A QUICK WEEKEND GETAWAY IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Living in the East Coast we’ve pretty much have been everywhere, but for some unknown reason we haven’t stopped by Boston. We have previously driven through to get back to NYC but this weekend we decided to visit and see what we’ve been missing out. Just a four hour car ride from NYC (there is also a four hour train ride to Boston from NYC) we headed out late at night to get a head start tomorrow in the morning.

We arrived around 11pm, we parked our car at The Beverly parking garage, then walked over to our hotel, Kimpton Onyx Hotel. We walked down Causeway Street and saw that North Station was very conveniently located with tons of restaurants and shops.

We were pretty excited about today only to see that it was pouring outside but a little rain (or a lot) definitely didn’t stop us from going out and exploring Boston. Thankfully our hotel had some umbrellas we could use. We definitely were not prepared for this rain, but we toughed it out and headed out to brunch.

For brunch we went to the Tavern in the Square, 120 Beverly St, and Eric and I were both feeling burgers! Eric ordered the blackened bacon blue cheese burger that comes with cajun spice, bacon, ale braised onions, and blue cheese and I got the picanté burger that is served with crispy bacon, cheddar, tomato jalapeño relish, and chipotle aioli. Both burgers were good but would try something new next time!

After lunch we made our way over to the North End and wandered through the cobble streets for a while. We stopped to take a pictures of this neat building, The Point, it was still sprinkling out when I took this picture you might be able to tell from the raindrop on the lens.

Down a ways we stopped to check out the Union Oyster House. Did you know that the Union Oyster House has been America’s oldest continuously operating restaurant since 1826? The building itself was built in 1714 making it 307 years old, it didn’t open as a restaurant until 1826 and has been serving chowder and oysters ever since! The Union Oyster House is full of history, the first American waitress, Rose Carey, started work at the Union Oyster House back in 1920. Not to mention it’s right on the Freedom Trail, dating back to the Pre-Revolutionary days. 

There is a wide variety of food vendors and shopping within the marketplace, so try a variety of different foods before enjoying a performance in front of the Quincy Market.  You’ll find regular street performers performing acts such as juggling, acrobatics and much more! 

After walking around Quincy Market we wanted to find a coffee place were we could sit down and enjoy a nice cup of coffee while escaping the rain. We stopped at Boston Public Market, 100 Hanover St just to peep inside, there are some pretty neat vendors and worth stopping by but they unfortunately didn’t have a place to sit so we continued on our quest for coffee.

How cute is this little park? I’m sure its a beautiful place to relax on a nice sunny day!

We came across the Thinking Cup, 236 Hanover St where we then ordered some coffee and a nice foamy cup of hot chocolate.

While sipping our warm drinks I grabbed a deck of Monopoly deal out of my purse a played a few games while we waited out the rain.

After a long gloomy day we decided to do some wine tasting at Boston Winery, 26 Ericsson St.

For dinner we went over to the Lovejoy Wharf and had dinner at the Alcove.

I’m personally not a fan of seafood so for dinner I ordered the fried chicken sandwich with homemade chips. Eric had the blackened fish tacos and thought they were great!

The next day it was a beautiful spring day with a slight breeze, so we started our day off by walking through the Italian District, looking for a place to grab breakfast.

We came across this adorable little park and decided to step in for just a second before continuing forward. Don’t you just love the colorful trees?

On the corner of Salem and Prince we stopped at Bova's Bakery, 134 Salem St. Bova’s was recommended to us by a friend and Eric’s cousin so stopped here to grab something for lunch! I got a slice of cheese pizza and Eric got a meatball marinara calzone.

The cheese pizza was actually pretty good! Eric ended up having half of mine since he liked it better then the meatball calzone.

Not to mention the endless amount of sweet pastries! If we had more room we would’ve definitely gotten dessert here! Everything looked super good and since a decent line does form here I’m going to take a guess and say that their pastries don’t disappoint.

After getting our order to go we walked over to North Square Park to enjoy our lunch. North Square Park is in the heart of the North End neighborhood, Boston’s oldest neighborhood! It’s crazy to think people have lived in this neighborhood since 1640, it’s a beautiful place to live so I guess it makes sense! It’s the perfect place to sit and relax, we were there for only a few minutes but it was great to people watch and check out The Paul Revere House.

