boston: good times, tired feet, & full bellies (day 2)

We ate really well in Boston. Really, really well. Saturday morning we decided to stop by the North End (Little Italy) and go to the highly-recommended Mike’s Pastry shop. We didn’t realize, however, that pastry=dessert. Since we weren’t in the mood for breakfast brownies, we decided to go take advantage of a little Italian market around the corner and have a European-style meal instead.

Oh my goodness, it was divine. Fresh bread, a hunk of asiago fresco, and salami. It made me want to hop a plane back to Italy. You can’t tell from this picture but this was a massive amount of food(that baguette was probably 2 feet long). Don’t worry- we basically ate it all.

We stopped by the amazingly abundant Haymarket and picked up fresh fruit for later. I was so jealous of the residents that have this available every few days. A pint of blueberries or blackberries or raspberries were each only ONE dollar! Oh, the joy.

Fat and happy, we were ready for the Freedom Trail, with a lot of help from the map… can anyone spot the tourist??

There is something intriguing and beautiful about old cemeteries.

This was especially precious and heartbreaking to me. The inscription had long since worn off, but I couldn’t help but imagine a little baby buried close to his mommy.

Get this- this church (whose name I have forgotten) had only these boxes for pews. From what I could gather, they were designed as family pews both for warmth and so that the parents could face the pastor and keep an eye on the kiddos at the same time. Ha ha ha… genius.

There is such a rich history in Boston. This is one of the original town halls outside of which the Boston Massacre took place. Not only that, but the Declaration of Independence was first read to the Bostonians from this balcony.

Carla and Norm would clearly be a part of that rich history as well. :)

Being the small town folk that we are, we had no idea the number of street acts we would see. Even more surprising- how much dang cash they bring in! This guy was Curtis’ favorite, mainly because he stood on a balance board the whole time. He must have had several hundred people watching. Even if everyone only gave a dollar…

Posing at the end of a long day on the Freedom Trail. Note the flimsiness and flatness of the shoes: worst mistake ever.

Did I mention this was sort of an anniversary trip? 5 years. Crazy.

The trail ended with us back in the North End, so we found a little Italian restaurant to rest our weary feet. This bruschetta was by far the best I’ve ever tasted. I only wish I had asked for the recipe.

Curtis is showing us his “full” face. On our plates is what was left AFTER we had eaten our fill. (p.s. we split one entree. MASSIVE portions.)

Isn’t it amazing how you can honestly not eat a single morsel more of your dinner and yet somehow have room for ice cream? Or, should I say gelato?

Or maybe that’s just us.

Please try not to judge when I tell you that we then went back to Mike’s Pastry (we were right around the corner!!). It was for later. Much later. I promise. As you can see, we weren’t the only ones to hear about this place. It was crazy busy.

The selection was extensive. Because of the crowds, though, we literally could only even see a few cases. What we saw, however, was beautiful. Cheesecake, brownies, “lobster tails”, and canoli out the wazoo.

It’s such a unique place! After your goodies are put in this cute box, they pull string from overhead and wrap it up.

And voila! Isn’t it precious?!

It was still pretty early, so we stopped by MIT on the way back to our hotel. For the most part, it was pretty much what you would expect- plain, boring buildings. Then we saw this. What the heck??

While at MIT, Curtis decided that maybe he had missed his calling. Here he is, mourning the loss of the math nerd he could have been. I told him that if he had gone to school there he wouldn’t have met me. Apparently, this did not make it all better.

Day 3 to come! I promise that all of my posts will not be this long. Curtis saw the 1st Boston post and I think he was a little uncomfortable with how lengthy it was. Oops!