First time in Boston...

[mmartin4600]

Re: First time in Boston...

Have dinner at the Boston Beer Works, http://www.beerworks.net/#, on Canal Street. Order the steak tips, you will not be disappointed. Then walk down to State Street and have a couple pints at the Black Rose. They have a live Irish trio every night after 9:00 pm.

[Shockoe Hill Cats]

Re: First time in Boston...

Pat,

Faneuil Hall is great http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/, ride the "T", and Little Italy in Boston is one of the best areas to eat, if you have time.

Mr. Craddock,

I'm in agreement with Mr. Chapman and Mr. Wickett, Fanny Hall is the place to be. Plenty of food selection and just an overall cool place to be. Wandering around Bunker Hill and the old Charlestown ship yards area is always fun as well. Our relatives live in and around the area and have been for several decades: Irish-Catholics :tounge_sm . Have a nice trip!

Regards,

Jason

[Bushrod Carter]

Re: First time in Boston...

Have dinner at the Boston Beer Works, http://www.beerworks.net/#, on Canal Street. Order the steak tips, you will not be disappointed. Then walk down to State Street and have a couple pints at the Black Rose. They have a live Irish trio every night after 9:00 pm.

NOW we're talkin'!

Seriously, a big THANK YOU to everyone who has responded! I jusat wish I had more time to spend in Boston.

[Hargis, G. 5 A-1]

Re: First time in Boston...

We have always enjoyed our sojourns to Bean Town.
Being directionally challenged, however, I found the street names that seem to change at every intersection, a mite tricky.

* For example, I once lead 500 men a mile out of their way on a simple march back to camp. I called this "my 500 mile mistake" until they pointed out that it was double that distance, since everyone had to GO BACK.

[ScottCross]

Re: First time in Boston...

I'm going to Boston for a business trip this coming weekend (12th 15th), and having NEVER been to New England I'll ask the simple question: What do I need to see?

I will not have a lot of time, but will make time to be a tourist. So, with limited time and NO knowledge of the area, what is on the "must see" or "must do" short list?

Thanks.

Gee Pat,

Guess we won't see you at Flatwater if your going to be in Boston that weekend! Hope to see you in November. :wink_smil

Artemus Ward
Cooder Brown

[marine05]

Re: Translations for Non Bay Staters

Dear Patrick:

Perhaps a bit of translation would be in order for some of the suggestions you've gotten.

1. Fanuiel Hall is located downtown. It houses a meeting hall as well as "Quincy Market" which is an "open air enclosed street market" with lots of small restauarants and little shops. Lots of fun, plan to explore it by foot.

2. The Springfield Armory is quite amazing, but as mentioned, you want to go on a day when they have the tours. It is also a considerable distance from Boston (about 90 miles). As the AAA says "well worth a side trip" but you need to plan some time to get there.

3. Concord and Lexington -- also side trips, but closer to Boston. In addition to the Revolutionary history that you'll find in both places, Concord was also a hotbed of Radical Abolitionism and a major station on the Underground Railroad. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson and his daughter Louisa May Alcott all lived there. Most of their homes are now house museums that you can visit. Louisa May Alcott write "Little Women" and was a Civil War nurse in a Washington hospital for about six months before she got a very bad case of typhoid, and had to be brought home. She wrote up her adventures as a thinly fictionalized book entitled "Hospital Sketches," her first best-seller. The Alcott family often helped move escaped slaves and one summer in the 1850s were in the midst of dressing one for the next stage North when the local marshal and a couple of slave catchers showed up on their doorstep. They hid the escapee in the (hopefully cold) kitchen range. Thoreau was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. The famous Walden Pond is about a mile outside of Concord, and you can visit the site of Thoreau's cabin. If you won't be renting a car, you can get to Concord by suburban commuter train, and probably Lexington as well.

4. Plimouth Plantation -- As Pam mentioned, this is a private museum/open air village recreation of the 1635 town of Plymouth, Mass, complete with 3/4 scale ship of the Mayflower, and just outside it, in the woods, an Indian village. The interpreters who are Indians are often descendents of the Native Americans who were in Massachusetts when the Mayflower landed. The interpreters who depict the settlers are assigned a person to portray when they are hired, and then spend the next 6 months - year learning in language lab how to portray that person's accent, as well as the material culture, skills, crafts, etc. that person knew. It is a lot of fun to talk to them, because they stay in first person and have ooodles of knowledge, but most tourists are too intimidated to talk to them.

5. Duck Tours -- These are group tours of downtown Boston and the Bay conducted in World War II amphibious troop transports ("Ducks"). They just drive off the land and into the Charles River or the Harbor and the tour continues, then drive up on to the land.

