One Autumn Day in Boston

My husband, son, and I have just returned from a really quick trip to Boston. When I say quick, I mean 2 flight days and one day to visit. We flew in on Thursday night just in time for K to meet us at the airport, get our rental car, and drive to the original Cheers on Beacon Hill across from the Boston Commons for dinner. Believe it or not, we go there for the food; even though we admit that the first time we went was to say we had been to the tourist attraction. K likes their spicy chili; D likes their clam chowder, nachos and fish-n-chips. The waiter was astonished when D ate all that by himself! :) Cheers, originally named the Bull and Finch Pub prior to the 1982 debut of the TV sitcom, has a great chicken sandwich that M and I always share with lobster artichoke dip for an appetizer; where else can you get a lobster artichoke dip but in New England? Yum! Side note: Sometimes I tease that I am going to write a blog entry on all the different artichoke dips we have tried during our travels. Let me just write that my all-time favorite artichoke dip was in Vancouver: a Crab Artichoke dip! But M reported that last time he was there (for the 2010 Winter Olympics), the crab dip was no longer on the menu.

Anyhow, artichoke dip aside what I like about Cheers is the coziness of this basement pub that doesn't look at all like the set. Which on this last visit made me wonder: What happens when people don't remember Cheers anymore? You know… the TV sitcom from the 1980's? I don't think my children have ever watched an episode; and if they did, I don't think they would find it very funny... and the more I think about it I am not so sure my daughter would even enjoy the romance between Sam and Diane. Will there come a day where the television show, Cheers, will be forgotten and the pub goes back to just being a good neighborhood pub?

You have to go upstairs to see the set bar and there was one trip in the spring where we sat in the "set" area with K. Our memory from that night is that we sat next to six girls who had just arrived from England. They still had their suitcases with them after jumping on the T from the airport and finding Cheers. They asked M to take their picture that night and told us that they had been sitting there for 5 hours laughing from a combination of sleep deprivation and good ale.

On Friday we woke to rain, an early October Nor'easter that we knew was arriving while we slept. I journey out for coffee with my long-time best friend of 33 years, T, while the "boys" slept in and K attended classes. In the afternoon, M, D, and I parked the car at the Alewife station which is on the north end of Boston and took the T in to the Aquarium which is along the Boston waterfront. While waiting for K to join us, we took a brief walk to Faneuil Hall; and then back to the seals that live outside of the aquarium in a glass tank. Our visit to the New England Aquarium was a first for our family and we found ourselves trying to remember the highlights of other aquariums we have visited: Denver's Downtown Aquarium, Monterey Bay Aquarium in northern California, National Aquarium in Inner Harbor, Baltimore, and Seattle's Aquarium. For now, let me just say that we spent a lot of time watching the 80 personable. I also personally enjoyed the leafy dragons, the jelly fish, and Myrtle, the 600 lb turtle, who is 70 years old!

After the Aquarium visit, we ate an early seafood dinner (having skipped lunch then took a windy walk to our favorite Italian after-dinner caffe in the North End: Caffe Paradiso where we talked more about K's year and common interests. For example, K has had an interest in the history of England since she was in middle school so she is watching the same cable channel series that M and I are watching. It was so much fun to discuss the historical facts with K that have been changed for the dramatic benefit of the show.

We also talked about other trips to Boston. Six years ago we visited during a Nor'easter where it poured rain for most of our three-day visit. Yet it was on that rainy trip that K just grinned and talked about how she just might like to attend college in New England. As she said to a Michigan couple who spoke to us on Friday, she came to New England "because it was different than Colorado." After a couple of hours we felt like we should walk on from the caffé, but we still wanted to spend a little more time together before calling it a night. I knew that when we returned to the T, the trip was essentially over so we wanted to extend the evening as much as possible.

On the way back to the Government Center T station, the rain picked up so we walked to The Bell In Hand Tavern; another favorite place where we could wait out the rain for awhile while we stretched out the evening's conversation with K. The oldest section of the tavern is a triangle-shaped with three walls of windows. Our kids are allowed in this "restaurant" section and it is the best place for people-watching. On more than one occasion when M & I are in the area and decide to take a break from walking, we sit at the prime location table for two at the tip or point of the tavern where the two walls of windows meet. From there, we took the T and had to say good-bye to K as she rode a different T line back to her dorm. By the time she awoke on Saturday morning, we were at the airport waiting to get back home.