Trip to Boston, MA , Saturday, June 3, 2006

Trip to Boston, MA
Saturday, June 3, 2006

Saturday was a rainy day. We decided to head toward Boston Common and go to one of the places over that way for breakfast. First we stopped at Filene’s Basement to find Lisa something waterproof for the weather. Luckily she was able to find something, and it was only about $15.

For breakfast we went to Bagel Plus Café. I got some fresh squeezed grapefruit juice – Excellent!!! The food was good too. Lisa wasn’t too crazy about the coffee though. While we were eating the rain got really heavy. Luckily, by the time we were finished it had let up. It was still raining pretty steady, but not a torrential downpour.

Bagel Plus Café & Grill

We had planned on doing the Black Heritage Trail, but with the rain, we decided to put that off until Sunday (hoping the weather would be more favorable). We decided to go see Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library. We headed through the Common so we could go to the Central Burying Ground (Boston has quite a few cemeteries).

Trinity Church is beautiful. Unfortunately at the time of our visit I had black and white film in my camera so any pictures I have will not do the church justice. Also it was a cloudy so even if I had color film, don’t know that the windows would have been as spectacular on film.

We didn’t actually go into the Boston Public Library (“one of the first free public libraries in the world…”) as my feet hurt and I didn’t want to walk all that way. I also got a picture of the Tortoise and Hare sculpture in Copley Square that commemorates the runners of the Boston Marathon.

On the way back toward the hotel, we went through the Theater District. Lots of different and interesting shows going on. Saw a sign for a show about menopause, and a block or two later was Annie.

Menopause The Musical

Headed through Chinatown to the Friendship Arch.

Chinatown McDonalds

Chinatown Phone booth

Friendship Arch

We ended up back at the hotel a little earlier than we thought we would, so we walked past the hotel toward the waterfront. We found some cute little buildings over that way and some pubs and other restaurants. Caught a glimpse of the New England Aquarium, which we didn’t realize was so close to the hotel. We also found the Custom House, which we had spotted through our many walks through town. Also, we had a picture of it hanging in our hotel room.

Custom House

After our walk it was time to head back to the hotel to put on some dry clothes for lunch. Lunch was at Café Fleuri, which is located in Langham Hotel. Café Fleuri is known for its Saturday Chocolate Bar (offered September – June). After we had been seated our waiter came up to take our drink order and started to ask if we had been there before, then looked at me and said, “You’ve been here before.” Again, I was like, um, no. Apparently I have a twin that hangs out in Boston.

If you LOVE chocolate, Café Fleuri’s Chocolate Bar is the place for you. If you just sort of “like” chocolate, I don’t recommend it. It’s basically a chocolate buffet. They even had a crepe station. You picked out what you wanted in your crepe; some choices were: mixed berries (blueberries, strawberries and blackberries), strawberries, bananas, coconut, chocolate, m & m’s or similar type candy, etc. Then you take it to the chef where she made a chocolate crepe, then added your ingredients. You could even get it flambéed (which Lisa tried). Other selections: chocolate bread pudding with a choice of chocolate sauce or caramel sauce, chocolate crème brulee, chocolate truffles, a chocolate fountain, they even had chocolate sushi! You could even have hot chocolate, which we did try. [link to Chocolate Bar menu http://www.langhamhotels.com/langham/boston/dining/chocolate_bar_desserts06.pdf]

After the sugar coma wore off, we headed back to the room. As we were waiting for the elevator, there were a couple of other gentlemen waiting as well. One was this young-ish (20-30’s) black guy. He had on sunglasses and the hood of his sweatshirt on and appeared to be trying not to make eye contact with anyone. We all got in the elevator, and he was standing in front of Lisa and I. On his backpack we had some tags that had to do something with Sean Paul (R&B/Hip-Hop artist). Like passes or something. We knew he wasn’t Sean Paul (no entourage) but decided that he may have been part of the entourage. The rest of the trip, we heard Sean Paul music rather frequently.

So after our “star sighting” we went to the health club. There was quite a crowd in the whirlpool when we first got there so we headed to the sauna first. Then headed out to the whirlpool. Just kind of hung out for a while. Relaxed. I “massaged” my feet with the whirlpool jet. It was a nice little rest.

Our plan had been to head to Little Italy for dinner, but as it was still rainy, and cold, we decided to head to one of the pubs we passed earlier.

Mr. Dooley’s

We ended up at Mr. Dooley’s. We had a pint of Harpoon’s and split a burger and salad. Very tasty. Great fries. They were having live music at 9:30pm and we thought it would be cool to stay for that. But we finished dinner around 8 and didn’t think we should sit there for an hour and a half. So off we went. We headed up to Quincy Market and walked around there for a while. Made use of the restrooms. Then headed south. We decided to find a pub on the way back to the hotel. We passed this one Kitty O’Shea’s or something similar, but decided to find something else (can’t really remember why). We ended up down the street at the Black Rose.

The Black Rose

It was an interesting time at the Black Rose. We found some seats by the window and shared a pint of Harpoon’s UFO. Actually, I think it was more than a pint. It was a really big glass. We just kind of watched all the activity outside. Lots of people walking buy. Many, many limos going by; some stopping and letting people out in front of us, others going on. Watched a bunch of Navy men walk by the window. But they all went upstairs. Shortly after we got there, a bar employee came up and took our seats. Apparently they remove all the stools in the bar area around 9 pm. The Black Rose was also having live music at 9:30, so we decided to stick around for that. While we were waiting for the band, this guy came over to talk to us. He was pretty drunk, but funny. It was definitely an interesting experience.

The band finally came on. An Irish band. They were pretty good. I actually kind of knew one of the songs. The fiddle player was young and cute, and also a very good fiddle player and singer. We left shortly after he did his solo. Not because it was bad or anything, we were just tired.