Mariah and Nick Visit Boston!
A few times during our Japan trip we talked about Mariah, Nick, and Justin visiting Boston since we’d gone to SF but they’d never been to MA, and about a month ago (well, two now since it took me a month to even publish this LOL) they decided to do it!! We joked a few times of like, “well there’s nothing to see in Boston” but I pretty quickly had compiled a list of stuff that’d be interesting to see (sadly a good amount of it isn’t open pre-memorial day, like Castle Island and the harbor islands), but we had more than enough to fill out a 3.5 day trip, and we barely did any of it anyway since it turned into a pure Vibes/Food/Coffee tour.
Day 1:
Mariah and Nick arrived at 8am to Logan, and Connor and I drove there to pick them up, we came back and immediately went out to get coffee from Broadsheet Coffee Roasters and a pastry from PRB Boulangerie. Then we walked down to Harvard Square and saw the classic tourist-attraction of the John Harvard statue (which is always so funny to me). We walked back to my apartment and waited for Sean to get there, Nick borrowed my much neglected guitar and played it more than I have in the last six months, but man it sure did make me want to get back into it!!!!! After Trina’s brunch we went to Bow Market just to look around. Mariah picked up some cooking zines and Nick and Sean got records, and we all got some empanadas.
After that we walked down to Porter Square since the eventual goal was to go to the Lesley food court with all the japanese restaurants but first we stopped into Mudflat Gallery/Sign of the Dove which I somehow had never been to before?????? Got some VERY cute ceramics there, will absolutely need to check in there more often. Then we got dinner at Ittoku which I knew nothing about, but once I looked at the menu and saw hiroshima-style okonomiyaki we HAD to go. While there Mariah was convinced to make peanut butter cookies which was a wonderful way to end the night (exactly as predicted, Marian and I making the cookies and Nick and Sean playing Fortnite in the living room lmao).
Day 2:
The next day was the only time we had something truly planned, our visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum! I had never been (I tried to go with Sean a few weeks ago but they were sold out when we got there) so this was super exciting since I’ve always heard good things.
After we walked towards back bay/newbury st and then over to the commons, and finally I wanted to show them the Boston Public Library which is like a mini museum all on its own. From there we hopped on the green line back home and went out for Korean BBQ.
Day 3:
I reallllllllly wanted to check out Ogawa Coffee, so we went back to the same area we were in yesterday, but this time we took a detour to see the city hall and most importantly, the national landmark, the Boston Cop Slide. The day prior Mariah and I were talking about Keytar Bear and how despite living here for five years I had never seen him, and she commented on how now that she’s here we’ll probably come across him, like how she’d never seen Mt. Fuji until the most recent trip. Then!!!!!! Who do we see… Keytar Bear. Truly wild Boston Moment. After looking at some of the old buildings we got on the green line over to Brookline/Coolidge Corner since I wanted to check out the Maruichi there and a few other spots. I knew about Topdrawer, but my real favorite discovery was Boston General Store which I LOVED. Such a cute little shop full of really nice, well-made stuff. Made me want to get into using a safety razor and care about stationery lol. Will absolutely be going back! We also stopped into Brookline Booksmith, a super nice bookstore that was suuuuuuper big, with a great selection of new and used books across two floors. Maruichi is great as always, but sadly they didn’t have any BOSS Cafe Au Lait like I wanted u_u. We headed towards Allston so Nick could go to Mr. Music to check out guitar pedals, and on the way we went to Meet Fresh which a coworker had recommended to me and it was SO good. Then Connor drove us to Davis Square and we got Thai food and then went to Sacco’s for the New England classic of candlepin bowling!
Day 4:
For the final day, I went with Nick and Mariah to Johnny Boy’s in Union Square. I had heard about it a few months ago and added it to my list, but just never found the opportunity to go and thought this would be the best time. I’m so glad I finally did because it was GOOD. I’ve gone back multiple times since and I can’t recommend it enough 🫡
The same group is going to Montreal together next week so hopefully it won’t take me a month to post that one haha (edit: it took much more than a month)