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Boston - Part 3
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
How to eat and walk your way through Boston in three days. In our weekend review, we see some historic sites, eat some and walk some more.
Sunday
We woke up Sunday morning and walked to the train. We were getting the hang of this and feeling like old Boston pros. After 30 minutes, we arrived at the Aquarium Station and walked over to Atlantic 101 for a jazz brunch. When we walked in, we were greeted by the sounds of a jazz fretless bass and a pianist in the corner.
For brunch, we started with shrimp cocktail and fried calamari. The shrimp were frighteningly large but Margherita couldn't have been scared as she ate them pretty quickly. I had the fried calamari with this spicy sauce, which reminded me of an oriental sauce. Margherita ordered poached eggs on crab cakes, which were essentially Eggs Benedict on crab cakes. I had a lobster crepe but stole some of her crab cakes. Admittedly, I would rather just order Crab Cakes Benedict then standard Eggs Benedict any day. It's a shame more restaurants don't serve them. Overall the meal was very good.
From there we walked north to, of course, the North End. The North End is the "Little Italy" of Boston. Every 20 feet you'll find either a café or a shop selling Italian wares like t-shirts saying, "Full Blooded Italian". It makes it more entertaining to see these t-shirts worn by blue-eyed blondes or Japanese Tourists. We wandered around the North End aimlessly just sucking in the atmosphere, actually "smelling the atmosphere". The neighborhood had the distinct aire of Cappuccino, baked bread and fish markets depending on where you stood. In the background, you would hear the church bells ringing and if you closed your eyes you'd feel like you were in Europe. Where exactly in Europe and when in Europe I don't know but it did remind me of Europe.
When we looked down at the ground and realized that we were walking along the red path of the Freedom Trail, it seemed only the right thing to do to pick up and follow it from where we were. The Freedom Trail connects some of the most historic monuments in Boston reflecting our countries path to freedom. Unlike the Wizard of Oz, it is a red brick path in the middle of the sidewalk. The first stop was Paul Revere's house. Our friend Paul's house was pretty close to destruction in the early 1900's but due a public campaign the house was fortunately saved. It's interesting to see the house and the history. Of course, it's not the White House but for the late 1700's, his shorefront view was somewhat nice. Then again, over the past 200 years the shoreline has moved by a few blocks.
Anyway, the next stop was Old North Church where Paul lit the one or two lights depending on the mode of transportation that the British decided to use to move their troops. It's a quaint little church with small booths, which was how people sat together at the time. The lanterns have since been put out but occasionally they light them.
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Graveyard in the North End
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Again, back we went on the Freedom Trail and we stopped by the Copp's Hill Cemetery. Overlooking the bay, it is a picturesque spot in Boston. Ok, it's not exactly romantic but it is a stunning vista. Unortunately he Freedom Trail now led across the river and up the tower of Bunker Hill but I was getting a bit tired at this point and didn't think it was worth following the Freedom Trail anymore. We wandered back through the North End just absorbing the scenery. Lo and behold, in front of us was the New England Aquarium, which we realized had two shows going on within minutes of our arrival.
My wife seemed to have been more interested in the aquarium than I and constantly referred to the sea lion as "cute". Every time the creature balanced a ball or rolled over in the water, she giggled with joy. It was an interesting show but probably geared more towards children and people like my wife.
After that, the fish in the main tank had their feeding time. Their main tank is literally four stories high- pretty impressive to say the least. Every level of the eco-system seems to be there, 700 plus creatures in all, were floating in there. On the top was a local biologist who was explaining the fish and what was going on in the tank. His voice was a bit monotonous but his knowledge was pretty extensive. The kids seemed to be rather focused on asking him questions involving what the shark would eat and why doesn't the shark eat everything in the tank, and you could see him struggling to expand their minds.
Well, we walked from the aquarium back to Faneuil Hall... however this time we decided to go for a carriage ride. Quiet, cute, romantic.... It was certainly one of the highlights of the trip. Normally I wouldn't have succumbed to the pressure but Margherita was completely enthralled with the fact that the horse had little "antler like reindeer" and of course, you can't complement somebody on their horse without hearing the sales pitch. It worked, but I'm quite sure that the driver didn't know her $2.00 antlers made the sale. I'm sure she also didn't know that Margherita never saw a female horse and buggy driver before and that motivated her even more..
Aquitane
Back on the train one more time, and off we went to Aquitaine. Aquitaine is a French restaurant located in the middle of the theater district. It is an area of brownstones and tree-lined streets that I'd highly recommend walking through. Its one of those areas where you'd picture Ally McBeal living or some other successful lawyer type.
At Aquitaine, I ordered an endive salad and Margherita had mixed greens with an herb vinaigrette. I never saw endive salad before but after I ate it I became a fan. Halfway through salad the conversation turned to French food and the entire French culture... we both agreed that it was one of the most intimidating types of foods. After all, in most restaurants, there are usually translations in English, but in French restaurants, they only write the names in French. It becomes a guessing game hoping that you order the right thing.
I ordered a seafood bouillabaisse (fancy word for stew) and she ordered the roasted veal chop. We did feel that we ordered correctly, or at least I did as I had an entire bowl of seafood. We weren't going to order dessert since we were full, or so I claimed. The real reason was that I wanted to order the Profiteroles, but had no idea how it was pronounced and didn't want to make a fool of myself. After saying, "I'll have the Porta..." she filled in the rest and I got to have the pastries with ice cream. Margherita ordered the crème brûlée'.
We walked back through the rain to the Orange Line transferred to the Red Line and ended up at Harvard Station to walk home. At night, we learned that Harvard Square isn't as pretty as during the day, as we were approached by at least five homeless people in no less than two blocks who really seemed to want us to make a donation. A few minutes later, we were back in the room and began packing to head home.
Overall, Boston is still one of my favorite cities and my only regret is that we didn't see more of it. We did eat and walk our way through Boston which certainly was enjoyable within it's own right but I feel almost guilty that we didn't see all of the museums, art galleries, shows, etc...
On the way home we started a debate about what our favorite parts of the trip were, as we always do. I sided with the favorite restaurant being the Union Oyster House and the favorite part being walking through the quaint neighborhoods. Margherita also liked the Union Oyster House and her favorite part was relaxing near Faneuil Hall with a coffee in hand listening to the flamenco guitar.
Read part 1 | Read part 2 | Read part 3
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