Boston

October came with the added perk of a weekend off from Surgery rotation so we decided to take advantage and visit some friends in Boston.  We left New York on Friday evening and battled 6+ hours of traffic to get to Beantown.  

'Sometimes you gotta live mas'

Dinner in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Meghan's roommate from her semester abroad in London, Amanda, had not only graciously invited us to stay with her and her boyfriend, but also decided she would give us a locals' tour of the city! Our day started at their apartment in the North End, an historically Italian neighborhood. We toured Paul Revere's house and the old Copp's Hill cemetery before heading downtown.

Paul's front door

The Old North Church.  It's the real-life 'Christmas Village'!

Walking around the neighborhood when Amanda nonchalantly says, "Ben Affleck robbed that laundromat in 'The Town'"

Truth is he robbed an armored truck out front

Get it, Ben!

From the North End we headed Downtown, where there was plenty going on on a Saturday morning. Here we are inside the Boston Public Market, eating the best donuts we've ever had!

And then there were all the pretty veggies and flowers!

And some impressive seafood...

Blue-finned tuna tails

For lunch we ventured across the street from the Market to the renowned Union Oyster House

All smiles after lunch at America's oldest restaurant

A walk through Boston Common and the Public Gardens were next on the agenda.

Boston founded A.D. 1630

Huge George Washington monument. We heard there's a sense of pride in Boston as one of the only cities where the man himself actually set foot on the street named in his honor. 

Master Duck Riders cruisin' into the Gardens

During our tour we suddenly realized we were in the setting of one of our favorite movie scenes!

Amanda and John, picture perfect!

Fall fun

From the Gardens we pushed East along Newbury Street to the Prudential Tower to take in the view!

Boston Common from the Skywalk Observatory

Note the artwork on the side of the tallest building in Boston. It apparently caused quite the stir when it went up in September.

After enjoying some cocktails above the city, we had one more destination to see before calling it a day... Fenway!

There's a bar underneath the bleacher seats that has an open view to the field! Unfortunately, it was the last weekend of the season and the last-place Sox were out of town.

We started noticing that spelling in the area mimics that famous accent

Never miss a second of the action!

After Meg's camera flash went off for this picture, Gregg's neighbor said, "I feel famous, someone's taking pictures of me peeing." 

At this point, we were understandably exhausted and opted for a cab to get back to North End.  We looked up our route on Google Maps and were pretty impressed with how well we covered the city!

We stopped off at Amanda's sister's apartment before heading out to our dinner reservation and enjoyed the view of Downtown to the Zakim Bridge (far right)

Sunday we headed down to South Boston to see the up-and-coming neighborhood with it's food truck gatherings, flea markets, and artisan donuts.  We weren't disappointed!

Like Off The Grid but with a New England twist

Thought we wandered back in to our own Cobble Hill at one point!

Waiting in anticipation outside of Blackbird Doughnuts! Which would prevail: the Apple Cider donuts from Boston Public Market or the artisan fare at Blackbird??

Mmmm... the official verdict is a tie! There are no losers when it comes to donuts :)

Fully satisfied from our pastries, we wandered back to the North End and got some authentic Italian salami for the road and called it a weekend.  We had an amazing weekend and absolutely fell in love with the city. Thank you so much to our wonderful hosts!