Dig in, dig around, walk too much, stuff my face, & party on… pretty much my goals when exploring any city for the first time.

Boston in the winter was no exception.

Follow me around this northeastern coast town full of smarties (hey, they’ve got Harvard) while I eat tons of vegan food, sympathize with a robot, and rock out to some of the most incredible guitar playing I’ve ever heard (replete with too much whiskey of course).

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After we settled into our Airbnb (i.e. finding it and throwing our bags inside – what’s a room for when traveling but the chance for a quick shower and a place to sleep?) we wandered out into the city.

A brewery nearby? Lovely!

We stopped into CBC (Cambridge Brewing Company) on our way to dinner and shared some beers.  Our favorites? The Fog that Surrounds Hazy Double IPA & the Cinnamon Babka Stout. (mmm)

 

 

Then it was onward to dinner.

 

 

Life Alive Urban Oasis and Organic Cafe in Cambridge was BUZZING.

We became one of those (sorry to say, but annoying) tourists who fight over who’s going to pay for the meal.

After we both tried to shove cash and cards in the cashier’s face, he politely informed us we could swipe with the card reader ourselves, right in front of us.

It was so busy it was hard to find an open table to seat ourselves.

Once we did it was right on a chaotic corner where workers were packing up to-go orders and kitchen staff marched back and forth with huge pots and pans (“HOT quinoa!”).

Because of the vibrancy of activity all around us, I hate to say it created an atmosphere (or at least in our minds as we let ourselves get caught up in the frenzy) where we immediately felt rushed up into this stream of fast fast fast, eat eat eat!!

And we were so starving that we scarfed up our first entrée to be delivered (a Tofu Peanut Satay Wrap – with cucumber, pickled carrots, radishes, greens, with sesame ginger vinaigrette, spicy peanut sauce & sprouted seeds) before I even realized “oh shit! I didn’t take a picture!” (note: it was delicious:)

This was our second entrée – “The Innocent” grain bowl–with shredded carrots, corn, broccoli, & tamari almonds over quinoa & brown rice with flax oil, kelp, & nutritional yeast flakes. (yummmm!)

 

 

Next: co-op (natural foods store) visit for a local beer–nightcap I guess you could call it–and snack for the morning, then back to our Airbnb room.

The next day for was WALKING.  I wanted to see it ALL.  On foot.  As much as possible.  Starting with crossing Longfellow Bridge into the downtown.

 

 

The famed “salt and pepper shaker”-laden bridge afforded some nice views of the city.

 

 

And out into the city we ventured.

 

 

Unplanned, we found ourselves in Little Italy.

 

 

Oh and look! The Paul Revere house!

 

 

Near the Quincy Market – some beautiful shop windows decorated for Valentines’ Day.

 

 

Will someone please buy me this dress? ——>

 

 

Onward, onward, onward, walking, walking, walking.

 

 

At last it was time for LUNCH! (Breakfast had just been tea & coffee.)

We dined at By Chloe in Seaport.

We didn’t receive what we ordered, BUT we didn’t argue because I could actually eat anything on the menu (it was ALL vegan, woo!) and what we got was still really good.

The presentation wasn’t great for a photo, but this was how it came, so I call this picture “I dream of fries.” haha

 

 

Honestly, the fries weren’t the best (they definitely weren’t the worst either, but they were “air baked” and I love me some full fat, flavor-rich, FRIED fries…) but the “burgers” made up for that.

Oh and also there was a “beet ketchup” to dip the fries in, so that made it a little more interesting!

I preferred The Guac Burger (what we didn’t order but got) – (black bean-quinoa-sweet potato patty with corn salsa, onion, guacamole, tortilla strips, [added a nice fun crunch!], chipotle aioli on a whole grain bun) over the Whiskey BBQ (smoky portobello mushrooms + seitan, onion marmalade, grilled pineapple, sauteed kale, & bourbon BBQ on a potato bun) simply because I’m not a big fan of sweet – and that grilled pineapple, though yummy, added too much sweet (for me) on a sandwich than I was particularly comfortable with (haha).

Here’s the backside view (yeah, I deem fries as foreground! based on their presentation anyway) with a peek of the burgers.

 

 

After we’d eaten (and honestly I could’ve eaten both burgers myself!) it was back out onto the streets.

 

 

Here we caved and decided on taking the “T.”

Well – it was this: I wanted to go to Lo Presti Park (solely for the view) but it was not accessible by foot – it was over the water on the east side – so subway it was.

 

 

So we took the subway and walked to the park, and here was the view from the other side:

 

 

Since we had purchased a round trip subway ticket, we rode it back a bit farther than where we had embarked, to take us into Chinatown.

 

 

Time for a snack!

 

 

Some vegan spring rolls:

 

 

Next stop on our itinerary- the Boston Public Library.

