Drove back to Boston this morning and ordered lunch from Wing Works, who have a number of interesting wing sauces, the best of which was probably their garlic-parmesan sauce. After lunch, we headed out to Salem where we toured the Salem Witch Dungeons, the cemetary, and strolled by the House of Seven Gables. Later, we returned to Boston for dinner at The Boston Sail Loft, and drinks at John Harvard’s and Orleans.

Rented a car today for a quick overnight road trip. Our first stop was The National Plastics Museum in Leominster, Massachusetts. Apparently Leominster was an important town in the early development of the plastics industry, and was “the comb capital of the world.” The museum takes up three floors and alternates between serious educational material and displays that border on the bizarre. Next we had lunch at the The Village Spa in Gardner, where we also checked out a giant chair. We tried to check out the Toy Plane Museum in …, but it appears to be out of business. We went up an observation tower for a nice view of the surrounding mountain ranges, then headed into Shellburne to the Trolley Museum. It turns out the Trolley Museum is only open on Saturdays and Sundays, but there was a volunteer there working on painting their freight house and he was nice enough to show us around anyway. We got to tour the small museum there, ride the trolley, go through a caboose they’re working on restoring, and ride a pushcart. Really neat, and we pretty much got a private tour. After leaving Shellburne, we made a brief stop to see the Hoosac Tunnel, a train tunnel built in the mid to late 1800′s that is nearly 5 miles long! It’s also rumored to be haunted, but I sure didn’t see anything. After checking into our hotel, The Whitcomb Summit, we headed down the hill into North Adams where we had a fantastic dinner at Boston Seafood. I got the surf & turf, which was an 8oz Sirloin and Baked Stuffed Haddock for the bargain basement price of $13.99, and Shelly went with the Alaskan king crab legs — 1lb. for $19.99. If only seafood were always so cheap! I ate till I was ready to pop, then we went over to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts for a screening of Roger Corman’s “X: The Man With X-ray Eyes” with a new soundtrack performed live by Pere Ubu. Pere Ubu played a dark, brooding set of songs highlighted by the addition of a theremin, which added a nice B movie horror/sci-fi touch.

Got a bit of a late start this morning, and grabbed some burrito’s for lunch from Picante Mexican Grill. The food was ok, I guess, but I’ve had much better. Strolled out to see Tufts’ campus, then took the subway down to Downtown Crossing and wandered around there a bit before heading out to Copley Square where we went up to the observation deck of the Provident building where we got a wonderful birdseye view of all of Chicago. After wandering around Copley Square a bit more, we headed for dinner at Bob’s Southern Bistro, which sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but surprisingly isn’t. Bob’s serves tasty, authentic southern cooking in a swank atmosphere with live jazz playing in the background. Shelly and I both had the meatloaf, and it was delicious. I washed the meal down with a bottle of Sam Adams which went down as smooth as the jazz.

Started the day touring Paul Revere’s house. Afterwards had lunch at Mother Anna’s, and what a lunch it was. Mother Anna’s is a small Italian place in the North End that serves up absolutely to-die-for food at unbelievable prices. I had the Veal Margarita, which was similar to Veal Saltimbocca that you’ll find at most nice Italian restaurants. It was breaded veal topped with prosciutto and mozzarella, swimming in a sweet, buttery concoction that looked approximately like clarified butter. By appearance, it somewhat resembled the Shrimp or Lobster De Johnge that you’ll find around Chicago. The taste, however, was truly divine. I exclaimed to all at the table after my first bite, “This is one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth!” The veal was melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the complex flavors of the sweet butter sauce combining with the slightly salty taste of the prosciutto and mozzarella was truly out of this world. But enough about lunch. After licking my plate, we wandered some more in the North End and went through the Old North Church, where Paul Revere hung the lanterns. (One if by land, two if by sea.) Then we jumped on the subway and headed down to the Samuel Adams brewery. The tour there was brief, but entertaining. It started with a short video with Sam Koch, the founder of the brewery, then continued through the brewery itself, ending with a beer tasting. We got to taste three beers: Samuel Adams Boston Lager, already a favorite of mine, Samuel Adams Summer Ale, which is a wheat beer with a nice lemon finish, and Samuel Adams Brown Ale, a very dark ale with hints of chocolate and coffee that is not yet and may never be available for sale. Dinner took us down to Harvard Square and Bartley’s, home of arguably Boston’s best burgers. I had a burger with boursin cheese and bacon. Honestly, I don’t think it quite stands up with Arthur’s of Hyde Park’s boursin cheeseburger, but it was still a mighty fine burger. After dinner we stopped in at Orleans for a nightcap before heading off to bed.

