With only a few months left in New York, Shelley and I have resolved to take advantage of our time and location, not just to do New York-y things, but also to get out and see the greater New England area. I must admit, from an Oklahoman/Texan perspective, I always considered "New England" to be virtually synonymous with the American "North East," that is, anything from Pennsylvania to Maine. Apparently, this is too broad, but for those who scorn such regional naievety, I challenge you to properly describe Oklahoma/TX by region. Often I have heard both lumped in as "The South," though certainly the manifold differences between a TX/OK'an, Louisiannan, Alabaman, Georgian, or Carolinian are enough to make such a corporate identity laughable. Midwestern? Great Plains? Western? They're all tough sells once you actually travel there, and it is just this awakening that I had on our recent trip to Boston.
First let me say that our trip was greatly enhanced by some insider info from our good friend Willy Razavi, who spent a few years at Brandeis and tipped us off to basically everything cool we did all weekend. And even then, we only managed to hit about 50% of his recommendations. It's good to have friends in-the-know. We planned to make the trip a relaxing one, and as such didn't put much effort into an especially long "to do" checklist. Still, by simple wandering we managed to achieve a great deal, without exhausting ourselves.
We took the BoltBus (4 hour trip, $18.50 per person) down on Friday and got into town by 2. We booked ahead and actually found a small boutique hotel (Newbury Guesthouse) in the Back Bay area right by the Copley T stop, with a super deal (apparently, no one travels to Boston in February!). After getting settled, we walked to the Boston Common, then kept walking just to look around while the sun was still up. We passed the state house, the Customs house and Faneiulle Hall, and suddenly we were at the Aquarium. Had no idea just how small downtown Boston was! Dinner was procured (with the assistance of Shelley's iPod Touch, and the free internet of nearby Cheers!) at a decent Mexican joint near Faneuille, "Zuma's Tex-Mex," and afterwards we paroused the collection at the nearby Newbury Comics.
As it got dark, it got chilly, so we walked home, and enjoyed a relaxed evening of watching the Olympics - first time we got to do that this year. Alas, after 30 minutes of Men's Super G, it was time for the Pairs Ice Dance - Compulsory, competition. If there's anything I like less than watching figure skating, it's watching figure skating without aerials, doing the same routine, to the same song, over and over and over. Seriously. Just leave the camera in one spot, and let me watch the ice melt.
Saturday we started off bright and none-too-early for Harvard on the 'ole #1 bus. Alas, no Andes Pipe Band to greet us at Harvard Square, but the atmosphere was its usual bustle, and we quickly skipped over to Harvard Yard for a walk-around. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the Harvard campus, but I must admit, it wasn't quite what I found. For one thing, I naively expected "Harvard Yard" to be a central open yard, like a parade ground, around which Harvard was clustered, a model I've become familiar with at Columbia. But no, "Yard" is apparently just a euphemism for "grassy campus." The library of course was impressive, and I found the enormous size of the Church next door logical, but provoking. At Trinity, the church is certainly large, but just as certainly not a central part of the campus - almost an after-thought in both its original construction, and the habits of current students. At Columbia, we have only a small (albeit very impressive) chapel, also situated off to the side. But the Harvard Church, being both very large and centrally located facing the library, is obviously a major part of the institution, at least by original design. Calls into light many questions about the religious origins (and/or biases) of American higher education, to what degree those are maintained (Orel Roberts) or submerged, and what the process of secularizing these institutions looked like over the 19th and 20th centuries.
Otherwise, our time in Cambridge was spent checking off Willy's list. The Cambridge Common, the Sheradon Commander, the old houses on Brattle, the Harvard Coop (when the apocalypse comes, I do believe one could survive for weeks on the Harvard-inscribed goods available at this Ivy League Wal-Mart), Black Ink, and finally the Algiers cafe, an emphatic recommendation of Mr. Razavi. Not surprisingly, he was dead-on. That was some amazing hummus. We opted for lentil soup to go along, and I had an Orange Mint Hot Chocolate. Awesome. The tower was especially cool. On the way out, I actually passed a table of two guys - one of whom had a plate full of hummus, and the other, a plate full of pancakes - Willy points out this is the only coffeehouse with both as exquisite specialties.
After our snack, we did a good bit of walking. Down to Anderson Bridge and the Harvard boat house, then back over Memorial Walking Bridge (famous to us for its appearance in the movie With Honors - Brendan Fraser's last good role). It came out that I am not accustomed to seeing frozen rivers (in fact, the Charles might be my first), and I was endlessly fascinated by it.
We next took a long walk down Cambridge street in search of the Druid, and "authentically Celtic" pub from Willy's list. Shelley only thought I got lost once, though I maintain that we were always moving the proper general direction. Once found, we enjoyed a couple of local brews while we watched italian-league football and shot the breeze with the very talkative young Irish barkeeps. For example: "Did you know that a man once drank nothing but Guinness for 30 days, like that McDonalds guy? Enough calories in it he didn't go hungry. Only effect was that he started growing chest hair. Not sure any of that's true. Except the last part."
Just for kicks, exercise, and to walk off the effect of 2 pints, we walked all the way down Cambridge to the Museum of Science. Got the impression that was not the side of Cambridge most tourists see. The Museum was packed - apparently it was almost closing time and they were hosting a Cub Scout lock-in that evening. With a Harry Potter prop exhibit. Nice.
We found dinner at a Thai place back on Newbury by the hotel, then it was time for more Olympics. Speed skating (short track), a bit of bobsled, and then on to Curling, a game we keep trying to figure out, but not with much luck. I think of it as Crickett-on-ice, not for any similarity between the two, but because neither affords itself to a casual comprehension.
For Sunday we had time enough before our afternoon bus departure, so we grab a T and headed over to Charlestown for the Bunker Hill memorial. That was a lot of stairs, but well worth it for the views. Made it to the USS Constitution, then a quick walk around the WWII destroyer USS Cassin Young before we beat feet back across the bridge to North Station, back to the hotel to grab luggage, lunch at Boloco (a local "burrito" chain), then 4 hours of sleeping on the bus back.
A good weekend, all in all, and a wonderful escape to a city with open skylines and plenty of sunshine.
And really, what more could you ask than that?
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::(lame) Texpatriot
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