{"id":555,"date":"2008-11-09T14:23:08","date_gmt":"2008-11-09T18:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/?p=555"},"modified":"2008-11-09T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2008-11-09T18:26:08","slug":"weekend-vacation-to-boston-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/09\/weekend-vacation-to-boston-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Vacation to Boston roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrienne had a conference (at Google headquarters, no less) in Boston on Thursday, so I took a bus up<\/a> and met her Friday morning for a short weekend vacation. Before we get to the pics, here’s a quick recap:<\/p>\n

Friday afternoon we focused on Cambridge (where we were staying) and Harvard University. Saw and met the Car Talk guys<\/a>. At the time Adrienne claimed it was the highlight of the weekend, but I think she’s changed her mind. We had some great Afghan food for dinner, and ended up watching some TV in the hotel to finish the night (hey – we never get to do that!).<\/p>\n

Saturday we finagled a way to store our bags with Amtrak at the train\/bus station (there are no lockers there!): we bought a cheap Amtrak ticket, and then could store our stuff for free with Amtrak, then later got a refund on the ticket. That way we were less-encumbered throughout the day. We headed through the financial district to Boston Commons, where we saw a trombone quartet busking after grabbing a breakfast bagel sandwich. That’s a first! Then through the Commons (really just a big park) to Beacon Hill, where streets are narrow and brick-paved. Adrienne loved the character of it. Almost like you’re stepping back in time. Wikipedia tells me it’s the most prestigious and expensive neighborhood to live in (average salary of a resident is more than $1.5 million), and I don’t doubt it! This becomes Adrienne’s favorite of the vacation.<\/p>\n

We loosely follow the freedom trail through downtown and see the many old buildings still in use. Some are re-purposed: the Old City Hall, originally the first public school in the US, is now a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Parts of Boston feel like Portland, OR to the both of us, with brick-lined public squares and smaller, more intimate blocks than NYC or Chicago. Navigating through Boston is trickier than the grid-layout of most modern cities. We pass over the controversial Big Dig to the North End, where Paul Revere’s house still stands, as do the remains of the heavy Italian influence there: lots of great-looking restaurants, pastry shops, etc.<\/p>\n

We make our way back around the outskirts of Beacon Hill to Back Bay. With it’s wider sidewalks, commerce-heavy streets and different architecture, it’s more reminiscent of Chicago to me. Or maybe even Montreal, really. It’s a cloudy fall day, but not too cool, so it’s nice to be able to comfortably walk around and enjoy the fall colors.<\/p>\n

Soon enough it’s time to have a quick dinner before making out way back to the bus station to catch our 6:30pm bus back to NYC. We get in town early, about 10:15 or so. A nice little getaway.<\/p>\n

Follow the jump for the pics!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adrienne had a conference (at Google headquarters, no less) in Boston on Thursday, so I took a bus up and met her Friday morning for a short weekend vacation. Before we get to the pics, here’s a quick recap:
\nFriday afternoon we focused on Cambridge (where we were staying) and Harvard University. Saw and met the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQPn-8X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidtallacksen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}