{"id":140,"date":"2011-03-10T22:13:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T22:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/?p=140"},"modified":"2011-03-10T22:13:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T22:13:00","slug":"boston-bound-pax-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/boston-bound-pax-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Bound &#8211; PAX East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, I&#8217;m heading to Boston, MA for the first time, and I&#8217;m really excited about it. I found putting together a guide really helpful for myself when I&#8217;m running around in a city that&#8217;s unfamiliar, and this way I try not to miss anything fun going on.<\/p>\n<p>Things that are helpful for me, and so maybe they can be useful to someone else: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbta.com\/\">The&nbsp;Massachusetts&nbsp;Bay Transit Authority <\/a>&#8211; Day <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbta.com\/fares_and_passes\/passes\/\">passes <\/a>are $9, Weekly passes are $15. You can buy them at transit stations and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbta.com\/fares_and_passes\/sales_locations\/\">various other locations<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yelp.com\/search?find_desc=vegan&amp;ns=1&amp;find_loc=Boston,+MA\">Yelp Boston &#8211; Vegan Listings<\/a>&nbsp;&#8211; A good collection of rated restaurant options that are exclusively vegan or have vegan options. <\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"http:\/\/bostonvegan.org\/\">VeganBoston<\/a> &#8211; local boston vegan group. They hold events and provide information and support. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to Boston for <a href=\"http:\/\/east.paxsite.com\/\">PAX East<\/a>, so that&#8217;s my primary activity this trip, but I have a feeling I&#8217;ll be back again some day.<\/p>\n<p><b><u> Food Options: <\/u><\/b><br \/>\nI hunted around on twitter, yelp and the rest of the internet to find options that sounded interesting or delicious. There are quite a few places to eat veganly in Boston, so this is by no means a comprehensive list, but these are the ones that caught my eye for one reason or another.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m excited\/curious to try the Vegan Lobster from <a href=\"http:\/\/grasshoppervegan.com\/\"><b>Grasshopper Restaurant<\/b><\/a> (1 N Beacon St, Allston, MA), which looks to be a mostly asian fusion vegetarian restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Pizza from <a href=\"http:\/\/peaceopie.com\/\"><b>Peace O&#8217;Pie Gourmet Vegan Pizza<\/b><\/a> (487 Cambridge St. Allston, MA) To be entirely honest, my favourite reviews are the ones that start out &#8220;I&#8217;m not vegan&#8230; but this was amazing&#8221; and there are a few of those regarding this place. If I have the time, I will make sure to check it out. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theredlentil.com\/\"><b>Red Lentil Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant<\/b><\/a> (600 Mt. Auburn St, Watertown, MA) looks like it has some beautiful options, great presentation on the dishes that I did see. Even though it&#8217;s probably easy enough to make at home, the Shepherds Pie sounds fantastic. Word is that the desserts aren&#8217;t the best, but I wouldn&#8217;t know. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monumentalcupcakes.com\/\"><b>Monumental Cupcakes<\/b> <\/a>(Jamaica Plains Art Market 34 South St, Boston, MA) &#8211; Is not an exclusively vegan bakery, but has a couple of vegan cupcake options AND gluten free ones (which I want to bring over for my non-vegan dairy free gluten intolerant friend in Virginia\/DC).<\/p>\n<p><b><u> Fun Stuff (for me): <\/u><\/b><br \/>\n<b> Beer Tour. <\/b><br \/>\nLet me preface this with&#8230; I never liked beer. Until I discovered the clean fresh golden beverage known as pale ale, or white ale. Those acted as gateway beers, and made me curious about trying more. Boston is home to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.samueladams.com\/\">Samuel Adams Brewery<\/a> (30 Germania Street, Boston, MA), which also offers &#8220;free&#8221; (with a 2 dollar or more donation to charity) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.samueladams.com\/share-passion\/tours.aspx\">tours<\/a> every day except Sunday. Word is, you&#8217;ve got to get there early, but I&#8217;ll know for sure on Friday morning.  <br \/>\nAccording to my favourite vegan booze guide<a href=\"http:\/\/barnivore.com\/\"> Barnivore<\/a>, Samuel Adams has a <a href=\"http:\/\/barnivore.com\/beer\/48\/Boston-Beer-Company?keyword=Samuel+Adams\">pretty decent selection of vegan friendly<\/a> beers with the exception of the two that contain honey (i.e., the Cherry Wheat and the Honey Porter.)