There was already a line at Café Madeleine after our hard sleep the night before – all that walking and talking wiped us out – and I hadn’t slept so soundly in quite a long time, so we woke slightly later than intended. That meant we were without the Madeleine pastries, so we stepped into another line at Flour Bakery and just waited it out. The plan was to take a stroll through the Boston Public Garden then meander our way along Newbury Street for some shopping before a siesta and dinner.
The Garden was filled with waterfowl and rodents – tons of ducks and geese and squirrels, all wanting to say hello to Suzie, who wanted nothing to do with them. It was already hot out, the humidity was equally oppressive, but the Garden unfolded its shady paths and cool nooks, and in the shelter of a Metasequoia tree we set up a brunch of pastries and cookies. And water – oh so much water – to combat the heat and maintain hydration. Apparently I’m drinking water and booze like a pregnant woman: tons of the former and none of the latter.
We took our time walking through most of the Garden, staying close to the pond and beneath the trees, but even those attempts at remaining cool were proving difficult to maintain, so when we crossed Arlington to the site of the former Ritz Carlton/Taj Hotel, now The Newbury, we entered to use their air-conditioned restroom and regroup for a moment of cooling down. I’d recalled the restroom from my last trip to Boston with Chris, and their Byredo ‘Willow’ soap was the main reason for this stop. We stationed ourselves in an upstairs lobby area where they were setting up for a wedding later that day. Flowers abounded, and I was reminded of the simple joy of pausing in a hotel lobby on a day in the city and re-grouping.
Shopping beckoned us onward, even in the midst of mounting heat and humidity, so by the time we reached the Aesop store, I was ready to stop, even if I never intended to find anything. With a soap sink and station set up for sampling their product, the dark, dim coolness of the store was a balm for the overheated madness of the street, and we took our time indulging and trying out the sweetly-scented offerings on hand. While not in the market for more soap, I splurged on their Geranium products (which is worth a total post of its own, so stay tuned…) It was one of those moments of respite that only happen when purely unplanned, on sunny days where everything else is melting, and you don’t expect to find relief so when you do it’s even more gratifying.
We wound our way through the retail gauntlet, finding sustenance in the fries and fried pickles at Trident before returning to the condo for a siesta. Suzie proclaimed that Ahmad Jamal would provide the soundtrack to the weekend, hence the song selections in these posts. ‘Tranquility’ felt especially fitting for the laid-back calm of spending a weekend in Boston with a friend I’ve known since birth. One more post to go…
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