Category Archives: Boston

Provincetown ferry options!

  • Bay State Cruise Company

I’m on my way to Boston and – with hope – Provincetown this weekend so glad to see that the two Boston-Providence ferry services still appear to be running in early October. Not sure if I really need to book ahead – especially since we’re traveling somewhat off-season (to P-town on a Sunday in October.). Our best bet appears to be the Bay State Cruise Company because it has more ferries traveling at more times. (Departing Boston through Oct. 14 at 8:30 a.m., 1 p.m. (yes please!), and 5:30 p.m. and departing Provincetown at 10:30, 3 p.m. (yes please!) and 7:30 p.m.

At this time of the year through Oct. 14, the other service, Boston Harbor Cruises offers a ferry leaving Boston at 9 a.m. and a ferry leaving P-Town at 4 p.m.


 

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Great tips for where to stay and eat in Provincetown Mass!!

These come from our friend Kate who loves Ptown so much she got married there last year!!! We’re going in early October!

We just got back from a week there and it was so lovely. We usually search www.vrbo.com and rent an apartment from an owner. There’s a wide range of options available there in terms of location/price/size. You should be able to get a good deal wherever you go since it will be the off-season and prices drop significantly pretty much everywhere.

I would caution against finding a place too far on the east end of town, or on the other side of the highway, which would make it hard to walk to town. The far west side is about a 15 minute walk to the heart of town, so it always seems closer to me (but be wary of staying too far west if you’re not up for that). The town in general is very walkable, but it can be quite chilly there (it hit high 40s one night last week with high winds) so good to know that there are cab services around too and a ride anywhere in town limits is about $10. We sometimes find the walk to town seemed like a good idea on the way to dinner, but grab a cab on the way back if we’re not bundled up enough.

I know it won’t be beach weather, but it’s worth popping by Race Point and Herring Cove beaches, which are both nearby and great (keep an eye out for seals – they’re everywhere!). Race Point is the most dramatic, but you can drive right up to Herring Cove (no big dunes). Both are good places to watch the sunset (if it’s windy and cold, you could still enjoy it from your car at Herring Cove). You can also build a campfire on the beach if you’re feeling adventurous. You just need to get a permit from the ranger at the Province Lands Visitor Center (which is also the start of lovely bike/running trails and has nice views of Race Point & the dunes).

We have a TON of restaurant recs in town too. If you’re interested, here are our favorites:

Nor’East — Small outdoor biergarten with delicious food but might be closed that time of year — http://www.noreastbeergarden.com/

Front Street –People have recommended this place to us for years and we only made it last week. We were kicking ourselves for not going sooner because it has truly excellent Italian food in a really cozy basement with a wine cellar feel. Good for when you grow weary of lobster rolls and oysters —http://www.frontstreetrestaurant.com/home/

Ross’s Grill — Great waterview, great food, traditional/new American and seafood (love the fresh fried calamari) — http://rossgrillptown.com

Red Inn — Another great water view with delicious traditional/new American and seafood (love their scallops, and the bacon wrapped fried oysters) — http://theredinn.com/dining/dining-at-the-inn/

Mews — Again, water view and great traditional/new american and seafood (sense a theme? this place has a really tasty and rich lobster risotto) – www.mews.com  

Lobster Pot — For the classic casual new england fare, get solid lobster rolls, Wellfleet oysters, fried clams, etc here. And, of course, it also has a water view — http://www.ptownlobsterpot.com

Harbor Lounge — A good place to grab a drink with a great indoor view of the water and cozy/hip atmosphere. (We had a meet and greet here the day before our wedding.) —http://www.theharborlounge.com.

SOME LODGING OPTIONS There’s also a number of cute inns and B&Bs.(Full disclosure – I haven’t actually stayed at any of these, but have looked at rooms in the first two, and did a lot of research about lodging in town before the wedding):

The Red Inn – Upscale boutique inn located on the far westside of town (same building as the restaurant with which it shares a name). Probably a 10-15 minute walk to downtown. My parents stayed here for the wedding weekend.

Land’s End Inn – Luxury guesthouse on a hill above the Provincetown Inn with panoramic ocean views. Pricey but by far the most outlandish and cool-looking place in town, and probably the best views. Located on the far west side of town, so probably a 10-15 minute walk to downtown. Staying here seems like an event in and of itself.

Crowne Point Historic Inn & Spa – Upscale inn and great spa on a quieter street in the heart of town. You can use their salt tub and sauna facilities at the Shui Spa if you’re a guest or if you book a massage/etc there.

