Another Wicked Weekend in Boston

The first weekend in February we decided to head back up to Boston with another couple for the weekend. The last time we visited Boston, it was October-beautiful weather, fall foliage, and lots of people. This visit, the weather was arctic, the trees were bare, and even though it was Super Bowl weekend, the city was scarce. Although many things didn't seem to be on our side, it didn't put any damper on our visit.

This trip, we found so many more hidden gems as we continued to explore the city. Here is a little recap of our weekend!

Driving up to Boston from the Philadelphia area is much easier than I remembered. It took us about 4 hours to get there with very little traffic. We ended up staying in an AirBnB, in Beacon Hill-which was a PERFECT location-right by the Boston Common Gardens and near many different bars & restaurants.

Friday we decided to start our trip by grabbing some drinks before dinner. We stumbled upon The Red Hat-which apparently has some of the strongest drinks in the city and is a cool little dive bar. While we were there, we met a Philly transplant who worked as a police officer for Boston for the last 20ish years.

For dinner, we obviously went to the Italian Market area of Boston and ate at a little place called Trattoria II Panino. Our dinners were TO DIE for! Everything was extremely fresh and hit every taste bud. I opted for a truffle ravioli-which I am salivating over as I reminisce about it.

After dinner, we made our way over to the TD bank center to see the Eric Church Concert. I must say, the arena was beautiful. It was very clean, very easy to get around, and the seats were perfect. Church put on a fabulous show-it lasted almost 3.5 hours, with very little down time and so much energy.

The one thing that I will mention is, after the show, we tried to go out for a little while longer-and pretty much failed. The city was pretty desolate at 12AM on a Friday. Most bars were closed and there was nothing to munch on late night. We opted to call it a night after almost freezing to death trying to find some late night entertainment.

Saturday started off with me taking a run around the city. It is by far on of my most favorite things to do while I am traveling. I know it sounds a little crazy, but I feel like we always have a packed agenda that includes a lot of site seeing, bar hopping, and food eating-and no matter how much research I have done, I always find so many beautiful hidden gems on my run. It was another FREEZING morning, but I layered up and ran down to the harbor to get my blood flowing.

When I returned, we decided to begin our Saturday in South Boston for Brunch. Ryan found a cool little place called Loco Taqueria & Oyster Bar. Sounds like an odd combination-Mexican and Oysters...but it was perfect! We were lucky enough to snag some bar seats so we could eat, drink, and listen to the live music. The bartenders were very attentive and the food was great!

We made our way back up by stopping at different bars and breweries. At around 4 o'clock, we ended up at Drink-which was one of the coolest spots along our route. Drink has a speak easy feel that has no formal cocktail menu-you simply tell the server/bartender what you like to drink and they make it for you! The boys LOVED their whiskey drinks while Alisha and I sipped on our tasty personalized cocktails.

Some of our other favorite stops along the way were the Barking Crab (get the clam chowder) and Biddy Early's (dive bar with good bar food and cheap drinks!). The one place we were really not impressed with was the Igloo bar on top of the Envoy hotel. So many people had recommended us to stop there, but it just wasn't really our vibe.

Our last day we decided to grab a lobster roll before we left town. We stopped at Alive & Kicking Lobsters. When we pulled up, we were all a little curious how this place could be ranked #1 in Cambridge, however, we were quickly reassured after our first bite. The prices were reasonable and the sandwiches were HUGE! It was the perfect way to end our trip.

Our second trip to Boston was overall a 10. The city is so clean and very friendly. The food and drinks were exceptional and there was so much to see and do. When the weather is warmer, we hope to head back!