A Day Trip to Boston

We moved out to Maine almost twelve years ago. In that amount of time, I’ve been to Boston for a couple of conferences, and Denisa has been to the Latter-day Saint temple a few times, but we’ve never gone to downtown Boston with the kids at all. In our defense, we had young children for most of that time, and we were just reluctant to go into a large city with all the trappings you need when you’ve got a baby or toddler in tow. (Though on the flip side, we’ve been to London, Dublin, Vienna, Budapest, Salzburg, Munich, Krakow, Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, and Paris all with the kids in tow, and all before we ever made it to Boston . . .)

We finally decided the time had come to change that.

So last Friday we headed down to the city. We stayed outside of downtown for this first trip, mainly because we were heading to the temple on Saturday morning, so we wanted a spot that was near there. (We’ve typically been Marriott brand people, but one of the perks of the American Express Aspire Card that I now have is that it comes with automatic Hilton Diamond status, their highest status. So this time we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Waltham. It was one of the cheaper options, but we still left very impressed. The breakfast was great. They had free snacks in the evening. The pool was much nicer than you get at a Fairfield. The internet was more of a pain to use, but other than that, thumbs up from us.)

Friday night Denisa took the kids swimming, and then we went out to dinner at Tuscan Kitchen with some friends. It was pricey. but we all enjoyed it. Great food. Saturday morning, we had breakfast and then headed to the temple, leaving the kids to watch movies and play games in the car while we were inside, with Tomas in charge. (That all went well, though when we got out, we discovered they had drained the car battery. Kids today are like electric vampires.)

We then headed into the city. I had zero desire to park in Boston, so we drove to Alewife Station (just five minutes or so from the temple) and parked there. ($3 on the weekend, though when you drive into the parking garage, you begin to wonder if you didn’t take a serious wrong turn at some point.) You can buy a Charlie Card there (one per family), and use it to take the T down to Park Street. ($2.25/person, and kids 11 and under are free.) Having done it now, it was super easy, very cheap, and I’d totally do it again.

In the city, we walked around, just getting a feel for the layout so we know what we want to do when we come back. We checked out the outside of some of the sights, went to eat at Quincy Market (Indian food. Yum.), and then went on a bakery expedition. We tried Mike’s Pastry, but the line looked ridiculously long, so we went a block or so further to Bova’s Bakery, which also had outstanding reviews. We proceeded to spend $50 on baked goods, because that’s how we roll. (You can count cannoli as dinner, right?). It was all delicious. I’ve had cannoli from Mike’s Pastry before. Didn’t particularly care for them, honestly. These were much better. I’m not sure if that’s because they were fresher, or I was more hungry, or they were just superior. Either which way, I would skip the lines again the next time I go.)

We took the T back to our car and headed home. (Thankfully it started right away. There was some debate about if we’d let the battery recharge enough. We had.)

Overall, it was a great expedition. We had a fun time, and we definitely plan on going back. Probably in much less than 12 years. 🙂

What are your favorite things to do in Boston, and where do you like to eat? I’m always up for a recommendation.

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