West End Inn – Higher end guest house on the west end of town. 10-15 minute walk to downtown.

And here’s a  B&B directory with more —  http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/provincetown-massachusetts.html

…More than you wanted about Ptown, I know, but as you can probably tell I love it there! Have a great time!

Provincetown, Massachusetts
Town

Aerial view of Provincetown, Cape Cod


Seal
Nickname(s): “P-town” or “P’town”
Motto: “Birthplace of American Liberty”

Location in Barnstable County in Massachusetts

U.S. Census Map

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Post-Boston marathon bomber standoff – a tale or two for those in lockdown

Locked down in her downtown Boston apartment on Friday during the manhunt for “Suspect #2,” my best friend from high school reports that she was getting irritated with CNN’s reference to “Suspect #1” going down in a blaze of glory. She found herself  castigating her television set for glorifying this guy. Then she realized, hey, I can actually chew out CNN in person because the anchor is right down the street. So she and her dog walked down Beacon Street and struck up a conversation with the CNN anchor, getting a somewhat frosty reception.

And then there was my niece somewhere in Watertown/Cambridge who reported on Facebook that after her neighborhood was given the initial (albeit short-lived) ok to leave their homes, she took her dog out for some fresh air and started hearing gunshots. Back into lockdown. A few hours later, Suspect #2 was in custody. Amen for that.

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Boston Lockdown

Sad to see that my post from a few days ago  – –  wondering whether  there’s a lockdown in all of our futures – – has proven true for the people of Boston and neighboring Cambridge and Watertown.  Having visited  Boston last fall and as a former resident of Somerville and Brookline, I have a clear picture in my mind of the real neighborhoods and people affected. But it still feels not quite real, like a trailer from one of those ridiculously over-the-top violent Hollywood movies where Morgan Freeman is the president and Bruce Willis or Sly Stallone or even Arnold is coming to the rescue. Not this time. Hoping the very real police and FBI  capture this second Chechen brother alive and find out more about what is behind all this terror and mayhem in Boston so we can try to prevent even more.

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Lockdown – the ultimate trip?

Hardly a day goes by, it seems, without another report of a school or office building or college in lockdown, in response to yet another threat of a mass shooting or mass knifing or terrorist bombing or crazed person in the vicinity. Which has me wondering, inevitably, if there’s a lockdown in all of our near futures.

And what one does during a lockdown. (Is there a lockdown etiquette? Lockdown do’s and don’ts? Lockdown reading? A lockdown play list – music to lockdown by?  Lockdown lullabies?)

And if you’ve never fully lived until you’ve been through a lockdown.

And if being in a lockdown will become a new badge of honor or status symbol or cause for one-upmanship or inspire an anthology of lockdown tales, lockdown lore?

Or if it’s bad taste to  think or articulate such a thing?

Or if there is any humor whatsoever to wring out of this otherwise dismal situation we all find ourselves in?

475 × 210 – studentsrebuild.org

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Solid Sound Festival – in June in the Berkshires

MASS MoCA 1.jpg
Established 1999

Below is the post I was blogging yesterday when the bombs started going off in Boston, completely diverting my attention – and everyone else’s, as the bomber(s) no doubt intended. I am hugely relieved that my friends and family in Boston (including my niece, mentioned below, whose wedding we’re going to in Boston next fall) are now accounted for and are okay. But of course that’s not the case for many other people. And I can’t say that life feels like it has returned to normal. The blast in Boston has reverberated far beyond and we all feel shaken (and sad and angry and puzzled). But we have to carry on, right? So  with that in mind, I blog on…

Unfortunately we won’t be anywhere near the Berkshires until next fall when we go to Boston for a family wedding. But if I could I surely would get there in June for a music festival “curated”  by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy at one of the cooler contemporary art museums I’ve visited in recent years, MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) in the faded factory town of North Adams, Mass. Wilco, Neko Case and Yo La Tengo will be performing, among others, during the three-day Solid Sound Festival from June 21 to 23. And you can even camp downtown. If you don’t want to camp, there are some interesting lodging options including Porches, a series of renovated rowhouses across from the museum, which is located in a huge sprawling 19th century factory. Or in nearby Williamstown, try the remarkable River Bend Farm B&B, a  meticulously restored 18th century house.

Bostonmarathonlogo.jpg
The Boston Marathon logo
Date the third Monday of April

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My friend in Boston’s Back Bay okay….

Just got an email and text from my best friend from high school who lives about five minutes from where one of the bombs went off in Boston. She and her husband are okay. Thank God.  But feel heartsick watching the scene on TV and knowing many others are not okay.

