Bean(town) There, Done That: Recapping a Fantastic Four Days in Boston - Travelogue and Photo Gallery

Old State House

Travel Recap

Boston, MA
Aug. 2-5, 2018

Why did I recently go to Boston, for a 4-day weekend?

Is it a city I'd never been to? Do I have friends, relatives or business there? Was there a concert by Bruce Springsteen or other cherished musical favorites? Is its famed baseball stadium one I haven't attended? Was there a particularly compelling theater production in town?

No, no, no, no and not one that was the impetus.

I consider Boston one of the truly great American cities, along with New York, Washington, San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and my hometown of Chicago. (There are many other cities I really enjoy, including Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Denver, Seattle, St. Louis, Atlanta, Cleveland and San Antonio, but I consider the above a cut above in terms of tourism, with Las Vegas and Miami Beach being separate cases.)

And though I'd been to Boston twice before, and seen many of its top attractions, I had really only spent a total of 4 previous days there, and none since 2000. (I've been to ALL of the aforementioned cities, even the second batch, more recently.)

Boston Public Library, McKim Building

So although my big vacation of 2018--to Peru--ended just 5-1/2 weeks prior, it seemed prudent to visit Boston for a full 4 days in early August...and the weather cooperated well. 

Having never set foot in Maine, I considered taking a bus to Portland one of the days, but ruled that out fairly early in my planning given all I wanted to do in Boston. 

And I ended up wishing I had devoted one more day, allowing me to visit the historic nearby hamlets of Lexington, Concord and Walden, but I'm happy with everything I did in Boston (and adjoining Cambridge).

So I won't make this too fancy, but rather a straightforward recap of what I saw, did and ate across the four days.

Thursday

Interior of Trinity Church

● Arrival via Logan Airport from Chicago O'Hare on American Airlines

● "T" (Boston subway) from Airport to Prudential (purchased 7-day T pass)

Boston Public Garden

● Copley House (non-traditional hotel) - Booked via Booking.com - Costing roughly one-third of any other accommodations I could find in downtown Boston, I had a private room in a row house at 240 W. Newton, close to the Prudential Center. This wasn't an AirBNB, and there was a reception office across the street. I found it quite acceptable.  
● Prudential Center - A shopping center I walked through on my way elsewhere.

● NewsFeed Cafe - In the newer building of the Boston Public Library; I had an apricot croissant.

Massachusetts State House

● Boston Public Library - After entering through the newer building designed by Philip Johnson, I realized the older building next door was the one I was really supposed to check out. It was gorgeous, with many grand murals, including by John Singer Sargent, Edwin Austin Abbey and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. A reading room called Bates Hall is also astonishing.

● Trinity Church - I took a self-guided audio tour of this spectacular church at Copley Square, and was even treated to a local choir singing live from the altar.

● Newbury Street - Walked down this posh street for a stretch toward the Boston Public Garden, ducking into the Taj Boston hotel for a look, but the lobby wasn't anything particularly special.

Chowda!

● Boston Public Garden - A gorgeous open space on a beautiful day.

● Cheers - Formerly the Bull & Finch Pub, the exterior served as that of NBC's hit sitcom. Now there's a barroom matching that of the TV show, as well as another in original form. I've been here twice before and didn't eat or drink this time, but wanted to stop by. Nobody knew my name.

● Massachusetts State House - I couldn't help but snicker sophomorically at signs directing me to access the capitol through the General Hooker entrance (Joseph Hooker was a Union Army General), but enjoyed a nice tour of the building, including two

Red Sox vs. Yankees at Fenway, under a blood red sky.

statues by Daniel Chester French.

● Freedom Trail - Time constraints didn't allow me to arduously follow the red line on the sidewalk, as I have previously, but I got to most of the sights on either Thursday or Sunday.

● Holocaust Memorial - Six glass towers represent the 6 million Jews who were murdered.

● Union Oyster House - Open since 1826 and claiming to be the oldest operating restaurant in the United States, it's rather touristy and I've been here before. But it seemed like the place to get a Lobster Roll and a cup of "chowda." Loved the cornbread and my waitress was wonderful.

● Fenway Park - Red Sox vs. Yankees - I felt fortunate to get a reasonably-priced ticket on RedSox.com, found that it was behind a pole that blocked my view of home plate, was switched to one that did but went back to my original when it started to rain. The rain stopped and the Red Sox won 15-7. As a Chicagoan and Cubs fan, I find Wrigley Field much more endearing, but it was cool to see a game at Fenway, actually my second (after a 22-1 Yankees win in 2000).