We saw this old church on the way, beautifully juxtaposed with a modern shiny glass behemoth behind it.

 

 

The outside of the library was so pretty in the evening light.

 

 

I’m always one for knowing my surroundings, so before I “allowed” us to walk inside, I suggested a stroll around the periphery, just to see… what else we might see.

 

 

Once inside the Boston Public Library the big chandelier reminded me of a deep sea jellyfish (haha!)

 

 

Probably the most famous shot taken inside:

 

 

Indeed I felt bad about the loud click my big camera made in that speechless void. Hence just one picture and one picture alone I allowed myself – and luckily it came out clear!

Further up the stairs murals adorned the easter egg-esque stylized ceilings.

 

 

I’m not sure what was going on up there, but it looked Egyptian and it looked intense! haha

 

 

When we came out, the city was lighting itself up for the night.

As we walked along the sidewalk rows and rows of streetlights simultaneously ignited their glow and drowned with light the soft evening darkness that had started to settle– barely giving the steel & concrete a chance to feel the twilight glow against its tirelessly buzzing bones.

 

 

Time for a liquid libation.

$140 shot of tequila anyone?

 

 

Ah yes, get the alcohol in my veins and then remind me to pursue my fantasies… thank you universe! haha

 

 

In the darkness we walked over Massachusetts Bridge and about 868 joggers rushed us by, not in a giant horde but individually (not really, but ya know, enough for us to be like WHY are they SO many people out jogging at this hour?!?!)

We started to wonder why we weren’t jogging too.

And don’t worry, it only took about 10,000 tries to get ONE shot of the sparkling city SEMI-clear. (Ughhhh, why can’t it just be CLLEEARRR!!!?)

 

 

Next we headed towards -YOU GUESSED IT- food!

Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge to be exact.

We shared an appetizer of fried pickles.

YES! WHOLE pickles, breaded, FRIED, (AND vegan!). What a heaven haha.

 

 

For one of our entrées we chose the Kendall Square burger – well, I suppose more accurately *I* chose it – as I definitely wanted a “burger” but also wanted onion rings – so in lieu of ordering too many appetizers or sides, we got the burger that had onion rings ON it.

It also had roasted red pepper purée, roasted garlic vegan mayo, and baby arugula.

In the background there is their “Loaded Mac & Cheese” (the other entrée that we shared) that was smothered with their house-made vegan “cheese” sauce, mushrooms, caramelized onions, seitan, tomatoes, broccoli, & peas, with a side of field greens.

 

 

After breakfast we headed over to the MIT museum.

It was 10 degrees colder than the day before (about 30° F) so an indoor activity seemed in order to seek a little respite from the cold.

There we met Troody, the cutest little robotic dinosaur.

 

 

And Kismet:

 

 

At first I thought “eww, what a creepy, icky looking thing!”

But then I started to pay more attention.

I watched the little video playing where Kismet’s creator, Cynthia Breazeal, explained that she wanted to create a socially intelligent robot.

In one scene a lady says to Kismet (when it was still in operation), “you’re such a cute little robot!” in such a baby face– and Kismet’s clownish red lips curl up into a smile.

Another person asks the robot, “where’d you put your body?” and Kismet’s ears shrink down and the lips turn down in a frown.

Cynthia says she wanted to create a robot to not only understand language but to understand empathy, to be able to relate to people and form friendships.

However, it’s worth noting that Kismet is not a sentient (conscious) being.  It does not have true feelings. It possesses no soul behind its camera lens-ed eyes and mechanical mouth, yet it’s ability to tear at my heart strings made it even more fascinating.

Though just a dead thing now on display in a glass box I actually began to feel sorry for it being forever imprisoned there.

 

 

Programmed to be able to display basic emotions, here is Kismet:

SAD

 

 

HAPPY

 

 

DISGUSTED

 

 

FEARFUL

 

 

SURPRISED

 

 

CONTENT

 

 

Seriously now, isn’t that a CUTE robot?! haha

We were also memorized by the quirky & playful moving metal sculptures of Arthur Ganson.

On most of them you pushed a pedal with your foot and the whole sculpture took off in a chain reaction- kind of like the same principle behind the game Mouse Trap, haha, but with different end results of course.

This one was a little “Machine with Oil” who dipped its arm down in a pan of oil and brought it back up over its “head”– pouring the oil all over itself.

 

 

“If I was a machine, what would I love to do? Bathe myself in oil, of course.” the caption read

I could devote a whole blog post to these insanely fun & creative, interactive metal creations, but honestly the pictures I took don’t do them justice.  Instead, if you’re ever in the Cambridge area I highly recommend you go check them out : )

I had wanted to go to the MIT museum solely to see their extensive hologram collection – but unfortunately the day we were there it was closed for some exhibit changes.  But what our minds had been opened up to instead hadn’t been disappointing.

