And to think that I saw it on Newbury Street (#SFWApro)

One of the things I loved about Boston is that it looks like I imagine a city would look. A mix of huge skyscrapers with long blocks of old red brick buildings, often with stores on the bottom and apartments up top.
That was particularly the case with Newbury Street, which was a little shopping district within a few minutes walk of the Hilton. On the ground floor and the basement level, all kinds of shops and restaurants. Above them, apartments.


We did a lot of eating there. Sonsie’s, visible in the first photo, offers tasty pastas and pizzas, among other things. There was a good Italian restaurant and a really good local ice cream store. Kashimir was a very, very good Indian restaurant. Amusingly, it was absolutely flocked with sparrows watching for crumbs and often finding them (see below)

We also ate breakfast there at the Trident, Boston’s last indie bookstore (not counting used) according to TYG. The omelette I had (brie and apple) was delicious. And of course I supported the store by buying a couple of books and somehow squeezing them into my overstuffed computer satchel on the trip home.
The street was always teaming with people going to their homes, shopping, going to eat. It had a real energy, the way I’ve felt in other cities when people actually live in the public spaces. I liked it a lot.
Oh, while I’m posting, there’s one other tidbit I forgot about the Mensa gathering. In the Gen X suite, we ran into a couple of people who spoke American sign language, one a teacher from Gallaudet University (the big-name college for deaf students), another who had deaf parents.
While TYG and I both practice sign language, it’s really amazing to watch people so fluent in it. It was also interesting to see that where I make my signs very carefully and precisely, they seemed to sign the way people talk in casual conversation, much less precise and exact (or so it seemed to me watching). It made it harder for me to follow but they had no difficulty understanding each other. I guess it’s like the difference between practicing ESL in the classroom and being actually fluent.