Dance at Bougival, Pierre-August Renoir
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Friday
One of the primary reasons for wanting to revisit Boston was to go to art museums, 2 of 3 I'd never been to. So in saying that--due to rain or the threat of it--pretty much all of Friday until the evening was spent inside museums only reflects day-to-day scheduling adjustments, not a compromise or change of plans.

From my hotel, I basically just walked southwest on Huntington Ave. Without any prior awareness, I stopped for a bite at:

● Temptations Cafe - I had a Sweet Temptation brioche sandwich with banana and Nutella.

Then, because it opened at 10am, I began at the: 

● Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - I initially jumped on a highlights tour, but a fire alarm interrupted it as the building was evacuated. I would return afterward, and pretty thoroughly explore the MFA's wonderful multidisciplinary holdings.

But during the forced exit, I went over to the: 

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum courtyard

● Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - The private collection of its namesake, still organized to her exacting specifications nearly a century years after her death. Despite missing some masterpieces due to a 1990 theft, it is a very impressive collection housed in a mansion designed to resemble a Venetian palazzo. Highlights include a couple of paintings by Raphael, a Botticelli (and another by his followers), a terrific Rembrandt and many beautiful tapestries.

Before an evening concert, I stopped at:

● Legal Harborside - A waterside outpost of Legal Sea Foods. Having had a lobster roll the night before, I opted for a Swordfish Gyros Sandwich, which was good. The restaurant is right next to the big white tent of the...

● Blue Hills Bank Pavilion at which I saw Ann Wilson / Jeff Beck / Paul Rodgers on their Stars Align Tour - Two great rock and roll singers--Wilson of Heart and Rodgers of both Free & Bad Company--along with one of the best guitarists ever. Although it may have been cool to see them play together, they each performed their own set with a backing band. Rather than run through Heart's greatest hits--playing only "Barracuda"--Wilson sang a selection of choice cover songs, some representing rock's recently-passed legends. Beck mixed instrumentals with some sung by Jimmy Hall. Rodgers stuck to his best-known songs from Free and Bad Company and remains a terrific vocalist. Overall I give the show @@@@ (out of 5), with Rodgers being the most enjoyable.

Saturday

John Harvard by Daniel Chester French, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

The forecast again called for a full day of rain, even thunderstorms, but they hadn't quite started when I got to:

● Harvard Square (in Cambridge) - I arrived right at 10am and knew there were free student-led tours of Harvard Yard on the hour, so I jumped on the first one I saw, which I subsequently learned to be a...

● "Hahvahd" Tour - ...which should have cost me $12. So I apologize and give them a plug here. The guy giving the tour did a nice job, but as the rain started to get harder, I repeatedly wandered off and eventually ditched my bootleg tour to enter the...

● Harvard Art Museums - The Fogg, Sackler and Busch-Reisinger Museums are now housed in the same building, with nicely diverse collections but still considerably more compact than the MFA. They have a wondrous Blue Period Picasso, a great Van Gogh portrait and some terrific works by Max Beckmann.

On the advice of a friend who is a Harvard Alum, I sought out:

● Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage - A Harvard/Cambridge institution since 1960, they have a bunch of big burgers (with various toppings) named for Tom Brady, Liz Warren, Kim Jong-Un, Melania Trump and more. I devised by own, with Muenster cheese, grilled red peppers and grilled onions, accompanied by sweet pepper fries and a fresh Raspberry Lime Rickey.

With hopes that my doctor isn't reading this, I followed that up with a visit to the Cambridge location--I'm told the more famous original is in the North End--of:

● Mike's Pastries - They're famed for their cannoli, and I can report for good reason.

Before getting back to Boston proper, I rode to the Kendall/MIT T stop in Cambridge and took a stroll to and into the:

● Stata Center, a collection of adjoining buildings designed by Frank Gehry, in his typical unique fashion.

I had been advised that MIT has a great collection of outdoor sculpture, but it was continuing to rain and I was ready for a respite, so I made my way back to my hotel for a brief nap, before heading to the:

● Emerson Colonial Theatre to see Moulin Rouge!: The Musical - The newly refurbished theater--the oldest continuously operating in Boston--is absolutely gorgeous. And in a pre-Broadway World Premiere run, I thought Moulin Rouge! was phenomenal. See my review here.

Tail of a whale

Sunday

● Long Wharf

● Whale Watching Cruise - On Thursday morning I had bought a ticket for a 9:00am Sunday Whale Watch tour, operated by Boston Harbor Cruises in conjunction with the New England Aquarium. Fortunately, the weather cooperated beautifully.

