My awesome Boston/Rockport Trip
 

First of all, let me say that the tips that I received from everyone here really helped make this trip one of the most memorable, delicious trips ever! YK, Vttraveler, emalloy - you rock!

We stayed with the Hotel Marlowe reservations and I'm so glad we did. It was my first stay at a Kimpton hotel but for sure will not be my last. I loved the funky decor and the staff was amazing. DH liked the free coffee/tea every morning. Upon check-in we were upgraded to a King room with a view. Very nice.

We left Detroit on Saturday morning and drove as far as Albany NY. I had never been through Upstate NY and loved the scenery. It was a beautiful day and one of the most enjoyable that I can remember being spent in a car all day. I got brave and used Priceline for our hotel in Albany. I got a room for $48 at the Hotel Indigo. It was a great room and a great experience with Priceline (my first time using) to get my feet wet.

Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day. We had only a few hours left to get to Boston but decided to take a detour and go to the Yankee Candle store in South Deerfield. DH actually suggested it and I'm always up for shopping! We spent a few hours there - what a great store. They truely had some of everything.

We checked into our hotel late afternoon. The hotel is connected to the Galleria Mall and is also where the Charles Riverboat Company dock is. We went over and found out there was a sunset cruise leaving in about a half hour. Perfect! It was really enjoyable. I loved the narration and we learned a lot. And the skyline was beautiful!

We were pretty hungry after the river cruise. I couldn't wait to go to Neptune Oyster - it seemed to get great reviews from everyone. With my subway map and my notebook with everyone's suggestions in hand I could hardly keep from running down Salem Street once I saw the sign. I had read that this place was small and that we may have to wait. There were a few people on the street and I wasn't sure if we needed to go in or wait in line. I decided to investigate. I could hardly believe my eyes as I walked through the door. I have never seen a place so small. Luckily there were two seats at the bar that just happened to be open. Within moments we forgot about the size of the restaurant or the fact that we were practically sharing our meal with strangers. I just fell in love with the place. It has a certain charm, and the food....oh my gosh. I started out with the scallops appetizer and it was wonderful. I love scallops and they were so perfect. My husband had the clam chowder and while he liked it, he is more of a traditional thick creamy clam chowder man. Hubby was looking forward to a lobster roll but sadly they were sold out by the time we got there. He settled on the Neptune Burger because he wasn't in the mood for a big meal. I had the fish tacos and they were so good. The best fish tacos I've ever had. I loved the slaw that was on the side. It was tangy goodness and went perfect with the fish. The portion was huge and I couldn't stop eating them. I abandoned everything but the fish and still had to admit defeat with a piece of fish left on my plate. The server at the bar was lovelly and we enjoyed chatting with her. It was emptying out by the time we were served our food and after a long day of travel we enjoyed taking our time over dinner. One of the people next to us was a regular and he pointed out the owner (Jeff?) and his family enjoying dinner at one of the tables. We were too stuffed and too tired to try to figure out where to go for dessert - and being a Sunday I feared nothing would be open late anyway.

The next day we did the trolley tour, catching it at the New England Aquarium. When it's a good one, I just love trolly tours - and I thought it was very good. We never would have covered all of the ground that we did on the tour. We got off at the second stop in the North End and walked to the Paul Revere House. I loved the way the house had been preserved. Lots of great artifacts. We got there just before a huge school group. We saw several school groups that day but luckily never got caught up in the middle of one! The staff members were very knowledgable and friendly. From there we went to the Old North Church. I loved the courtyard surrounding the church. It was the perfect place to grab something cold to drink and sit down to give DH's knee a rest. When the invasion of the school groups happened it was enough to get us moving again! We sat inside and listened to the talk and then went over to the gift shop. It was very touching, just thinking about the events that took place in that church so many years ago. If it were not for the bravery of Robert Newman our history could be very very dfferent. I need to say that of all of Boston that we visited, I loved the North End the best. I snapped a ton of pictures of the architecture, the cobblestone, the cute restaurant fronts. I spotted Giacomo's which I had heard about and we decided to come back there for dinner. Back on the Trolly and over to the USS Constitution. We didn't know that the ship itself wasn't open on Mondays. That was a bit of a disappointment. But we still got to see her and get some pictures. We spent a bit of time in the museum and found it quite interesting. We reboarded the trolly and had the best, most interesting and funny driver. It was warm and DH was tired so we actually passed up a few of the stops we had originally wanted to get off at and just sat back and enjoyed the ride. Finally when we came to the Prudential Center stop we got off. The weather report for the rest of the week was pretty dismal so I figured this would be the best day to go to the top of the building. I didn't realize that it was more than just going up 52 floors and looking out the windows. We found the audio tour to be fun and informative. I was beginning to get a great understanding of the different neighborhoods in Boston and started to see what made Boston the great place that it is. We hopped back on the trolly and continued down the road to Cambridge and then back to the first stop at the Aquarium. The driver asked if anyone wanted to go someplace other than back to the first stop. We were pleased that he agreed to take us to stop #2 (North End). We were starving. Giacomo's here we come.