6. Chowda -- This is Bostonese for "chowder" -- a cream based soup that can have any number of ingredients. The most famous is clam chowder, though there are also fish chowder, corn chowder, and some say oyster chowder (though others insist the proper term is "oyster stew" or "oyster soup"). Want to kick up a fuss? Ask three Bostonians how to make chowder. This is like asking four Southerners from different states how to make proper barbeque. That red-based stuff called "Manhattan clam chowder?" All true New Englanders view this as an upstart abomination and proof of the existance of Satan.

Some say the best is to be had at Durgin Park -- a restaurant with a branch in Quincy Market (see #1 above), others claim Legal Seafood (now nationwide franchise which originated in Boston), and there are many other contenders I'm sure.

7. If you like fish, you can get some of the freshest most wonderful seafood in Boston. I don't know if it's still there, but one of my favorite restaurants was located down on the docks, very close to the Children's Museum and was called the "No name" because it didn't have a sign. Lobster, fried clams, fried oysters, and terrific fish chowder.

8. The Freedom Trail is a walking tour which connects many of the most famous historic sites in Revolutionary era Boston. One end has the Old North Church (whose tower is where the lanterns were hung to signal the movements of the British -- "one if by land...two if by sea"). Also included in the tour are Paul Revere's home, the Old South Meeting House and the site of the Boston Massacre. Don't attempt this by car -- you'll want to get out at each place and the parking in Boston can be scarce and expensive. Not to mention the streets in that part of Boston which are notorious for always being one way going in the wrong direction from the one you want to go. As mentioned, a much better idea is the "T" which is above ground in some parts of Boston and below ground in others. I think the "T" stood for "trolley" way back when, but I could be wrong.

9. The Boston Accent -- This is a lot of fun to listen to -- I sometimes ask directions just to listen to it. Compounded of working class Irish accent (and some would say with influences from Italian and working class French Canadian), it is noted by the broad A (pronounced as "Ah" as when your doctor wants to see your tonsils) and the absence of many "R"s.
'Mary, Muther a Gawd, ware did I pahk the cahh?"

Hope that was helpful, have a terrific time!
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

I've lived in close to Boston most of my life, native New Englander, Union Oyster House, has the most authentic Chowder, Parker House is next best. In the Copley Plaza there's a great place to eat, supposed to have the best chowder, I think its too thick. That red stuff is also common throughout New England, especially in Rhode Island.

FYI Boston Baked Beans are great there, no tomatoes, baked beans don't have them in spite of what the Bush company states, their beans are trash, too watery. In fact until a few years ago, baked beans with tomatoes in them were not legal to sell in the Bay State, the ICC or some such agency made them change the law as being unfair to competition.

The Freedom Trail is the best way on a short weekend to see the historical Boston, mostly centered on the American Revolution...we like to say if it weren't for Massachusetts there wouldn't be a U.S. as we fired the first shot.

If you have a car, the other places are interesting as well Plimouth Plantation, Sturbridge, Springfield (the Basketball Hall of Fame is there too), USS Constitution is my favorite, the world's oldest commissioned warship afloat, HMS Victory is still commissioned, but does not float.

Faneuil Hall is great to visit, can't miss it go past the old state house, yes the original, unlike old state house at Williamsburg, VA which is a replica. Follow signs to Quincy Market and/or government center.

You can tour Fenway Park too, the oldest ball park still used, built in 1912.

Not too sure of the accent, being stationed in South Carolina one hears the same stuff, just spoken more slowly, for instance the "Coopa Riva" or the "bat'rey". OBTW you can't "pahk the cah in Havad yad, because there is no parking there... Best bet on the origin is left over British accent.

Part of the "T" came from MBTA, Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, hence T. Sort of the like the DC METRO or San Francisco's BART. I can recall when it wasn't called the T

Bunker Hill, okay, battle fought on Breed's Hill.

Old North, part of the Freedom Trial, is worth spending a couple of hours in, original name was Christ Church. A British Royal Marine, Maj Pitcairn is buried there, he was a favorite of Bostonians both patriot and loyalist, saved the regular's bacon on their retreat from Lexington and Concord, led a relief column that had he not the force would have been pretty much wiped out. He was also a hero at Bunker/Breeds Hill.

A small note, Paul Revere did not cry, "The British are coming" afterall they were all Britiish, but instead "The regulars are marching/coming".

I'll move back there someday, can't get NE out of my blood nor heart. Irish part came to the area in the 1840s, old part came over in the Mayflower 1620. Had family member imprisioned as witches, in the Salem witch trials.

Salem and Gloucester are great to visit also.

