Boston Diary - June 4

Today was a rainy day in Boston. Most of you know that I've now vowed to avoid breakfast here at the hotel, so I decided to give the Paramount a try. I knew from my research beforehand that it was one of the best places to eat breakfast in Boston. I had to walk through the Boston Public Garden to get there. Terry was bragging on his garden yesterday, but this one is just as spectacular in other ways. Here are a few pictures from this trip. I took a ton of them when I was here in September 2006 so I didn't snap quite as many today, especially since it was raining.

These swans were enjoying their little stay on the grass.

Make way for ducklings!

The real ducklings. There are three of them to the left of the bigger duck, but some of them were taking a dip so they are hard to see!

Look in the tree. What do you see? That little guy was enjoying that nut!

I love the buds!

What kind of tree is this?


My malted Belgian waffle with fresh fruit from the Paramount. It was absolutely wonderful!

I spent the morning researching at NEHGS. I utilized a few more Essex County records. Then I utilized some Grafton County, New Hampshire records including the towns of Plymouth and Hebron. I made a list of all the manuscripts that I knew that I'd want to look at in the afternoon. Most of what I discovered just reinforced what I already had.

Before long it was time for lunch. The last time I was in Boston I was only able to visit the gift shop at Cheers. I decided that it was time to really go "where everybody knows your name."

This was called Cliff's Cranberry something or other. It's a non-alcoholic drink made of cranberry, lime, and ice cream.
This was the Cheers Cheeseburger.

This, of course, was the bar area. (I think it was too early for Norm and Cliff to be there.)

Now, after lunch, I headed on back to NEHGS to hit the manuscript collection. I figured that it would take most of the afternoon, and it did take a good portion of it. Quite a few of the manuscripts were compiled genealogies done by others. Some did a better job than others. There were also some town records and some various other records that persons had transcribed in letters and such. After going through these, I went back up to the 6th floor reference room and told David Dearborn, the reference librarian, that I was working on a line with which I thought he was pretty familiar. I shared with him my Dearborn ancestry. He told me which of the larger manuscript collections that I'd avoided would be useful. Then he shared with me his research on my branch of the family. I, in turn, supplied him with some information on my immediate branch that he did not have. I went back to a table and read through his information which is well-documented.

A lot of the information that I need now is on microfilm which is LDS film. I will probably use some of it tomorrow, but I know that I can have access, even if it means a delay in receiving it through the local Family History Center.

I walked back to the hotel to put up my research before heading out for supper. Tonight's theme was Chinese (with a twist). I decided to hit Myers + Chang which is in the South End. I had read about it in two different publications that recommended it. This meant a new adventure for me. I took the Green line from Copley Square down to Boylston where I needed to transfer to the Silver Line (which is the bus). I took it to the E. Berkeley St. stop. My directions had said that this was the nearest stop. I thought that meant that I'd have to walk, but right there in front of me was the restaurant! I ordered Green Papaya Slaw for the dim sum and Chicken & Rapini Stirfry for the main dish. The slaw had 3 of those little spice indicators next to it. The stirfry had two of them.

This is the green papaya slaw. As you can see, green papaya is nothing like the fruit papaya. It was certainly a unique taste. It kind of grew on you, but the heat kept building as you ate it as well. By the way, if you are wondering, I did eat the entire meal with chopsticks!
These are some Chinese pickles that they brought out to me since I was a first-timer. I really only ate a few of the carrot ones, but I was glad they mostly tasted of vinegar and not dill.
This is the main course--chicken and rapini stirfry. It was quite tasty.
This was a ginger-lemon mini-custard that they gave you at the end to cleanse your palate. Very tasty!