The cruise cost $53 and across nearly 4 hours into the Atlantic Ocean and back to Long Wharf, we saw only 2 whales, who for the most part were sleeping.

Boston Light

Still, even just the boat ride was worth it, just a glimpse of the whales was a thrill and I was able to take some great photos, including of Boston Light, the first lighthouse to be built in the United States (before it was the United States). 

● Paul Revere Statue - in the North End, on the Paul Revere Mall

● St. Stephen's Catholic Church (exterior) - built in 1804 

● Old North Church - I took a brief tour, which didn't take me up to the famous "one if by land, two if by sea" lanterns in the steeple (they don't remain), but taught me about the belfry and showed me some graves in the crypt underneath.

Old North Church

● Paul Revere House - I went on a self-guided tour. It was just OK, with some exhibits in the

adjoining visitors center pointing out that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famed poem, "Paul Revere's Ride" probably wasn't factual.

● Hard Rock Cafe Boston - just for a quick peek

● Faneuil Hall (exterior)

● Faneuil Hall Marketplace / Quincy Market

● Durgin-Park Restaurant - Within Quincy Market, it dates back to 1742, and since 1827 under the same name. I had a Crab Cake BLT, which was tasty.

● Kilvert & Forbes Bakeshop - Also in the market; I secured a fine macaroon.

● Old State House (pictured at top of blog post) - I took a self-guided tour and listened to a couple on lectures, on about the Boston Massacre and another about the 1713 building itself.

● T to the hotel, a Lyft to the airport and a flight to Chicago

And a few more photos...

All photos by Seth Arkin, copyright 2018. Please do not republish without permission and attribution.

Ticket to Ride Brings OverArching Enjoyment: Recapping a Rockin' Weekend in St. Louis -- Travelogue

An aspect of my life that makes me proud and happy is having had the opportunity to travel a good deal--to great places.

To illustrate this quickly, I would probably cite destinations like London, Paris, Vienna, Venice, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, numerous other European cities, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Australia, San Francisco, New Orleans, some great national parks and several trips to New York.

But though the locales may sound far less glamorous, my existence has also been considerably enriched by 50+ aggregate visits to cities within a 6-hour driving radius of my home near Chicago:

Indianapolis, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Columbus (OH and IN), Cincinnati, Dayton, Green Bay, Toledo, Canton, Louisville, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Springfield (IL), Madison, Des Moines, the Quad Cities, Dubuque, Galena, Hannibal (MO) and Champaign/Urbana (where my best friend has long lived).

(This doesn't include more than 50 trips to Milwaukee alone, which unlike the above doesn't typically include an overnight stay.)

And if I can exude a bit of self-esteem, one of my favorite things about myself is that I can find as much fun and fulfillment in a mid-sized Midwestern city as I can in European capitals.

Such was the case, again, on a quick weekend trip to St. Louis.

In a couple key ways, this excursion was a bit different than most prior:

1) Instead of driving, I went by train and 2) I was accompanied by a friend, Paolo, rather than traveling solo.

But it also hewed to many regional treks in that it involved a rock concert, baseball stadium, art museum, history museum, local monument, appreciation of architecture and good food with a local flavor.

The impetus for this trip was a concert by the legendary Paul McCartney at Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. In my previous post, I reviewed the show, which was phenomenal.

This was my 7th time in St. Louis in the past 20 years (most recently in 2011) so some of the other things we did--and didn't--over roughly 25 hours in the city, I had done previously.

Still, starting with the decision to travel by train, pretty much everything about the trip was acutely enjoyable.

Although I have taken several long-distance trains in Europe, I only recall going from New York to Boston in 2000 as involving a U.S. train ride of more than an hour or so.

But with the concert on Saturday night, there was no reason for me to take an unpaid day off work on Friday or Monday, and driving roughly 5 hours in each direction on consecutive days didn't hold much appeal.

I suppose I could have explored flying or taking a Greyhound or MegaBus, the latter of which I used to go to & fro St. Louis in 2011 around a Foo Fighters concert, but without explicitly comparing options or schedules, Amtrak just seemed like a good idea. This was probably exacerbated by sentimentality for the Beatles' movie A Hard Day's Night, which largely involves the lads on a train trip and whose title song Sir Paul has been opening with on this tour.

It was interesting and enlightening for me simply to wait for the train after getting a ride down to
Union Station and discovering that the old, classical structure is now really just an empty husk with some out-of-the-way benches; the train tracks and passenger lounges now being under a building on the east side of Canal.

