BostonZest

Get Out and About with Your Sunday Dog

Slowly, we are beginning to run into members of our local dog community that we haven't seen since the cold temperatures set in last fall. People are planning longer walks with their dogs around town and looking to explore destinations outside of their neighborhoods with leash in hand. 

We recently caught up with the lovely Miss Friday who has starred in a couple of Sunday Dog posts. We introduced her to Poppy, and she was happy to give our little pup a nice play session.

This is also the time of year that we always see a flurry of visitors to our post reviewing the book, Best Hikes with Dogs, Boston and Beyond. If you are a newer Sunday Dog fan who might want to take a hike with your own Sunday Dog, just click on that link to jump over to it.

Other books on our dog book shelf that help us find places to go with Poppy are:

The Dog Lover's Companion to New England

The Dog Lover's Companion to Boston

Dog-Friendly New England

Traveling With Your Pet: The AAA Petbook 

The last is the most up-to-date. But, while some things have changed in the older guides, they still offer ideas that you can use to plan a daytrip or weekend if you're willing to confirm the information. Rules change and places go out of business within days of some publications, so we always check before going to a place that we are relying on as a destination. This might be the perfect reason to buy a used copy.

  

And, there are companion books for hiking with your dog in other areas of the country. Click here to see if there is one for your next outdoor destination with your furry friend. Below are the direct links to Boston, New Hampshire, Vermont, and outside of New York City.

      

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

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino

Photo: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

(Bookcover courtesy of Mountaineers Books, all rights reserved)

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 great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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Friday Fall Foliage Links

We're beginning to see colors popping all over the Greater Boston area. Here are a few links that will prove useful for planning a leaf peeping excursion. 

Please tell us where your favorite foliage spots are and let us know if you have a resource to share. You can add it in the comments below or send it via Twitter.

Perhaps the most complete round up of New England foliage information can be found on jeff-foliage.com. (The screenshot above is from this site.)

Jeff says: "I’m a photographer with a small Photography business in Salem MA. Some would say I’m passionate about photographing New England’s fall foliage.

Yankee magazine says I’m a bit “obsessed” with capturing Autumn’s fiery show. (They could be right) They even wrote an article about me titled: The Leaf Seeker: Jeff Folger."

We say: This passion has produced a very comprehensive site with a discussion forum, photo galleries, festivals, multi-media, webcams, predictions, reports, touring ideas, and safaris. All this with a big dose of expert tips on how to do everything from catching peak foliage to practising the art of getting lost.

While we're at it, here are a few more links that we've collected as New England Foliage resources.

Scientific American's Fall Foliage Forecast

Massachusetts Fall Foliage Fun Planner

Yankee Magazine's Foliage Guide

50 Fun Travel Ideas for the New England Fall Foliage Season

Maine's Official Foliage Website

Thanks to everyone who hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support. It doesn't cost you any more but they put a few coins in our tip jar.

What's on your Fall Shopping List. Click here for Fall Season Savings over at Amazon.

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 great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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Poppy at Wollaston Beach

Our own pup Poppy is here to tell all her dog friends that it's time to go to the beach. 

She was only allowed to enjoy the view from the seawall on her first visit. But, we'll be returning after October 1st to get her paws in the sand.

  

Check your favortie Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) beach to see if the signs say your family, including your dog, is allowed to enjoy the beach after October 1st.

I would say to check online, but I wasn't able to find the information there. DCR seems to be unaware that many families in Massachusetts choose to plan their recreational activites around dogs. 

This was as close as our little girl could get to the sand.

On the other end of the welome spectrum is the group, The Trustees of Reservations who have established a Green Dog program and who have "dog walking" as an activity you can choose when you go to their website. 

They change to wording about dogs to a positive note. For example, "...dogs are welcome at Crane Beach from October 1 through March 30 through our Green Dogs program."

Members of the organization can recieve a Green Dog permit for free. For others there is a $3 per dog per day option. Here's how you can become a member and support this welcoming attitude and acceptance of families that include dogs.

After her visit to the salt air, Duchess Poppy was one tired pup. (And we all know that a tired pup is a good pup.) So, Poppy recommends that you take your pup someplace exciting to work off some of that canine energy in a healthy way.

Related Post:

Halibut Point State Park - Another Trustrees of the Reservation property

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

Here are the products we use to make our life with Poppy more fun and less work.

Zak Designs Ice Cream Container for bringing Poppy's raw food with us on adventures!

