Happy Last Weekend of October!
It finally feels like fall here in Texas, with morning temps in the 50s and afternoons sunny and 75. Apparently, this summer's 75+ days of 100 degree weather were an anomaly even for Texas, but with changes to the climate becoming ever more evident, next summer will surely be similar, or worse. With temps in the 90s up until about 10 days ago, summer felt extra long. So we headed east to experience fall for a few days in early October.
My family had not heard the term "leaf peeper," but I remember my grandparents talking about going to New England in the fall to do just that - peep at leaves. But honestly, this trip to New England was planned back in July in order to peep at our son, not the leaves. The fall color was just a perk.
We used the extended Columbus/Indigenous Peoples weekend to fly to Boston, spent a couple of days touring the city led by our indomitable tour guide/second son, and also drove up to Portland, Maine, for a couple of days to meet his lovely girlfriend's parents. It was a perfect weekend: time with family, glorious weather, visits to historical sites, no travel hiccups, very minimum kid complaints - other than from the kids who didn't get to join us - and lots of interesting and beautiful things to look at.
Not everyone would like the way we travel - we tend to be one step above frugal travelers. We stay with family or in budget hotels, walk a lot, eat one main meal a day and get the rest of our nourishment from small bites along our routes, which focus on highlights of history, art, and architecture. We used to road trip everywhere, but now we have upgraded to budget flights. Because our 16 year old has flight anxiety, I try to book direct flights, and this time, I just happened to score a deal on Jetblue - maybe because we booked months ago. Even though Dan is now retired, we still qualify for the perk of a couple free bags for military members and veterans on some budget airlines, so we don't have to buy bags. So we aren't the cheapest of travelers, but we aren't luxurious.
Although I was prepared to scour travel sites for a place to stay because my son's place is too small, and to bachelor paddish to host five members of our family, we were able to stay at my brother-in-law's new house and borrow their car for the Maine excursion. That family has just moved to Boston - in fact, when I booked the trip, I didn't know they were moving there. But the weekend we picked to visit is also their 20th anniversary, and they happen to have a friend who had rented a villa for a month, so they flew off for a more upscale experience. The perk is, we were able to use their house and car in exchange for keeping their dog company. A great trade, although we missed spending time with them.
I usually do more planning and reading prior to a bigger trip like this, but I didn't have as much time this fall, and I have been to Boston a few times before, although year ago. Notable trivia: I went into labor in the Prudential Building with our first child 25 years ago. We were living in Newport, and Dan's brother was in Boston, and we came up to visit and meet up with some college friends. There was actually a business building chapel where we were going to meet them, but minutes after we entered, my water broke and I rushed to the bathroom. We did not make it to Mass, but sped back to Newport. Fortunately, after I delivered, some nice Eucharistic Minister came by our room, and brought communion to all the Catholics at the hospital.
Before this trip, we did read "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" a few times before setting out, and I read some stories to the 8 year from A Child's History of America, which made me realize how much more American history I did with our kids when home schooling than our private school is doing. Fortunately, one of those kids whom I home schooled was our tour guide, and he was happy to lead us on a tour of notable spots.
Our itinerary, if anyone is planning a trip:
Direct flight to Boston Thursday night - nightcaps and short conversation with the brother-in-law before collapsing for the night. Rose early to take him to the airport before beginning our tour of the city.
Friday morning: Started in their neighborhood with a walk through Harvard and Cambridge, met up with son for coffee, and then took the subway into the city. We got off near Beacon Hill, where I finagled a brief tour of literary figures' homes - Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all had houses on Pinckney Street. We missed Robert Frost's home, and a few others because only one person in our party was interested in the literary tour of Boston, and I have to compromise...
Next we headed to Boston Commons and strolled through the park, where they were setting up for a road race. Our route led us through the Public Garden, but the Swan boats were closed for the season, so the 8 year old had to settle for a carousel ride and a few photos by the Make Way for Ducklings statue (an happy literary stop for everyone).
From the Public Garden, we worked our way to the Public Library along a lovely boulevard whose name is escaping me, but which has some statuary of revolutionary figures including Alexander Hamilton. We also passed some architecturally significant churches, but since they weren't Catholic, we didn't go inside to pray.
We did go into the library to admire the McKim Mead and White side of the building, and the John Singer Sargeant frescoes upstairs - an allegory of religious history - fascinating and somewhat militaristic, so out of fashion. I made a quick trip through to the modern cafe on the Philip Johnson side of the library, where a podcast or television show was being filmed. Overall impression: a fascinating architectural specimen. Not as many stacks of books as you would expect in a library.
After that we all were starved for lunch. I wanted to get fresh bread, freshly picked apples, local cheese and local hard cider from the farmer's market in Copley Square in front of the library, but I was overruled again. We did get very delicious bowls from a Mediterranean place, a chain I didn't know about.
Reenergized after lunch, we walked past all the high end shops on Newbury Street and made our way to the freedom trail. A stop at Granary Burial Ground to see the graves of Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin's parents, John Hancock, and victims of the Boston Massacre, including Crispus Attucks, was entertaining, surprisingly, because of the tourist hawkers in costume. From there, I was able to make a quick stop in Brattle's Bookshop because others were promised a stop for a cold Sam Adams beer across from the cemetery - bad jokes abound on the placard out front.
Still in motion, we headed towards Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, crossing through the plaza where the Boston Massacre is memorialized with a star. That's where the Samuel Adams brewery is, so that was another rest stop along the way. At this point we had walked over 20K steps, so a cold beer never tasted better.
Our journey was not yet over - we had to make it over to the North End, where our son lives. Through the discount fruit market where we bought a flat of raspberries and a flat of strawberries for $2 each - who cares that half of them were moldy. Then past the home of Paul Revere, which was closed for the day, and then finally to our son's apartment which he shares with two other young men. You can imagine their decorating style tends toward curbside furniture, shelving made of 2x4s, beer signs, and dying plants. But it was clean and in an ideal location for young adults - restaurants down the street and a Catholic Church right across the road, so there is no excuse for missing Mass. The street level store was being converted to a clothing store after the former tenant, a psychic, passed away.
The Old North Church (also closed) and the Skinny House - famous for being skinny - are also in our son's neighborhood, so we did a walk by before stopping off at his apartment for an hour's rest, and happy hour drinks - ginger ale for those underage. We had a late reservation at La Famiglia Giorgio, one of many delicious Italian restaurants in the North End. Dinner was leisurely and filling - starters of bruschetta and calamari, overflowing bowls of pasta, a couple bottles of wine between the 6 of us over 21. I ordered the pumpkin ravioli appetizer and the waiter was afraid I would still be hungry but it was 8 or so large raviolis - so filling I could barely finish, but so delicious that I did.
After dinner we ambled up to the cannoli shop that is NOT Mike's, the famous one. Even though we stuffed, and it was 10 pm, we waited in a fairly long line to order cannoli, that we took back to the cousins' house to eat for breakfast. After our walk back from the subway stop, the 8 year old was proud to report that her step counter watch had logged 32000 steps, which is about 15 miles. I am happy to report that the cannoli were not soggy the next morning. And the cappuccino flavored one was excellent with my morning espresso.
Now to share photos and post- I'll have to come back to write about the rest of the trip or Halloween will be here and gone before I finish.
