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Routes for Visiting Runners – Boston Marathon Weekend 2012

Whether you're coming to run or watch the 2012 Boston Marathon, or just want to log some miles, it's an exciting time to visit the city.

UPDATE: Routes for Visiting Runners – Boston Marathon Weekend 2016

Exiting the Mass Ave Tunnel – Less Than a Mile to Go!

I remember my first Boston Marathon– as a spectator, I've yet to put in the training needed to actually compete. Penny and I booked a hotel room for the weekend and left the car parked. We took in the runners' expo, pasta supper and other pre-race activities, then watched a spectacular Boylston Street finish.

As an out-of-state runner staying near Faneuil Hall, I still wanted to get in a run or two, but wasn't sure where to head.

Now, as a Boston resident, I can recommend a couple of my favorite routes.

Charles River Run

If you're a visiting runner staying anywhere near the finish line, you can't beat a daytime run along the Charles River. It offers great views and a more open course without having to constantly cross roadways. This multi-use path is shared by bikes, blades, skate boards, dogs and walkers. It can get congested as the day wears on, but who knows, you may find yourself sharing the trail with some famous elite runners. It's easy to make any number of loops between the Boston and Cambridge sides of the river by using the many bridges along the way.

From Back Bay you can access the Charles River Esplanade from Massachusetts Avenue, Fairfield, Dartmouth and Arlington Streets. If you head West from the Massachusetts Avenue ramp you can also use the parcourse workout station that's located just up-river. Click here for photos and details including a map to find it.

Almost There! It's a Great Feeling!

Parks in the Heart of the City

For a tree-lined route, try the Commonwealth Avenue Mall– not a shopping center, but a park that runs down the center of this residential street. At Commonwealth and Arlington you can enter the pristine Public Garden for a slower pace. Moving through the center of the Garden will lead you across Charles Street to the Boston Common.

Inside tip: Localisms-

Mass Ave = Massachusetts Avenue
Comm Ave = Commonwealth Avenue
And, it's Boston Common – singular, not Boston Commons

Related Posts:

Tracking a Boston Marathon Runner 2012

Parking Your Car for Boston Marathon Weekend 2012

What’s Open in Boston on Patriots’ Day 2012

How to Get to the Esplanade from Boston

Here are some Photos from past Boston Marathons

The View from Hereford Street

Marathon Kisses

Just Hangin on Hereford Street

Other Resources:
Here's a great site. You'll find dozens of local running routes, including along the Charles River.

Details:
Writer: Ed Cherubino
Photos: From the 2008 Boston Marathon © Penny Cherubino

April 12, 2012
Marathon Food Truck Move

Yesterday, we found The Dining Car, a food truck that is usually in front of the Library on Boylston Street, nosed into the pod of trucks around the block on Stuart Street near Dartmouth.

On Tuesday, The Dining Car joined Staff Meal and newcomer Chubby Chickpea over in back of the Hancock Tower. This move clears the Food Truck space on Boylston Street for the Boston Marathon finish line, grandstands, and photobridge.

Lunch seekers seemed really happy to have a cluster of choices.

What's on your summer holiday shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 11, 2012
The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine: Book Review
With our sparkler of the month on March 1st, we mentioned that we had put The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on our book wish list. That afternoon, we received an email from the authors Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg saying they would love to send us a review copy.

It arrived a few days later and hasn't made it to a bookshelf yet. It has spent a few nights beside the bed as Penny's relaxation reading, we've used it explore a couple of new wines, and we're planning to feature some recommended producers as our Sparkler of the Month.

Learn in various ways from a collection of great wine lovers.
- If you were hanging outside our door, you might have heard us reading quotes from the book to one another. It has the greatest collection of quotes from wine lovers and wine experts you can imagine. Boston's own Cat Silirie is often cited.
- Ed loves the pronunciation guide in the core listing of wines, grapes, and wine topics.
- The system used to emphasize the importance of wine grapes, characteristics, and producers (by using bold and all caps in lists) is brillant and intuitive to use.
- The end chapters on matching wines with foods, cuisines, and courses will have us exploring new options.
- We love the gold boxes with great asides on topics. A few are already marked with page tabs.
- Since these writers believe that the wine you like is the right wine for you, they've prepared a series of recommendations based on your own taste. If you like a flavor, for example almonds, they give you a list of wines to try. If you like a particular wine, they give you others with similar flavor profiles.
A Great Interview Grabbed Our Attention

We first hear about The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on the Heritage Radio Network show, A Taste of the Past. Penny listens to podcasts of food shows while she cooks, and this one was good enough for a shared listen during an afternoon of crab-cracking and conversation.

Host Linda Pelaccio began by covering the history of American Wine (the book contains a timeline) and then a discussion of the book that really gave us an insight to the authors' points of view and how this book would fit into our collection. Here's a link to that show.

Meet the authors and hear what some experts say about this book.

