My first trip of 2024 was my first trip to New England. A friend and I set off for three nights in Boston and an intended night in New York City. Things don’t always go as planned, though.

Friday: Early Flights and Sam Adams

I woke up stupid (or should I say wicked?) early and drove to KCI. After one flight to St. Louis, I met my friend, Kassy, and got back on the same plane and headed to Boston.

My recent travels have shown that each area has their own driving habits. In Boston, the traffic rules don’t seem to apply, but honking at every whim is standard. We took an Uber to our hotel, the Kimpton Marlowe, just across the river in Cambridge. It is one of the cutest hotels I’ve stayed in. Benny stayed at home during this trip, but dogs who were on vacation were very sweetly recognized at the front desk.

After checking in, we walked to the nearby Cheesecake Factory for lunch before heading downtown to the Sam Adams Taproom. The selection of beers included several with wicked in the name. I had to go with the Slam Dunkel, not just because it is a cool name, but I love dunkel. I recently learned on DuoLingo that dunkel means dark in German, so I guess I loved the Slam Dark. We explored the sites of downtown Boston before heading back to the hotel.

Saturday: From Cambridge to Libraries

I woke up early on Saturday and wanted to explore Cambridge, but spent too much time researching the safety of doing that alone. By the time I finally got out of bed and outside, the sun was coming up on the Charles River, which was a beautiful sight.

After my short stroll along the river, we made our way to the Old Burial Ground in Cambridge. On my dad’s side of the family, the Sacketts were among the first colonists to come to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in what is now Cambridge. I thought some of the Sackett family was buried in this cemetery, but I once there I couldn’t find the information that made me think this.

We moved across the street to walk around Harvard University a bit and then headed to the Boston Public Library. The first part of the library that we explored was like any very large, modern library. As we explored more, we found the beautiful part of the library.

When we settled on Boston as the destination of our trip, the only place that I absolutely had to go to was the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. My long-standing love for both the Kennedy family and museums made this an obvious choice. This is the third presidential library that I’ve been to (Truman and LBJ were the other two) and I enjoyed them all, but this was the most special.

I had done research on where to watch the FC Bayern Munich game, but apparently not enough. We arrived at Elephant & Castle only to learn that they were playing a different European soccer game and the Bayern fan club was instead meeting near the JFK Library. I enjoyed my meal and the game (on my phone),

We couldn’t pass up a good used bookstore, so we headed to Brattle Book Shop. They had sale items (a ton of them) outside and many more books packed inside on several levels. The upstairs included very old and rare local books. Most in this section were very expensive, but we did find a few items to purchase before heading back to the hotel.

One of my favorite stops was not on my radar for very long. The bar that the TV show Cheers is based on was renamed Cheers and serves as a nice spot for food, drinks, and pretending to be in a show from my childhood. They even have cardboard cutouts of the characters from the show and the theme song plays as you walk inside.

Sunday: Fenway, Cruise & Super Bowl

On Sunday we went on a tour of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. A few things stood out on the tour of the ballpark, including the very fake coyotes placed on the field. The tour was good and included stops across the ballpark. We sat in regular seats and seats above the Green Monster. I found both to be uncomfortable. The chair in the broadcast area was the only seat that I would actually want to sit in for the length of a game.

After hitting up a food hall, we made our way to cruise of Boston Harbor. The Uber rides we took on this day lived up the craziness of Boston driving. The driver that took us to Fenway went the wrong way down a one way road and the driver that took us from the hotel to the cruise went the wrong way. The wrong way to the cruise resulted in a trip in a tunnel we shouldn’t have been in and a near miss of the cruise, but we made it and enjoyed it! I recommend taking a short harbor cruise if you are in Boston for a few days. We had a good view of downtown Boston and other areas of Boston during the cruise.

We finished off our last night in Boston with a trip to the Warehouse Bar & Grille to watch the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. I hadn’t considered it before the trip, but the Chiefs aren’t well-loved in New England. It’s still firmly Patriots country and it became clear to me that the New England fans had heard the dynasty talk about the Chiefs and don’t agree that the Chiefs are anywhere near the Patriots. We finished watching the Chiefs win their second straight championship at the hotel as we prepared for an early morning.

Monday: NYC and Philadelphia?

On Monday we took an Amtrak to New York City from Boston. It was an early morning, but I enjoyed the ride and adding Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York to the list of states that I have visited.

We headed straight to our hotel, the EVEN Hotel New York-Times Square South. We were early, but they let us check in since I have Platinum Elite status.

We didn’t plan to have long in NYC, but we had even less time than originally planned. Once in Boston, I had heard that a winter storm was approaching. By Monday it was clear that the storm would impact travel. We made visiting Central Park a priority. I was thrilled to be able to see the Plaza hotel from Central Park. Home Alone and Home Alone 2 are two holiday favorites and I always think of Home Alone 2 and this view when I think of New York.

After Central Park, we made our way to McGee’s Pub. The bar in How I Met Your Mother was inspired by McGee’s Pub. We sampled drinks with names linked to How I Met Your Mother, had snacks and changed our travel plans. We still wanted to see Six the Musical, so we reserved seats on an Amtrak leaving NYC for Philadelphia very late. We were glad we made time to see the musical that is based on Henry VIII’s six wives. It was my second time seeing it (the first on the tour in Kansas City) and I enjoyed seeing it again.

We made it to the train station and headed to Philadelphia after the show. This was our second time in Philly. The first trip was for work and we had even less time on this trip. We made it to the hotel in time to have a couple hours of sleep before heading to the airport. We made it on the plane and avoided the snow headed to New York and Boston!

Points and Miles

I used points and miles for all of the originally booked travel. I used Southwest points for the flights to Boston and returning from Philadelphia. The flights home were significantly more expensive than what I had booked originally, but I was still able to use points only after switching around future trips. The Kimpton Marlowe was 68,000 IHG points total, saving us $451.57. I used 33,000 points for the 10 hours we had use of the hotel in New York.

Review

We enjoyed our time in Boston and a tiny bit in New York. I would recommend staying at the Kimpton Marlowe if you ever visit Boston.