MIKE'S PASTRIES IN NORTH END BOSTON AND OTHER SITES...

NO, I DON'T LIVE IN BOSTON, NOR DO I LIVE IN MASSACHUSETTS....BUT MY SISTER AND HER HUSBAND AND LOVELY FAMILY LIVED IN THE TOWN OF PEPPERELL, MASS. FOR OVER SEVEN YEARS.  SO...THAT MEANS, I WAS ABLE TO VISIT BOSTON A COUPLE OF TIMES WHEN I WOULD FLY OUT FROM CALIFORNIA, DURING THE SUMMER TO VISIT MY SISTER.

YES, WE WALKED THE BOSTON COMMON, WHICH IS SUCH A LOVELY PARK.  ANYWHERE WE TURNED THERE WERE WEDDING COUPLES HAVING THEIR PHOTOS TAKEN. AND BOATS THAT LOOKED LIKE SWANS ON THE MAN-MADE POND.

Swan boats for your riding pleasure

ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE UNDERGROUND PARKING IS ON CHARLES STREET

WE PARKED BENEATH THE COMMON, IN THE UNDERGROUND PARKING WHICH IS FOUR STORIES OF CARS PARKED, BENEATH THE  GROUND.  IT WAS ACTUALLY KIND OF CLAUSTROPHOBIC TO ME, AND I COULDN'T WAIT TO GET OUT INTO THE OPEN AIR.

And yes, there were all sorts there, seeing as it was Boston.  We even saw some 'real' witches and wizards, dressed very much live the ones in the Harry Potter movies.

Professor McGonegal? 

The Boston Common has a Halloween Costume Event

We saw the real Mother Goose's headstone in a graveyard, very near to where Benjamin Franklin was also buried.  The headstones were so intriguing to look at. We also saw Paul Revere's house, still standing, near the famous tree of the Sons of Liberty square.

Mother Goose's grave.  We all know her poetry which has followed us into the 21st century.  The motif of the skull and wings is still very popular to use in artwork today.

BUT BACK TO MIKE'S PASTRIES...

THIS IS MIKE'S PASTRIES ON A PRETTY NORMAL AFTERNOON...PACKED TO THE OUTSIDE WITH LINES OF PEOPLE.

It was a Saturday evening, after we had eaten Dim Sum in a Chinese restaurant, that we decided to go to the Italian District to Mike's Pastries.  Pastries of every imaginable description.

Rows and rows of pastries of all descriptions!

THE MOST DECADENT CAKES

The line was out the door, in fact it was actually, four lines out the door which led inside to the back of the store where the cash registers were.  BUT, you had to get in the door FIRST to decide what your purchases were, THEN, get back INTO the line, which I think we waited a half an hour to make our purchases.

CANNOLI'S OF EVERY DESCRIPTION AND MELT IN YOUR MOUTH CREAM PUFFS

I purchased a slice of to die for carrot cake, with walnuts, coconut, and pineapple (no raisins), also a cannoli, a wonderful confection of a pastry full of decadent custard type filling with whipped cream, which they have no end of varieties of cannoli.  Also, what they call a lobster tail (a pastry) also similar to the cannoli, but BIGGER!  And I believe a slice of the real thing New York Cheese Cake (no 'fake' graham cracker crust invented by the 1960's generation) no, it had the flaky pastry 'crust' which melts in your mouth and does not take away from the flavor of the cheese cake.  So, we took home our confections and had tiny pieces all around of each dessert.  It was divine!

They have ice cream too, and Italian Gelato.  This guy looks like he is saying 'Go get your own piece of cake! This is mine, all mine!'

We went into the Commonwealth Book Store five minutes before they were closing.  I could have spent hours in there...probably better that I didn't as I probably would have come out penniless!

Books, and books, and books, and a basement full of books too.

Anyway, this was my 'blast from the past' being there seven years ago, and my sister and family have since moved to Minnesota, far more fierce winters than Massachusetts, perhaps, with the exception of this years' winter on the east coast.

So, if you are ever in Boston , there is lots to see!

posted by Teresa