The Boston Report: Days 1-4
From Monday evening to Thursday evening, I actually wasn't in Boston proper; rather, my co-worker and I spent time in the suburbs, near Bedford and Burlington, where our class was being held. The more time I spent in the New England 'burbs, the more I thought that I could picture myself settling down there - that is, until winter, when everything would be frozen in snow and the quaint two lane, tree-lined roads would suddenly transform into drifts.
I'm probably exaggerating. I'm sure the Massachusetts DOT is very good at clearing the roads. Moving on.
To me, the various towns that are sprinkled around Boston are different from Northern Virginia suburbs in that there appears to be some physical separation between them; maybe it's the extra trees, but I could tell one town from another as we were driving around finding places to eat. One key difference, however, is the lack of road signage. Maybe road signs are no good in the snow, so they just don't bother, but we found ourselves overshooting our turn more than once due to the crucial road sign only facing the other way.
When our plane was on approach to land and I squinted out the window from my middle seat, the features that stood out amongst the patchwork of houses, roads, and trees were the diamonds. First, second, third, and home that is. If the requirement for a town is to have a baseball field, then we probably passed fifty different locales during the week. It's clear that this is baseball country, and the Red Sox Nation plays no small part in that. It was refreshing to drive past so many little league and softball games right in the center of town, realizing that the national pastime was vibrantly alive and well in this corner of America.
The first night, we checked out the hotel's dining guide and tried our chances on the Cafe Luigi, which offered cheap Italian fare in large quantities. I was pleasantly stuffed by the end of the meal. The class took care of feeding us on Tuesday and Wednesday night (heavy hors d'oeuvres essentially replaced dinner for us Tuesday, while Wednesday was the chowder, clam, and lobster banquet extravaganza), so we explored a little Tuesday and found Angelato, which served up some smokin' Italian ice cream. Well, it was cold, and it was gelato, which in itself is smokin'. A cup of caramel gelato later, and I was ready to pack it in.
A side note about my first impressions of eating fresh lobster: it's a lot of work, even if they crack them for you (which took a lot of the fun out of it to some people). It is tasty meat, I'll grant you that, and it does give you a certain sense of connecting back to nature and fishing and primal hunting-and-gathering and all that, but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to order it on a regular basis. As it was, I enjoyed it and the authentic chowder, even though I burned my tongue on the soup and affected my tastebuds for the next two days. I skipped the steamed clams. Too sandy for my tastes.
The last day of class was Thursday, and when the final talk wrapped up, it was time for my touring plan to be put into action. I dropped my co-worker off at the airport, ditched the rental car, and set forth to find the mystical "T", or subway, if you will. I only wandered around aimlessly around two blocks and a baseball field in a park for five minutes before asking a jogger where to go, and they responded in their authentic Bahston accent that "it's not fah, you almost made it, just go down there and hang a right." This was my first encounter with a real-life Bostonian, and I was pleased to discover their overall politeness, which guided me through the week. I thanked the jogger, walked past another softball game, found the black-and-white T logo, bought a $10 CharlieTicket, and re-checked my route on the Orange Line. I was now a tourist, working solo. This felt strange to me, but it's a tribute to the city that I never felt in danger or isolated throughout my time there.
It wasn't long before the train rumbled onto the platform. Around 8:30, I had made my way through Copley Place Mall and checked into the Marriott, ready for dinner and a good night's sleep. I was going to be walking quite a lot the next day.
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