I guess because it was pretty early we lucked out and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes for a table. Again, the small restaurant.....again, we didn't care. This was by far my husbands favorite meal. We started out with the mozzarella marinara because I was hungry and wanted something cheesy and gooey and it was! As we ate our salad we chatted with the couple sitting next to us (very very next to us) and discovered they had been going to Giacomo's once a week since 1996 and told us that our waiter had been there ever since they had started going there. I couldn't tell if I liked him or thought he was rude. Every time he came to the table I secretly thought Soup Nazi!! In the end I decided he was part of the charm of the place. Husband had a wonderful seafood special that had just about everything in it you can imagine - including 1/2 a lobster. For the sauce the waiter suggested mixing two - the spicy sauce and the Giacomo's sauce I think. It was perfect and he ate every messy bite of it. I also had one of the specials - it was a ravioli stuffed with spinach, with thick cubes of pancetta in a wonderful cream sauce. It was perfect. In our hunger-took-over state of mind, we forgot that they don't take anything but cash - thank goodness for the ATM across the street!!

I heard a lot about Mike's vs Maria's. While we never made it to Maria's, I cannot imagine anything on earth more sinfully delicious than the chocolate dipped chocolate cream cannoi. Hubby got the tiramisu and liked it but agreed he should have went with a cannoli.

Which brings me to the happy ending of our first full day in Boston. Will continue more a little later.

What a wonderful first installment! The meals, the suspense over hubby's knee . . .

My family loves to point out that Paul Revere's house was also Great-Uncle Giuseppe's house, since for most of the 1800s it was a rooming house crammed with new immigrants.

Thank you. And I know that you had quite a few comments in my original post anon, thanks. I miss Boston and want to go back!!

Great start to your trip. I love seeing Boston through the eyes of visitors. Glad you were happy with the hotel. Much better than being out in Newton. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Glad to hear that your trip went well overall and to get details of the first few days. I was in Cambridge/Boston the weekend before you arrived and as I left Sunday morning I was hoping the weather would be good for your stay.

I so enjoyed reading your first installment, it's been years since we've visited Boston and you make me want to go back. My husband hated driving in that city however, so I don't know if I could talk him into it. Did you have any problems?

tdmort - Thank you so much for coming back here and post your trip report! The first installment sounded great. I can't believe Neptune Oyster sold out of lobster roll! But perhaps because it was a Sunday?

You know, I was in the city that week doing some touristy thing, and I was appalled by the huge number of school groups! I thenfound out that the last couple of weeks of school is when all the kids go on field trips! I think I was in Faneuil Hall one day that week and there must have been a thousand school children running around and screaming! Yikes.

I have never been inside Paul Revere's House, and your report inspired me to go visit some time.

Do you recall which trolley company you took?

tdmort:

Great report. I would also like to know which trolley company, where did you buy the ticket etc.

Thanks very much.

Sandy

Great report! We will be going in September so thank you for writing.

Yes, yk, the end of the school year must be field trip time. They were every where but like I said, luckily we were able to stay ahead of them and not in the middle of them!

Originally we had the Boston Go Card but then I fould out we couldn't do the whale watching, my DH wanted to do the movie trolly tour and it wasn't running when we were going to be there and then I had read some negative feedback about the trolly tour that was associated with the Go Card. Luckily when I bought the Go Card I purchased the trip insurance for $5 per card so I simply requested a refund. I didn't think we would get our money out of it.

We ended up using the Old Town Trolley (Green and Orange cars) and we loved it. We had actually taken a 2 day tour with them in DC. Great company.

