Meetup in Boston July 4th weekend

Jim and I will be in the Boston environs July 3 to July 6, and would love to make this a meetup weekend. No specific plans as yet, but we can use this thread to make some.

Hey there, 75ers! Any of you in the Boston area for the 4th? MichiganTrumpet, magicians_nephew, chatterbox and I will be in Boston that weekend. We'd love to see more of you!

I will be there...

I suggest we not do the meet up on the 4th of July itself. Too difficult to get around downtown with the million plus people there for the Pops Concert, fireworks, etc. Happy to do a cook out at my house if that is the only day that works for everyone. I live about 20 miles west of the city off the turnpike. If everyone PMs me contact information I can text or email more info.

Otherwise, how about meeting over in Cambridge and we can do the Harvard and Grolier bookstores and have a bite to eat?

Jim and Judy - I do a great tour of Boston if you are interested. PM me with your info and I can shre some details.

For me, what would make this possible is doing it somewhere central, since I'll already be coming in from Providence and going home again the same evening. Anywhere in Boston/Cambridge that can be reached easily from South Station is great, but I don't drive & don't really want anyone to have to be chauffeuring me to/from train stations. I'll roll with whatever other folks opt for, especially Judy and Jim. Since I can & do see them when I'm in NYC, if the cookout option works best for all, c'est la vie.

Cambridge sounds doable, Marianne. I'll check with Jim, of course. Thanks for the invitation to the cook-out but there's no need to want to complicate things for Suzanne. And I've never even seen the Grolier bookstore.

And I completely sympathize with avoiding the 4th. I hate crowds (even though I love fireworks).

Judy -- I have a whole two page "What to do/see in Boston" that I prepared when our firm was hosting a professional organization in the city. Too big to cut and paste into a message, but I can e-mail it to you if you pass along your information.

I also have some ideas for you for the 4th if you'd like.

Suzanne -- There is a stop on the red line @ South Station, which takes you directly to Harvard Square. Couldn't be easier. I'll check the commuter rail info from Providence to see about timing.

Thanks for the link, Marianne. I'd love to participate in this MeetUp but I can't confirm at the moment because if all goes well with my plans, I'll be returning from Australia on July 3. If a client puts a spanner in the works after a conference call tomorrow night, then they may need me to stay for another week in which case I won't be back until July 12.

Jim/Judy -- I am going over to Judy's profile to post the "Guide to Visiting Boston" I prepared about three years ago for a professional gathering my office hosted. Don't know if all the links are still good, but it gives you the general flavor of the place. Would have e-mailed to you, but I don't have an e-mail address. Sorry if it takes up a lot of room.

The group was staying at the Intercontinental -- Don't kow at which hotel you are staying, so take some of the commentary as being irrelevant. It was a pretty traditional crowd, so the restaurant recommendations are pretty staid. Caroline will have some more ideas to be sure!

Envy. But I've been up that way too recently to do it again in two weeks. :-(

So, I've just volunteered for that shelter for the 3rd. I am available any time on the 5th or 6th if that works out for everyone.

Caroline, perhaps you can still make it. Hope so! If not, how about some recommendations for eats in Harvard Square?

>10 qebo: Katherine -- Sorry to miss you!

Marianne, thanks for the info. I'll take a look. We are pretty familiar with Boston (maybe not the restaurants), but there's always something new to look forward to. The 5th would work for us, and Sunday morning - I think our train home leaves 3-ish.

The T is easy, Marianne -- there are lots of departures, and the 5th/6th will be easier than the holiday. I can check the schedule once we pick a day & then swap to the Red Line & meet you at the Co-op or wherever.

I checked and there is Providence train which gets into South Station at 12:30 on Saturday. Say 30 minutes or so to get on the Red Line to Cambridge?

Shall we say meeting somewhere in Harvard Square for Lunch at 1:00 on July 5th, followed by the book frenzy?

I'm open to some ideas for lunch. There are lots of places in the Square, but seating for a group can be limited.

John Harvard's is a good location and LOTS of seating. Not the most gourmet, but variety of sandwiches/salads and their OWN locally brewed beer.

Any other thoughts?

Hey, don't forget to get your 75er swag here so you can find each other in a crowd!

Marianne already has her totebag. ;-)

Well, Judy, Jim and I already know each other. We can cling together, and anyone else can look for a trio of bibliomaniacs.

Here is the link for the menu at John Harvard's

https://www.johnharvards.com/wp-content/uploads/JHC_11-13-Menu.pdf

It's located near the book shops, has seating for a crowd and is reasonably priced by Cambridge standards. I'm happy to eat just about anything, so if any one else has an idea, great!

Thanks for the ideas, Marianne. We're pretty savvy about Boston (isn't the Duck tour fun!) - and we are eager to meet with you.

I tried to answer your last post about John Harvard's but my smart phone has gotten stupid. The menu sounds fine to me - I'm pretty eclectic about food as long as it's not Thai or Vietnamese or any other nut-heave cuisine. In the Republic of Georgia, I kept having to duck the walnut sauce - who knew?

