Quick Boston TR
Me and the fam have been suck in our house for 3 months, and needed to go somewhere, so we packed the van and our masks and sanitizer and went for a 2 night stay at the Kimpton Hotel Marlowe (low point rates allowed us to use annual free nights + 27.5k point nights for our rooms).
https://www.hotelmarlowe.com/Really liked the hotel, though no pool (not relevant at this point for us). they gave us top (8th floor) connecting rooms with a great view of the canal and bridge and sunrise (warning, close the blackout shades fully or u get hit with sun hard).
location was great especially now with all the schools closed so very few people were around the cambridge area. there is a nice mall attached called Cambridgeside with a starbucks and a dunkin both open around 6-7am (kimpton cancelled coffee downstairs during pandemic, though they offered to give us a coffee machine it wouldnt have milk anyway).
we walked across the bridge to downtown boston (about a half hour) and u pass a JP Licks which is all under KVH (we enjoyed, sign up for the app before u purchase so u can get a free cone if u order as much as we did).
hotel was also a short drive to brookline, and we enjoyed all the kosher options there (as good or better than most out of town options).
got dinner first at Vittorio (but could only eat inside which felt weird), quality israeli infused food, and burgers with garlic mayo were great.
ordered breakfast delivered by Pure Cold Press - everything is delicious, as most play off of their delicious fresh whole grain bread (egg and cheese for $6 was really great with cheddar, and grilled cheese with pesto etc was awesome, avo toast with pickled onions wasnt my fave). green monster smoothie was yummy too.
classic Pizza from Veggie Crust (ubereats delivered) was like an israeli pie, very edible but not amazing. they had lots of other funky pizza options but we stuck to basics. spicy fries were crazy spicy (i knew they would be since they serve lots of indian food). garlic naan wasnt as good as i hoped it would be (but it was delivered so that affects everything). pesto alfredo penne pasta was ok, not amazing.
boston itself is very cute, impressed by how many were wearing masks. parks were pretty empty, went to robin williams bench which was nice. found a nice sprinkler setup at milk street a few blocks from the Quincy Market calls Rings Fountain (me and the kids got nice and soaked and it was empty). most things were still closed but we stayed outside and just enjoyed exploring.
Hotel charged $30 a day for parking in garage underground, but guy at the door let me park my van in the inner circle for $20 cash (for both days) which was nice. also got free $10 per day from the bar/Fred water bottles from front desk for each room (booked each night separate).
Loved the connectivity setup, usb slots on each side of the bed plus actual plugs (and also on the desk). shower was a bit weak.