Boston Weekend October 2010

 A few days in Boston with Alyson our oldest who is attending Boston College getting her MBA.  We had a great stay at the Fairmont Copley Hotel centrally located which made it easy for getting around the city.  We really enjoyed "Catie Copley" the hotel dog who really resembled our "Daphne", she hung out in the hotel lobby most days and received a ton of attention from every passerby.  Our first evening we enjoyed a great dinner at "City Girl Cafe"http://citygirlcafe.com/# in Cambridge.   Fettuccine prosciutto & peas with the lemon shallot cream sauce was wonderful followed by Pumpkin bread and vanilla ice cream panini.  We each ordered something different and no one was disappointed.

The next day we went down to Faneuil Hall area for lunch at "Ned Devine's"http://www.neddevinesboston.com/, the award winning "Chawda" was amazing.  It was a cold windy day which made it the perfect lunch.

We then walked through the farmers market, over to little Italy and then to Old North Church.  What a great neighborhood filled with fabulous bakeries, cafes and eateries.

We took the T out to Boston College to walk around the campus & visit the bookstore.  We needed to get some sweatshirts as the weather had gotten considerably colder and we were planning on the Boston College/University of Maryland football game the next day.   Alyson outside the MBA building where she spends most of her class time.

Friday night we ate dinner at "Skipjacks" a restaurant just a block from our hotel by Copley square, we didn't have reservations ahead of time so luckily the concierge was able to get us in.  http://www.skipjacks.com/

Game day started with breakfast at "Zaftigs"

huge, yummy portions in a buzzing atmosphere.  http://www.tridentbookscafe.com/  My Challah French Toast was amazing, a slight crunchy outside with soft bread on the inside.  The others had Empire Eggs-(poached eggs, spinach, salmon on potato pancakes with Hollendaise) and also a Macintosh apple & Cheddar omelet.

Gameday!

After a beautiful day of weather and a loss to the Terrapins we had dinner at a Thai Restaurant "Bamboo" near Alyson's apartment.  We had eaten there the weekend she moved in and once again the food & service was great.http://bamboothairestaurant.com/index.html  They do a great presentation with the "flower" vegetables and we enjoy the serenity of the Red Lion Fish swimming by our table.

Sunday morning brought us taking it easy, after a nice walk up Newbury Street Jim and I got breakfast at "Trident Booksellers and Cafe".  Despite being a busy time the service was terrific, we had a delightful breakfast in the best setting.........books, coffee, tea, breakfast........we're happy.  http://www.tridentbookscafe.com/   We walked the neighborhood, did some shopping stopped for a drink mid afternoon at "The Oak Bar"http://theoakroom.com/oakbar/ and to our surprise the garnish gave us a good laugh:

Being from Pennsylvania we should have thought of a pretzel as a garnish!

 We wound our trip up with dinner at "The Union Oyster House"http://www.unionoysterhouse.com/ having been there many years ago we wanted to go back for the seafood, great service and the atmosphere you get from such an old building.  The building is more than 250 years old, it has a unique semicircular oyster bar, and wood work throughout the sprawling restaurant rarely seen anymore.

Fall Fun

One of our annual fall activities includes traveling to home Penn State games about 2 1/2 hours from home.  The month of October provides a great road trip to State College, PA and I cannot resist taking photos during the drive.  When I get home and view them they often look the same from year to year, it is such a beautiful area through the center of Pennsylvania.  The last game wasn't a great game to watch but we had a wonderful day with perfect weather.

Beginnings

Well this is the beginning of blogging for me.  When the youngest of 3 left for college a few years ago, everyone seemed very concerned how we would handle it.  To be honest we knew we would miss him terribly as we had the other 2 when they left, but we hadn't thought how quiet our lives would be.  We started planning day trips for those free times.  We began visiting things in a 2 hour radius of home and found plenty to do.  There were weekend visits to see all 3 of our children and exploring DC where they all were living.  Having talked to people struggling with their "empty nest" we started sharing our ideas and found how curious people where to hear our plans.  That is were the notion to blog first started.   Our entire family loves to travel, keeping records of trips and restaurants seemed to be a way to bring this blog together.  I have also been trying to find a way to keep track of recipes frequently used and tweaked so I wasn't searching through a ton of papers, clippings, cards, etc. so I hope to achieve that by blogging also.  We'll see how this goes and where it may lead.