Back Bay in Boston

Saturday, May 29 - We definitely recommend the Back Bay Hotel, which is in the old Boston Police Department headquarters. Sandy particularly liked the Kiehl's products in the room. Great room, great location, friendly staff and very helpful concierges.

We wanted to grab a quick lunch or brunch before heading out of town. On our walk, we bumped into the marathon finish line, so we took advantage of that photo op. We walked along Newbury Street, and asked a clerk in a store which of our options she recommended. She said that the place across the street would be "wicked busy", and thought we should go to the Parish Cafe, since it was on our list. It would be definitely worth it. We actually ate there for lunch last year on Marathon weekend, because all of the sandwiches on the menu are from acclaimed/well-known/celebrity chefs. We got lucky (I think saying "wicked lucky" is probably not the right context for the word...), and got seats almost immediately at the bar.

By the way, the word of the day is "wicked." A word uniquely and entertainingly used in New England.

Entering Boston

Friday, May 28 - Rolling into town in our Chrysler 300 (more on our free-upgraded wheels from Alamo later) was a lot more relaxing than the last time I saw this sign at about mile 25 of the marathon...

On our way into town, we stopped at the Arnold Arboretum, part of Frederick Law Olmstead's Emerald Necklace string of parks throughout Boston. We took a little walk up to Peters Hill in the Arboretum, which has a nice view of the Boston skyline.

Which brings us to the word of the day: As Sandy was reading to me from the guide book about the plant life in the arboretum, she said they had "cra-BOPles". "What?" I said. "Cra-BOPles". "You mean "crab apples?" "....Uh, yes." [Cue the chuckles.] In her defense, Sandy cited the name of Bart Simpson's teacher, Mrs. Krabapple, as the source of her pronounciation. Uh, OK.

"Krabapple" was in the running to be the word of the day until we got to the top of this hill, which, we learned, wasn't just an ordinary hill 240-foot hill. It is actually a "drumlin," which is a hill formed hundreds of thousands of years ago when the glaciers melted and left a pile of debris. Interestingly, there are crabapple trees planted on the slope of the drumlin, where colonial farmers planted fruit tree orchards. (See photo below of the crabapples on the drumlin.) Thus, the winner for the word of the day is "drumlin."

Mystic Pizza

Wednesday, May 26 - Yes, we did it. We ate at Mystic Pizza. The ultimate tourist destination in this tourist destination. But, we're tourists, so what the heck. It really is a real place, and was even before the 1988 movie. The pizza and pizza wraps are actually great.

It's a cute little town right on the water, and as we were admiring it's famous drawbridge, there was suddenly a flash rainstorm while the sun was still out. There was a rainbow as the rain let up, which Sandy thought was a great way to start the road trip.

We've decided that the word of the day is "Bascule," which is both the name and type of drawbridge which connects the two sides of Mystic's downtown across the river. Bascule is French for "seesaw."

After dinner, after it cleared up, there was this amazing cloud which was reflecting on the Mystic River.