The next day was cold - like the temp dropped 20 degrees cold - and raining. We slept in - not hard to do, the beds were so comfortable - and relaxed around the hotel until I could't stand it any more and then we ventured out. Now, I know that everyone warned us that driving in Boston was crazy but it was pouring rain. DH was not moving as quickly as he normally does so we figured we'd be drenched before we made it to the MBTA stop. I really wanted to go to Harvard Square, shop a little and grab a burger at Mr. Bartley's. I figured a damp rainy day deserved a wonderfully satisfying high fat meal, right? So, we hop in the car, set the GPS for Mr. Bartley's and away we go. Simple, right? Wrong. It should have been a fairly straight shot from our hotel to Harvard Square. Some how we ended up on the freeway?? The only good thing about that is we ended up seeing signs for the JFK Museum and Library. That was one of the things I wanted to do and DH agreed. What a blessing it was to end up going out of our way and seeing that museum sign. I really enjoyed it. JFK was an amazing man, dare I say our country hasn't seen anyone so inspiring, imaginative and full of energy since. 'A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on' JFK

The coolest thing happened as we were leaving. I was taking some pictures in the lobby and I heard a group of people talking about me. I thought maybe a lot of people don't take a picture of the wall with the Presidential seal on it. Whatever. As we were headed out the door they were actually pointing at me. When I got outside they were knocking on the window. I thought maybe I had forgotten something. When I looked back there was a lady standing in the window who was wearing a Penguines t-shirt. I had on my Red Wings t-shirt. So, of course we trashed talked for a few minutes. You will see why I mentioned this in a little while.

We had called ahead to the museum to find out what is the average time for a visit. They had say about 1.5 hours. After about 3 we decided we had better try to get over to Harvard Square. Now, this was quite comical. We had our GPS directing us. We approached a round-about and knew as we were going into it that we had already blown it. Our GPS was yelling at us that he was recalculating....go down, turn around, come back, almost get to the lane we need to be in, but..no. GPS yells again that he has to recalculate. Third time's a charm. I think we were only honked at a couple of times as we no doubt cut someone off in our desperate attempt to exit the round-about when we needed to. Sigh. We are in our car instead of public transportation why? So, yes, cd, we did have problems (which were our own fault for not listening after we were warned). Your husband is a wise man!

Alas, nothing compares to a good burger. I discovered a wonderful thing called a rickey. I had a raspberry lime rickey - it was really good. I had the American Idol burger. This is they type of place that every college town needs. The service was a little slow but it was fun to just be there. The burger was well worth the wait. Hubby got the onion rings and I had fries. They were good but nothing exceptional. The star of the show was definitely the juicy burgers. Since it was a cool rainy day - I wanted to try to find LA Burdick's, as it had been suggested to me on another posting. I was told to try their hot chocolate, it was the best hot chocolate I've ever had - I had the dark chocolate of course. What a cute place!

We grabbed some snacks and headed back to the hotel to watch the Red Wings vs. Penguines game. I don't want to talk about it. Ever.

It's been a long day with my nephews over to swim. I am going to continue with this tomorrow. I promise to complete it all tomorrow.

Oh, by the way Sandy - we bought the tickets online. We got a discount for buying them online. We ordered a package that came with tickets to the New England Aquarium. Not my first choice for things to do, but DH wanted to go. That's coming up in my report for tomorrow.

It's Penguins. No E...

Glad you had a great trip. Weather has not been favorable for anything here lately.

Oh, one last thing. Yes, YK, do go to Paul Revere's House. It's worth the $5 or $6. Like I said, lots of artifacts and originals. They had a small amount of his silver collection there but most of it is housed at the MFA (at least I think that's what they said, but then again you would know that better than me).

About driving to Harvard Sq:

When I went to college in Boston, I used to go to Harvard Sq a lot, as that's just a fun place for young people to hang out. After college, I had a car, and I stopped going to Harvard Sq. The idea of driving there, the one-way streets, the traffic, took all the "fun" away. In fact, nowadays when I need to go to Harvard Sq, I'd rather take 2 buses (which takes about 50 minutes), than drive 20 minutes, as I know once I'm there, it'll easily take me another 20-30 minutes stuck in traffic while looking for a parking spot.

Regarding Mr Bartley's, I finally went there last week for my very first time. I actually was disappointed. I honestly thought the patty was dry and tasteless. I thought the mini burgers I make at home are much better. I wonder if that was an off day at the kitchen?

JFK Museum - thanks for the reminder that I need to go for a revisit.

tdmort:

Thanks for the information on purchasing the Old Town Trolley tickets.

What an adventure you seem to have had. Your writing is delightful. Carry on please.

Sandy

Tdmort,

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on your discovery of Boston. I too am a big fan of the North End (although while I'm in the South End, I tend to think that IT's the bees knees of Boston neighbourhoods); very few places north of the Rio Grande feel as European with the narrow curvy streets and Old World layout.

