USA Trip 2010 - Boston [Part 4]

Copley Square at night

My first impression of The Copley Square Hotel was that it was pretentious. After its recent renovation the hotel is all dark colours, mirrors and very glamorous receptionists. To be fair though it is advertised more of as a business hotel. Still the staff were friendly and the room was very nice. It was smaller than the room in NY but the bed was comfortable, the bathroom spacious, it had free wi-fi and a nice TV for 'The Lost Weekend'. On the way into Boston I had pinpointed the location of the closest Apple Store to the hotel and as luck would have it it was only around the corner. So we basically checked-in, dropped our bags in the room and went in search of an iPad. Again.

I don't think I could have booked a hotel in Boston with a better location. It is located in Copley Square, a nice open space that is very well kept and I have since recognised in the film Spartan. The trendy streets of Boylston and Newbury running parallel to each other are just off Copley Square and it was to Boylston Street and the Apple Store we headed to first. It was a glorious day weather wise and as we wandered down the street we couldn't believe the difference between this and NY. The street was quieter, cleaner and just, nicer. It was only a short stroll to the Apple Store and I made a beeline for the nearest sales assistant. My plan was to buy the 32GB Wi-Fi only version of the iPad, the official case and the camera USB adapter. The sales assistant said that they only had one iPad in stock and it was the 64GB Wi-Fi model. He told me that they were flying off the shelves and thought I'd be lucky to find another one in Boston, or Chicago for that matter. I decided quickly to take it and I got it activated then and there. They had no cases or USB adapters but I was just happy to have found an iPad. It was $100 more expensive than I had planned but with double the memory it was good investment. Nearly six months later I have used about 30GB of space so it was the right decision.

With my business with Apple complete we decided to go wander around the area and see what was around. My wife stopped in Starbucks and got a strawberry and crème frappuccino. It was delicious and started a trend for the drink that lasted the rest of the holiday. We've had one since returning to Ireland but it just wasn't the same. After checking out Boylston Street we headed back to the hotel to go get ready for dinner. We had seen plenty of restaurants around so it looked like we wouldn't have the same problems that we had in NY. We ended up going for Thai that night, Bangkok Blue on Boylston Street. I remember the mains being very tasty but nothing much on the menu for dessert, which is par for the course I find with Asian restaurants.

Freedom Trail map

Our first full day in Boston was set to be a busy one as we had planned to tackle 'The Freedom Trail'. The Freedom Trail is a red brick path through down Boston that leads to seventeen significant historic sites. The trail is 2.5 miles long and it took us most of the day to complete as we had so much fun stopping at different locations. The Trail was originally conceived by journalist William Schofield who was promoting the idea of linking important local landmarks with a pedestrian trail since 1951. The mayor at the time agreed and put the idea into action. The trail starts in Boston Common, the oldest city park in the US and that day it was getting ready to host some hippy protest concert. Just as we left Boston Common we came across another site that I instantly recognised from film, the Massachusetts State House that played a significant role in The Departed. Up until writing this I was convinced that the Park Street Church around the corner was the location used to film the tripod reveal sequence from War of The Worlds but I can't find anything to back this up. We followed the red brick path through several more locations down to Faneuil Hall, one of our favourite places on the whole trip.

Street performers at Quincy Market

Faneuil Hall was originally built to be the city market and now it is home to Quincy Market, one of the most vibrant and lively places in Boston. We had lunch here and checked out a number of shops. We stayed for a good while at this location watching the street performers before heading in the direction of the Bunker Hill Monument. By the time we had crossed the bridge we had been walking for some time and had a choice to make. Do we head to Bunker Hill and back around to the USS Constitution (involved in the Boston Tea Party) or cut it short and just pick one. In the end we decided just to go see the USS Constitution and get some ice-cream while we were at it. The part about the Freedom Trail that we didn't factor in was that the 2.5 mile walk is only one way, we now had to make our way back to Copley Square. For anyone thinking of going to Boston, I would highly recommend going on this walk. Not only to you get an appreciation of a city steeped in a rich history (we found out about aid ships sent from Boston to Ireland during the Famine) but it is an excellent way to get to know a new city. The full list of Freedom Trail locations can be found here.

