Text 4192, 71 rader
Skriven 2013-09-03 07:42:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 95
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In her quest for Starwood stays, Lilli moved us to the Sheraton
Boston, a ten-minute bus ride away; our suite featured a semi-
comfy couch in the living room, separated from the bedroom by a
frosted translucent glass door. Conveniently, the bathroom was
in front, advantage me.

Lilli got a little peckish, so she got a slice of pepperoni
pizza at Shaw's; this was limp crust, tasteless cheese,
unseasoned tomato sauce (no basil, no oregano, no nothing), and
not enough pepperoni. A bottle of Argento Malbec 11 (Mendoza),
one of the best $8.99 wines I have tasted in a long time, kept
both of us from running the half mile back to try to get a
refund for the shameful pizza. Brambles, chocolate, a rather
deep though immature wine; could be kept for a couple years,
though as it seems to be a run-out-and-buy-it-for-$8.99 guzzler
I doubt many bottles will last that long.

--

A continental breakfast comes with the suite, so I had an
almond croissant and some not-so-special fresh fruit, and it
was a bit of a fight to get that, as every elite and his or her
vast brood congregated at the lounge right when we were there.
This is the consequence of letting gold members in; they crowd
out the platinum members. I am, by the way, on my own two feet
a gold member.

We wandered around town a bit, as the weather was fine, but my
croissant hadn't been enough, so we spied B. Good, a local
burger chain (what constitutes a chain? - this brand was
accused of being a chain when it opened 2 locations; it now has
about a dozen) that claims to use only locally sourced organic
stuff but competes pricewise with Five Guys and the like.

I ordered El Guapo, which comes with jalapeno ranch, pickled and
raw jalapenos, red onion, tomato, and romaine, double meat of
course. It was pretty good, though of course well done. Lilli
had a regular burger with fries for about the same price. The
fries were medium-thick cut and tasted rather like potatoes, a
good thing for most people. Me, I like my fries to taste like
fried and nothing else, but I don't care for the taste of potatoes.

Back to the hotel, where we had 4 pm checkout but no reason to
stay, so we got our traps and walked through the mall (it has the
imposing name Prudential Center, but it's just a mall all the same)
and down to the subway.

Most of the stations are now equipped with elevators, very cool.
Back in my day you could park yourself at the bottom of the stairs
and see the amusing sight of college kids humping their giant
suitcases up or down, staggering, occasionally falling, or the
heartbreaking sight of the lame and halt and elderly ladies with
their overstuffed grocery carts doing the same; I am glad that
sometime between then and my dotage gimp-protection laws have been
enacted. So the elevator took us and our bags right to train level,
far superior to the old days. The train came in about thirty seconds
(this is the first stop where all the lines converge, so you have
your pick). Transfer to South Station to the SL1, and a couple stops
over to the Westin Logan Airport, where they gave us a considerably
inferior room with inappropriate sleeping equipment. We didn't
bother to fuss about it, as the armchair was okay and I'd had enough
sleep over the last couple days, and I am rather fond of the
admittedly overpriced lobby bar so planned to spend a certain
percentage of the night there anyway.

I'd rather have stayed at the Sheraton, but there was the getting
enough Sheraton stays issue.

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