Up to Beantown: Part Two

More Boston love! Stephanie took me to one of her favorite places for brunch on Saturday morning, Zaftigs

We got there early but apparently not early enough since everyone else and their mom had the idea to go there that morning. Even though there were a some people waiting outside, we got a table right away complete with a waitress who lacked personality. I got the San Francisco Joe’s Special-turkey hash with spinach, mushrooms, onions with a side of home fries, toast and watermelon. It was way too much food and way better than any kind of eggs I can ever make.

However,  once I saw Stephanie’s french toast, I came down with a little case of food envy.

Gah, I die.

The best part of the meal was listening to the table next to us. It was one skeevy guy in his mid twenties and two college aged girls. He reminded me of a third rate, unattractive Jason Siegel with two or three unbuttons undone on his button up shirt. Homeboy wouldn’t shut up. He started to talk about how Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are all one in the same and that is when Stephanie and I shut up and just listened. Then he decided to be generous and pick up the entire tab (perhaps because he wouldn’t shut his pie hole the entire meal?) then when the girls were all “Noooooo, you can’t do that!” he said “If I can’t take my girls out for a meal, what good am I?” or something about that effect. Blah. Sometimes I don’t mind tables closetogetherlikethis in a restaurant, other times when I have to listen to random, weird conversations, not so much.

We went walking around later and the dilemma of what to wear came up. I hate pants in the summer time but can deal with capris. I was feeling more like wearing a casual dress around but that meant I would wear flip flops. There was nothing more I wanted to do than wear sneakers since we would be walking around a great deal but that was out of the question. I wish I could make sneakers work with a dress but there is no way to make it look good

(source)

Go on with your bad self Sarah!

We started off around Quincy Markey and near the Government Center

Somehow we ended up in the middle of an African festival.

Then we ran into some street performers who were just about to get started so we found a place somewhat in the shade and watched them.

Then started dancing, breakdancing and doing flips then they started grabbing people from the crowd to take part in a special exhibition. Of course, they grabbed yours truly. At first they lined me and threes others up one in front of the other and explained that they were going to flip over us. Oh joy. The last thing I need is a man flipping over me, especially when I am without health insurance. Then they had us bend over. Um, I was in a dress so the last thing I wanted to do was bend over in front of a bunch of people since as one of the performers said I was “juicy” to another performer. Gross, I still take offense to that comment. They had the decency to cover the girls up though so we didn’t look like a 2 Live Crew video. So we were just waiting there and I guess the guy flipped over us. We were just bending over waiting, my knee was killing me and I just wanted to get up into normal pose again. Stephanie was awesome and took some pictures of it though so you can see what I’m talking about

And I walk away unharmed-score!

We went into the madness that is Quincy Market afterwards. This is a total tourist spot complete with shops, carts, performers and restaurants but it was fun to see since I am a tourist and all.

We perused the carts and shops

Amen

Made our way over to Boston Common and that’s just about the time my camera died so please enjoy a few last pictures before we got there

Walked through the gardens and saw the swan boats.

Made our way over to Newbury

Saw all the shops there  including pretentious ones like Chanel, Gucci and others that I will never ever be able to afford. There were some cute, independent ones as well.

Too bad we didn’t have time to stop in these coffee shop, I adore the name.

Stopped at Stephanie’s on Newbury, it was that weird of time where you don’t want a meal but you need a little something in you to keep going. And our feet hurt. And we were sweaty and were in desperate need of a cold one.

Then heaven was placed right in front of us-Warm Vermont Goat Cheese appetizer.

This picture does this no justice whatsoever. When they brought it to us, the cheese and oil were bubbling right in front of our very eyes. I just kept staring at it since I’ve never seen goat cheese bubble like that before. We tried to tear the bread but it was piping hot and burnt our fingers when we tried to. But we powered on and tore away anyways since we didn’t want to miss the wonderfulness that is warm goat cheese.

So please check out Stephanie’s photo. Stephanie-Cookie Battle, not Stephanie of Stephanie’s on Newbury. Hmm, that was a tad confusing.

Reason #62 why I want a DSLR

After the walking fest we rested our feet and then  went to Margaritas for dinner for some much needed Mexican food. Ok, much needed margaritas with a side of Mexican food.

I was very excited to have my margarita (thanks Steph for the pic)

It was absolutely gorgeous out and right on the Charles River. I wish I would have got a picture of the patio because it was spacious and quite busy for a Saturday night. I wondered if there was going to be anything cheesy like a mariachi band that comes around to each table but she said there was nothing alike that there. Phew. I could have gone for tacos, nachos or fajitas but my body was in desperate need of veggies since there was a lack of greens and other fresh stuff that day and day prior. I got the Chicken Baja Salad which was adorned with a heaping portion of veggies and I swear my body felt better once the veggies were consumed.

And to go off on a short tangent……

Look who Matilda got to meet while in Boston?

Matilda and Cecil got along very well. They reminisced about the days of Eisenhower and when you could get a quality cup of coffee for $.10.

Sunday was another long, fun day around Boston. And visiting a city means one thing–blogger meetup!

The Other Side was very  *ahem* interesting. By interesting, I mean hipster. Our server had jorts on while another man sported a fedora and other people just had a sense of irony about them as hipsters do. The whole seating arrangement still vonfuses me since the host said there couldn’t be more than 49 people in the building at once so he could have sat us partially before everyone arrived but then if more people arrived after that and our guests hadn’t, they would have to wait for someone to leave. We told him how many people were in our party and he couldn’t grasp the fact that we had five people in our party, not five. I guess he wasn’t a genius at math like in Good Will Hunting, maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part that I would run into some closet prodigy.  Leave it to me to order a meaty dish at the mostly vegetarian/vegan restaurant.  I don’t care, the Ham Solo was worth every single bite!

 

Ashleigh, Stephanie, Caitie

Me and Erin

Matilda even made a guest appearance!

Group Shot!

Ashleigh, Erin, Caitie, me, Stephanie

 Another successful blogger meetup! It was wonderful to meet these ladies and put faces/names to the blogs, take part in some good conversation, enjoy good food and drink and escape the heat for the day. I love how real the Boston girls are and they were just all around fun!