That night we were pretty drained and planned an early night; this may also have been due to the Lost finale that was airing that night. We went to Uno Chicago Grill on Boylston Street for a pretty standard dinner. A constant problem we had faced in the US with dinners was the portion sizes, they are just outrageously big in some places. This means that there is little chance of having room for any desserts. I remember the dessert in this place well because they had 'mini' desserts listed on the menu. This sounded perfect so I went for the mini apple pie. It might have been mini in the US but it was still pretty big by European standards. We retired back to the hotel room to settle in for the Lost finale, an event I'd been looking forward to. Now, I want to be careful here lest I get sidetracked on some rant about the finale. I felt that the the series up till this episode had been good and the last few in particular had been building some great momentum. It is such a shame that I can't say that I loved the final episode. I can't say that I thought it was bad, it is something that I may have to watch again to make up my mind on. I know one thing I didn't like and that was the crazy number of advert breaks. I think the running time must have been two and half hours in total.

The next day we had a morning appointment at Boston Gliders, a company running Segway tours of Boston. The traffic was pretty heavy so we were a few minutes late in arriving and it was all a bit of a rush to get signed in and down to watch the training video. It was actually the same video from our last Segway tour in San Francisco back in 2007. When they realised we had been on a Segway before we only got some cursory training tips, which was okay as I got accustomed to the Segway pretty quickly but a little more training would have helped my wife feel more at ease. A small group of us, seven in total took off along the streets of Boston on the two hour sightseeing tour. I find Segways fantastic. They are so easy to control, they do all the balancing work for you. All you have to do is learn to relax and enjoy the ride. For those next two hours I just become a big kid again, I'm all ready looking forward to my next Segway experience. The tour took us to many of the locations on the Freedom Trail but you get a whole new experience doing it by Segway. This time we did get to Bunker Hill and we spent some time there taking photos and enjoying the space on the Segway. We were finished the tour by lunch time and went and got a bite to eat in the Cheers Bar at Quincy Market. I'm not sure what the deal was with that place and the show, it probably just licensed the name and likeness. 

One of the days we went to the Boston Science Museum. I had read good reports about it being a very interesting way to spend a few hours so we found our way on the subway to the science park. I'm not sure what we were expecting exactly but whatever it was we didn't find it. We spent a couple of hours there making our way around the attractions, some of which were very impressive. I think the place was too geared towards children, which is a fine thing if you've brought some along but in our case not so much. I was most impressed by the full size model of the spaceship used by Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. I think it was that evening that we got to eat at Joe's American Bar & Grill. It is on the corner of Newbury Street and we had passed it several times, admiring the food being served. I really enjoyed the meal there (the waitress pretty too) but it is most memorable for my wife being asked for ID, something she wasn't too impressed by. I saw onion rings on the list of starters and got them because I thought to myself that they can't be too big surely. Wrong. Each one was the size of my fist but they were finger lickin' good.

As I mentioned in a previous post we had done very little shopping in NY and decided it would be a shame to return home without having at least tried to take advantage of the cheaper clothes prices. So we went to the Prudential Center, the large department store at the end of Boylston Street. We split up for an hour or so and I managed to find myself a couple of t-shirts. We met back up for a frappuccino in Star Bucks and then both went to Newbury Street. There are lots of nice little clothes shops along there that do unique items but some of it is a bit pricey. We both picked up some sports tops; I went for the Bears and my wife went with the White Sox. Throw in the iPad, ModNation Racers and Red Dead Redemption for the PS3, a handful of t-shirts and nice top from Gap and I was very happy with my shopping from Boston. That night we went back to the Prudential Center for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We still hadn't figured out how to fit in a main course and dessert though but the couple beside us showed us how it was done. Eat half your main, and then bag it up and order dessert. The main course in the Cheesecake Factory was just insane, it was a very nice chicken dish with corn and mash but it was about the size of four normal mains. Next time we'd just go to the place for dessert alone.

We were sorry to see the end of our four night stay in Boston but excited at the same time to be going on to see Chicago. Like San Francisco before it Boston has joined a select few cities that I would like to return to again. There really is no contest between Boston and NY as to which we preferred, we just hoped Chicago wouldn't let us down.


Part 3

Quick note

I just realised I passed the 100 posts mark a few posts ago. I would have put up a special post had I noticed in time.

Ah well.

Punch-Out Wii

I picked up another game for €1 in GameStop's sale madness, Punch-Out Wii. There was a lot of press for this game last year, especially on US podcasts but I don't recall ever seeing it in shops here. I never played the original and to be honest this doesn't look like a game I will enjoy. I might just keep it in the shrink wrap. Still for €1 it is a steal.

