Cool Beans in Boston

Truth is, Boston is a great town to visit. I really like it. There was a great deal of preparation for this wonderful excursion – Jim and I wanted to get away around the time of our silver anniversary, and this was it. October is still not too cold, but not hot enough that you can’t walk around in the city. We chose a hotel for the price, mostly. It was cheap, and it promised a shuttle to the subway and then a mere five stops to the center of town, the lovely Commons, from where you can get anywhere you want.

So, off we went to see the great historic city of Boston. And did we see it!

But, there was a price to pay. Sometimes memory is faulty, and you only remember the good times. I sure did. My two previous excursions here were full of fun and excitement. Not to mention cheap and in the center of town, or having me carried around like a big suitcase.

First time, with a youth group from my church. www.uucmc.org to be exact. Part of a program that allows the RE graduating class to explore the roots of Unitarianism and Universalism as part of their faith experience. A great program. I got to go with the kids but luckily a couple of my besties were along, so it wasn’t so bad.

The second time, some adults decided to take an adult RE trip, and fun it was. We stayed at a bed and breakfast owned by the UUA (www.uua.com) and were treated like royalty as we traversed the streets. This was a one-time thing, as most of us are now too old or lame to do this again. At least I am.

So my trip with my husband was tainted with high expectations. Remember  do, though. The high stairs to the train platform. Waiting in the cold October rain for the bus. Traveling on the Boston subway with the bottom-feeders. Waiting on line while my husband makes mistakes on the ticket machines and has to ask for help.

Oh, it was joy joy joy.

I really hate traveling, sometimes. I’m glad I got Boston out of my system. I still want to get myself and Jimmy to Cape Cod, although he claims we have the same scenery here on the Jersey Shore. But my memories and expectations are high and happy, and I’ll work on it for some future date, hopefully with a good outcome the first time.

 

Good Eats and eats and eats and EATS – wip

Here is a story of the restaurants we went to on my trip to Buffalo:

Burrito Bay;

This is an unassuming place and when you walk in, you have to stand in line, cafeteria style and make your order. The menus are easy to understand. What’s there to understand! The Glutton, the Middle size and a small size. The Glutton is the most food I have ever seen in any restaurant ever. You have to be really hungry to down this one. But the food itself, wow!

Plenty of cheese, veggies, beans, all rolled into this great wrapper. If you want spicy, you get it. No wimpy salty vinegar here. The real deal. My mouth was on fire when I ate this. I was completely happy, and would recommend this place if you are ever nearby to one.

Not fancy, just good enjoyable food.

Olympia Diner;

Another just plain good food place to eat in Buffalo. This is definitely of the Greek stripe. We really enjoyed the sampler with some great flavors, all to be dipped into with a pita slice.

The food itself was typical diner food, but fresh and great portions. I don’t think we would have had it any other way. In fact, the wait-woman (PC all the way!) thought we were finished, several times. I think she used up all the ink in her pen, honey. She was quite pleasant, and tolerated well the active child with us who made towers out of the creamers.

Candrell’s Ice Cream Shop;

This is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, and we were the only customers. It was cool out, being summer in Buffalo, and we were in the mood for some sweets. This was the perfect choice. All the ice cream and dishes, and candies looked delicious, but I settled for some “sugar-free” vanilla. I know, I know, what’s the purpose of a sweet shop if you’re not going to be with the program? Well, I was already overloaded with food by this time, and wanted to at least give the system some sort of relief. No website here, but lots of info on the web. Worh a look if you’re in the neighborhood.

Franco’s Pizza;

Said to be like Domino’s. I never had this, at least in my memory. Time for something that doesn’t require much effort. We were getting even more tired, and hungry after some more running around after child. Child asleep, time for the grownups to uhh, eat again. The pizza came as we feared. It was a round pie smushed into a square box. This sounds wierd to us Brooklyn-bred girls. And you want your pizza to be round and cut into wedges, not some kind of shape that is unnatural to that cuisine. But, aside from that, it was good, tasty. A bit dry, a bit doughy but what we needed at the moment. Try it with a glass of wine to make it more palatable.

Tandoori.

Go here for the royal treatment. A head waiter who is as yummy as the food. Knowledgeable and helpful servers, a water bearer constantly refilling a refreshing glass. And the hot sauce is the best. Spicy as you can ever want it to be. Is it any wonder I’ve been starving myself all week?

Hanging with the Fam

Well I made it to Buffalo. My niece is truly one to be admired. Laurissa is handling a pregnancy (she looks great!). There is also a three-year-old niece around here somewhere…who doesn’t stop once she gets going. And there are two cats, Simba the red male and Nala the black female.

We are spending a lot of time eating out. On Thursday afternoon we ate at a Mexican kind of a taqueria, which serves something called a Glutton. My goodness. Can more food be put in a human body at one sitting? But it was so good, I would recommend this place to anyone. What I mean is, the hot is really hot. I never had such hot food. Most places are wary of actually burning the mouth of its patrons, but this place really had the stuff. So beware. 

Yesterday we went to the Greek diner, where we sampled some really good food. We had the usual wraps and clubs, but the Greek stuff was excellent, and we ate lots of food there. In fact, the serverperson probably used up all the ink in her pen taking our order.

Our afternoon was punctuated by a trip to the Ice Cream Parlor, yes there really is one here in the neighborhood. By this time, I was quite sated and settled for a frozen coffee drink thing. The menu here was about four pages long. And the ice cream was served in those metal type of tray dish things; it was a pleasure not dealing with plastic and paper for once.

Anne Marie and I drove here on Thursday starting at 3 a.m.We followed a GPS in the dark – we took turns driving and I had my MP3 player hooked up to hear my favorite songs when we lost transmission on the car radio. Now a 7-hour drive is not so bad, if you are able to stop once in a while and stretch your legs. This was difficult, as you don’t know when a rest stop sign will appear on unfamiliar roads. And a wrong turn can eat up a lot of gas.

What I enjoyed the most was seeing the wind-farms. Really really big windmills on the top of the rolling hills, gently turning in the rising sun. We really wanted to stop and admire them and photograph them better than what I got (coming soon, stay tuned) because cars would be coming up fast, accelerating down slopes behind us.

Another sight was the huge lawns around the homes, which were basically farmhouses. Here is the reason – John Deere! The men doing the mowing were simply enjoying a ride on these marvelous machines and a nice green lawn is just the byproduct.  Why not – three of five acres can be ridden on. Hey it gets them out of the house!

I am sure I passed up the print of the year at my camera club yesterday. Maybe another time? I’ll sure try.

I will post some pictures. I really must do something about this blog. But sometimes I think it needs more than pictures.

We are driving home on Sunday. That’s pretty easy. You just follow the signs to NYC. Can’t make any mistakes there.

What Goes Up…

Finally able to sit back and relax. We;’re on the plane and have survived a slew of rude people, noisy confusing activity nonsop all around us. That was just the airport. It is such a beautiful day, though. People are in a good mood in general.

So the first order of business is to get this computer out and see how if fits my master plan of blogging my way through the country. The plane seems noisier than I remember it. I can’t believe I have to endure over five hours of this. And for some reason this is a very ear-popping ride. We’re not up in the air for five minutes the captain is already yelling at us to put the setbelts on.

Food service? All this with turbulence going on. And here I thought it was going to be a nice day.

 

Our Trip Link

OUR TRIP TO SAN DIEGO