From the SF Bay to the Massachusetts Bay
Logged another sibling get-together on the east coast last week! My oldest sister, brother-in-law, and I took a short trip to visit our middle sister in Cambridge, Mass. While I stayed a few days, the others had only one full day to take in the city. And it was their first time in the Boston/Cambridge area (!!!) so we attempted to show them as much as we could fit into the day.
We started with their highlight, which was undoubtedly my lowlight - seafood. Neptune Oyster is rumored to be one of the best seafood spots in Boston, which is saying a lot; I’m just not the right person to judge. As a “fish-as-pets-only” person, I took photos, nibbled a bit and left most of the eating to my siblings. They were all impressed.
Took a stroll around the North End, one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in the city. I love walking around this area - the narrow streets, dense homes, bustling businesses, and city vibrancy at its best!
Followed the Freedom Trail for a few blocks, saw the Paul Revere Mall, snagged a cannoli from Modern Pastry, and concluded our visit to the North End. With a lot more walking ahead of us, we stopped by the Boston Public Market for mid-day George Howell coffee. Because you can’t go to Boston without seeing the harbor, we made our way to the New England Aquarium to visit the seals and continued along the waterfront.
We went inland through Chinatown, Boston Common, and then took a rest at the Public Garden. This is a really pleasant city park and it’s part of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace (a 1000+ acre chain of parks linked by waterways and parkways). On a less formally distinguished note - if you get joy from squirrels like I do, make sure you block off some time to watch these ones! They are so active, verbal, and unafraid of humans.
After our rest, we made our final push to walk through Back Bay, shop at Uniqlo (a must-do for my sister and bro-in-law when they’re on vacation!), and eat our first-ever vegan ramen at Ramen Red White.
We definitely missed a lot of things (the whole of Cambridge) and now we know for sure that 1 day is simply not enough to take it all in.
Because I stayed another few days, I got to squeeze in a few more experiences in Cambridge…
Dinnered one night at a hot pot restaurant (probably my favorite type of dining experience) called Happy Lamb, which was aptly named. Following dinner, we put our names down at Brick & Mortar and waited an hour to get into the ‘best cocktail bar’ of 2021. (Don’t worry about us; we killed time at a nearby HMart, so needless to say, the hour flew by.)
Another day started with tasty English muffins at Vinal Bakery, which has a cute general store next door. We took an icy cold walk through the Harvard campus to get to the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments and saw turkeys in trees on the way there. My sister is a scientist and she really enjoyed the museum; I really enjoyed the turkeys because I’m an intellectual.
Very notably, we visited Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. This place was showing a really moving and disturbing exhibit by Candice Lin called Sleeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping, which did a great job encompassing all the awkward and complex feelings that so many of us experienced during the first couple years of the pandemic. Beyond the art itself, it was an honor to be at the building - the only building in the US designed by Le Corbusier.
Can’t really top that, so I guess this post is over.