We were taking the 303 Lincoln Service, which stops in Joliet, Pontiac, Normal, Springfield and a few other locations along the way to St. Louis, so in the waiting area--along with three pigeons that kept flying around inside; I imagined eating a donut and getting Tippi Hedrened--included a mix of students, farmers, Amish folks and Cardinals fans (the Cards played the Cubs at Wrigley Thursday-Sunday).

I learned that having reserved seats on the train didn't mean assigned seats, but there was enough room in the Coach cars for Paolo and I to each have our own pair of seats in front of one another.

Over the roughly 5-1/2 hour ride, I mostly dozed and fiddled around on my phone, while Paolo engaged in a long conversation with a man across the aisle from him, who was a farmer formerly in the Black Ops. He wasn't from St. Louis itself, but corroborated a BBQ tip Paolo had received from a friend, which we followed.

Lincoln, IL

There weren't many amazing sights to see along the way, but I enjoyed noticing the quaint downtown of a city named Lincoln, going right past the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, catching glimpses of old Route 66 alongside much of the train route and seeing the Gateway Arch in the distance as we came upon and across the Mississippi River.

In downtown St. Louis is an old Union Station that I knew had become a popular shopping mall years ago, but I figured trains still arrived there (or essentially there) and had booked a nearby hotel called the Pear Tree Inn by Drury through Booking.com.

Turns out our train came into the Gateway Transportation Center about 4 blocks away, which wasn't a big deal as we'd packed light for an overnight trip, but caused a bit of initial directional confusion.

After checking in, we walked about 15 minutes west to the recommended barbecue joint, Pappy's Smokehouse, where we both got a half-slab of ribs with a side portion of brisket, a fried ear of corn and sweet potato fries for me and potato salad for Paolo.

With a quartet of BBQ sauces on the table to try, we both found the ribs to be fantastic, loved the corn and potatoes but found the brisket (sliced not chopped) to be somewhat dull. Burnt Ends probably would've been better than the sliced brisket, but was sold out for the day when we got there around 4pm.

I also enjoyed two bottles of locally made Fitz pop, in cream soda and black cherry flavors.

We took an Uber to the main riverfront area of downtown, and as with four other St. Louis Uber drivers utilized, we enjoyed chatting with the guy behind the wheel. It's always fun to gain the perspective of locals, from how Cardinals fans feel now that the Cubs are dominant, to whether or not St. Louis denizens consider themselves part of the South, and the Uber rides were consistently enlightening.

Downtown we saw (externally only in both cases) the beautifully domed Old Courthouse dating to 1828 and the Wainwright Building, designed by Louis Sullivan with his trademark resplendent terra cotta adornments.

With the McCartney concert ticketed for 8:00pm, on the train down I had purchased a pair of Gateway Arch "Journey to the Top" tram passes for 5:50pm. I had ridden to the top of the Arch previously, and knew it wasn't that brilliant an experience, but Paolo never had and I felt it something he should do at least once.

With much of the tourist area of St. Louis a construction zone--including major renovations at Union Station and a downtown plaza completely torn up--the Museum of Westward Expansion under the arch is also undergoing a wholesale re-creation. I don't know when it will reopen, but it looks like it will be awhile.

So all of the beautiful riverside grassland that surrounds the Gateway Arch as part of National Park Service's Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is currently obliterated, making for getting to the arch more cumbersome than normal.

But in arriving by 5:30pm given airport-like security procedures, buying tickets in advance was proven wise as we sped past many waiting patrons.

Until we didn't.

Having gotten in line based on a signboard telling us to do so, we were barked at by an Arch associate that only those with tickets for 5:10 tours should be in line, as they were running behind due to too many people being clustered at the top of the arch.

With no ready waiting area, benches or indication about when we should check back, the yelling lady was really pissing me off.

We were able to get into the free movie about the building of the arch halfway through--the feats of architect/engineer Eero Saarinen and dozens of planners & workers was really rather amazing--and got back in line around 6:10, still officially too early but thanks to a cool employee who listened to our rationale about having to get to the concert

We were able to move to a subsequent queue for the tram about 6:30, and finally got on one--in a tiny, claustrophobic compartment--about 20 minutes later.

Once atop of the arch, we took photos for about 10 minutes through long rectangular windows, and then had to wait to come back down.

So even with a timed ticket, we wound up spending about 2 hours at the Gateway Arch for only 20
minutes of being inside it, including the rides up & down. Especially given the annoying yelling lady--who would have delayed us even 20 minutes longer than her kinder colleague--it was much more stressful than it needed to be, and though a St. Louis staple and gloriously beautiful structure, it wasn't really worth the hassle.