We are not only recommending this book to our readers, we'll be buying copies as gifts for wine-loving friends. It is a treasure and we expect it to look a bit worn and well-used pretty quickly. It may even suffer a few wine stains but we doubt that Karen and Andrew will mind.

Here are more books from this team:

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea – Even Water – Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers

Becoming a Chef

and of course

The Food Lover's Guide to Wine

Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.
April 10, 2012
Trade, Our First Look & Listen
A mid-day meeting in the building next door gave us the opportunity to try Trade on Atlantic Avenue at an off hour, when we hoped the sound level would allow conversation.

Flatbread with lamb sausage with eggplant, Manchego, peppers, and garlic yogurt

Every report we had heard on this new venture for long-time Boston Chef Jodie Adams had been filled with warnings about the noise level. A deal-breaker for us. But, we had also heard that the small plates and flatbreads were worth a try.

Pomegranate glazed eggplant with capers, olives and pine nuts

Our post-lunch, pre-dinner meal was delicious. We followed the recommendations of the crew over at Chowhound, and especially outstanding food scout MC Slim JB, and ordered the eggplant small plate and the lamb flatbread. Both were outstanding with deep, rich flavor profiles. We both love sheep's milk cheese and were happy with the flavor the Manchego lent to the flatbread.

Head-on shrimp with piri piri sauce.

We went off on our own to add the head-on shrimp that were new to the menu, according to our server. Penny loves head-on shrimp. In this case, the sauce overwhelmed the shrimp. It was a good sauce but didn't allow the shrimp to shine.
(Click a thumbnail above to see other views of Trade.)

As you can see, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. But, even with an empty room, the music was not to our taste and didn't add a positive note to our meal. But, we could converse easily.

Will we return? We may, when we happen to be in this part of town, about this time of day. There were more items on the menu we wanted to try. And, if we stop and just have one or two small plates and a glass of wine, we can be gone before the whiny vocals drive us to the street.

Hey Trade, how about a quiet night once in a while with some soft instrumental jazz? It could open up a whole new group of customers for this (and other) loud restaurants.

Related Posts: More Food & Drink from BostonZest

What's on your Amazon shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.
April 9, 2012
Sunday Dogs, Stark and Izzy– Hunters and Homebodies

Stark and Izzy are Small Munsterlanders– a much loved breed as both hunters and homebodies. We chose these two not only to discover more about their heritage, but also because they're obviously a couple of characters with energy to burn!

Eleven-year-old Stark shows off those well-known retrieving skills. Small Munsterlanders are natural athletes that like to be in motion– on land and in the water, as four-year-old Izzy so expertly demonstrates.

Besides a love of the water, the American Kennel Club praises to the breed for its great stamina and speed.

Other characteristics, including high intelligence and a strong will, often mean training is best accomplished by a knowledgeable and skilled owner.

Training? As for Stark and Izzy, their person does field trials with them, and we’re sure they’re very good.

The Small Munsterlander can be quite a skilled hunting partner, as well as a happy, loving member of the family (talk about depth). It’s a breed described as loyal, affectionate, and very social– whether their pack consists of humans or other animals.

Enough said, we’re totally impressed! That’s why Stark and Izzy are our Sunday Dogs.

For more about this fascinating breed, check out Small Munsterlander Club of North America

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

If you have a candidate for Sunday Dog along with great photos, like these, send us an email.

What's on your dog training shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Charlotte Thibodeau

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 8, 2012
Seasonal Cycle, Hydrangea Style

Walking along the Greenway,

Wind whipped grasses making musical sounds,

Found last year's flowers turning to lace,

While this year's buds sprouted to take their place.

What's on your spring shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 7, 2012
The Salt, NPR’s Food Blog

Today's Friday link is "The Salt," NPR's food blog. It's one more of the great resources we use to keep up with the world of food.

You can count on this team to do some digging and present well-reported stories on topics from jobs created by the locavore movement, to the battle to prevent red tide from poisoning our shellfish.

They will send you an rss feed or you can subcribe to The Salt as a podcast.

What's on your Amazon shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Screenshot from NPR.org

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 6, 2012
Peaceful Places Boston, Book Review

Last month, we had the pleasure of attending a Boston Society of Architects Placemaking presentation by Lynn Schweikart, author of Peaceful Places: Boston: 121 Tranquil Sites in the City and Beyond. She is a kindred soul who enjoys, promotes and, with her book, will help preserve havens in our area.

As Lynn showed slide after slide of some of our favorite spots, she must have noticed us nodding in unison and smiling at one another in agreement. We've shared some of these places with you, our readers, over the years and hope you will consider adding this book to your Boston books collection.

Lynn lists 121 sites and tells you what she feels is special about each one. She also includes: directions to reach them, times they're open to the public, and reasons to go there.

Here are a few of the place that we have covered that Lynn has included in her book.

Allandale Farm

Arnold Arboretum

Boston Public Library Courtyard

Boston HarborWalk

We could go on and on but, even for us, there are new places to visit and new ways to think about other places as urban escapes. We highly recommend this book and plan to make it a list that we'll explore in the years ahead.