So does 1:00 p.m. on the 5th look doable?

Fine by me...

Probably ok, unless there is an irresistible talk at the Mensa gathering. But it's lunchtime, so I doubt we will have any conflicts. I'll check the schedule tonight.

One thing about John Harvard is that it can get really noisy on weekends, even though it's the summer and the students are mostly away.

Another place that has good food and is The Beat Hotel - it's actually a bar restaurant with great food, beer and interesting cocktails. It's also in Harvard Square, off Brattle Street and will be quieter. They have good large group tables that we could make reservations for. It's on 13 Brattle Street, Cambridge and is just down the road from the Harvard Coop. They have a live band (usually jazz or blues) every weekend during brunch. And the music isn't very loud because the bands play at the front on a stage.
If you're interested, here is the link: http://www.beathotel.com/ They serve brunch on Saturdays and Sundays beween 10am - 3pm

And if anyone is interested in a nice tea/coffee break with great desserts later in the afternoon after a good bookstore visit, we could always go to Finale. They have good port flights and an incredible dessert menu.
http://www.finaledesserts.com/dessert/menu.php

The Beat Hotel looks interesting, although I'm not sure it will be much quieter with live music.

I've never had much trouble with noise at John Harvard's even on the weekend. Also, we might have as many as nine of us. I know we can get a spot at JH pretty easily.

Whatever people want is fine here.

Finale is wonderful. Their Boston location is a block from my office.

Caro, will you be meeting us? I thought you were going to be out of town.

I'm easy with anything. If you all prefer JH, that's fine with me.

Judy, if all goes well, I shall be back on July 3 and so yes, Edd and I are planning to join you guys on the 5th. :-)

Hearing some not fun talk about Hurricanr Andrew coming up the East Coast and hitting Boston Friday or Saturday.

Let's all keep in touch and keep flexible about this thing.

Forecast now is that Saturday will be nice -- 80 degrees and sunny, with the rain blowing over on Friday. The fireworks may be rained out, but the forecast right now is for t-storms to start late tonight or tomorrow and continue through to Friday. FWIW, my head agrees... :-)

That said, yes, let's keep it flexible. I'll probably come into Boston anyway, as I'm going to pick up my new UK Kindle from my friend Alice earlier in the morning. I can always do some book & grocery shopping solo after that, though, if others opt to call it off. I've sorted out train schedules, and I've arranged to meet Charlotte at S. Station.

I agree with Suzanne. I'm also hearing the worst will be Thursday into Friday. We should be fine. My husband is planning on joining us, and I think Caroline's Edd is also going to be there. Everything is within a block or two of the Harvard Square T stop.

Flexible is fine with me. Looks like it's just light rain today and according to the forecast, Saturday should be nice. So Edd and I are still planning to go into Harvard Square anyway. If the weather does take an unexpected turn for the worse and it's not prudent for the others to come in, Marianne, we'll probably go to Cambridge One or Beat Hotel instead of John Harvard, so text me if you want to join us.

Caro, I hope you can get in to Boston, considering the storm. Arthur is raining cats and dogs at the moment.

Forecast is for the rain to trail off in the middle of the night and for us to wake up to clear skies. I think it's already clearing over Albany (the weather system is coming from the west), so that makes sense. Unless roads & train tracks are flooded, I doubt there will be a problem. I'm heading off to the train station at 8, so unless I hear news to the contrary, I'll have committed by then.

Not sure where I stand right now. We've already gotten 5.5 inches of rain here with the rain not ending til about 7 tomorrow AM. I shudder to think about the state of my basement by then.
Guess I'll have to wait and see....

>33 Fourpawz2: If your plans change after about 7:30 a.m., Charlotte, pls ping me on my cell, so I know how to plan accordingly -- thanks! I just realized that's when I'll probably have to head out the door. I'll check my PMs here before leaving. Hopefully your basement will be OK...

ETA: the T Commuter Rail services are all still showing as normal today, so I suspect that will still be fine tmrw.

Will do, Suzanne. I hope the basement is ok too, but about 30% of it already has water covering it. Time for the sump pump to kick on soon. This house has had a water problem for about as long as I can remember and sometimes it gets pretty bad. Too bad that pump is located right under my bed. Along with the water issue, sleep might be a problem for me tonight.

Ugh, sorry to hear of your flooded basement, Charlotte. I hope you find some ear plugs before your sump pump kicks in so you can at least get some sleep tonight.

Fingers crossed that the roads/tracks will be clear tomorrow morning and that the sun will be out to dry things out a little.

Rain set to end by 6:00am. Looks to be glorious.

Do we want to meet at the restaurant? 1:00?

1:00 pm sounds good to us.

Sounds great

Fine; it's already clearing here. So all I have to do is haul myself out of bed at the crack of dawn... :-)

Sorry guys, but I won't be there today. I barely slept and my basement's wet and nasty and I must take care of it. Hope you-all have a great time!

I'm going back to sleep ....

Sorry to hear of your basement troubles, Charlotte. Get some rest and we'll have to do this again when there's better weather.

See the rest of you at 1pm.