Though it was only a 15-minute walk to Busch Stadium, it was about 7:50pm before we got in and to our seats in Section 447. An A/V presentation including recorded versions of Beatles songs by other artists started by 8:00, but Sir Paul and his band didn't take the stage until 8:27pm.

The next 2 hours and 40 minutes or so was pretty damn phenomenal, and you can read my review of the show here.

We walked about a mile back to our hotel afterwards, but stopped at an open-late restaurant we happened to pass called Maurizio's Pizza & Sports Bar.

Paolo got Chicken Wings and declared them among the best he's ever had, while I ordered Toasted Ravioli, vaguely recalling that it had first been created in St. Louis. (This was later corroborated.)

I found my room at the Pear Tree Inn to be perfectly comfortable--Paolo was in the room next door but I presume he felt likewise--and have written a brief review for Booking.com.

In the morning he utilized the Fitness Center and me a whirlpool, before we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast together.

Though a bit disappointed there was no bacon, I was delighted to find DIY Belgium wafflemakers, and we both felt it quite classy for the hotel's GM to stop and chat with all the guests at breakfast.

Max Beckmann, Acrobats, 1939.

Outside, we encountered something I have almost never experienced on vacation going back 16+ years: Rain.

But it's not that I've never seen rain while traveling, just that for as long as I can remember it hasn't
ever interfered with my plans for a given day. And this held true in St. Louis. On Saturday when I was going to an outdoor concert, it didn't rain; on Sunday when we were planning to be inside museums much of the day, there were some showers that didn't affect us much.

Within the vast Forest Park, which also contains the Saint Louis Zoo, the outdoor MUNY theater and a golf course, we went to the St. Louis Art Museum and the Missouri History Museum, both excellent and free of charge.

Jean-Leon Gerome, The Sentinel at the Sultan's Tomb

Even in both being thoroughly acquainted with the wonderful Art Institute of Chicago, and having visited dozens of other acclaimed art museums, we found the SLAM collection to be world-class.

Particularly striking was a roomful of paintings by German expressionist Max Beckmann--SLAM is said to have more of his works than any other museum--and four stupendous Van Goghs hanging next to each other (and another nearby).

There was also great stuff by Picasso, Chagall, de Chirico, Modigliani, Renoir, Degas, El Greco, Rodin, Chuck Close and many others, as well as excellent Chinese and Egyptian holdings.

I also found myself wonderfully bemused by a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (shown nearby) in which a decorative chest reminded me of the Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Building that we'd seen the day before.

The rain precluded us from walking across the park to the Missouri History Museum, but an interpark
trolley took us there for a $2 fare.

I knew from their website that special exhibitions currently include ones on Little Black Dresses and Route 66, both proving enjoyable to peruse.

We also walked through the permanent collections covering the history of St. Louis, and a gallery pertaining to the World's Fair held in Forest Park in 1904 (incredibly, the Olympics were also held there concurrently).

There was also a replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis plane--plus a newspaper gallery commemorating his famed transatlantic flight--and a large statue of Thomas Jefferson, tying to his facilitating the Louisiana Purchase that brought the U.S. acquisition of Missouri.

A particularly engaging Uber driver enlivened the ride to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, a local institution several people had pointed us to. I ordered a "Concrete" with caramel, pineapple and pralines, which was great but not so much more so than similar concoctions I had elsewhere. Paolo didn't quite get the concept of "mix-ins" and wound up simply with chocolate custard.

Still needing an actual lunch-type meal--around 3:30 at that point--we were going to check out an Irish pub called Maggie O'Brien's near Union Station, but logistically deferred to eating at Syberg's in our hotel, where we had returned to retrieve our held bags.

After a Reuben for Paolo and fish 'n chips for me, we Ubered back to the Gateway Transportation Center, caught a 5:30 Amtrak back to Chicago's Union Station and Ubered our respective ways home.

We didn't get to the Budweiser Tour, but both have done so previously, and were told by multiple Uber drivers to check out the City Museum, an outdoor playground at which architectural remnants are supposedly gathered for kids of all ages to climb upon. The Missouri Botanical Garden was also cited, but I've visited it before.

Someday I'd like to check out the ornate interior of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, and though
I've been to largely Italian community known as The Hill and seen the houses where Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola lived across the street as boys, given that both have passed within the past year, I wouldn't have minded another pilgrimage. (I remain unclear on the ability to call Uber audibles.)

But for the most part, it was a weekend rather perfectly spent: riding the rails, savoring food, history, culture, architecture, a few minutes in the Arch and a Beatle, in the company of a good friend.

Though it was just a quick weekend visit, I feel it was a pretty satisfying (re)exploration of St. Louis.

Still, I imagine at some point I may even "Get Back."