24 Hours in Boston (Part 1)

I'm interrupting my Italy posts to share about my weekend in Boston. As soon as I got back from Italy, my job took me to the suburbs outside of Boston. I called on my favorite New Englander, H, to show me around Beantown. H went to school in the city and was quite familiar so she was an excellent tour guide.

I will do my best to summarize our lovely day in the city. Of course, it was a trip with H in a town with a bike share so of course, we had to use bikes to make our way around the city.

We actually took the commuter train in (because it was convenient and then we wouldn't have to worry about parking) and got off at Back Bay. There was a bike share station conveniently located just outside so we hopped on and we were on our way.

MAPPARIUM

Our first stop was the Christian Science Center to visit the Mapparium.

The inside of the building is gorgeous.

The Mapparium is even more gorgeous.

But unfortunately, because it's copyrighted, no photos or videos are allowed inside.

It's insanely beautiful and definitely worth Googling if you can't visit. The spherical shape makes for insane acoustics and it's a lovely structure.

The bathroom at the Mary Baker Eddy library is quite beautiful too.

After the Mapparium, we hopped on our bikes and headed towards our second museum.

ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM

Next up, we visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, which was fabulous.

Ms. Gardner was a remarkable lady and an amazing art collector. Beyond the courtyard, we weren't allowed to take any photos, but you should Google the museum and the founder. This is the site of the world's most expensive art thievery, which is unfortunate but also kind of cool.

The bathrooms here were pretty awesome too. Both Mary Baker Eddy and Isabella Stewart Gardner are totally awesome at bathroom designing. (I know that they didn't personally design them; I'm just taking a stab at being humorous.)

Think much, speak little, write nothing.

ALIVE & KICKING LOBSTERS

After a museum-filled morning, our tummies were grumbling. We had plans to head over to Cambridge for the afternoon anyway, so we biked over and then did a little yelp search which led us to Alive & Kicking Lobsters.

There was a huge sign asking everyone to notify the staff of any allergies so I told the guy that I was allergic to peanuts and he dutifully listed it on the ticket.

H and I shared a cup of seafood chowder and steamers and then we each got a lobster sandwich. The chowder was creamy without being heavy, loaded with seafood and a few potato chunks, and it was incredibly flavorful.

The sandwich was sinfully simple. Just toasted sesame seed-sprinkled white bread that was liberally buttered and then stuffed with a generous amount of lobster meat.

The steamers were a little scary - they weren't like regular small clams and they had some weird appendage that creeped us out - but once they were dipped in clam juice and butter, they were really easy to eat. And luckily for us, there was a little sink and soap station so patrons could wash up before leaving.

HARVARD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

After lunch, we biked over to the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

H grabbed a map and then we followed it (at quite a quick pace) to the baby emus that had just hatched a day or two earlier.

They were incredibly fluffy and adorable! For the most part, they would all sleep but then one would jolt awake, try to walk around, end up stumbling over its siblings, at which point they would all wake up and stumble around. It was the cutest little dream cycle.

A video posted by ra¢h 💋 (@racheerachh) on Apr 25, 2015 at 12:56pm PDT

After the emus, we went and looked at some creepy stuffed animals. Like, real stuffed animals, not stuffed animals.

We also went and looked at the glass flower collection, which was beautiful. Seriously, these models were made with delicate glass and it was really gorgeous.

I didn't want this post to get too long so I'm splitting the rest of our day (and our delicious dinner) and saving it for a second entry. Please come back!

xoxo.