Our time immersing ourselves there had achieved what a visit to any good museum should- it had challenged some preconceived notions/norms and left us with some new perspectives.

 

 

Next we marched on in pursuit of a late lunch.

Some might have grumbled at all our walking, but I always find it the best way to get to know a city by exploring it so extensively on foot.

An accidental detour led us far off our course and we ended up having to backtrack quite a bit, so by the time we got to Clover Food Lab (their Cambridge location – the HUB as they call it, where they make their luscious pita bread) we were extra excited about indulging.

We shared the Chickpea Fritter Sandwich on fresh pita (their version of falafel, pictured) and the Sunchoke Mushroom Sandwich, with a hearty side of french fries with rosemary.  (DELICIOUS!)

 

 

Because I wanted to see the city from as many angles as possible during our short stay, it was time for a hike up to Prospect Hill.

Crossing a bridge over some train tracks offered us another view of downtown.

 

 

We passed some cool street art on the way.

 

 

Once at Prospect Hill, we were afforded some pretty views of the residential area we’d walked through to reach it.

 

 

Though I wanted to venture here for the views, it was also interesting to me that it is rumored that George Washington rose one of the very first American flags here in 1776.

 

 

And it’s weird to imagine that this now well-to-do neighborhood up on a hill was once the spot where troops camped during both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.  I wonder how much residual energy from those more traumatic times still seeps through the earth there!

 

 

The view of downtown wasn’t as clear as I had hoped, muffled as it was by the trees, BUT-

 

 

our walk there did lead us in the vicinity of another brewery we wanted to check out.

Next stop- Somerville Brewing Company.

We shared the Porter Square Porter (brewed with roasted cacao nibs- delicious!) and the Lobstah Killah Imperial Red Ale (also amazing).

 

 

And on to Lamplighter Brewing.

I had to order “Werewolves of Cambridge” (a stout) because of the name, and John got an IPA.

 

 

And now’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! haha probably not -but it was the perfect end to our Boston rendezvous.

We had just seen John 5 & The Creatures in Asheville a week earlier. (And I’d only ever heard of them about a week before that.)

Them playing in Cambridge the same time we were there was a fun coincidence we took advantage of.

Waiting for the show to start I snapped a pic of this artwork on the club’s wall that I wouldn’t have minded hanging on MY wall.

 

 

And here’s John 5 during the show- taking a cue from Jimmy Page here?

 

 

Nevertheless, some guitar playing & general musical artistry that will blow. your. mind.  Officially in love!

The next morning we didn’t have time for much but walk the half hour it was to another eatery I wanted to check out before we had to head to the airport.

On the way, we walked through the neighborhood I had never imagined, i.e., how I might have always imagined a Boston neighborhood to be like – but NOT, because of that modern steel residence thrown in the middle there.

 

 

I’m always drawn by the old and new clashing so victoriously.

Once at eatery (VO2 Vegan Cafe) I idiotically asked if vegan-specific items on the menu were marked.  They kindly reminded me I was at an all vegan cafe, haha.

Clearly that was the reason I had come (the fact that it was a 100% vegan establishment), and clearly I had in fact consumed too much whiskey the night before : )

We ordered 2 sandwiches to-go – something to look forward to munching on at the airport before we had to board our plane.

(Funny enough – those sandwiches stuffed in John’s bag caused us to get caught up in security – his was one of the bags they took aside to further investigate…ya know, vegan sandwiches are mighty suspicious looking!

But after they quickly realized upon closer inspection that all that was in the paper bag was food, they let us go.

[Funny how I still somehow felt semi-nervous as they were going through our belongings, even though I knew there wasn’t anything in there incriminating they could find – kind of like when you’re driving and a cop is behind you, and you’re nervous even though you’re not speeding or doing anything illegal!])

Home free, we sat in front of a big window to enjoy our food before our plane arrived.  Little birds that had somehow been caught inside the airport chirped around us.

Here’s the Seitan Slam (their version of a Reuben with homemade BBQ seitan & coleslaw with Russian dressing on rye bread- panini style).

 

 

And the Cool Beans Veggie Burger (homemade veggie burger, tomato, spinach, house vegan “cheese,” & vegan mayo on ciabatta – also panini style).

 

 

And here’s a last departing pic from up in the air.

 

 

Goodbye Boston, it was nice.

You’re no longer just a hazy unknown in my mind – now I’ve felt you, touched you, tasted you– and now whenever anyone mentions your name I can think, “ah, yes, THAT town…”

 

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Leave a comment and tell me: Have you ever been to Boston? Where did you go and what did you see? What did you eat? Did you have fun?! I wanna hear all about it!

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