Monday, August 17, 2009

Our trip to Boston

Yesterday, in celebration of my birthday, the Husband and I took the kids into Boston. The plan was, ride the train in, ride the swan boats, and stop at a cupcake shop for cupcakes. So upon searching and mapping out our day, we were all set. We ride in on the commuter rail, which the kidlets were overly thrilled about. Where we live we can hear the train when it passes, and so they were ridiculously excited to finally get to ride one. The only down side was that the windows were so dirty on the outside that you couldn't see out of them. And the kids reminded us of this every ten minutes or so. It was a hard day, I'm not going to lie. It was in the 90s and sickeningly muggy. Also, we're not used to that much walking. Boston is a walking city, if you're not familiar. The Husband and I spent two nights in Boston before we actually lived up here, so we had some sort of a grip on things. If you're looking for a good city guide, the Not For Tourists guides are the best way to go. More on this one later. The day starts out, we get off at the wrong rail station (Ruggles) and end up hiking for like six miles to get to the Common. If you don't know me, I get really anxious when I'm lost. Which is also why the Husband and I have decided that our next vehicle will be equipped with Navigation. Anywho, after what seems like forever, we get to the common. Not without stopping at the Pru to visit the skywalk. Well, until we get to the top and discover it's going to be $40 to see a hazy view of the city. I'm sorry, but we're on a budget. We stop at Maggiano's to eat lunch. Not where we really wanted to stop, but at that point, we were STARVING and needed some nosh. Surprisingly, it cost us less than what the skywalk would have cost, and that was some Good Eats. I had half a spinach salad, the Husband ate half an order of linguine with red clam sauce, the Son had mac & cheese, the Daughter had her favorite, naked pasta with butter. It was one of the best meals we've had in a LONG time. We venture over to the Common, and the kids have a good time. I'm amazed at the wildlife and how accustomed the animals are to being close to people. This one little squirrel just stood close to us looking at it like "what? You've never seen a squirrel before?" It was really fun. We rode the swan boats, and as fun as it sounds, it was also disgustingly hot and muggy. I know I've said this before, but I just can't explain to you how gross it was. Strangely, the kids hung really well. Even the daughter had on flip flops (like me) and still did really well walking all over. When we were done, I had decided I wanted to indulge in my cupcakes. We exit the Common and start to regroup, when we learn we have somehow now lost our NFT guide. So imagine our situation, where even with the guide, we've walked for two hours around the city, lost. And now we have no guide, but an address and two cross streets. So we carry on. We've passed like five bookstores, so I figure if we walk up Newbury Street, we'll find another, we can just pop in and buy another guide, right? Yeah. Well, Urban Outfitters and Marc Jacobs don't care to tell you how to get around the city. So we walk the fourteen blocks to Mass Ave, we're hot, sticky, tired of walking, and want to just go home. But we press on to eat cupcakes at Sweet. Not to be confused with Sweet of Worcester. The kids are excited, the cupcakes are adorable, we pick out four regular cupcakes and one mini. And it's $14.75. Holy $hit, batman! That's almost half of what we spent on lunch! Now I've done my research. I love me some cupcakes. I've perfected a few recipes of my own. But I'll gladly buy yours if they're good. Sweet in Boston comes highly recommended. I gotta be honest, I really didn't like the cupcakes at Sweet. They really sucked. I had a mini of the Dark Chocolate with vanilla buttercream. It was... mehh. I had a regular size cappuccino cupcake. It really wasn't great. The cakes seemed very dry, and the frosting wasn't anything great. It was almost like pre-packaged, overly-flavored buttercream. The Husband had a Dark chocolate with chocolate icing, the son had the bubblegum, and the daughter had the pink lemonade. No one could finish their cupcakes. And the Husband and I were quite disgusted at the fact that none of us even wanted to finish them, but we paid almost $15 for them. As soon as we left, the Husband looks at me and says, "Your cupcakes are far better than those." He knew I was upset because I hate spending money on something I don't like. Now, I would have loved to be able to make the trek to KickAss Cupcakes, mostly because they serve fried cupcakes, and I have a hard time thinking of something better than that. If you're in the Worcester area, that Sweet is FANTASTIC. We compared on the way home, as that shop has the giant cupcakes, and I am pretty sure they were even cheaper than what we just had. I highly recommend them. So we got home, dead tired, gave the kids baths and decided to finish painting spots in the house that needed touch up. I'm not really sure why, but that's what we did. And I'll be making my own cupcakes that we'll eat with tomorrow for my real birthday. I feel the need to put cream cheese on top of something. If you'd like to see the photos I took yesterday, visit my photostream on flickr. I'll be uploading the daughter's photos later, as I let her carry my small camera.

1 comment:

Vanessa said...

It sounds like a fun, if not tiring trip. I hope you had a VERY happy birthday and this is your best year yet. Love you!

BTW, NFT guides are the only way to go. I hope you found another!