Anyhow, it's been truly marvellous to read about a pair of fresh eyes seeing one of North America's great cities for the first time. Keep travelling and sharing your thoughts.

Best wishes, Daniel

To continue...

Before we knew it...we were already approaching our last day in Boston. Today we had on the agenda to visit the New England Aquarium and also to hang out at Faneuil Hall.

The Aquarium was...well, it was an aquarium. It was what we expected. As I had said earlier, it would not have been my first choice...but DH is not too keen on museums. The penguins (no e....sorry, I'm a terrible speller) were my favorite. And we thought the 70 yr old turtle was pretty cool. I remembered that Sel de La Terre was supposed to be nearby. I looked up and there it was. This is the type of place that you instantly feel comfortable in. Perhaps it was the oversized, extremely soft stuffed chairs. We both went with sandwiches, although the entrees sounded lovely. I had the roast chicken panini and hubby had the turkey sandwich. The focaccia bread on the turkey sandwich was so moist and light - very good. And we really liked the homemade potato chips. After lunch we were walking over to Faneuil Hall. Although it was an overcast, not very pretty day (again) there were tons of people and kids out and about. Somehow out of the crowds of people we managed to walk right by Ms. Pittsburgh Penguins from the day before. What a small world. She had one up on me as the Wings had lost the last game. What a fun family. We enjoyed chatting with them and wished them well...thinking to myself that her poor team didn't have a chance against my mighty Red Wings in game 7 on Friday. Yes I know. And no, I don't want to talk about it. Ever.

So, on to Faneuil Hall. I thought the street performers were delightful. I love to shop and there were some interesting stores. Tourist trap? You bet. But hey...today I was a tourist. DH had a bowl of chowda from Boston Chowda and was very pleased with the thick consistancy. We walked to the Government Center MBTA stop (I directed us there on purpose) so that we had to walk right through the scooper bowl. Really - who can resist ice cream, right? I looked for you YK, but didn't see you :)

Today was a lot of walking and DH needed to ice his knee so we headed back to the hotel. While DH relaxed I went to the mall next to the hotel. I had only packed DH one pair of pants and no long sleeve shirts. I love Old Navy! So, dressed much more appropriate for the weather we headed out for dinner. That evening we wanted to stick close to the hotel so we went to Ole for dinner. Hubby is a big fan of Mexican food and since I had picked every meal I let him choose (from my carefully compiled list, of course!). I didn't expect to love this meal, but I did. There was about an hour wait which was shocking but hubby was set to have Mexican food. It turned out to be less than an hour. I loved the funky decor, the personal message from the chef on back of the menu detailing his trips to Mexico and the tableside guacamole - to die for. We had to wait for the waitress and in the mean time the manager or owner came over and offered some suggestions. Her suggestion of the roast pork enchalida was spot on as we both wanted traditional Mexican. Husband had that and I had the chicken enchilada but wished I had tried the pork. It was so good, and not dry at all, which can sometimes happen to pork. We had the best dessert. It was a crepe covered in rich caramel sauce. So good!

The next morning we checked out of our lovely hotel. Again, let me say, I really would suggest Hotel Marlow to anyone in the area. Yes, it's not downtown Boston, but it's close to a subway stop, has a lovely living room area to relax in and the staff really are wonderful. The concierge, Justin, was from Michigan and was a Red Wings fan as well. We of course bonded right away.

It was another cloudy, much cooler than I thought it would be day. We headed to Salem. After a quick breakfast at Red's, which was your average diner breakfast, we headed to the Peabody Essex Museum. One of my favorite stops the entire trip. I found the Yin Yu Tang house completely fascinating. The museum was practically empty so we were able to get a timed ticket for the next group - in 10 minutes. We went through the house and then spent quite a while watching the videos and looking at the artifacts in the museum adjacent to the house. I also loved the Maritime Art collection. I'm so glad we made the stop in Salem.

Later that afternoon we arrived in Rockport. Now, I'm a city girl, and love anything that has to do with big citys, crowds or urban culture. The last two days of the trip were meant fo us to relax, which is something I don't do very well. It was mostly for DH's benefit. However, I adored Rockport. It was just what I imagined a sterotypical New England village to be. Charming, quaint, lots of little galleries and shops. We stayed at the Beach and King Street B&B. Loved it! The owners, Tim and Laurie were friendly but not overly so. If we needed advise about reservations or attractions they were more than happy to offer it, but were not over-bearing in any way at all. We've all been to those B&B's where the owners are so eager to win you over that they are almost too over the top. If you're an antique lover you may be disappointed with this B&B. It was more modern. Very inviting and cozy. Check out the pictures on their website - they are exactly what we found upon arrival. After being shown to our room DH decided he needed a nap before we ventured out for dinner. So, I grabbed my book bag and headed down to the living room. In the corner of the living room is two huge picture windows which overlook the ocean. Yes, we were right across the street from the ocean! I sunk deep into the overstuffed chair with a good book and fresh baked cookies that are baked every afternoon by Laurie. Ahh...that is what vacations are all about!