<\/p>\n<p><b> High Places! <\/b><br \/>\n<b><\/b>There are only 294 steps between you an a spectacular view of the Boston skyline if you climb in the Bunker Hill Monument (43 Monument Sq &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/bost\/planyourvisit\/publictransportation.htm\">How to get there<\/a>). At the moment I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s actually open since there is a note on the website mentioning a closure until early 2011. Call (617) 242-5641 for more info. Either way,&nbsp;it&#8217;s worth taking a picture of it at least. Reminded me a lot of the Washington Monument when I saw it.<\/p>\n<p><b> Harvard. <\/b><br \/>\nWhen I was a little girl, I always wanted to go to Harvard (or as it happens&#8230; MIT), but when I was of university age, reality set in. But since I&#8217;m in the area I can fulfill at least part of that wish with a visit to the school and the surrounding neighbourhood. I might end up wandering around by myself, but there is also a tour that starts from the university Information Center. There are also several&nbsp;museums&nbsp;on campus worth checking out <\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.umb.edu\/harborgallery\/\">Harbor Art Gallery<\/a><\/b> at UMass is a student run art space. Always free and open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10-5pm.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.icaboston.org\/\">Institute of Contemporary Art<\/a> <\/b>(100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA) <br \/>\nThings I really like about it: it&#8217;s contemporary art. It&#8217;s free 5-9pm every Thursday night, Free for youth 17 and under, and free for families on the last Saturday of each month. Otherwise <a href=\"http:\/\/www.icaboston.org\/visit\/\">admission<\/a> is $15 for adults (and $10 for students).<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/astronomy\/events\/public-open-night-at-the-observatory\/\">Public Open Night<\/a> at the <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/astronomy\/astronomy-department-facilities\/judson-b-coit-observatory\/\"><b>Coit Observatory<\/b>.<\/a>&nbsp;(on the roof of the College of Arts &amp; Sciences Building on the Boston University Campus at 725 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA) <br \/>\nThese happen most Wednesday nights, so I wont be going, but it&#8217;s a nice thing to know about. They are open weather permitting (as in, if it&#8217;s rainy, foggy, or hazy, they&#8217;ll probably be closed) and admission is free to the public.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfa.org\/\">Boston Museum of Fine Art<\/a> <\/b>(465 Huntington Ave, Boston, Ma) <br \/>\nThis is a maybe. It will be a busy few days, and I&#8217;m not sure if I want to give up nerding time. Their website isn&#8217;t very easy to use, and finding out the ticket prices was a bit of a hassle (it&#8217;s $20 if you&#8217;re an adult, $18 if you&#8217;re a student) but I like that the ticket price includes a repeat visit within 10 days, despite not being able to take advantage of it. They do also offer admission by donation on Wednesdays after 4 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mos.org\/\"><b>Museum of Science<\/b><\/a> (1 Science Park, Boston, MA) <br \/>\nAnother potential place to visit, it&#8217;s a maybe, but it looks like fun. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mos.org\/visitor_info\/admission\">Admission<\/a> is $21(and it looks like the best deal if I was to go to both the Museum of Science and the Museum of Fine Art , would be to buy the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.citypass.com\/boston\">Boston city pass<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really looking forward to exploring a city with so much history. I&#8217;m still on the bus between DC and Boston, but when I get there, I&#8217;ll pick up an umbrella (it&#8217;s going to be a rainy), pick up a weekly transit pass (it&#8217;s going to be getting a lot of use), and start snapping some pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, I&#8217;m heading to Boston, MA for the first time, and I&#8217;m really excited about it. I found putting together a guide really helpful for myself when I&#8217;m running around in a city that&#8217;s unfamiliar, and this way I try not to miss anything fun going on. Things that are&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,221,220,219,162,4],"tags":[1376],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston","category-nerd-convention","category-pax","category-pax-east","category-travel-plans","category-vegan-food","tag-vegan-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}