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Bombing in Boston – words cannot express…

Just heard about the bombing at the Boston Marathon and trying to process – if that’s even possible – and make sure that various friends and relatives who live in the area are okay. We just got word that our niece Nora M. (not our niece Nora F. who goes to school at U Mass in Amherst) is in her office building downtown, which is under lock down. From what I can tell, one of the bombs went off about five minutes from where my best friend from high school lives in Back Bay (I visited her there last fall and we walked on a beautiful day to the T station near what is now a bomb scene.

I remember fondly watching the Boston Marathon  when I lived in Boston in the early 1980’s – and the thought of a bombing going off in that crowd is a little too real.  I was thinking about the marathon today after hearing it would include a special tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. I am at a loss for words.

Bostonmarathonlogo.jpg
The Boston Marathon Logo

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RIP Boston Phoenix, my former employer

bestnom1000x50

In 1982, I moved back to the U.S. after wandering the world for awhile. The Boston Phoenix gave me safe harbor and for that I will always be grateful. The paper gave me some steady freelance assignments and even found me a grunt work part time job doing something or other so I could pay my rent – a room I shared with four people in a tripledecker in Somerville, a room I found through the Phoenix’s classified ads. So it was sad to read today that the Phoenix is folding.

My year working at the Phoenix was one of the hardest I can recall, as I barely eked out a living. I remember taking a shoebox of receipts to an accountant who prepared taxes for various Phoenix people. I was terrified I would be saddled with a big tax bill but the accountant informed me that I had earned a whopping $6,000 and the IRS would be paying me. But I met some really talented people at the Phoenix, some of whom went out of their way to help a young writer…Gail Caldwell, who later won a Pulitzer at the Globe was one of them. Editor Richard Gaines was another. Beyond that, the Phoenix had a distinctive voice and niche in Boston, truly an alternative to the Globe. RIP old friend.

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Highlights in Salem, Marblehead, and Boston Mass.

The lovely view from my relatives’ house in Swampscott, Mass.

I was so consumed by the drama of losing and finding my wallet after a day wandering around Salem last Saturday that I didn’t get a chance to write about all the cool things I found while wandering. So here are a few:

Peabody Essex Museum and House of Seven Gables are the big attractions and both looked well worth a visit but it was so nice out that I didn’t want to stay inside or commit to one attraction alone.

Chestnut Street, lovely old street lined with beautiful mansions. And nearby on Essex Street I didn’t visit the Ropes Mansion but I walked around its lovely (free-to-the-public) little landscaped flower garden with gorgeous dahlias (my favorite) and lots of other varieties.

– I ate at Life Alive, a vegetarian restaurant on Essex Street that reminded me of the ones I used to go to in Ithaca during college (albeit a little more upscale). It’s also in Cambridge’s Central Square and Lowell’s Historic Arts District. ( After much pondering of the extensive menu, I went with The Swami – a half bowl for $5.55. It was a mix of brown rice, curry miso, tamari almonds, carrots, corn, broccoli, kale, raisins, onions, and a “sprinkle of nutritional yeast” (which is tastier than it sounds.)

Re-find was among several alluring consignment stores in town. (I bought a pair of jeans and a top for $20 at the women’s Re-find on Washington Street…there’s a men’s Re-find around the block.

– Gothic-celt-witchy-new england fop vibe: All day I kept walking past one or two people decked out in eye-popping costumes – and not just the girls hawking various Witch attractions. There were people dressed in black corsets and flowing black shirts with crosses and tattoos; guys dressed in top hats and tails and women in Victorian riding gear or some such. Never did figure out what was going on but at one point they did all gather outside a former  bank on the Walking & Shopping Mall (Essex Street) that sold their kind of clothes at makeshift stalls inside.

– I also enjoyed sitting on a park bench on the lovely Salem Common and near Pickering Wharf and the tall ship the Friendship (although that will forever be remembered as the-place-I-lost-my-wallet.

Coast Guard Air Station Salem patch

– I tagged along with my sister-in-law when she went to the Saturday farmer’s market in Marblehead – smaller than Des Moines but more high-end and high dollar (some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and dahlias stuck out.) I also went her to the seafood shack by the water to pick up some lobsters for fabulous lobster bolognaise that she made later for dinner.

– In Boston’s Back Bay, I had coffee at a cute place, the Wired Puppy on Newbury Street and visited The College Club of Boston on Commonwealth Avenue, the nation’s oldest women’s college club (founded in 1890 and host to the likes of Mark Twain),  which my friend PJ belongs to and which has lovely old rooms.


The College Club of Boston

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