I know I haven’t posted about our trip to Boston and Cambridge in September, and unfortunately I have no good excuse save for the backlog of pictures and drafts that I have in my folders! (sigh) You can only blog so much in a day….

I’ll start at the end, how’s that? The picture above are goodies from Stel at Baby Rambutan, whom we finally met! Our families had a lovely time together. We arrived in Cambridge on a Saturday and went to the MIT Museum, as my boys (including the hubby who’s a mechanical engineer) are big robot fans. Then we had lunch at the Cambridge institution Mary Chung’s, where we had our fill of Szechwan food — I forgot to ask that they tone down the heat on the Dun Dun Noodles, so we were scarfing down water with each bite (we should have brought milk!). But everything else was just perfect and exactly what we were hoping for — especially the soup dumplings, which the kids loved that we had to place several orders . Mary Chung’s is a small hole in the wall, nothing pretentious about it, and for a family of 6 who just got off a 6-hour drive, that’s a blessing.

Sunday was spent in Boston seeing historical landmarks like Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution. Particularly difficult to navigate at the time because of all the construction going on, but that’s not a complaint. We had lunch at Faneuil Hall where hubby indulged my love of lobster with a lobster roll. Yum!!! After lunch, we walked all the way to the
Boston Children’s Museum. The kids spent a good two hours exploring while we waited to meet Stel and her family.

What’s thrilling about it, not only for me and Stel, but for our families as well, is that we’ve never had an EB before! Hubby and I are pretty cautious people; after we got married we’ve tended to stay in our comfort zone socially, so it was really neat to meet these folks. Stel and I did spend a few hours on the phone the few days before we met, so we all felt like we’ve known each other for a while, even the kids! You should have seen our boys. They made fast friends and on our way out my boys were already asking me when they would get to see Stel’s family again. One day soon, I hope!

Anyway, Stel and family took us to the No Name Restaurant, right by the water, so the view was beautiful, although to be honest, we spent more time chatting than enjoying it:D. Now if all people were like Stel I wouldn’t hesitate to go on more of these EBs LOL. I can’t believe the “pabaon” (goodies) she sent with us on our way back to the hotel. What an angel — these are things I have to drive several hours just to find. I’m sure you won’t be surprised that the pandesal became our midnight snack along with the mango juice. And when we got home the next day, too wiped out to cook, dinner was corned beef and tuyo (dried fish in oil), courtesy of Stel. But regardless of foodie gifts, it was such a heart-warming experience just to see a fellow foodie friend. Salamat again, Stel dear!