learned there was a Harvard garage near the museum that one could reserve and prepay on line, and I have a permit in hand as we drive up to the garage.
There is a booth at the entrance where you have to show the permit to get into the garage. There is an older gentleman in the booth. His chin is down on his chest. We try to figure out how to wake him up without startling him. Must be warmer in that booth than it is outside. It’s about fifteen degrees outside.
Alan waves his hand in front of the booth until the attendant wakes up suddenly and smiles. “Must have been sleeping,” he says.
After we leave the garage we get a bit confused by a number of paths that have been plowed in several directions. We end up walking around the block, but it’s all good because the sidewalks here have been cleared. I am greatly relieved at this. We find this the rest of the day and evening, the whole area has been cleared and walking is no problem.
Ellen, Alan and I are the only ones going to the museum, we will be meeting up with the rest of the group later, so we enter, buy our tickets, stop for a quick bite at the café and reconnoiter. We are here to see the Rothko Harvard murals. These large works were displayed at the artist’s insistence in the space for which they were designed on the Harvard campus, but the space was not ideal and the murals were exposed to light from the windows and faded badly.
They have been restored for this exhibit not with paint but with projected light that has been targeted to each spot on each mural to blend with the existing color to produce colors as close as possible to the originals. There is one mural that was created at the same time and never exhibited, so the colors of that mural indicate the original colors of the faded murals. There are also photographs that were taken when the murals were first created, but the photos have also faded somewhat.
It is a very interesting display, and we make sure we are there at 4:00, when they turn off the projectors so we can see the contrast between the restored murals and the unrestored, faded murals. We then take a look at some of the other exhibits, including a very nice collection of modern and contemporary works.
When we are ready to leave the museum, our friend Barbara joins us in the lobby. The museum is closing, and we have over an hour until our dinner reservation, so we walk in the direction of the restaurant with the intent of finding a place to sit and wait. We pass a student center with comfortable chairs visible from the walkway, and we go inside to talk and wait.
Have I mentioned it is really cold outside? And now the wind is picking up.
Ellen and I are the first to check in to the hotel, where we have reserved one twin room and one suite for the five of us. This is a well-maintained older property and our room is very nice. In the European style, the keys are on large metal tags, and they are left at the desk when guests are out of the hotel.
We drop our bags and go back down to the lobby. The doorman has moved the car onto Massachusetts Avenue to get it out of the way, but it is now facing the wrong way. No problem, he just gets into the car and backs it around the corner against traffic on the narrowed streets. I hope Alan is giving him a big enough tip.
Our first planned activity is a visit to the newly renovated Harvard Art Museums. We drive down Massachusetts Avenue across the Charles River into Cambridge. I had been worried about parking, which is limited under the best of conditions. Originally I had thought Alan could drop us off and park in a garage in Harvard Square, but Eileen had me worried that it would be hard going from there to the museum on foot. So I had looked at the museum’s web site and learned there was a Harvard garage near the museum that one could reserve and prepay on line, and I have a permit in hand as we drive up to the garage.
There is a booth at the entrance where you have to show the permit to get into the garage. There is an older gentleman in the booth. His chin is down on his chest. We try to figure out how to wake him up without startling him. Must be warmer in that booth than it is outside. It’s about fifteen degrees outside.
Alan waves his hand in front of the booth until the attendant wakes up suddenly and smiles. “Must have been sleeping,” he says.
After we leave the garage we get a bit confused by a number of paths that have been plowed in several directions. We end up walking around the block, but it’s all good because the sidewalks here have been cleared. I am greatly relieved at this. We find this the rest of the day and evening, the whole area has been cleared and walking is no problem.
Ellen, Alan and I are the only ones going to the museum, we will be meeting up with the rest of the group later, so we enter, buy our tickets, stop for a quick bite at the café and reconnoiter. We are here to see the Rothko Harvard murals. These large works were displayed at the artist’s insistence in the space for which they were designed on the Harvard campus, but the space was not ideal and the murals were exposed to light from the windows and faded badly.
They have been restored for this exhibit not with paint but with projected light that has been targeted to each spot on each mural to blend with the existing color to produce colors as close as possible to the originals. There is one mural that was created at the same time and never exhibited, so the colors of that mural indicate the original colors of the faded murals. There are also photographs that were taken when the murals were first created, but the photos have also faded somewhat.
It is a very interesting display, and we make sure we are there at 4:00, when they turn off the projectors so we can see the contrast between the restored murals and the unrestored, faded murals. We then take a look at some of the other exhibits, including a very nice collection of modern and contemporary works.
When we are ready to leave the museum, our friend Barbara joins us in the lobby. The museum is closing, and we have over an hour until our dinner reservation, so we walk in the direction of the restaurant with the intent of finding a place to sit and wait. We pass a student center with comfortable chairs visible from the walkway, and we go inside to talk and wait.
