Boston Trip (day 4 & 5)

Helen's sister and her family went to Nantucket island and spending the night there - and we decided to go home to Columbus Thursday evening, but we wanted to spend some time in Boston before leaving.


Thursday (7/24):
Hearty breakfast @ home with Helen's aunt's homecooking (yummy ...) started our day. We were planning to go to MIT campus and spend the rest of day @ Quincy market area. I plotted our course through Google map and copy them down on paper - all was good to go. I was driving and we took 1 right turn too soon (Boston street name signs are not the best) and we ended up in Newbury St. again.

After deliberation, we decided to stop and walk along Newbury St. again ... since last time we missed some good spots and Mom's birthday was coming. As parking was quite difficult, after circling Newbury for 4 times, we found a spot for our car and started our birthday gift searching. Jon fell asleep in the car during the parking spot hunt. Within half an hour into our nice sunny day walk, suddenly it got dark quickly and started pouring rain ... we ran back to our car all soaking wet - Jon was not because he was in the stroller with the cover on - o well. My camera was poured on - worried me a bit - but it was ok.

Somehow with all these madness and damp, we wanted to march on to go to Quincy market - so off we go - with spotty direction nonetheless. Needless to say, we were lost for about an hour (it was pouring hard too during that time). Phone call here and there to Helen's cousin and SMS to Google to get directions, and finally we got into our destination - Quincy market. The rain stopped and we had a nice lunch at the food court, window shopping, and got Mom's birthday present. We went back to Helen's cousins apartment to take an afternoon nap and rest before the long drive home after dinner.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called "Bernard's" - a chinese food restaurant in Boston's suburb. One of the food that we order was a a deep fried sea bass with some kind of spicy sauce - it was awesome! Gotta look that restaurant up again next time we are in the area.

Helen and I cannot thank Helen's aunt enough and her cousins for their generosity in allowing us to invade their apartment for several days and showing extended hospitality toward our family. We finally took off from Boston around 10pm EST ... to the west ... o well - midwest!!

Friday (7/25):
After a looooong drive, we finally got back in Ohio. We stopped by Cleveland (around 8:30am) and planning to go to a Chinese restaurant called "Li Wah" to get dim sum. But it was not open until 10am (crap ...) so we continued on and stopped @ Bob Evans to get breakfast before going into Columbus. Home sweet home ...

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Boston Trip (day 3)

Wednesday (7/23):
After a well needed sleep and rest (after the long 13 hours drive), we woke up and headed off to Portland, Maine on Wednesday. Stop by at the Lighthouse and had lunch @ Flatbread Co. We thought it was seafood related flatbread/pizza, turns out just a brick oven pizza with NO seafood!!



The lighthouse was awesome. It is somehow related to the "Perfect Storm" (also a movie by the same name/title). The weather was cloudy with some breeze, good enough for photography. I bracketed some shots for HDR and reached a borrowed Nikon F5 for a slide shot, but it was not working. Got an "ERR" message on the display. Crap! Must go full digital for the rest of the trip - I guess it was not that bad - my Nikon D80 is reliable. Put my SB-600 on and got some people shots with balanced (not blown out sky and properly lighted subject).

O well ... it was starting to rain and we were hungry - so we are off looking for places to eat - "Flatbread". Even though it was just a regular brick oven pizza place, but the pizza was excellent. Jon had a good time looking at the brick oven and comparing it to my smoker/grill (not in the same league) - and walking out in the deck, where there were boats and birds.

We took a stroll on the same street as the restaurant, going in shops etc and we left Portland around 4pm, promising our cousins that we'll be back in Boston by around 6pm. Goof around at home (and let Jon plays Guitar Hero) and resting before heading off to dinner.

For dinner, we went to Union Oyster House for more seafood! We ordered a combination plate filled with scallops, shrimp, crabs, lobster, and fish on top of rice pillaf. It was great! But ... there were no refills for sodas (bummer =( ). Union Oyster House is one of the oldest restaurant in Boston, filled with history, and of course - excellent food. The place was packed - and we were there closer to 8pm, so it was past normal dinner time - but still filled with people. I stopped by Hard Rock Cafe on our way home and got my shirt and bought one for Jon and Helen as well.
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Boston Trip (day 1 & 2)

Boston was awesome. It was a long drive (13.5 hours from Columbus, OH) ... good thing we left from Columbus and going back to Columbus at night (so Jon slept 90 % of the trip). We left Monday night and got back in Columbus by Friday morning. The trip itself left me a desire to comeback and spend more time in New England area.



Monday night (7/21): leaving Columbus

Tuesday (7/22):
We stopped for breakfast. We were looking for an IHOP, because my niece was craving for it ... but it was not open when we got there (during breakfast time - like 8am). So the other option was Cracker Barrel - since hungriness was eating our souls, Cracker Barrel it is ...

Arrived in Boston around 10am, went straight to our cousins apartment. Helen's aunt cooked some killer Indonesian food for lunch! With full stomach we headed off Harvard Square. Jon did not want to be photograph with John Harvard (he said he liked Brutus better - good answer!) - but he had an excellent time chasing squirrels (apparently squirrels in Harvard are friendlier to human than ones in Columbus). Took some pictures here and there with some old buildings ... and next destination is ... ice cream @ Newbury St. PJ Licks!

But first, our our way back to the car, Jon fell down on and literally kissed the concrete, got blood gushing out of his lips and into his mouth, his nose also bleed. I carried him in my arms (he was crying, obviously ...) while wiping tears and blood out of his face and chin. Turns out it was not that bad, all teeth were still intact, only busted lips. Jon fell asleep in the car to Newbury and we just put him in the stroller while we were there (he pretty much asleep for the whole walking around in Newbury - about 1.5 hours).

Newbury St was awesome. We could have spent the whole day just walking around in Newbury St. But our destination was JP Licks ... an ice cream joint - just perfect for the weather. With Jon sleeping on the stroller, we walked and walked and walked ... the ice cream joint was 7 blocks away from where we parked (about 1-1.5 miles), but since parking is precious on Newbury St., so we accepted the consequence of walking.


I never knew that Paris also has a "Madura" - it is an island north east of Java, Indonesia.

Legal Seafood for dinner ... Legal Seafood is a staple of Boston dining experience for seafood. Just 3 blocks away from JP Licks, we went there directly. It was excellent seafood ... we had plenty of food and kept sampling each others' food. After dinner Jon and I went for a walk in the mall (while everybody else was having desert). That was it for Tuesday ... we called it a day and went home ...

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