Saturday, July 21, 2007

Walking our way through Boston

Kim and I decided to explore Boston on foot today :-). We have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I wanted to share few of the Boston observations.
  • This city is super walking friendly. Of all the big cities I have been to in the US (NY, SF, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, DC, Seattle, Denver) Boston is the most walking friendly. We are also enjoying an unbelievably gorgeous day which tilts things in Boston's favor.
  • We started from our hotel by the Haymarket T station (close to Faneuil hall) and walked over to Faneuil hall/Quincy market place. Wait, that is neither cool nor interesting, so ..
  • Boston seems to have more Dunkin Donuts stores than Starbucks.
  • There are over a 100 Italian restaurants/coffee shops/gelataria's lined up along two streets by the North End. We had dinner last night at Bricco's. I wanted Osso Bucco but apparently it is a winter dish.
  • Boston was founded in 1637 ... so pretty darn old but such a good looking city.
  • We walked right by the oldest restaurant in the country.
  • I am from Austin but we were treated to 4 different street musicians as we meandered through Newbury street. The variety was great, from rock to country to jazz by a three students who study music at BerkeleyBerklee school of music. Boston seems to have a lot of good street music during the summer if what we encountered is not an exception.
  • Newbury street runs parallel to Commonwealth and one is bohemian and shows a lot of the city's culture while the other speaks of power and wealth. Interesting juxtaposition. (Kim noticed this as we were walking through)
  • Boston has some beautiful parks. We walked through one right by the Boston commons that was gorgeous.
  • What else.... oh yeah we saw this kid in the park, he was holding a branch with a baby bird on it. The chick could not fly, tried to and fell on his bike, the mama was not coming down since this kid was holding the chick and did not know how to return it to its mother. It all worked out in the end.
  • Newbury was interesting as well. We were having authentic Boston ice-cream when we noticed that 4 of the 5 people around us had the latest harry potter. Two of them were reading it and the other two were proud new owners. We promptly purchased our copy of course!
  • There was a plaque at the park by the Boston Commons that had quotes from some of Boston's original settlers, it was a cool glimpse into the values and principles that were influential back in the days.
  • We had a green peace group "keeping it real" next to us and trying to get people's attention. Then a LOUD noisy Ferrari pulled up, revved for the next 5 mins and slowly parked right next to them. Seemed oddly funny for some reason.
  • As we walked by Louis Boston store, we noticed a gaggle of men. The objects of attention it turned out were a Bentley, a Ferrari, a CLS 500 and a Ducati parked next to each another. Good times !
Hoping to find some good food at Chinatown tonight! wish us luck.

2 comments:

McBean said...

Just wanted to let you know that Harry Potter was selling for a mere $16 here... yet another great reason you should head home soon! :-)

Seriously, we're so glad that you two are having fun!!! Sounds like Boston has been treating you right and giving you both the getaway you needed. And seriously, we can't wait until you're home. :-)

amusingt said...

Glad you enjoyed Boston...the HP craze was beyond belief in London; kids camped out for days to get the first copy at the bookstore. Stores competed for attention by lowering the book price to 5 pounds (about $10). I bought mine with no line at the airport. They also have different cover designs in England - a children's version and adult version, neither of which are like the one in the states. Happy reading...