Christmas Holidays 2015 - USA and Canada

[chooms]

Part 2 – the food

Here is the menu from the flight:















Continued….

 

[chooms]

And the food…

I went with the tasting menu with a couple of changes.

I didn’t get a pic of the chicken wing or caviar tartlet because they were both too delicious and were snapped up by me too quickly… oops!

However, the table was set for what would end in a food coma:



First out was bread. Now, I haven’t had SQ or CX’s garlic bread… but this was fantastic! Even with a piece of garlic baked right into the bread (as some traditionalists would have it)





Then, I swapped out the corn soup for the prawn chowder that was part of the small plates menu. Best decision ever:

Apologies for what is left of the scallop escabeche… but again, it was too good. Scallops cooked perfectly (which I found surprising for a plane)



For the main, I went with the Bannockburn chicken with aioli and hot English mustard





Completely skipped dessert and went straight for a cheese plate (which was so-so)



By this stage, I was pretty much sleeping upright. The FA asked to make my bed and who was I to refuse. Time to get some shut-eye.

After some good spine-bashing, I awoke and decided to watch a movie. It couldn’t have been any good because I didn’t bother to write the title down! From memory, it was that Amy Schumer one… yeah, that bad.

Later, I went for a pot of tea (pictured) and the famous steak sandwich (not pictured due to being too tasty and eaten too quickly)



And before we knew it…. It was time for some breakfast:



Once again, QF completely outdo the competition on this route… particularly in F. I think we will still fly via SYD to score a chance to upgrade to F so long as QF don’t have F out of BNE.

Excellent service, great hard product and arrive safely in the LOTFAP… next up: fun times at US Customs and airport security and a brief visit to the new QF LAX Flounge.

 

[RooFlyer]

Going nicely so far. I thought they had given up the tasting menu? Was there anything not on the main F menu, or was it just tasters of the listed dishes?

 

[chooms]

Going nicely so far. I thought they had given up the tasting menu? Was there anything not on the main F menu, or was it just tasters of the listed dishes?

All taken off the existing menu. I forgot to ask (nor was offered) for the unlisted special dish.

Apologies all for the delay in finishing this TR... I'm working on it!

 

[chooms]

Qantas Flight 11
Los Angeles - New York (JFK)

0820-1554 (Scheduled)
0908-1628 (Actual)
B747-400
Seat: 2A & 2B



Upon arrival in LAX, we were first off the plane and to our surprise, bags were one of the first out (we've been down the first tag-last out here before).

US Border control was actually not too bad, even with having to line up due to MsChooms' new passport since the last time we were over there.

Bags dropped before heading to re-enter TBIT...

The security line was horrendous. To make things even worse, there were not one priority line open. Despite arriving in F, being WP and travelling J to JFK, we were told to line up with the rest (yeah I know, real DYKWIA statement there, but for a newly refurbished terminal with many premium carriers, a dedicated priority line is clearly unacceptable).

It took 45mins for us to get through... and as I said, we were first off QF11 from SYD. Those continuing in Y would have no chance making the connecting flight to JFK.

We decided to race into the QF F Lounge for a toilet break and potentially a caffeine hit. It was lucky we did (instead of heading to the gate) as sure enough, they were holding the flight back for those to clear security.

Managed to get in a shower and a glass off bubbles too... no food as still full from the plane.

Sure enough, boarding was called and the jet lag was starting to kick in... my desire to stay awake for the entire trip was well and truly over, so I caved in and slept most of the time to JFK. I did manage to eat the tuna tataki salad which was delicious, but no pics of food (sorry!). Here is the menu:

 

[chooms]

American Airlines 235
New York (JFK) - Boston (BOS)

2015-2120 (Scheduled)
2052-2130 (Actual)
B737-800
Seat: 7A & 7B (Y)



We booked this later flight due to the fluctuating times QF11 gets into JFK... turns out we were late into JFK and obviously allowed enough time to transfer terminals, but our flight to BOS was also delayed. But this only resulted us in getting 10mins late as this is such a small flight.

Upon arriving into Terminal 8 from Terminal 7, we stumbled on the lines for security, but at least priority queue was operational.

Arrived to what can only be described as the old PER QP on steroi_s: AA's JFK Flagship Lounge. Not a spare seat in sight, terrible food choices and the loud phone calls/boozy conversations in full swing. Admittedly, there were a few trans-con and Int'l flights departing that evening, but compared to the LAX Flagship lounge, we were actually better in the terminal.

Anyway, eventually found a seat and grabbed a beer.



Attempted to taste some food but it was inedible. Counting down the hours here did not seem too appealing, so MrsChooms and I decided to wander around the terminal a little bit to hold off the ever-worsening jet lag.

Our flight to BOS was departing from gate 35 which is over in the C gates from the main terminal. There was another AC in this concourse, but didn't bother going in.

As soon and butt was in the seat for this flight, I crashed. Jet lag situation wasn't good... all I was craving was a nice decent matters to pass out on.

 

[chooms]

Boston

Prior to leaving Australia, I looked into the various transport options getting from BOS to the hotel. Yeah, we could have taken the cheap and nasty option with bus transfers or even the subway, but after 24 hours on a plane, we didn’t want to go through any hassles.

Taxi, town car or Uber?

I use Uber all the time in Australia (and we were planning on doing the same in the USA) so it could be an option, but didn’t want to book it when we arrived.

Something similar to Uber that I found was Blacklane. It was basically Uber, but towncars only and you could book in advance either through the App or on their website.

