Boston wasn't exactly balmy the first day, what with the crazy wind, but we braved the icy blasts to try out the Atlantic Fish Company on Boylston Street. I remember hearing somebody - forget who, of course - commenting that she thought taking pictures of your food was so-o-o self-involved. Hah! She must not know many photographers. Here, along with our cute waiter Sean (go figure - an Irish guy in Boston) are sauteèd calamari, seared swordfish w/ hand cut fries, lobster stuffed with crabmeat, and side of asparagus AND Brussels sprouts (wow), berry crisp and Key Lime pie.
We staggered back out into the wind after just stuffing ourselves and plopped into bed in a great little downtown hotel, the Hotel 140 on Clarendon Street. I love all the lights and faint city hum through the windows of an 8th floor room.
It was warmer the next day, but still pretty windy. We walked around all morning, shopped, paused for tea and generally enjoyed being in a real city. Over the three days of our visit we caught up with a number of Barbara's friends and former colleagues and, yes, ate and ate some more. We also took in the Pompeii exhibit at the Museum of Science, two great Italian restaurants in the North End, a comedy show at Improv Asylum and a lovely Spanish restaurant, Dali in Cambridge.
And, on top of all that, more shopping. High end window shopping, mostly, but we found the BEST hardware store on Charles Street with crammed aisles full of everything you could want, INCLUDING the cool nut grinder I had despaired of finding. The place was bustling - a hardware store on Charles St., two blocks from Boston Common. EVERYONE must go there.
Saturday WAS balmy, no kidding, 55° and sunny. Tout le monde was out and about, including us, strolling, sitting on a bench in the Public Gardens, sipping coffee. We went into a Starbucks (frustrated because we couldn't find a coffee place of Charles Street with a bathroom) only to learn something new. I asked a Boston cop (who was also waiting for that bathroom) why a city wouldn't have some public bathrooms around - the Gardens were teeming with people out for the great January weather. He told me the city had spent $250,000 EACH for thee state of the art toilettes on the Common, only to take them out a year later because of drug dealers, etc. messing everything up. They had a fee of 25 cents, were self-cleaning like the ones in Japan, but after a while no one would go in in because of dirt, damage, needles, etc. I know I'd pay more than 25 cents for a clean, handy W.C. Oh, well. Another thing he told me is that Starbucks provides health insurance for employees who work 20 hours! So, I had been pooh-poohing them wrong-headedly and will stop it.
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