The first night we had just enough time to check-in, dump our bags and explore the immediate area s little bit before bed. We grabbed a quick dinner and settled in for the night. Our B&B was a beautiful old house behind the main street in Coolidge Corner. It was decorated and steeped in the history of the building including old family photos from the early 20th century in a super old--fashioned library. It was extremely welcoming and friendly with a family feel.
The next morning we had breakfast in the B&B, they have a family table set up where guests help themselves to a variety of breakfast foods (eggs, cereal, yoghurt, fruit) from the centre of the table. From there we set off into Boston. First stop of the day had to be the local Trader Joe's (fun-fact - this is the first trader joes I ever went to, 14 years ago, aswell).
We then headed over to Harvard to explore this esteemed college. The campus reminded us so much of Trinity college in Dublin and it also reminded me a lot of Yale. I guess the Ivy-leagues have a very similar aesthetic but we were duly impressed with the beautiful buildings and the manicured grounds. From there we went to MIT, when I briefly lived in Boston I trained with the MIT TKD club and so it was so much fun to go back to those places and explore the college in more depth with Brian. We both picked up MIT apparel, which I wished I had done back in 04 and will treasure now.
We then headed into town proper and spent some time exploring the city, I showed Brian the shops of Newbury Street and we found a new shop, Johnny Cupcakes with a really cool oven shaped door. Unfortunately the shop contained no actual cupcakes and although the merch was cool, my deep disappointment at the lack of cupcakes prevented me from buying anything at all.
We also explored the park, where we stumbled upon a legalized weed festival and definitely left with a contact high and did the classic thing of going to Cheers. We went to a delicious restaurant that night with my Uncle and his partner - 75 Chestnut which was such a lovely chance to catch up with them.
The next day we walked across the city to go to my (and Nelly's) old place of work - The New England Aquarium. Pretty much nothing has changed so it was a really fun step into the past. Brian also loved the many penguin exhibits.
This guy is actually from Toronto Airport but seemed appropriate here |
Our first day in Vegas we hit the gym and then hit up Urban Toms - Our favourite breakfast spot in Las Vegas!! The omelettes and breakfast burritos there are fantastic, there's decent coffee and really lovely servers. From there it was a whistle tour of some of our previous spots and then we picked up a car and moved over to the Cosmopolitan Hotel. This is where we got engaged in 2016 and we were so excited to get back and try out the Wicked Spoon Restaurant which we hadn't been able to in 2016. There was a huge selection of foods with exciting ingredients like bone marrow and wild boar, as well as some gluten free and vegan cake options so something for everyone.
Vegas is full of incredible places to eat and as well as the wicked Spoon our hotel also happened to have a new addition of a Momofuko and Milk Bar. I was absolutely delighted. I had recently watched the chef's table with Milk Bar and my brother had convinced me to watch Ugly Delicious in preparation for our adventure. So it was fate..... We got a whole buncha cookies from milk bar, including the famous compost cookie, which I found to be....okay but I didn't love. I think it was the crisps that threw me off but I am very very glad I tried it.
We also checked out Fremont Street which we had missed in 2016. There we saw some of the older casinos and the zipline. One consideration in both these locations was the heat. Boston seemed to be getting an indian summer on the weekend we were there. The sun was backing down and temperatures were easily in the low to mid 30s C. Vegas was even hotter it was 38-40C while we were there and the sun was scalding hot on the skin. Las Vegas is so air-conditioned in the hotels that it created a really unusual experience of flipping between too cold and far too hot in the split second of walking outside. However walking down the street the city had lamp-posts that sprayed mist into the air to keep us all from drying out completely. It was such a pleasant experience in that heat.
The last thing I did that I had missed the first time was that I gambled. I choose one of those slot machines with the giant red handles on the side, I immediately doubled my money (1 dollar to 2) and then cashed out while I was ahead - doubling my money in Vegas baby ; )
I
will leave it there for now but return soon with more from our trip to
Los Angeles and the start of our roadtrip experience in America!