Bahston: The Sights

Answer: Boston, MassiveTwoTits.

1) heading over to Billy Bishop Island Airport in Toronto; 2) Cousin Richard relaxes in the Porter Lounge

We were in Boston as part of the Cousin Club tour ’10 and our ongoing adventure to seek out fun, food and frolicking. Joining us on this outing were honourary cousins Tennis Star Suzie and Brian. Cousin regulars Blee, myself, G and Cousin Richard flew down together with Porter though, sadly, regular Cousin Ora remained in Ottawa. We missed you Cousin Ora!

We’ll split this travelogue into The Sights and more importantly, The Food.

So, to the sights …

We stayed initially at the Hyatt Regency Boston before moving over to W Boston. At the Hyatt we ended up in a room with – get this – a Murphy bed?! Jesus Murphy, can you imagine!

3) creepy Murphy bed, we’ve emailed the Hyatt GM to advise never again thanks; 4) G inspects

While the Hyatt looks great on the outside the inside is in dire need of some updating as it remains stuck in a 1980 design morass that is horrific, at best. As the Regency has no club lounge, complimentary buffet breakfast was included in our stay at Avenue One. The restaurant has been redone and is ‘hip’. Now, if they could only do the rest of the hotel. This hotel is noted for the Atriums that grace every 3 floors.

5) the very strange atrium on our floor; 6) the view from the Hyatt at night

I last visited Boston in – oh, 198-something (Papa please advise) and the then “Combat Zone’ has morphed into a great district … you can now walk Chinatown safely at night.

Friday night we found ourselves at the Museum of Fine Arts, which is also worth a visit as it has not only an excellent collection of (sigh) French Impressionists but a superb collection of Asian art. I was particularly struck by the woodblock prints from 17th and 18th century Japan … you can see in these 300 year old prints the Japanese fascination to this day with anime.

7) G and Blee head into the MFA; 8) people ponder 17th century art (me wonders why?!)

9) G and Blee go up; 10) a free lunch to the xangan who can guess who this is by

11) the walkway over the cafe; 12) Blee’s excited eh

13) poor lad caught in a cocoon over the cafe; 14) what’s behind door number 2?

14) can you imagine sleeping on this ‘pillow’?; 15) Cousin Richard and Blee admire the asian gallery

16) I love this zen shot; 17) Blee gives her best PPA pose (google it if you’ve no idea what I’m referring to)

18) at the entrance; 19) heading down to the subway

20) tromphe l’oeuil: book anyone?; 21) G in the Common

22) the view from our room at Hyatt during the day; 23) the famous swan boats at the Public Gardens

24) me doing tai chi? … not; 25) roaming Beacon Hill area

16) more Beacon Hill; 17) Copley Square and the poor Trinity Church that is sinking thanks to I.M. Pei’s building to the right

ANYhow, we did a bicycling tour with the Urban Adventours group. They did a great job and we spend 3 hours spinning our way around the city in the capable hands of our tour leader, Cole. This is a super group of hardcore cyclists that do double duty as cycling guides on the side and I’d highly recommend them. Cycling a city is such a great way to get to know it!

18) the MassiveTwoTits State Legislative Building; 19) getting ready to roll

20 & 21) at Fenway!

23) creepy Christian Science Plaza (aside: fundamental Christians are the greatest threat to America going) with the 2nd larges reflecting pool after Washington; 24) the Prudential Center Buildings

25) Ben Franklin’s birthplace; 26) Boston Public Library

27) out on the harbour; 28) look! … cute buoys

29) Tennis Star Suzie waits to get picked up; 30) more of the harbour

We moved across to W Boston on Saturday and while W continues to be an ‘our style’ stay, come on, let’s face it their staff are not hired for their intelligence or commitment to service but solely for their looks. They are pretty looking things but when you have to pester umpteen times about the Plat amenity before it actually arrives, there really is something wrong. This W is very new and is built in the all-the-rage hotel-residence model where the first 15 floors are hotel and the remainder are overly priced condos sold on the W brand. Unfortunately, the residences are not moving the the company that drove the plan has gone belly up. Such is the state of the market in America.

31) our Marvelous Suite at W Boston; 32) Blee and Cousin Richard explore

33) the bathroom; 34) looking out through the scrim to the main room

35) Institute of Contemporary Art – great building; 36) looking back over to the Customs House Tower from North End Park

37 & 38) Faneuil Hall area with G and Blee right in the middle of it all

39) street performer at Faneuil Hall; 40) Paul Revere’s house circa 1640

41) street party night in Little Italy; 42) more views from W

43) Cousin Richard; 44) moi

45 & 46) how’s that for a creepy welcome to Boston!

47) lovely little welcome to us from the W crew complete with purple marshmallows; 48) the entrance to W Boston

49) hanging out in the W Lounge which has one of the best cocktail menus anywhere – try the Ginger Margarita; 50) the foodies glued to Food TV in the room

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51) Cousin Richard being ‘fierce’; 52) W gave us complimentary ‘sip’ cards for the Lounge which we used to down … champagne but of course!

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53) not the Extreme Wow Suite but still damn fine

54) hanging out in Little Italy; 55) we had reservations at Strega at 9pm but as 10:10pm rolled round we bailed … sure, Justin Timberlake and Paris Hilton eat here but, sorry, ain’t that good to wait any longer

56) Mike’s Pastry pandemonium! This place is an institution in Little Italy that has long lines all day; everyday; 57) we got a box of cannoli samplers

58) Holy cannoli! … OMG yummy; 59) Monday we visited Harvard … scene of G’s favourite movie “Legally Blond”, home of the “bend and snap” and fond memories for me when I dug with Harvard in Israel

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bend & snap done right!

60) Where’s Elle Woods, we wondered?; 61) rubbing John Harvard’s toe for luck

62) visiting Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Arts built by the one and only Le Corbusier; 63) is this him?

64) a Henry Moore in the Harvard Yard; 65) on to Massive Two Tits Institute of Technology to see Canada’s own architect, Frank Gehry’s iconic – if leaky – Stata Center