For those who read us from other parts of the country, the publisher has some peaceful books for other cities.

Peaceful Places: Boston: 121 Tranquil Sites in the City and Beyond

Peaceful Places: Chicago: 119 Tranquil Sites in the Windy City and Beyond

Peaceful Places: San Francisco: 100+ Tranquil Sites in The City and the Greater Bay Area

Peaceful Places: Los Angeles: 100+ Sites for Tranquility Across the City of Angels

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Cover art © 2012 Lynn Schweikart

April 5, 2012
Busy Bee, Back Bay Boston

Busy bee buzzed by,

Stopped us in our tracks.

Followed the beeline to the blossom,

Where this friend of hungry humans

Helped mother nature turn flower into fruit.

What's on your spring shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 4, 2012
What’s Open in Boston on Patriots’ Day 2012

UPDATE: This is an old post. Here's a link for: What's Open in Boston on Patriots' Day – Monday, April 18, 2016 + Parking, Trash & MBTA Schedule Changes

Here's a rundown of what's open and what's closed in Boston on Patriots' Day, and the MBTA schedules for – Monday, April 16, 2012.

On three occasions, General John Glover and his “amphibious” regiment of Marblehead fishermen saved the American Revolution.

Patriot's Day is a Massachusetts State Holiday Only.

Open:
Restaurants, Bars, Convenience Stores, Supermarkets, Retail Stores, Liquor Stores

Financial Services: Banks may open if they wish. All markets are open.

Federal Offices and Facilities are open: This includes the Postal Service.

Closed:
Massachusetts City, Town, State Operations: This includes Schools, Libraries. Only emergency services are available.

Boston Parking

One of the most common questions we get is about street sweeping on Patriots' Day.

Here's the page from the city website with the answer. It says:

"Daytime street sweeping is suspended on city holidays, but nighttime sweeping schedules remain in effect. Constituents are advised to call 617-635-4500 for exact details."

Reminder:

City of Boston via ‏ @NotifyBoston says "STREET CLEANING: Overnight sweeping Sunday-Monday morning still in effect. NO MONDAY regular posted sweeping."

You don't have to feed the meters. Other parking rules apply. Many streets will be cleared of parked cars to accommodate the Boston Marathon and Patriots' Day activities.

Be sure to check your car in the days leading up to the marathon to be sure it is not in a tow-away zone for the event. Here's how you can sign up for parking alerts and tow alerts.

Changes to Boston Street Sweeping Schedules 2012

Parking and No-Tow alerts

Here's our latest post with tips for local parking on this holiday–

Parking Your Car for Boston Marathon Weekend (2012)

Boston Trash Collection (the city says)

"Patriots Day

Monday, April 16 | 7am – Saturday, April 21, 2012 | 5pm

Delay trash and recycling pickup 1 day only if you live in Allston, Brighton, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain*, Mattapan, Roslindale, or West Roxbury.

*If you live in Jamaica Plain and your trash is picked up 2 times per week, do not delay."

http://www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/RecyclingandSanitation/holiday.asp

MBTA information after the BostonZest Amazon Selection of the Day.

If this information helps you, reward us by beginning all your Amazon shopping from BostonZest. Here are the latest versions of the cameras we'll use to photograph the Boston Marathon plus our favorite camera bag. Click over to the video on the Tamrac Velocity series of camera bags, and you'll see why we love it.

2012 MBTA Marathon Monday Schedule – Updated 4/6/2012

Tips:

Buy your fares in advance with a Charlie Card or Charlie Ticket to avoid waiting in line on Monday.

"Copley Station will be closed all day … access to the Green Line at Hynes Convention Center or Arlington Station."

Due to crowds, they don't allow bikes on the subway on Patriots Day.

Marathon Monday

Blue, Orange, Red, Green, and Mattapan Line service will run on "regular weekday schedule with extra service before and after the marathon."

Commuter rail trains will operate on their "regular weekday schedule."

"Buses and trackless trolleys will operate on a Saturday schedule."

Commuter Boats will operate on "regular weekday service."

"THE RIDE will operate on a modified weekday schedule."

Bus routes that impact the marathon course will be rerouted at times.

Complete details on all changes are here: Official MBTA Information for Marathon Monday 2012

Official Boston Marathon information.
www.bostonmarathon.org

Related Posts:

Tracking a Boston Marathon Runner 2012

Routes for Visiting Runners 2012

How to Get to the Esplanade from Boston

Views from Hereford Street 2009

Do you have enough memory for all the photos you'll want to shoot of the spring blooms? Do you need a new camera for the season or a gift? Begin your shopping by Click right here to check the prices at Amazon on great items like Transcend SDHC Flash Memory Cards and the our favorite cameras the Canon G12 Digital Camera and the Nikon D300s & NIKKOR 18-200mm Lens.

Details:
Writer: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photo: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

April 3, 2012