That evening we drove to Gloucester. I'm happy to say we mastered the round-about the first try....of course we were experts now, or maybe it was the fact that there was about 1/10 of the traffic that there is in the Boston area! I had a few places in mind for dinner. In the end we settled on Alchemy's. I loved all the small dining rooms that gave it a cozy feel. And I loved the freshness of the ingredients. I thought my husband was crazy when he ordered a pizza (BBQ Chicken) but it was really good. I had the Halibut. Seriously, what made this dish for me was the soy drizzle on top of the fish.

That night the rain was incredible. It poured for hours! I had little hope that the last day of our vacation would be anything but dreary and cloudy. We slept in....had breakfast and set off to explore Rockport. We just drove along the sea and took in the views. Beautiful. I have some lovely pictures of the fog over the coast. Then we went to Halibut Point State Park and took the trail to the Quarry which was just beautiful. We continued on the trail and walked out to the ocean. Breathtaking! On the way back to the car the most amazing thing happened. The sun came out. Sun, glorious sun!!

I told my husband we had to go to a little seafood stand. We went to Farnham's. He had a 1.5 lb lobster. Just to see the look on his face when he sat down with the whole lobster was worth it. Like a kid in a candy shop! I had shrimp. While both were good, I did think it a little on the expensive side. I am not a big clam person which is probably what most folks go for. I was happy we went though, just for the experience of it. After lunch we headed back to Rockport and it was like seeing the coast for the first time again with the sun shining and blue skies overhead. We went over to Bearskin Neck - how charming. I love to take pictures and was very happy to snap off a few shots of Motiff #1. We went into some shops and of course ended our afternoon with a delicious ice cream cone!

After going back to the B&B to freshen up (which for me meant putting on a clean Red Wings t-shirt for tonight was game 7 of the playoffs) we asked where would be a nice place to watch the sun set. They directed us over to the Lobster Pool. There was a cute little swing sitting among some rocks right by the water that seemed to have our name on it. We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever! What a great ending to a great day!

We went to Latitude 49 for dinner. I picked this place because they had lots of tvs and I wanted to watch the game. Which, you guessed it, I don't want to talk about.

We had toyed with the idea of driving up the coast a bit on the way home but in the end we decided to just head back home. We were so completely satisfied with our vacation that we didn't think we could add anything more on to it to make it better.

Once again, thanks for the suggestions - they were all great. I realize there is so much that we didn't see in Boston. I think the first trip to a big city like that is all about getting familiar with the neighborhoods and sites. Next time, and there will be a next time, we will be able to hit some of the museums we didn't make it to and to visit more of the off the beaten path locations.

Thanks, everyone for letting me share. Happy Travels to you all!

Thanks again for this lovely report, tdmort! I must admit, I didn't end up going to Scooper Bowl. The weather, as you mentioned, was not the best, so I passed.

<i>Hubby is a big fan of Mexican food and since I had picked every meal I let him choose (from my carefully compiled list, of course!). </i>

That's too funny - you sound just like me.

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to PEM and the Chinese House. It's a fantastic museum indeed.

I really enjoyed your description of Rockport and Gloucester. It's been over 10-15 years since I last went. Your TR keeps remindning me of places I need to visit!

Come back to visit soon!

Great report, glad you survived the driving in Boston. Next time find a big truck that looks like its going where you want to go, stick to it and don't make eye contact with another driver. The GPS can be fooled by the changing one-ways too and so often you can't use the cues you had going out to come back.

The north shore is my favorite area, (not just because my grand kids live there) so I'm really glad that worked out for you.

Now about the Bruins......

YK, while I love my husband dearly, he's just not a foodie sadly. Some times I think I have him converted and then he will revert to dining on Taco Bell and proclaiming it to be a good meal. :)

emalloy...I had been planning this trip since before the playoffs started. At one point in time I was delirious with excitement thinking it might be a Wings/Bruins final series. I love to see original 6 teams play....oh well, maybe next year, huh?