Two final summer dinners

While we waited the hour it took to seat us (the table by the window was well worth it), we went over the permutations of what to order given the objectives of minimizing the amount of money we wanted to spend, maximizing the quantity of food, and making sure we hit the culinary highlights which piqued our interest.

We hit a snag however, in lacking information on portion sizes- would the plate feed two people or one person? What if the plate were to be split and the splitters also got cups or bowls of clam chowder? When we finally got around to ordering, we had only one question for the server- how big was the plate of food? When she mentioned that she'd bring some bread back, I about fell of the chair laughing, paralyzed with the added difficulty and ridiculousness of factoring bread to the food equation. Would the bread supplement the dish enough? How much bread are we talking, precisely? Is it limitless bread or one dish at a time? How much comes out at once?

Tay and I ended up splitting a dish with scallops, clams, mussels, and shrimp in a spicy pasta sauce. Fantastic. The clams were the star perfomers, hands down. Should have ordered just a ton of steamed clams. Tay got a bowl of clam chowder, and I tried the lobster bisque. They were both superb. After spending the summer searching for the best clam chowder in Boston, I announced my search at an end. It was just that good.

We dined and talked and at the end of the night, we realized that we had about two and a half hours before the metro stopped running, thereby stranding us in a bad part of town on an island. So we walked through the carnival night atmosphere of Ptown for a short bit, and then jumped back in the car and made a beeline back to the mainland.

I drove most of the way there, switching off with Saori when I started getting droopy eyed. We got the rental back within the metro hours and they had a shuttle which compliantly dropped us off at the Blue Line station after visiting all the terminals. Caught the last train of the night in, made it back after 1 am. I shot a note to my boss at Mikasa letting him know I'd be out monday, and then crashed hard.

Monday, Tay and Saoris' last day, we all slept in until noon, and then Saori and I went out walking. The ICA was closed, so we jumped on a ferry to Spectacle Island, one of the Harbor Islands of Boston. Not too expensive, and nice to get out on a boat. Obnoxious guide on the boat, but the breeze was wonderful. We only had about forty minutes on the island due the last boat leaving so we hustled up the hill/drumlin to the viewing area up on the hilltop.

Spectacle island was actually the Boston dump for many years- waves would carry trash to wash up on the shoreline, making the harbor one of the most filthy in America. After the trash had accumulated on the island to a depth of about ten feet, they covered it all in rock and dirt and planted it with native vegitation. Now, it's lovely, unbuilt, natural, and covered with a few trails, picnic tables, flowers. A ranger golf cart picked us up on the trail and dropped us off at the top, giving us time to walk around and see boston from the distance and to make our way down the rocky trail back to the pier.

Once again, Boston shines its allure- just as I begin to get worn down with the hardscape of the city, the trash in the streets, the closeness and the citiness and grunginess, theres a bunch of relatively pristine natural islands, covered with plants and hiking trails, within a 20 minute ferry ride from downtown.

After we landed, we met Tay for a last dinner at Giovanni's? Guiseppes? Giottos? something like that, in the north end. Line outside of people waiting at 6 on a monday evening. Cash only. Highly, highly commended place. We got there before tay, but the line moved so fast we had to jump back a few places to keep from being seated. Definitely worth it. I got a kind of homemade pasta with grilled sausage in a kind of arabita sauce, and we all split a bottle of wine. It was really great.

We walked the rest of the way back to the apartment, in the twilight of the day through the downtown and gardens and parks. Back home, we played bananagrams until everyone had to go pack.

Saori and Tay left yesterday morning, both made it back to their homes.