Boxing - Boston - Booze

Saturday, August 26 - We were invited to a pay-per-view fight party tonight by our friends, Wendy and Charly.  We aren't much into boxing or MMA, but this much-ballyhooed match between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor made for a great event to grill out and toss back a few.  We were only two of a few who thought Mayweather would not succumb to an upset and Ashlee even guessed the 10th round as to when "Money" Mayweather would cash in which he did with a TKO of McGregor, who did pretty well in his first professional boxing match vs. an undefeated champion of the sport.

Tuesday, August 29 - We took advantage of $5 Movie Night at our local Roxy Movie Theaters which is all recliners now by the way (hooray!!) so Ashlee could FINALLY see Wonder Woman (second showing for me). She loved it as did I again.

Friday,  September 1 - Well, we had Live on the Green backstage VIP tickets again  to see Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors and Sheryl Crow tonight.  Unfortunately, it got rained out due to Hurricane Harvey.  It was rescheduled for Sunday, but we will be in Boston. Too bad, but at least we are getting a refund.

Saturday, September 2 -  We took  off today for a long holiday weekend trip up to Boston, a city we have both been to together for a brief period several years ago (pre-blog) and have always wanted to come back to and spend more time in.   I had some flight credit on JetBlue Airlines to use, so we cheated on our usual Southwest carrier and we have to say it was a  pretty good little tryst.  While you don't get to check any free bags, you did get a comfy assigned coach seat, free drinks and snacks, fast and free internet and free TV.  We may have to use these guys again!

It was a beautiful day when we flew into Beantown.

We rented a small street-level apartment in downtown Boston through AirBnB.  It saved us a ton of money vs. a hotel and gave us more room and privacy.  The location was the best thing with a subway stop just around the corner and it is across the street from the Prudential Center Mall (where we got Dunkin Donuts breakfasts every morning).  Our apartment was still being cleaned when we arrived, so we hung out across the street at the Prudential Center and had lunch inside the giant Eatly emporium and had a delicious seafood lunch at one of the restaurants inside it called Il Pesce.  I had a swordfish dish that was out of this world good!

After walking a bit of the Freedom Trail and having a drink at the country's oldest bar, The Bell in Hand Tavern, but finding it and the whole area way too crowded, we jumped on the clean, safe subway (the oldest in the nation as well) and headed over to Cambridge to check out the Harvard University campus.  The ornate main entrance gate was closed to visitors, but otherwise the campus was fully open to explore. 

We stopped by the John Harvard statue  on campus to rub his left foot for luck.  So far, so good on that.  We honored the great man again later on by having a couple beers nearby at the John Harvard Brewery and Ale House before heading back to our apartment and calling it a night.

Sunday, September 3 - We woke up to rain this morning and it pretty much set in for the entire day. However, it didn't deter us from getting out and meeting up with our Secret Food Tour of Boston's North End around lunch time.  This 3-hour walking tour took us to some great spots in the historic and beautiful North End neighborhood.  We even got lucky that the rain subsided for the most part while we were walking from place to place.

Our first three stops were inside the enclosed Boston Public Market, a non-profit open market for regional farmers, fisherman, etc. to offer their wares in downtown Boston without the expensive overhead of having their own stand-alone store.  We had a fresh lobster roll at Red's Best which was excellent.  We then had some excellent flavored roasted nuts at Q's Nuts.  Finally, we had a presentation and honey-tasting at the Boston Honey Company.  The photo above show's the son of the company founder and a professional beekeeper himself showing us the actual  working hive they have at the market itself.  These bees can leave and return from outside thru a vent in the top of the roof of the building.  There are two yellow and blue stripes painted on the outside to help the bees orient back to where the hive is.  Amazing!  

We moved on into the North End proper for our next five stops on the food tour that included an amazing muffuletta sandwich from the Salumeria Italiana market, a slice of pizza from the tiny hole-in-the-ground  Monica's Mercato (photo above), some 1700's style liquid chocolate from Captain Jackson's Historic Chocolate Shop, two types of delicious sausages plus local beer and cider at the Golden Goose Market and finally some fresh mini cannolis from Modern Pastry.  We were stuffed and happy after this tour for sure!

Our great  local food our guide, Leah, got very creative in finding ways to keep us out of the rain including stopping by her apartment in the North End and having her roommate throw us a towel down from their fourth floor apartment and then using that towel to dry off some chairs to sit in as we ate our pizza under the cover of trees and the shadow of the historic Old North Church steeple.  Despite the weather, this is one of the best food tours we have ever done.

We had a sunset sail scheduled for the afternoon, but the rain washed those plans out, so after our food tour ended we just did some shopping around the North End, checked out an Amazon historical film at the Museum of Science in their cool 180-degree IMAX Mugar Omni Theater.  It's a great venue but the film was a bit of snooze (literally for Ashlee!).  We closed out the day with an excellent dinner and some great craft beer flights at The Ginger Man.  We headed back to the apartment fairly early and fired up the free Netflix there and started getting into their popular new series, Stranger Things.

Monday, September 4 - Happy Labor Day!

The weather improved dramatically this morning and we headed across the street from our apartment to the Prudential Center and took the elevator 50 floors up for some stunning 360 degree views at Skywalk there.  The view above is looking south toward Fenway Park and along the James River. 

Ashlee's co-worker and former boss, Michelle, and her boyfriend, Adam, live just outside Boston and offered to pick us up today for some lunch in the North End and a tour on the famous DUCKS this afternoon.

We had a lot of laughs and a good lunch at the Florentine Cafe in the North End.  Don't ask what Ashlee is doing here...

A great view of The Old State House out the window of our bright pink amphibious DUCK vehicle at the start of our fun tour on  the streets of Boston and in the James River.  Thanks to Michelle and Adam for buying the tickets for us and hanging out with us today.

It was a perfect night for some baseball.  Michelle and Adam dropped us off near beautiful Fenway Park.  We grabbed a couple beers and a snack at Cheeky Monkey Brewing  next door before going in to find our seats in right field .  We had a couple Fenway Franks for dinner and watched the hometown division-leading Red Sox get pushed around by the cellar-dwelling Toronto Bluejays.  Oh well, still a fun time overall.  It was an easy walk back to the apartment afterwards.

Tuesday, September 5 -  It was time to head home but not before we got a make-up harbor sail for the one that got rained out on Sunday.

It was a perfect morning for sailing in the Boston Harbor.  We were only two of five guests aboard the beautiful old Liberty Star schooner for an hour and half sail.  What a great way to end our stay!

Before jumping on the subway to the airport, we stopped back by the Boston Public Market and had some delicious fresh fish tacos at Red's Best for lunch.  Now THIS is the second great way to end our stay!
Thanks, Boston, we hope to be back as soon as we can!

Saturday, September 9 - On our way to Chattanooga today to celebrate Ashlee and Paige's birthday, we made a couple of fun stops...

After passing by the sign for it hundreds of times, we finally made our back into Cascade Hollow near Tullahoma for a visit to the George Dickel Distillery.  We had an interesting tour and a good tasting of four of their productions.

We also made a quick stop to a place we haven't been to together in quite a while, beautiful Signal Point Park on Signal Mountain in Chattanooga.  Sunset was just starting when we arrived for the awesome view of the Tennessee River below.