Washable Bedpads for protecting surfaces. (Like Zipcar seats)

Four Paws Wee Wee Housebreaking Pads 150/Pkg 

 

Details:

Words: Penny 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 great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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Tony's Clam Shop Helps Keep Summer Going On...

Don't just sit there! It's still warm enough to get to Wollaston Beach and enjoy some good, fried food at Tony's Clam Shop. 

Every so often we use a few of our Zipcar credits to take a quick trip to the beach in Quincy and indulge in well-made fried food. By this we mean that we don't leave feeling like we've swallowed a quart of frier oil.

A small order of fried clams, fried scallops, and a big plate of steamed clams make a great lunch. And, you can walk off those calories across the street on the flat, smooth sidewalk or the sandy surface of Wollaston beach.

In case you didn't know, this is what's inside that fried clam batter. A lovely, silky, soft shell clam. We like them both ways – steamed and fried. And, at Tony's we've seen the truck from Ipswich Seafood pull in to make deliveries. We know both from that and the taste that this is a great local product. 

We usually skip the plates and platter with fries and so on. We do like their crisp, light, crunchy onion rings. We sometimes add a Greek salad or a side of a well seasoned rice pilaf. Those items help round out the lunch but can also make it home for supper.

Join us in enjoying summer fun for as long as we can! 

Tony’s Clam Shop, 861 Quincy Shore Drive, Quincy, MA 02170, 617.773.5090 (map)

Thanks to everyone who hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support. It doesn't cost you any more but they put a few coins in our tip jar.

What's on your fall shopping list? Click here for fall season savings over at Amazon.

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 great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments. 

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The Seafood Grille at The Waterford Inn, Provincetown

Sometimes, we don't feel like leaving the East End of Provincetown, where we usually stay– even for a meal. Then, we're happy to have a place like the Seafood Grille at the Waterford Inn open for lunch. 

We had the fish tacos and loved them.

They have tables inside, in the courtyard, and on a small sidewalk patio out front. There is also a second floor, covered deck that will often have live music. This is also a quieter part of town if you want to take a break from the busy center of town.

They do a good job with fried scallops too!

These photos are from our spring vacation. By now, both the town and the restaurant will be bustling and the perfect spot for people watching as you dine. We couldn't find a website for the restaurant, so we linked to the reviews over on Trip Advisor. As you'll see, we are not the only ones who like the newest menu options in this spot. 

Related Posts: Here's a link to the rest of our Provincetown posts.

The Seafood Grille at The Waterford Inn

‪386 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657-2319‬ (map)

508-487-6400

What's on your Summer Fun shopping list? Shop Amazon - Get Ready for Summer - Everything You Need and 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 great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

Wood's Seafood, Plymouth, MA for Lobster & More

Driving back to Boston from Provincetown, we have a tradition of stopping in Plymouth for lunch. Wood's Seafood on the town pier is the perfect place to enjoy one last lobster and seafood feast.

The good folks at Woods seem to have the old fashioned notion that being nice to customers while serving fresh, simple, well-prepared local food at a good price, is the way to go. This table full of lobster, steamers, chowder, and sides cost just over $30. A great value in this tourist town on a busy holiday weekend.

Hearing the banter with the staff, we've figured out that this is where locals seem to come when they have guests, for take out, and to buy fish for supper in the adjacent fish market. As our former favorites in the Town Pier cluster take on a plastic, Disneyesque atmosphere, and are not as good a value, Wood's is our go-to spot. 

The dining area is tiny, just 50 seats, so you may want to have an alternative spot for feasting in mind or be prepared to wait for a table. The guys above took their food outside to the pier and used the concrete barrier for a table.

When we don't dine in, we prefer to picnic in the park just north the breakwater you see on the map for Wood's in our details. If you park in the big lot that leads to the breakwater, you can be halfway between Wood's and al fresco dining. After years of traveling with dogs, we are skilled at finding places were we can enjoy a meal without leaving a friend locked in a hot car. 

This can also make a great daytrip destination. If you have vistors who want to see Plymouth, you'll know the great place for a lobster, clam plate, or other seafood shack meal. 

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This summer we hope to add more Daytrips and Weekend destinations to our collection.

Here's more about Provincetown.

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

 

Details:

Wood's Seafood

15 Town Pier, Plymouth, MA 02360 (Map & Reviews) 

Phone: 800-626-1011 or 508-746-0261

www.woodsseafoods.com

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 great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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 

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.