Have I mentioned it is really cold outside? And now the wind is picking up.
Mar 3rd, 2015, 03:30 AM
#10
Original Poster
No, Ackislander, but thank you.
Dfrost, we have traditionally done this in New York in the winter, when hotel prices are at their lowest and when cities are more attractive than country destinations. But I believe we will think twice before doing this again in Boston.
Dfrost, we have traditionally done this in New York in the winter, when hotel prices are at their lowest and when cities are more attractive than country destinations. But I believe we will think twice before doing this again in Boston.
Mar 3rd, 2015, 03:31 AM
#11
Original Poster
Dinner is at Giulia, a small storefront restaurant on Massachusetts Avenue between Harvard and Porter Square. http://giuliarestaurant.com We reserved a month in advance, which is necessary for a weekend evening. Denise and Carol are waiting for us at the pasta table, where they seat large groups. This restaurant is a real find. We share appetizers all around: a platter of mixed vegetables including eggplant caponata, some delicious artichoke concoction, and a few other things I can not remember; warm semolina cakes; and calamari. All wonderful. For a main course I have tagliatelle with red wine braised duck, spinach, foie gras, and matsutake mushrooms. This is superb.
Other members of the party order grilled branzino with tiny clams; monkfish and lobster stew; and fusilli integrale. Everybody is very happy with their orders.
The review I read referred to one of the desserts as “sex on a spoon”. I can not remember which one, so we have to try several and pass them around. Never having had sex on a spoon, I can not speak to the comparison, but the chocolate terrine is outstanding.
Alan goes off into the freezing night to bring the car from the garage while we lick the plates or something, and when he returns we all pile into the car for the ride back to the hotel. This is where it really starts feeling like college again, although Denise points out that back then we squeezed more people into sketchier cars (she herself used to drive a Volkswagen Beetle nicknamed “Death Trap”).
At the hotel, Alan leaves us and drives home. He will return Sunday to join us and drive me home again. This allows him to participate in some of the activities that I knew he would enjoy and provides some crucial transportation links for the weekend. He has known these people almost as long as I have. And one of them is his sister (he has known her even longer).
Back in the hotel, we gather in the suite and talk late into the night.
Other members of the party order grilled branzino with tiny clams; monkfish and lobster stew; and fusilli integrale. Everybody is very happy with their orders.
The review I read referred to one of the desserts as “sex on a spoon”. I can not remember which one, so we have to try several and pass them around. Never having had sex on a spoon, I can not speak to the comparison, but the chocolate terrine is outstanding.
Alan goes off into the freezing night to bring the car from the garage while we lick the plates or something, and when he returns we all pile into the car for the ride back to the hotel. This is where it really starts feeling like college again, although Denise points out that back then we squeezed more people into sketchier cars (she herself used to drive a Volkswagen Beetle nicknamed “Death Trap”).
At the hotel, Alan leaves us and drives home. He will return Sunday to join us and drive me home again. This allows him to participate in some of the activities that I knew he would enjoy and provides some crucial transportation links for the weekend. He has known these people almost as long as I have. And one of them is his sister (he has known her even longer).
Back in the hotel, we gather in the suite and talk late into the night.
Mar 3rd, 2015, 08:11 AM
#14
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 1,420
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
" I've seen more than enough of the snow also."
Same for all of us that live here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I believe we will think twice before doing this again in Boston."
Again, same for us residents---the "this" being living here through another winter like this one !
It was certainly brave (or foolhardy, in 20/20 hindsight) of you to come. Very much enjoying seeing the situation through the eyes of a visitor (and such an evocative writer).
Same for all of us that live here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I believe we will think twice before doing this again in Boston."
Again, same for us residents---the "this" being living here through another winter like this one !
It was certainly brave (or foolhardy, in 20/20 hindsight) of you to come. Very much enjoying seeing the situation through the eyes of a visitor (and such an evocative writer).
Mar 3rd, 2015, 12:17 PM
#16
Original Poster
Thank you for the comments.
SambaChula, those of us who commented on having seen enough of the snow are local. I live about an hour from Boston, and one of my friends who joined us lives in a near Boston suburb, while another of our friends lives in Western Massachusetts and one is from Connecticut. I would not have made that comment after just one weekend of exposure to this extraordinary winter.
The idea of doing Boston instead of New York this year is that we thought it might be easier for those of us living in the area. What a great idea that was!
SambaChula, those of us who commented on having seen enough of the snow are local. I live about an hour from Boston, and one of my friends who joined us lives in a near Boston suburb, while another of our friends lives in Western Massachusetts and one is from Connecticut. I would not have made that comment after just one weekend of exposure to this extraordinary winter.
The idea of doing Boston instead of New York this year is that we thought it might be easier for those of us living in the area. What a great idea that was!
