Me + Beer = Happy (paraphrased from my Dad's shirt)

What do a tour guide, a tasting and a T-Rex have in common? Hint: it’s not a Steven Spielberg movie.

My parents came to visit this weekend, and since I’ve lived here going on 4 years, they’ve done the duck tour and Freedom Trail a time or two. This time we wanted to be more low key and less crowding onto the green line to catch a Sox game (saving $200+ dollars on tickets wasn’t terrible, either). So what did I do? Book us seats on a boat tour and tentatively map out our afternoon at a local brewery and mini-golf course (b/c you know what’s really low-key? Having a plan).

You may have sailed the Charles before, but you haven’t really lived until you’re cruising at 20 knots with the threat of rain and Asian tourists (unintentionally) photo-bombing all your pictures. We did manage to snap a few keepers, though.

Is it just me or does being on a boat really build up your appetite? We had breakfast and second breakfast snacks before we left, and the boat tour wrapped up around 1:30, not even my normal lunchtime, but I was chomping at the bit to get dry land and a juicy meal. We headed back to our neck of the woods to try this little hole in the wall Mexican place that always looks closed. I guess that’s just their décor, b/c they said they’ve been open for over a month now. Good thing to know, b/c after that meal, B and I will definitely be regulars. Anyone who offers giant burritos and doesn’t charge extra for guac is worth the trip, even if there is no off-street parking. 

After lunch we headed to a brewery that we’ve been wanting to check out, since it’s about 2 miles from our place. If you’re opening a brewery, you obviously want to make sure it’s in a highly accessible area w/ lots of signage and public transit. Or your local construction zone/industrial parkway will suffice. There was a bit of confusion over finding the place. And more confusion at the fact that another brewery rented space in the next room and was none too pleased when we kept asking where they got the idea for the owl logo, when their logo was in fact, not an owl. 

Fortunately, no confusion about the bathroom vs. emergency bathroom. Someone obviously took great care to distinguish between the two. 

No obligatory tour you have to feign interest in just so you can get to the tasting? This is my kind of brewery (sorry Sam Adams). We did a tasting of their samples, and then sampled some again, just to be sure. 

What I was completely sure of is that strawberries and kiwi belong in my fruit salad, not my beer, and the last one tasted like someone found a half-empty wine cooler and poured it into a half-empty solo cup that had been sitting out all night. Vom dot com.

My dad wasn't a fan, either...and I don't think there's too many beers Joe McCarthy doesn't enjoy. 
Just look at his shirt.

After buying a few growlers and proceeding to drink most of them back at our place, we ventured out for some mini-golf. We sidle up to the first hole and I’m commenting on how there’s only a handful of people playing, but of course we get stuck right behind the family with three kids under the age of ten. After about three holes, they shoot ahead of us and the ones doing the bitter commenting are the three guys behind us who are practically on the PGA tour. They were good sports about it, though, especially after we asked them to take our picture.

After mini-golf I wanted to treat my parents to a great meal at a nice restaurant. And then I remembered that Fuddrucker’s was right down the street and I hadn’t been to a fixins’ bar all week. Beth made sure we had the best seats in the house, though. If you close your eyes, you can almost convince yourself you’re at Fenway.

Fuddrucker's or Fenway? The world may never know. 

It all adds up to another A+ visit, you can see. Clearly I'm the girl w/ the inside scoop on Boston, so if you have any questions about your upcoming visit, don't think twice about asking me for the must-see attractions. If you're lucky, there might be a non-emergency bathroom in there.