Mario Kart Double Dash

I picked this game up on eBay to add to my list of must play GameCube (GC) games. I'd read mixed opinions of Double Dash online but the consensus seems to be that it is one of the top rated GC games. It must have been back in May, perhaps June when it arrived but I only got around to playing it a week ago. One of the reasons is that I had to get another GC controller first.

Myself and my wife (a huge Mario Kart fan) sat down and played it for a while and were less than impressed. It is probably a bit unfair on the game to judge it after playing Mario Kart Wii so much. Even though there is little difference in the graphical quality, we missed some of the Wii gameplay mechanics. Another problem is that we had played nearly all of the tracks in Double Dash either in Mario Kart Wii or the DS version. I think Nintendo is just being lazy now with having the same tracks in so many Mario Kart games. That isn't a direct criticism of Double Dash but of Nintendo themselves. I'm hoping that when it arrives on the 3DS it will be full of new tracks. I doubt it though.

I haven't played enough of Double Dash to get to know the ins and outs of the main new addition to the game, two characters to a vehicle. It appears to add a little element of strategy to the gameplay and it is nice to see something new in Mario Kart after all these years. With so many games in my growing collection that I've yet to play or games like Zelda: The Wind Waker that I want to return to I won't be promising to play Double Dash much more. 

Blur

Blur is a game that took me by surprise. I had no real intention of getting it until I saw the positive feedback it was getting and checked out some footage online. It looked liked it had some frantic car combat, in similar vein to Mario Kart but with HD graphics. As soon as I brought it home it stayed in the PS3 for a solid three weeks, getting constant play online. 

It had been quite some time since I'd found a game that I enjoyed playing online so much. Blur has that instant pick up and play quality that all good arcade racers should have. The cars handle easily and the weapons are all instantly familiar as they all correspond to weapons from Mario Kart. Three weeks might seem like a short time give a game but as they say the light that shines twice as bright, burns twice as fast. In this case it grew a little tired after a while but for those few weeks it was an absolute blast.

I'd recommend this game to anyone and I wish more people had bought it so those online lobbies would have been full.

USA Trip 2010 - Trip to Boston [Part 3]

Amtrak

On the morning of the 22nd May we checked out of The Residence Inn in Manhattan and made our way to Penn Station. We didn't bother with a taxi as it was only four blocks or so on the map and we felt it would be straight forward enough. Unfortunately, Penn Station is entirely underground and so you wouldn't really notice if you passed the entrance. It took us a little while to find it but once we did it was easy enough to collect our tickets. We had the best part of two hours to wait on the train but at least they had free wi-fi to keep us entertained. 

Now taking the train to Boston was my idea and it was a trip I was looking forward too. I was expecting that we would be getting the same type of train that runs on the Coast Starlight route, a big double decker train. The likes of which you don't see in this country. When the train pulled into the station there was a bit of a rush to get to the escalator with the other passengers. We expected that after we had our tickets checked it would calm down as we would all have assigned seating. Turns out I was very wrong on that point. 

We were directed to make our way to the top of the train to find a seat. So we went down that direction and got on the last carriage but that turned out to be full and so was the next carriage down. We started to get a bit worried at this point. We made our way down to another carriage and had no choice but to board as the train was about to leave. The carriage looked full so we had to leave our luggage and go search for a seat. We actually managed to find two seats together at a table with a mother and child (more on her later). I then made two trips back to find the luggage and bring it to our carriage so it would at least be close. With that done we could finally begin to relax and enjoy the journey. It was a shame it was not the type of train I was expecting but at least we had seats, they were comfortable, the scenery was good and as a bonus there was free wi-fi. We were travelling through lunchtime so I made a trip to the catering car to get us some lunch. I decided to go a little early as I felt there might be a queue. Lucky I did because even though the queue was small I was still waiting about 30 minutes. At least I got to admire the passing country side.

Real life Phantom Hourglass

While on the train I decided to get creative with the camera and introduced Link into the mix. I think this is where our new tradition of getting a photo of Link in new places was born. The journey was only 3 and half hours which went very quickly. Travelling by train really is the best way when you have a long distance to travel. It is always more comfortable than flying, you don't have to go to an airport and it just feels relaxing. 

