~ Boston ~

Laura:
Waaaaaaaay back in January we went on a mini-vacation to Boston. We've been trying to take trips to as many of the major East coast cities since we live about 6 hours away from most of them. So far we've hit up NYC, Baltimore, and Toronto (apparently we didn't blog about that journey...I'll do that one next!). Please be sure to mark those off on your "Lorax Travels BINGO" cards. ;0)

Anywhos...we were in the middle of a killer block of Renal disease and physiology at school, and while I do find the kidneys interesting my brain just couldn't take anymore studying! I was in desperate need of a distraction, so we hopped in the car for a weekend get-away to Boston. Now you may be wondering...really, you went to Boston in January?!? And you would be totally correct to think we were crazy! It was pretty chilly the whole weekend (hence the puffy coats and mega scarves in the pictures), but it was still a really great trip. We did a lot of walking, used Charlie Tickets to ride the MTA, and did as many indoor activities as possible!

Boston Accommodations: Hotel Marlowe, a Kimpton Hotel. We selected this hotel for a couple reasons:
1) Central location right along the Charles River in between downtown Boston and Cambridge, which is where all the major sites we were advised to visit are located (see below for said sites). 

 
2) We stayed in a lovely Kimpton Hotel during our visit to Baltimore - The Monaco. The hotel was really fancy, the staff was super nice, and again in a pretty prime location. Would definitely recommend staying in Kimptons if you have the chance.  Lots of creature comforts and a ton of pizazz! Yep, I said it...PIZAZZ [with spirit fingers AND jazz hands].

We drove to Boston on a Saturday afternoon and arrived around dinner time. One of my med school friends, Kathy, used to live in Boston so she gave us a lot of recommendations about what to do in Boston in the winter. Item #1: Go ice skating on the Frog Pond in Boston Commons. The entrance fee was a little pricey and the place was pretty crowded, but it was still a lot of fun. Little known fact - Alex only just learned how to ice skate in 2010 on a cruise ship (yes, there was an ice skating rink on our Royal Caribbean ship "The Freedom of the Seas"). He's getting better but still a little slow going since it was only his THIRD time actually skating, so I went around a few more times on my own while he took some fancy pictures.






We didn't skate for long because our damp ice skates (darn public rentals) helped our feet freeze really quickly! Despite our icicle feet, it was fun mini-adventure and now we can officially say we've skated at the Frog Pond. CHECK!






We walked around downtown for a bit to stamp the feeling back into our feet, and then headed back towards our hotel to get some much needed grub. We found this modern, sleek little Asian fusion restaurant - Fuji at Kendall - in an area recommended by the Kimpton concierge (nice call, front desk guy!). We had spicy Fried Cuttlefish, Beef Brocolini Wok Toss, General Gao's Chicken, and some really tasty cocktails. The food was delicious!!! I would highly recommend eating at Fuji.

Sunday...we began our morning by hitting up Item #2 from Kathy's Boston-to-do List: Breakfast at Flour Bakery + Cafe. Really fresh and delicious baked good! We had some fancy quiche and scrumptious french toast. Always gotta get a good breakfast in your belly before you head out for a day of adventures!


As I mentioned, we decided to do a lot of indoor activities since it was WICKED chilly outside. Being the nerdy, intellectual people we are we decided indoor = museums! Number one on our list was the MIT Museum. This multi-floor, tech + art museum is a really neat place to spend a few of hours being amazed by science. There were a lot of really neat exhibits about robots, holograms, kinetic sculptures, photography, and much much more.


Another fun fact - free admission to the MIT Museum every Sunday between 10 am - Noon. So if you're going to go, I would definitely plan your visit for a Sunday morning.



While researching unique things to do in Boston on the interwebs, I came across a listing for this incredible exhibit at the Natural History Museum - Glass Flowers. Atlas Obscura is one of my favorite sites to peruse for strange, unique, and intriguing things to see anywhere in the world, but I had never actually had a chance to visit any of them. Visiting the Glass Flower exhibit at Harvard was my first, and I was not disappointed!

This small but incredible exhibit contains hundreds of hand-crafted, wonderfully detailed glass models of plants. They range from flowering plants to prickly cacti to common food plants. All of the models were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka (a father-son team from Germany). The duo actually got their start making glass models of sea creatures (sea anemone, jelly fish, and such) for many museums since there was no way to adequately preserve and display such floppy creatures in glass jars. In 1880, the Blaschka's were requisitioned by the Boston Society of Natural History Museum to make some sea animal models and were then hired to make thousands of glass plant models. I would highly recommend taking a spin through this part of the Harvard Museum of Natural History - the craftsmanship and detail are truly awe-inspiring. You'll swear these models are real!!!

The Natural History Museum houses a number of other exhibits, but I would say the huge collection of mineral/elemental rock formations and the extensive animal collection were our favorites (aside from the flowers). We wished we had more time to walk through all the galleries of taxidermy - there are some really unique animals and it's interesting to get a little perspective for how large or small some animals really are.

This cheetah was by far our favorite! We named him Dexter. Lol. 

After viewing as many exhibits as possible at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, we headed to the North End for dinner at Giacomo's. The North End (item #3 on Kathy's list) is a huge Italian neighborhood filled with a zillion restaurants. We almost didn't make it to Giacomo's because we were being tempted into almost every place we passed by the enticing aroma of garlic. Luckily, our will-power carried us all the way to the tiny store front of Giacomo's. This is a various famous restaurant in the North End, and we were warned in advance that there might be a ridiculously long wait. The restaurant itself probably only holds about 40 people, but the food is so good that people are willing to line up for hours (down the block and around the corner) in order to get a taste. Thankfully, the cold weather played to our advantage! There were only 6 or 8 people waiting in line ahead of us that night, so we stuck it out in the cold for about 20 minutes (if even!) before getting a table. TOTALLY worth the wait! Giacomo's has a pretty extensive menu, but basically it boils down to what type of sauce you want - the red sauces are lobster-based...so good!

The interior of Giacomo's is so cozy, rustic, and warm - it was the perfect place to nestle down for a delicious meal. That being said, the place runs like a machine and they try to get tables turned over quickly to appease all the others patrons braving the cold, so don't get turned off by their brisk manner. They're just trying to serve the masses! Also the restaurant is CASH ONLY, so come prepared. There is an ATM across the street, but just plan ahead to save yourself the trouble. 

We had a really great meal - large portions, delicious wine, plenty of bread, and good conversation. What more could you ask for!


After dinner we walked down to the waterfront to see what could be seen of the harbor at night - not much, but still a fun walk.


Then we headed to Kathy's To-Do #4 - Mike's Pastry, famous for it's cannoli. We snagged a peanut butter cannolo for late night dessert. Yum!



Monday...we only had about half a day left to explore Boston, so after checking out of our hotel we headed downtown to explore the Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market area. This is a large shopping area with tourist stores, clothing stores, and very large food court. In the warmer months this area would be packed with visitors and street performers, bit alas is it was much too cold for many people to be out and about. We'll have to come back sometime in the summer.

We stopped to get some lunch in the food court - Alex had clam chowda of course!

There is a "Freedom Trail" that runs through downtown and takes you by many of the famous, historical-significant buildings in that area. We walked a short portion of the trail before heading back to Rochester.

Sam Adams