You might have briefly learned about Paul Revere in school but his house offers so much information about the patriot who made the famous midnight ride from Boston to Concord. Paul Revere arranged to have a signal lit in the Old North Church – one lantern if the British were coming by land and two lanterns if they were coming by sea, allowing him to warn the colonists. 

Admission is $6 a person, open Thursdays – Sundays 10:00am – 4:00pm

This super cute restaurant was right in front of the North Square Park so I just had to get a quick picture of it before leaving. Next time we are in Boston I definitely would like to come here.

The North End is filled with neat little stores one that I thought was worth checking out is Salumeria Italiana, 151 Richmond St, a small hole-in-the-wall store filled with authentic Italian groceries. If you are looking to spice up your spaghetti dinner I highly suggest shopping here for a few more ingredients or maybe supplies for a delicious dessert.

After lunch we walked around for a little while, we window shopped and got to see a few historical homes before making our way to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park.

Honestly I’m so happy we came to this park today and not yesterday, I mean check out that sky! It’s crazy how opposite the weather was on this trip.

This park is the perfect place to walk along Boston’s waterfront. There are plenty of places to sit and relax while enjoying excellent views of the waterfront, there also is a rose garden, and a playground for children. We sat here for a little while and just enjoyed the boats and people watched before continuing on.

Not pictured but just across the street is the Greenway Carousel, which you can ride for just $4. It’s very cute, the rides are hand-carved characters designed after animals native to Massachusetts. It is open daily from April through October, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We started walking down south to the Long Wharf and we saw the cutest little duck house! Unfortunately we didn’t see any ducks get in or come out of it but it sure is adorable. We also saw this super cool gate full of buoys, I love seeing colorful buoys like these on the East Coast!

Since we didn't get to see much yesterday we decided to see as much as possible today. While at the Long Wharf we decided to visit the Boston Public Gardens but we took a more scenic route.

We walked north on State Street till we got to the Old State House, 206 Washington St, there is a cobblestone ring that marks the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre.

We walked down School Street and there are a few notable places to mention, Kings Chapel Burying Ground, Ben Franklin House, Old South Meeting House (the original meeting site for the Boston Tea Party) and Boston's Old City Hall. We zoomed through this area but keep your eyes open for things like this Ben Franklin statue, you know what’s really funny, when we were walking past this statue there was an revolutionary war re-enactor walking by and we thought it was really neat.

From the Long Wharf waterfront it was roughly a mile walk to the Boston Commons and Boston Public Gardens. It felt like a pretty short walk since our walk was basically along the Freedom Trail. We found a bench and enjoyed the afternoon relaxing at the gardens, my favorite part of the gardens is the little duck island. We saw so many cute little ducks and squirrels running around, plus the adorable little duck statues we saw as we were leaving.

We walked down Charles Street and just zig-zagged around, but I’m so glad we happened to visit Boston when all the trees were blooming because look how beautiful these homes are!

We finished the day by admiring these homes like remind me of Brooklyn Heights in NYC and made our way back to the North End for dinner.

We had a delicious dinner at Mare Oyster Bar, 223 Hanover St. I had the Wild Boar Pappardelle, a slow braised wild boar ragu, with oyster mushrooms and ricotta salata. Eric had the Tagliatelle con Aragosta, fresh lobster with shaved black truffles, cherry tomato and lobster sauce. Both dishes were delicious and would definitely get again!

If you have a little room for dessert, Modern Pastry is just around the corner! Grab a few canolis to go and enjoy them at the North Street Park.

We had a crazy long day of walking and sightseeing so we decided to sleep in and check out a little later. We grabbed lunch before heading back home.

We went down the street to Bonne Chance Cafe, 77 Canal St. Eric was feeling something more breakfasty so he got a sausage, egg, and cheese with avocado on an English muffin. I got the Spicy Pork + Japchae with Stir-Fried Vegetables with Rice. It so much food that Eric had to help me out, it was really good with the hot sauce they have! We got a little side of sriracha and teriyaki sauce too.

That wraps up our weekend trip to Boston, Massachusetts! We had a lot of fun and after years of living on the East Coast we’re glad we finally went! If we missed any fun or historical places, definitely let me know in the comments below!

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