As we approached Boston the woman opposite us was on her mobile and her daughter was trying and failing to get her attention. She did quickly enough when she promptly vomited over the table we were all sharing. It was not a good situation at all. With every bump or rock the carriage took the vomit would make it's way closer to us. I went quickly down to the catering car again to get a handful of napkins, anything to stop the approaching tide. Everything was tidied up and back to normal quickly and everyone was all smiles. This mightn't have been the case had it happened earlier a not as we were about to get off the train.

When the train came to a stop in Boston's Back Bay Station I carried my wife's bag off the train but had to run down to the end of the carriage to get my own. With the people getting on and off it wasn't leaving much time and I literally had to jump off before the doors closed. I hope our next train trip in the US is less hectic than this one was but it hasn't put me off my goal to cross the US on rail. When we got out of the station we had a quick check of the map to get our bearings and decided we could walk to the hotel no problem. I even managed to point an older lady in the right direction for her own hotel. Still not sure how I knew that and my wife certainly looked confused when I knew. 

Part 2 |

USA Trip 2010 - New York City [Part 2]

I was immediately impressed with the hotel we stayed at, The Residence Inn Manhattan. The staff at reception were very friendly and we were checked-in in no time at all but best of all we got bumped up to a deluxe room with a view of the Empire State Building. I had e-mailed the manager a few months previously about this and was told there was an extra charge for this room. I declined on the basis we could spend that extra $25 a night elsewhere. Anyway, she said she would keep the request on file and could have the room for free if it was unoccupied when we arrived. The room was simply awesome. We had expected to get a tiny room in NY because that is what most people had told us to expect. Well the room we got had it's own little kitchenette, large bathroom, queen size bed and a sofa. Plus that excellent view that you can see here and here. As it was the evening already and raining heavily we got ready quickly and went to find something to eat. We ended up in Arno Ristorante just around the corner. It wasn't one of the better meals on the trip, a massive bowl of soup to start and a pasta dish with a distinct taste of cheese. We weren't actually that hungry anyway, probably more tired than anything. On a side note I did get a bit of a Goodfella's vibe off one of the waiters which made things more interesting.

The breakfast was not great but I was expecting that. I hadn't really enjoyed the breakfast food on our last US trip and this one was to be no exception. I just find that the food is either too sweet or stodgy for the morning time. After breakfast we walked up 6th Avenue to the Rockefeller Plaza to go to the Nintendo World Store. It was a shop that we had been excited to see and we weren't disappointed. It is probably more of a Nintendo store than museum but don't let that put you off. They had a great selection of Nintendo plushies but not the Mario Mushroom I wanted. I ended up buying a Yoshi plushy and my wife got one of Link. Thinking back on it now I should have gotten the cool mug that I saw there as well. Seeing some of the classic Nintendo handhelds and game & watch machines brought back some memories. Pretty much the rest of the day was spent getting to know the area we were staying in. I had taken my time deciding on our hotel so I managed to get one with a great location on 6th Avenue, only two blocks from Times Square. We wandered around the shops in Times Square (I picked up some nice stuff in American Eagle) and took my first few photos of the holiday. The first of many.

View from 'The Top of The Ro

The next day we went back to the Rockefeller Plaza to go to 'The Top of the Rock'. When deciding where to go to get the best view of NY you really only have two choices - The Empire State Building or the Observation Deck at the Rockefeller Center. We chose the latter and were not disappointed. The views of NY are amazing, especially the way you can see Central Park spread out before you. As an added bonus you also get to see The Empire State Building as part of the cityscape. We spent a good while up there taking plenty of photos and enjoying the glorious weather. That afternoon we were again back at Rockefeller Plaza to go on the NBC Studio Tour. It was quite an enjoyable tour as we got to see some good behind the scenes areas plus the tour guide was funny and informative. We got to sit in the Saturday Night Live studio and hear about the crazy amount of work that goes into producing a single show. I'd say that anyone who has an interest in US television would get a lot out of the tour but I would like to have seen more stages from shows that I'm familiar with.

