Cheers and Beers in Boston - November 2016 Day 4 (Harpoon brewery and Boston Common)

[BONZO]

Cheers and Beers in Boston


CAST LIST

Me (Shaun): looking forward to the beers!
Alison: looking forward to the Cheers!

Link to trip report index: Here

Sunday 27th November 2016

I had a good sleep, probably booze induced to a certain extent, waking up at 5am. Alison had been awake for some time before I raised my sleepy head. The upside of this was that Alison had been chatting online to the girls back at home, planning the day researching breakfast options, trying to find somewhere that was open on a Sunday morning, and finally trying to plan another trip for next year!

We had coffee and showered and dressed before heading out to Theo’s Cozy Corner just a 10 min walk away towards Old North Church.

We arrived to find a tiny corner café tucked away in the backstreets mainly serving the local community but great all the same.



Simple but honest food cooked to order and a real old school charm about the place as a few locals came in for a coffee and chat over the Sunday newspapers – wonderful, right up my street!

I had ham steak, home fries, eggs and toast with a coffee and Alison had the most enormous pancakes (the size of a dinner plate) and coffee for a total of $22.





We wandered around the area and took in the Old North Church, the site of which comes from the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related to Paul Revere's midnight ride, of April 18, 1775, which preceded the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution.



We then went back to the room as Alison had been up for some hours by now and she had a catch up snooze whilst I watched the end of the F1 season on a Spanish TV channel. I’m not really a fan of F1 but the TV channels were saturated with evangelical Christian messages which I didn’t really want to watch.

We packed our bags for the day and headed out and thought about taking the trolley again as you get the second day travel free. We talked things through over a Starbucks at Faneuil Hall, I think I had some big girl’s blouse of a coffee, something seasonal.



As part of our forward planning we thought we’d take in a Brewery Tour (as you do) and narrowed it down to Sam Adams or Harpoon Brewery but Sam Adams was a bit of hike away so we just settled on Harpoon. It was still early and the weather was bright but fresh so we just thought we’d strike out and walk it, around a 30 – 45 minute walk in total.

As we walked over the bridge into the Harbour side area it was like going into a totally different and distinctive area. A whole lot of building and modernisation work going on slightly younger vibe – my thoughts, not a marketing slogan although I think I ought to sell it to them! Alas the Whiskey Priest wasn’t open although we had beer in our sights and not that far away.







Eventually, after a bit of walking we came across a small industrial estate and spotted the Harpoon Brewery sign with a young girl perched on a chair outside the entrance. Then my heart sank as we didn’t have any photo ID to do the tour although luckily for us she agreed that we at least looked over 21

We booked in for a tour and waited for a while in the bar area before being called through. It was an interesting tour with some good group interaction before going to the sampling room which was decked out with beer cans from around the world including some old chestnuts like Double Diamond that I hadn’t seen for years!

I manfully managed to work my way through the entire selection and most of the brews were pretty good but some of the IPA’s were ultra-hoppy for my taste. It was practically unlimited - they just kept filling your glass – great stuff!











Back in the bar area we ordered a couple of beer flights and pretzels, which you could watch being freshly made, along with a choice of dips. Those pretzels were so good - some of the best food we had all trip!



Absolutely fabulous and I could have stayed here all day – a real highlight of the trip to Boston if I’m perfectly honest, well worth the trip.

We rolled out of the brewery and made our way back to the hotel but took a detour via Boston Common / Boston public garden. We saw the “make way for Ducklings” statues, all resplendent in their scarves that some kind person had given them.






We took in some of the impressive buildings on Beacon Street but I needed a rest room so I pulled into some parks and recreation management tourist information office which had one onsite. It was only afterwards that we saw our one and only McDonald’s nearby, not that we’d been looking for one.

With no Starbucks for miles we found a Dunkin’ Donuts and grabbed a hot chocolate and donut to keep us going, as you do. Alison had a Boston Crème (quite nice) and I had a candy cane (not very nice – mint flavoured donuts are just not correct!)





before heading back along Beacon Street to pick the trolley up from outside Cheers Bar back to the aquarium so that we could wander back to the hotel.

We relaxed for a while before we decided we were hungry and wanted to head out for dinner. We wandered out to the Boston Public Market for something to eat which had some interesting shops and snack places but nothing really leapt out as somewhere to eat this evening so we took a short walk back to Faneuil Hall to look around there instead. It’s funny that we seem to keep ending up here one way or another!

As we were wandering around we noticed that the Christmas tree had a sound and light show so we sat and watched for a while before checking out the restaurant options. It made the whole thing very Christmassy which was lovely.

Anyway, there were a couple of Tex-Mex places here but Zuma Tex Mex grill fitted the bill for us in terms of cost and menu. Alison had shrimp fajitas with diet coke and I had a Mexican combo with a couple of beers. It wasn’t anything fancy but very tasty all the same.











It had been a really good day today – the brewery was good fun – and those pretzels! Delicious – we went to bed dreaming of them!

[P&S]

We loved the harbour area and bought the Make way for the ducklins book to read to our Grandson in a few years

[orlandosgr8]

Another great day, the brewery tour would be on my OH's list of things to do for sure

[disney owl]

another good day