Booked a ‘Business Class’ car from the SYD F lounge and had a nice Mercedes S class take us from BOS to the hotel for US$40 (including a US$10 voucher for first use). Can’t complain for that.

We were a little late arriving into BOS, but the driver had the flight details and even with no roaming (bloody Telstra jacking up their zone charges for USA and Canada), he had emailed through his location which I picked up courtesy of free wifi at the airport.

The driver met us at the luggage carousel and we walked across the road to where the car was conveniently parked in between the terminals. Perfect and without a hitch.

Nice clean car with the usual trimmings of UberBlack service. Highly recommend it.

Accommodation:
Sheraton Boston
Booked: Executive Club King
Actual: Executive Club Deluxe Suite

Given we were arriving about close to 24 hours’ worth of flights, I thought we should treat ourselves a little and get a nice Club Room at the Sheraton. There were some good prices going at the time and I even used an SPG BRG to make it even better.

At check-in, we must have looked like death. The agent in the SPG priority line seemed to take pity on us for enduring the four flights to get to Boston and upgraded us to one of the club suites.

Whilst the room was a little outdated and old, it was fine for what we wanted that night: sleep.

Now, we were on holidays so we slept in a little, however we woke and opened the curtains to this fantastic view of Boston, Back Bay, Charles River and MIT through to Harvard:



Not too bad at all.

As for the hotel itself, it is what we had come to expect of Sheraton: large monoliths catering to conferences and a place to rest your head. But, we liked this one because of the central location to everything.

Right next to Copley Place and Prudential Center which included access to the Boston subway ‘The T’. We would use this as our primary mode of transport in the city for the duration of our stay and found it simple and easy to use.

Our first morning was spent recovering from jet lag and a little bit of exploring the city centre. We had woken up too late to try the breakfast in the Exec Club (which in the end wasn’t worth the wait for the lifts up to the higher floors for.

We tried the lobby breakfast area ‘Café Apropos’ which was still serving their al a carte menu and buffet. Of course I went the buffet (can’t resist those US buffets) whilst MrsChooms went a modest omelette from the menu.

After refueling, it was decided we would explore the city a little.

Off we trundled to the Copley Place subway stop and grabbed a couple of ‘CharlieCards’ and loaded them up with a 7-day pass for US$19 each. This was cheaper than loading up at the daily rate for four days at US$12 per day.

We managed to make our way to Faneuil Hall Marketplace for a quick look around (and pick up a could of Uniqlo sweaters that I had inconveniently left back in Australia).

And then we wandered the streets of Boston along the Freedom Trail towards Boston Common.



Of which, the Frog Pond had it’s skating rink all set up despite the relatively warm weather.

The next day we spent walking around Back Bay and Copley Place, taking it relatively easy and spending some dollars, well, MrsChooms was.

That evening, we had a craving for some dumplings. Now, I know Boston isn’t widely know for its thriving dumpling cuisine, however, we managed to find this tiny little hole-in-the wall place in Chinatown, Gourmet Dumpling House. It had decent Yelp ratings… and it was packed! Always a good sign.

We waited for a table which were pretty much all shared… some of the best xiao long bao I have had in a long time (up there with Din Tai Fung).

After dinner, we wandered back through the Theatre District and Boston Common to find the Duck Pond ice skating rink all lit up:



The next day was all about me and my passions: sport and politics. MrsChooms was thrilled to be dragged along all day….

First up was a walk down to Fenway Park, the oldest ball park in the MLB.



So much history… and such a great field. We went into the press box, got to sit in the original seats installed at the stadium and the green monster. Loved it.



More pics of the tour can be found here.

Next was the train up to Havard. We just wanted to go to the square and visit the park. It was quite nice and had one of the nicest burgers ever at Flat Patties https://www.google.com.au/maps/plac...47,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x4a0b3a6b4ef8d47e

There are some more photos of Harvard here.

Next was the long train ride, then bus to the JFK Presidential Library. We had previously been to the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in California and really enjoyed it (particularly as it had the old Air Force One too).

For political and American history junkies out there – it is a must. However, if you were in Boston for a couple of days and not that interested, it isn’t something that should be high on your list.

We both enjoyed it though:





And then finally, for our last night in Boston – ice hockey! I had been planning our sporting adventures for months in the lead up to this trip and I managed to cover all major American sports: baseball, ice hockey, football and basketball… there is more to come in this TR.

On arriving near TD Garden, we decided to go and grab a beer first. At this stage, it was becoming more like winter with a mix of rain/snow and significantly dropping temperatures… but we could still go a nice cold beer.

We ended up finding this small bar near the arena. We stuck out like sore thumbs being the only people not in Boston Bruins gear and everyone wanting to hear our accents…

Meanwhile, after a few of these… we were happy to oblige them…



Sure enough, it came closer to game time. These guys sure know how to put on a show:



In the end, the Bruins ended up going down to the Edmonton Oilers and according to the fan next to us, we picked the worst game of the season to come and watch. Oh well. I kept the beers flowing and we stumbled back to the subway and on our merry way to the hotel shortly after the game finished.

On our way, we thought we would have one last nightcap at this bar I had eyed off across the road from the hotel called ‘Dillons’. It was an old fire station converted to this nice restaurant/bar.

This decision led to our first celebrity sighting… ten points if you can guess who he is in the photo:



Sure enough, MrsChooms had enough of my alcohol exploits and talking about Adam Sandler movies… so we shuffled across the road for some shut eye.

Next up… a hangover to DC…

 

[sausagefingers]

Is that Shooter McGavin?