Visit Boston in 36 Hours // Favorite Things
A Spring Serata DSC_4605
Originally uploaded by Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
A few weeks ago, JetBlue had an unbelievable sale to celebrate the opening of a daily route from DCA to Logan. They offered tickets for $7 each way if you flew on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday. My husband called me from work and just like that, we booked tickets for the two of us, our two kids, and my sister and her husband. We were at the airport by 5 am, one very excited four year old and his bleary eyed sister (and mom) in tow. I slept on the flight, and my daughter had a great time--chocolate chip cookies the whole way there.
Luckily, my husband and I have been to Boston before, so we felt less pressure to see everything. We love exploring new cities, eating in new places, searching for new or unique things to do, and just walking around.
Have you ever noticed that different cities feel differently? Anyone who has been to San Francisco and Charleston within two months of each other will tell you that many cities have their own feel, and it isn't all about the architecture, or location, or even number of people. My husband and I listened to a fascinating Radiolab last night, about two physicists reasearching "what makes cities tick."
"There's no scientific metric for measuring a city's personality. But step out on the sidewalk, and you can see and feel it. Two physicists explain one tidy mathematical formula that they believe holds the key to what drives a city. Yet math can't explain most of the human-scale details that make urban life unique. So we head out in search of what the numbers miss, and meet a reluctant city dweller, a man who's walked 700 feet below Manhattan, and a once-thriving community that's slipping away."
The highlight of the trip, besides of course being a "tortoise in Boston" with my family (Mr. L. mixed up tortoise and tourist once or twice, it was pretty great) was the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A good friend who went to grad school in Boston told me it was a "must see." She was right. No photography is allowed inside, but if you have a chance to ever visit, you won't be disappointed. The courtyard alone is worth the price of admission. I think Jayme's favorite part was touring Fenway (while I was at the museum)--he said it was baseball heaven. Mr. L. loved loved loved loved riding the T (which cost more than our plane tickets) and seeing the penguins at the New England Aquarium. My daughter spent most of her trip trying to surreptitiously drop her gloves--she succeeded. We lost one glove from two separate sets. Her next pair of gloves will be tethered by a ribbon.
My only regrets? That we didn't stay longer so we could rent a car and travel out to Walden Pond, Lexington and Concord, and enjoy more of the New England fall foliage. And that we didn't walk around Beacon Hill, where our hotel was located, in the daytime. What a fascinating neighborhood--a friend referred to it as Old Town Alexandria, with New England money.
We froze. We laughed. We walked. And walked. We ate. And ate. I think we are finally recovered? Sort of, anyway...