The most trouble we had in our time in NY was finding a nice place to have dinner. The meals we had on our first and second nights hadn't been much to write home about so I went to the hotel concierge to get a recommendation for a good stakehouse. She recommended Benjamin Stakehouse only a few blocks away. I was a little nervous when she said that the dress code was smart casual as I had nothing but jeans in my case. When we got to the restaurant and were show to our seats we did feel a little out of place but we got over that pretty quickly as the staff were very friendly. I got a big steak with a side of onions and mash while my wife got the seabass. We both agree it was easily one of the nicest meals we've ever eaten. It may have been a little pricey, but that wouldn't stop us going back if we ever return to NY. 

Shopping is obviously one of the major attractions of NY but it was pretty low down on the list of priorities for us. We did plan on doing some but not to the extreme that some people do and had ruled out any trips to places like Woodbury Common. Neither of us actually ended up buying much in NY. It was a combination of not seeing anything nice and the throngs of people milling around every shop making it desparately uncomfortable. There was one item though that I was intent on buying, the iPad. After we took a stroll through the 'Pond' area of Central Park we went to the Apple Store at the top of 5th Avenue. Keeping up a tradition started on our last US trip we took a photo of ourselves outside of the store, a magnificient glass cube structure. The store itself an underground Mecca for Apple fanboys (like myself) was amazing. So much cool stuff in one room. Pity that that one room was so busy, it was iPad fever at its height. I was told that they didn't have any in stock and I'd be better off ringing other stores before wasting my time travelling to them. So I rang the other three Apple stores in the area each day that we remained in NY but had no luck in sourcing an iPad. Even Best Buy, an authorised reseller had no stock. I hoped to have better luck when we got to Boston. 

Sphere Within A Sphere

The next day of our stay in NY was probably the most enjoyable we had there. We hoped on the tourist bus at Times Square and travelled down to Greenwich Village. To go from an area like Times Square and other built up areas of NY and appear in Greenwich Village is like some sort of magic trick. Everywhere else appears to be populated by skyscrapers blocking out the sun all in neat little rows on the grid system and then suddenly your transported to a quaint little village that wouldn't look out of place somewhere in Europe. We idled down Bleecker Street popping into the clothes and music stores, keeping an eye out for somewhere nice for lunch. It is true that Greenwich Village has a different pace to it than the rest of the city and we spent a while just wandering around, enjoying the break from the hustle and bustle. After a tasty lunch we got back on the bus to take in more sites like the UN Building. As we passed the building the tour guide started to talk about one of the sculptures in front of the UN, one that I recognised immediately. It was a replica of a sculpture that I pass everyday on my walk through the grounds of Trinity College in Dublin. The guide told us that the 'Sphere within a Sphere' represents a war-torn Earth and that the sphere will be filled in when world peace is achieved. However, according to the Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro the inner ball represents Earth while the outer ball represents religion. This is to show that religion is bigger than the Earth. Shame. I much preferred our tour guides interpretation. We have done the hop-on, hop-off bus tours in many cities across the world and we usually really enjoy them. We were left disappointed by the one in NY. It wasn't so much to do with the stops, there is plenty to see there but more to do with the traffic. Crawling through the city streets, being stopped by red lights at every junction isn't exactly fun. We probably would have fit more into our day had we travelled on the subway.

That night, our last in NY we went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It wasn't our first choice but the time suited us and the ticket price was reasonable. When we got there the theatre was packed and there must have been some sort of organised group there because there was a huge number of teenagers. On the way in my wife got suckered into buying a souvenir guide. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been taken out of the bag since it was bought. We took our seats up in the Gods, with a birds eye view of the stage. As we settle in we noticed this guy running back and forth looking all flustered. He made his way over to us and explained that he had two spare tickets that he had been unable to sell. He asked us if we would like to sit at the front and we said yes, assuming that he meant the front of the section we were currently in. We then started to follow him down flight after flight of steps and I began to wonder if we'd be scammed. We weren't. We ended up about seven rows from the very front of the stage with one of the best views in the house. The guy (whose name I can't remember) and his girlfriend had just moved to NY that day and felt that the two seats should not sit empty when they could be enjoyed by another couple. The show itself was very enjoyable. I have seen the Disney film many years ago and some of the songs were familiar but I had forgotten most of the story. The performances were uniformly good but the thing that impressed me most was the set. The main set was a four storey house and it would be raised or lowered depending on where the action was taking place. Very impressive to see.

So that was four nights in NY. We did enjoy our time there but we were glad to be leaving. As cities go it is very impressive but it didn't have the charm of a somewhere like San Francisco. We hoped to find that charm in Boston.


Part One | Part Three