Le week-end à Boston

Had a great couple of days down in Boston, for my extended birthday long weekend. I flew on my Aeroplan points and went down Thursday night after work (J. joined me and arrived from Montreal earlier that day). We rented a great little studio apartment in the North End for our stay - same cost as a hotel, but much larger and more comfortable, and with a kitchen so we could cater for ourselves a bit.

After a full day of shopping and primping on Friday, we gathered that evening at Radius for an epic meal that went on for hours. Joining J. and I were Jana's friends J. and C., my friend C., as well as C. and his girlfriend L. Of course, we all went for the four-course tasting menu, with wine pairings. It was fantastic - probably the best meal I have had this side of the Atlantic (tuna; salmon; celery (!) sorbet; venison; nutty caramel goodness with bergamot ice cream to finish). And the service was excellent too - very attentive, but not at all snobby or overbearing. Afterward, we planned to go to a nearby lounge for drinks and dancing - but got turned away at the door because J. and I had no ID on us! Given that I hardly ever go out, and J. lives in Montreal, it never even occurred to us to bring ID along. So that put an early end to the evening's festivities, but what can you do? Never thought I'd get carded on my 34th birthday, that's for sure.

On Saturday, we headed over to Cambridge for the afternoon. Both Friday and Saturday were unbelievably warm and sunny - we ate lunch outside that day, then had a stroll around the Harvard campus, which is pleasant enough. We spent a couple of hours in the Fogg Museum, which turned out to be amazing. We really had no idea how many important works are housed there - in particular, there were some fantastic Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist paintings. The best thing about this museum is that it's fairly small and manageable - you can see the entire collection in about two hours, without suffering too much 'art fatigue' (which I am especially susceptible to nowadays, having been spoilt by too many years in Europe).

On Sunday, J. had to start a three-day medical conference, so I'd arranged to meet up with my friend C. for the day. He'd very kindly offered to take me sightseeing outside the city, so of course I jumped at the chance. We went down to Newport, RI, which was about an hour and a half away. We had a bit of a whirlwind tour (definitely a place I'd love to explore in more depth sometime), but it's a fabulous place - littered with stately holiday homes built at the turn of the twentieth century by some of America's wealthiest families. There's some beautiful walking and driving along the cliffs and seashore to be had, also. The town centre itself is very historic and charming, with a lot of colonial-era buildings. I can't imagine there are too many places in the US with such density of historical architecture - it was brilliant.

[ *ADDENDUM* I forgot the best part! We discovered many fascinating historical facts about Newport during our visit. The most colourful one was the story of an ordinary man and his sister, who (improbably) lived in a tumbledown shack on Bellevue Avenue, the poshest street in town. Needless to say, the well-heeled residents of the area were unimpressed with both the house and the junkyard surrounding it, and repeatedly tried to have the residents ejected, without success. But the best part of the story? The man in question was known locally as "Timmy the Woodhooker". ?!?!??! I have been trying ever since I returned home to find out exactly what a 'woodhooker' is, but thus far have failed. Obviously I'm going to have to dig a little deeper...I can only imagine it is some sort of very obscure (and frankly hilarious) Rhode Islandism. Heh!! ]

We got back to the city in the early evening, grabbed some supper, then headed out to the (apparently rather legendary) Paradise Club. We had tickets for...um...Scritti Politti, whom I'd last listened to in 1985 sometime. ;-) But his most recent album has had loads of critical praise and is really quite good. We met up with C.'s friend D. at the show (J. had hoped to come along, but was too wiped out from her day of conferencing), and joined what turned out to be a tiny crowd - maybe 150 at most. But it was cool, because it was very intimate. Great show.

Sooo tired Monday morning - up at 6 am to catch my water taxi back across the harbour to the airport. I got a morning flight so that I could be home by mid-day - needed the rest of Monday to unpack, unwind, do some laundry, etc. But all in all, a grand time in Boston. We like it an awful lot!