A "Dry" Monday in Boston

The rain from Sunday stopped. It was to be a dry Monday. We peeked outside the front door of our brownstone home-away-from-home to check out the weather.

We were in the first and basement floor portions of 83 Appleton and it was really quite roomy.
Frank just had to duck his head to get in there!

The reason "dry" is in quotes is because we started the day with the Samuel Adams Brewery Tour, possibly Dan's most anticipated event of the trip. We took mass transit to the brewery, signed up for the noon tour, and were given Grumpy Monk labels as our tickets. While in the waiting room we tasted some spices that can be added to beer. The ones I remember were rose hips, nutmeg, and coriander.  I learned that coriander is the seed for cilantro. I never knew that!

Our ticket for the tour was a beer label.  Different tour times had different labels.

Since grain is the primary ingredient of beer (except for water, of course) the tour begins with sampling from three barrels of grains of different degrees of darkness. We were instructed to place a few grains in our mouth and chew them. The guide tells you how one has a fruity flavor, another a caramel toffee taste, another almost a coffee flavor and how each is the major component of either an ale or a lager, the two main beer types. Fruity and caramel were a large stretch of the imagination for me. The grain that went into the darker type beers actually tasted burnt to me even though it was described as espresso-like. I do not drink coffee so maybe espresso and burnt are one and the same. I am a fruit and caramel fan, though, and I was still skeptical of his flavor descriptions.

This is the grain tasting beginning of the brewery tour.

The Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston is a research facility and not a mass production plant. The brewing process was quite complicated to me with the tour guide throwing around a whole slew of chemistry terms. The time that the yeast is allowed to work is critical to too-sweet or just-right a flavor since it generates sugars. Exactly when the water is drained off has an effect on what components have been allowed to fall out of the mash solution as a sediment. Temperature is important too. It was all too much information too fast and I did not follow nor can I repeat most of it. Maybe I should have taken notes? Nah! But I can simply report with certainty that the copper vessels were pretty and impressively large. We also learned that the brewery workers are allowed to drink beer while on the job, in moderation, of course. Personally I think the bulk of the tour was just a pretense to get to the tasting room.

This room houses the brewing vessels.

Here we are in the tasting room. Pitchers of three different kinds of beer were passed around and we could fill our plastic cups to the brim. We were asked to notice the smell, the clarity, the foam head, and the flavor nuances of each. Dan seemed the happiest of us four. After I'd taken a sip from the partially filled cup I'd so gingerly poured myself, I hid my face so the tour guide would not see my grimace and then discretely poured my sample into Dan's cup. The guide asked for a show of hands of those who were tasting Sam Adams Beer for the first time. Dan insisted I raise my hand and he added that I had never tasted any beer before, ever. The tour guide declared "Yay. We popped her beer cherry!" With all that beer in abundance the mood was very informal.

In the tasting room, at last. For many, this is the climax of the tour.

The tour guide asked what I thought. I replied, "It's...," pausing to find a good non-insulting word to describe the fruits of this man's chosen profession, "it's... different." He quipped back, "Hey, that would make a great Sam Adams commercial". Then he deadpanned a guy pointing to a bottle of beer in his hand, stating in a monotone. "Buy Sam Adams Beer. It's different."

Sam Adam's Beer. It's different.

After the tour we went to the gift shop where Dan got a shirt and jacket with subtle Sam Adams references. The brewery actually offered an unlimited number of free post cards you could write to your friends and they would also cover the postage. I thought this was a generous gesture. Then we boarded the Party Bus and were off to a lunch at famous Doyle's Cafe. Doyle's is within walking distance of the brewery, but taking the Party Bus would be another experience. Packed with people who have just happily imbibed several plastic cups of beer, outfitted with a sparkling disco ball, and boisterously pumping Sweet Caroline out the speakers, the bus merrily trundles along the streets of Boston and its riders gaily sing along in full voice. Pedestrians along the way often chimed in. Why Sweet Caroline? The song is a Boston tradition. Sweet Caroline has been played in the middle of the 8th inning at every Fenway Park game since 2002.

Frank is ready to board the Party Bus to Doyle's. 

Dan and Carrie sat before us in the Party Bus. Frank and I were in the rear row,
just like we were in the Fenway Fanny Duck. Hmmmm. Is there a trend here?

Doyle's was a typical Boston pub with typical pub food. Dan turned in his Grumpy Monk label for a free glass of Sam Adams beer. He had to buy the beer, just the glass was free. But it is a special glass with a shape specially designed to keep the beer cold since you hold it at the relatively narrow base. The base also is molded with bumps to cause nucleation sites for the bubbles in the beer. The glass broadens upward from the base and then tapers inward to funnel the aroma to your nasal passages. And lastly, the flared rim holds just the right amount of foam.

There is a lot of science in the design of this glass.
And to think, Dan got it for free!