Don't drive in Boston!!!!!

s/f

DJM

[damnyankee14th]

Re: Translations for Non Bay Staters

>>
9. The Boston Accent -- This is a lot of fun to listen to -- I sometimes ask directions just to listen to it. Compounded of working class Irish accent (and some would say with influences from Italian and working class French Canadian), it is noted by the broad A (pronounced as "Ah" as when your doctor wants to see your tonsils) and the absence of many "R"s.
'Mary, Muther a Gawd, ware did I pahk the cahh?"

<<

Hey I resemble that remark.
I do not talk funny, the rest of "y'all" do

Its not pronounced Bahs-ston, But Baw-stin.
If yas like gowin to the Bahs, Try the Green Dragon, many a founding father drank there. Its right on the freedom Trail. Get a canoli from Modern bakery in Little Italy.

One thing we do have in common with the sotherners is we all hate the "yankees"

Shawn Callahan,
Grand nephew once removed from LT Willam Callahan, for whom the Callahan Tunnel in our Fair City of Boston is named

[springkeeper]

Re: First time in Boston...

Looks like hubby needs more time in Boston, lots of great things to see and do!

Poor wife has to stay at home..... :cry_smile


Carrie Craddock

[Michael McComas]

Re: First time in Boston...

All good stuff so far, can't argue with any of it. I'd add the Lexington Historical Society to the list, and the Mayflower replica docked near Plymouth Rock (about 20 minutes from Plimoth Plantation).

For a pub you can't beat The Burren in Davis Square (take the T's Red Line to Davis). They have live music most nights. The Burren is right around the corner from Red Bones, one of the best rib joints I've ever been to north or south of the Mason-Dixon, with 20 or more different beers on tap at any one time.

If you can get out of the city, Salem is really interesting, especially this time of year. Halloween in Salem is the Goth version of the annual Gettysburg reenactment, and you can hear comments like "Did you see the cheap plastic fangs on that one?" and "Does this cape make me look short?" Salem Brewing Company makes a good pumpkin ale, too. The House of Seven Gables is probably the best historic site in town, followed by the Rebecca Nurse Homestead and the Witch House Museum (which was the sheriff's house during the witch trials).

Lowell National Historical Park is very interesting for 1800's material culture. They have a lot of stuff to see there, including a working mill, a textile museum, and a set of turbines they're restoring to working order.

Other things worth seeing: The Museum of Fine Arts (T Green Line "E" Train to MFA stop), the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, the Museum of Science on the causeway between Boston and Cambridge (T Green Line inbound to Museum of Science stop), and the MIT Museum on Mass Ave in Cambridge (No. 1 bus from Harvard Square). MIT itself has lots of cool stuff, but you need a native guide to find it.

BTW, what's this "Little Italy" stuff? I've lived in Boston for 20 years, and I've never heard it called that. It's always "the North End". If you ask how to get to "Little Italy", the directions are liable to start "Take the 6:00 Peetah Pan to New Yawk".

No Names is still there, or was as of about a year ago. It's in the Boston World Trade Center complex, which is a long hike from the T stop at the Federal courthouse.

Feel free to PM or email me if you need a guide. I work just north of Boston, and I'm happy to serve as an ambassador of Boston hospitality.

[MassPvt]

Re: First time in Boston...

Michael,
You're right about The Burren and Red Bones. My wife and I finally made it there this summer and had a great time. We did the Sam Adams Brewery tour, stopped into Doyle's in JP for a few and then went to Red Bones. The BBQ hash is outstanding. After dinner we hit the Burren for a couple pints. Not a bad way to spend a summer afternoon/evening!
The wet weather should be clearing out and the weekend looks good, sunny but a bit cool. Not bad for October. Patrick, you should be able to get to plenty of stuff on the list of things to do. You have quite a bit to chose from!
Have a good time,

[damnyankee14th]

Re: First time in Boston...

My Dad taught me that. He was from Watertown. I guess he said that as derogatory thing towards the nieghborhood. Yes, it is the north end, but he always called it little Italy or another thing that i cant say here....

I guess the Irish where he was from did not get along with those in the North end?

Shawn

BTW, what's this "Little Italy" stuff? I've lived in Boston for 20 years, and I've never heard it called that. It's always "the North End". If you ask how to get to "Little Italy", the directions are liable to start "Take the 6:00 Peetah Pan to New Yawk".

[M.Latham]

Re: First time in Boston...

If Arms and Armor of the Middle ages appeals to you be sure to stop by Higgins Armory in Worcester, it has the largest collection Ancient to Medieval Arms in the US.

Roman Lorica to Maximillian plate, You won't find a better collection outside of Europe.


http://www.higgins.org/



Mark Latham