(The Backyard Tourist, part 1; part 2.)

Last weekend Kate and Elliot came up to visit, and we spent Saturday sightseeing with their friends Stephanie and Joe. First stop, Grasshopper for brunch! It’s an Asian vegan restaurant in Allston, just a few doors down from FoMu. I’d been meaning to check it out for ages.

A lemon tree growing by the window!

My “kale and gluten supreme” hit the spot (and I had plenty of leftovers for the bus the next day), but Kate’s order of “black peeper seitan” with sesame seeds was everybody’s favorite.

Elliot ordered a sort of smorgasbord plate that came with an Asian version of tortillas to roll your own breakfast sandwich. It came with a sauce for dipping.

Most of us ordered juices too, which were actually smoothies, but still delicious. (You can order a smoothie with avocado in it!!)

After brunch Stephanie drove us to Bunker Hill. (An entire year in Boston, and I hadn’t been!)

Photo by Elliot.

The memorial at the base…

…And from 294 steps above.

A view from the top.

Then we spent a little while at the museum across the street:

By this time we were all feeling in need of a pick me up (the weather was foul, after all), so Stephanie suggested we head over to CuppaCoffee near North Station, her all-time favorite coffee shop. It’s tiny and delightful and the friendly Aussie owner really knows his stuff!

Fortified by a French roast with almond milk and raw sugar, I moseyed over to the Revere House with the gang for another round of Revolutionary history. The building was lovingly restored a hundred years ago, and though you can only see four rooms, I found it well worth the $3.50 admission price.

I was geeking out, actually—my next novel is set in New England in the 1780s/90s, so this visit turned into an important piece of research for me. Kate had to come back into the house to retrieve me while the rest of our friends waited outside in the rain. (Sorry, guys!)

(No photos allowed inside, by the way.)

On our way to dinner we stumbled upon the Holocaust memorial. (Did you know Boston had a Holocaust memorial? Me neither. And it’s right down the street from the Writers’ Room, too!) It was particularly moving to experience it as we did—at dusk in the pouring rain.

You all know how much I love my “little” sister, so you can just imagine how I felt when I read this panel:

Testimony of Rivka Yosselevscka, “a young mother who witnessed the murder of her entire family.”

On an infinitely happier note, we had a fabulous dinner at India Quality at Kenmore with Faith and Alex, who is headed off to the Peace Corps in Georgia in a few weeks’ time. I’m so excited for him!