After lunch we set out for Boston Common and Boston Gardens. It was in Boston Commons during the holidays in our college days that I asked Frank where all the Christmas lights were plugged in. I remember fondly how we embarked on the adventure of tracing the path of the wires back to their source. Little did we know then we would be revisiting decades later with our son and his wife.

History is repeating itself a generation later as we visit the commons with Dan and Carrie.

We headed over the the Boston Gardens next. We only had to go to three out of the four corners to finally find the Make Way for Ducklings bronze statues modeled from the classic Robert McCloskey children's book of the same title.

Here I am with Mama Duck. The names of her eight babies are
Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack 

Frank and I sat on a nearby bench and enjoyed watching kids scrambling all over the statues. I looked down at our feet and noticed we were sitting on the Grandparents Bench. How fitting this was since within four days we would be in Oklahoma celebrating the first birthday of our first grandchild.

Frank are going toe to toe in this grandparent business!

The Swan Boats had be put away for the season and were not available for riding.

No, Frank, no! You really cannot get to those swan boats that way!

It was still fun seeing my two men posed under the Men of Boston monument.

Dan and Frank are admiring each other in front of
this monument dedicated to the Men of Boston.

It was getting late and the sun was setting but we had one more destination before nightfall. We set out to take the "T" to the end of the Green Line at the Lechmere stop. Just a few blocks from here was where Frank and I lived just after were married in 1975. The address of the house was 60 Otis Street, Cambridge, MA.

This was our nearest street corner. Many buildings have sprouted up around the area in the last 38 years.

At night from our apartment you could  hear the squeal of the trolly wheels on the rails as they made the tight turn. Dan and Carrie rode a similar trolley with Frank and me to view our first apartment.

The turn radius at this end of the line is reputed to be the smallest on the MBTA
and thus limits the car sizes that can go there.

We lived on the first floor in a one bedroom apartment with a living room, small office area, kitchen, and one bathroom, just off the kitchen. That bay window at street level in the front was our master bedroom. The bathroom was all the way at the back and you had to walk through the office area, the living room, and the kitchen to get to it. The rent was $200 a month and we brought home $250 a month. We would put a candle underneath the pipe that fed the toilet to keep it from freezing when it got really cold since the bathroom was in the corner of the building and thus had two outdoor walls. Our friends John and Sue lived on the third floor. In fact it was they who let us know of the vacancy in the building when we were searching for a place to live. We lived here in Cambridge for only one year before moving out to California. It was fun to revisit it and even more fun to share it with Dan and Carrie.

Frank and I spent our honeymoon year here at 60 Otis Street, Cambridge, MA.

It was a long day and so this was a very long post. Congratulations if you have read this far. We went back to our Appleton Street abode and rested a bit. We later topped off the evening by having a simple dinner at the Upper Crust pizzeria before going home and collapsing.

Once again the restaurant selection on Tremont Street did not fail us.
The pizza here was great and the atmosphere was quaint and fun.

A Wet Sunday in Boston

Frank, Dan, Carrie and I started Sunday with a 9:30 am Boston Duck Tour. The Boston Duck Tours have a fleet of amphibious vehicles that not only take you on a tour of the sites of Boston along the city streets, but also plunge into the Charles River and give you a view of the skyline and scenery along the river banks. This is the fleet, each with its own Captain and unique color scheme. We rode in Fenway Fanny shown in the third row, last column of the following picture.

Our Fenway Fanny Captain was well informed, very entertaining, and displayed
a pride in the City of Boston that was so evident it could not have been anything but genuine.

These amphibious vehicles have a history that goes back to World War II. I felt we were transported on a tour of Boston history while riding IN a piece of history.

These refurbished vehicles transport visitors on a tour of Boston history
 while riding IN a piece of history.

Sunday was a misty, rainy day which, I think, only added to the ambience of the tour. We had seats in the last row with a panoramic view of the riverbanks and the boat interior. There were clear plastic windows that could be rolled down and zipped closed in inclement weather but we did not really need to close ours until the very end of the tour so we had great views, not dotted with raindroplets on the windshield. We really enjoyed the experience. Captain Mack's narration was not only an information-packed, lively talk on historical monuments/sites, colleges, and hospitals of Boston, but his banter was also germane to current events and up-to-date sports statistics. Our captain told us the requirements and process to earn the job of Duck Boat Tour Guide/Captain. Each candidate must not only be certified as a boat captain but must have large vehicle driving training and experience and must love, absolutely love, to talk, for 2.5+ hours per tour. 

The captain of our Duck was very entertaining, well read, and skillful.
His great pride in the city of Boston and his fierce loyalty to his Boston sports teams was very evident.

Once we had ventured into the Charles River, the Captain asked if anyone wanted to drive the Duck. I raised my hand and I was called up front to pilot with the captain by my side.  I wanted to find out how the boat steered. Was it like a car where you turn the way you want to go or like some boats where you orient the tiller the opposite direction of where you want to go? I conducted my experiment weaving back and forth across the Charles. The caption teased me that I would have made a great submarine pilot because my path was a great serpentine pattern.