What a great day! Started the day by taking the water taxi out to tour the “Old Ironsides,” the U.S.S. Constitution and museum. Originally built for the Barbary Wars and then serving the in the War of 1812, it’s the oldest fully commissioned boat in the world. Had lunch at the 99 Restaurant & Bar, then headed towards Fenway. Accidentally took a wrong train, and had to walk a bit between stations, but that worked out ok as we stumbled on the very beautiful 1st Church of Christian Science church. Got to Fenway and had to stand in line for about 3 hours to get tickets, but it was totally worth it. A BoSox employee came wandering down the street and showed us his 2004 World Series ring which was really great. Check the photo gallery for a picture. We wound up with infield seats, 9 rows up from the box seats along the third base line. They were the old wooden seats installed in 1934 — the oldest seats in baseball! The Red Sox pulled out a win in an exciting 10 innings, beating the Ranger 8 to 7. Seeing a game at Fenway was awesome. The fans stick around until the fat lady sings, cheering, clapping, and singing the whole time. Really great baseball fans here in Boston. Got myself a Fenway Frank and a pretzel for dinner, washing it down with a beer. (Would you believe $5.50 for a puny 12oz beer? I think I got three swallows out of it.) Had a quick beer at the Cask ‘n’ Flagon on the way to the subway, then time for a good night’s sleep.

Got a late start to things today, so we started with lunch at Mike’s Restaurant in Davis Square. Shelly and I shared a delicious NY style pizza with pepperoni, bacon, and green peppers. After lunch we took the subway down to Fenway Park. We had a beer at The Cask & Flagon, then took a tour of Fenway Park. We got to sit in the luxury box, visit the Green Monster, and sit in the oldest seats in all of baseball. Afterwards, we strolled along the waterfront for awhile before heading back out to Davis Square for dinner at Out Of The Blue. Out Of The Blue serves absolutely fantastic seafood at reasonable prices. The calamari there was hands down the best I’ve ever eaten. It was so tender and tasty — not like the bland rubber bands you find at most seafood places. They served a 1.5lb lobster stuffed with scallops which was hard to pass up, but at $30 seemed a little steep for our budget. Maybe next time.

Today we toured the MIT Museum. All kinds of cool robots, and holograms, and little art machines. Then we headed down to Boston Common and took in a fantastic performance of Hamlet. Had dinner at Joe’s on the waterfront to cap off the evening.

Started the day with breakfast at a delightful little diner called Rosebud. Then we headed downtown where we checked out Cheers, Boston Commons, The South Meeting House, The Old City Hall, and Fanueil Hall. We stopped at nice little pub on Beacon Hill to toss back a few coldies. Then we wandered around Harvard Square and had dinner at Charlie’s Kitchen — home of a kick-ass burger. To cap off the night, we saw “The ‘T’ Band” play their last ever performance at The Burren on Davis Square.

So the trip started off on a sour note…the airlines managed to put one of our bags on a different flight, so we had to hang around at Logan Airport for a few hours waiting for our bag to arrive. Not wanting to pay the exorbitant $25 airport fee for taking a taxi, we took the subway out from the airport, which was probably not the best idea when dragging several pieces of luggage… But we survived, and had time to check out a decent BBQ joint in Somerville called Red Bones. The dishes were hit-and-miss but still overall better than you might expect this far north. Tomorrow should be a busy day. Photos will be going up daily (time permitting) at http://andrewcruse.com/photos/gallery/boston2005.