I was the first brave soul that raised my hand to drive.
Other followed but I have to boast a bit that mine was the longest time.

Captain Mac answered several questions on the basic facts of the Duck. One rear drive axis of wheels continues to rotate even though the boat is under propeller power. The brakes are special so that when the vehicle leaves the water the brakes are not so wet as to be ineffective. I maneuvered Fenway Fanny toward this stonework and aimed her to pass under the middle of one of those arches of the Longfellow bridge.

Our Fenway Fanny took us under one of the arches of the Longfellow Bridge,
also familiarly called the Salt and Pepper Bridge.

Here we all are after the tour posed alongside the now land vehicle Fenway Fanny.

Captain Mack, Frank, Dan in back with me and Carrie in front.
Note the DUKW is not a boat on a trailer but is supported on wheels of its own.

After a lovely brunch, we then continued our journey via the mass transit system and walking to our next wet activity of the day, the New England Bay Aquarium. Along the way we walked past the site of the Boston Massacre.

Yup. That is Frank's foot and my foot to prove we were there.

It was a drizzling hard on our way. The aquarium was not as crowded as we would have expected for a rainy Sunday. I remember visiting it on several times on dates with Frank during our days at MIT. The huge round focal point tank in the center was a very big deal when the aquarium was built in 1969. As I recall, the thick glass required to withstand the water pressure of the great height of water was a great technological advancement of the time. Our closer to home Monterey Bay Acquarium did not open until 1984 and by then the glass technology was pretty much industry standard.

The penguin exhibit at the New England Bay Aquarium was very extensive with several species of penguins and not all were of the cold weather variety.  It was fascinating to watch the staff feed each bird and note which bird had been fed, logging in just how much each had eaten. I was curious to see how some birds had to actually be coaxed to eat.  Carrie pointed out that some acted like finicky cats!

These Rockhopper penguins were particular persnickety about what they ate and
how they accepted a fish from a feeder.

Aquariums today seem to have an ecological theme that focuses on the environment and extends beyond just a look at the sea life. The idea of "living blue" has joined the ranks of "living green". The New England Bay Aquarium did not seem to practice what they preach however. We had a group photo taken at the beginning of our visit. When it came time to pick up the photo, the aquarium staff printed the pictures first to show us and see if we liked them prior to purchase. The pictures were on a computer screen but "due to privacy laws in Massachusetts" they could not rotate the monitor to show us. If we had said no to the pictures they would have trashed (alright, recycled) them. How much effort would it have taken to install a privacy curtain in the area or a directional privacy screen on the monitor? I pointed this out but I am sure I was viewed as a grumpy old lady. The first and foremost way to reduce waste is to not generate it in the first place rather than creating and recycling. Aargh! The stupidity of it all! Imagine the waste from all those folks who do not purchase the photos. I bought the photos (the gullibility of that act is another topic that will remain undiscussed) and did my ecological duty.

At first I thought it was a sea otter's arm or that Dan had a hairy arm wrapped around Carrie.
At second look I realized it was the fur on the hood of her jacket.

Frank and I could not help comparing the New England Bay Aquarium with our larger aquarium in Monterey, so close to our home. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has more interactive animal exhibits and huge kelp forest central feature. I guess others have also made that comparison. Here is a link to a site comparing the two aquariums. The west coast aquarium has guided tours and the history of John Steinbeck and his laboratories and the mystery of the peak/fall of the local sardine industry along Cannery Row but it also costs half again as much.

After the New England Aquarium we went back to our home base at 83 Appleton Street and rested a bit.  Frank and Dan watched some Sunday football. Later that evening we walked the 0.2 miles to the Metropolis Cafe on Tremont Street. The location of the lodgings Carrie picked was really great. It was close to the "T" stops and walking distance to good restaurants.

Our lodging "A" at 83 Appleton Street was just a few blocks walk from the restaurants on Tremont Street.
We had dinner at Stephi's, Metropolitan Cafe "B" ,and cappuccino from the Aquitaine.

We had a great meal here. There was one small detail. Carrie had a yen for a nice, warm cappuccino after dinner while the rest of us had dessert. The restaurant's cappuccino machine was broken. Frank and Dan walked to the Aquitane, a  sister restaurant located diagonally across the street, and ordered one to-go. The restaurant had no to-go containers and dispensed it in a soup container. Hearing the story behind the request, the Aquitane also did not charge for it. I enjoyed my Creme Brulée, Frank his Butterscotch Pie, and Dan his Chocolate Pudding Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream, while Carrie relished curling her hands around her warm Cappuccino and sipping away.

We liked the Metropolis so much we had dinner again there Tuesday night after Dan and Carrie's departure.
It was not in any way related to the Metropolis of Superman or Monsters, Inc.

After dinner, with full tummies, we strolled back to 83 Appleton. We talked a bit, read some, and had no difficulty drifting off to sleep.