Goals of Trip:

Enjoy Boston Calling Music Festival
Indulge in East Coast seafood
Kick off the summer!

Keywords: music festival, Memorial Day Weekend, lobster rolls

Time visited: May/Early Summer

Don’t forget to pack:

Extra space in your checked bag for souvenirs
Sun protection & hydration (hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, water bottle)
Comfortable walking shoes and clear, reusable bag (security-approved)

Travel:

Both Denver and Boston are major hubs, with plenty of daily flights (one of the plus sides of living in a major city). We stayed in the Seaport district of Boston with plenty of walkable attractions and when we needed to get across town we had no trouble ordering cars through rideshare apps and hopping on the subway system.

Accommodations:

We stayed at Yotel Boston which is in a fantastic location just across the bridge from downtown Boston, in the middle of a bustling shopping and commercial district and a quick 5-10 minute walk from the historic Boston Harbor.

Yotel is also a self-service hotel, meaning every point of contact is through a kiosk, rather than a person. There were still friendly and helpful staff available, but most interactions were through a computer screen.

Day 1 - Friday

6am Miss Flight from DIA

As some of you know, I am the carry-on queen. I do not travel with a checked bag unless I’m traveling internationally, and even then it's only for vacation, not business flights. However, my partner and I were traveling together to Boston and he preferred a checked bag so we would have plenty of space in case we went overboard on the souvenirs.

Well, on this adventure we learned the hard way that passengers flying with checked bags have to check into their flight *at least* 45 minutes before boarding begins (Boomers you may now commence with your anecdotes about arriving at the airport at least 4 hours before your flight). We rolled up at our usual time, which is 45 minutes before our flight, which in airport time is 5 minutes after the window for checked baggage closed.

Luckily the folks at the American Airline counter were professional, kind, and had us and our checked bag on a later flight to Boston. With that hiccup taken care of, we relaxed in the terminal for a few hours, and ultimately made it into Boston later Friday evening.

8pm Dinner at Row 34

With our original plans for the day scrapped, we did a little digging and decided to splurge on dinner once we got to Boston. We chose to go out to Row 34 for a higher level of culinary excellence than our usual spots, and their team did not disappoint. We started with oysters and then continued on the seafood train–I had the whole fish and my partner enjoyed the seafood linguine. Excellent wine pairings, fabulous atmosphere, no notes.

11pm Nightcap at Deck 12

Our hotel was a short walk away from Row 34 so we had the opportunity to take in the nightlife and the early summer atmosphere of downtown Boston. We still had some energy once we made it back so we decided to head up to our hotel’s rooftop bar, Deck 12, for a nightcap.

Just like with dinner, it was a lively atmosphere, full of other millennials enjoying the Friday night of a three-day weekend. Well-curated playlists, fantastic views at the downtown Boston skyline, and delectable cocktails. A perfect ending to a less-than stellar start to our weekend getaway.

Day 2 - Saturday

10am Quincy Market & Boston Harbor

As a history buff, foodie, and general tourist, I was stoked to check out the historic Boston Harbor and Quincy Market area. Since our hotel was centrally located, we decided to walk downtown and take in all the Saturday morning markets and fresh ocean breeze.

Once we made it down to Faneuil Hall at Quincy Market we tried to navigate the tour groups as best as possible, but we ducked inside several of the shops and storefronts to avoid the larger crowds—besides we went to all the trouble of bringing a checked bag so we had to pick up a couple of souvenirs to make it worth our while. After taking in Boston City Hall, the Old State House, and Mr. Samuel Adams himself, we decided to go hunt for some lunch.

1pm Lunch at James Hook & Co

Three words: LOB-STAH rolls.

James Hook & Co is one of the literal sea shacks along Boston Harbor that specializes in New Englands’ iconic cuisine: delectable, delicious seafood. With selections from crab rolls, lobster rolls, and of course, chow-dah, we knew we couldn’t go wrong. And, with the line beginning to wrap around the street corner, this also seemed to suggest that this might be a good spot.

Since we worked up an appetite walking around Quincy Market and it was a warm day, we both opted to skip the chowder and spring for a lobster roll–one with mayo, one with butter.

These rolls were phenomenal–the equivalent of sushi in Japan, pastries in France–you get what I’m saying. Lobster rolls are a New England speciality and I’m so happy we had the opportunity to indulge ourselves.

3pm Boston Calling Music Festival

Boston Calling is an annual music festival, one of the largest in New England, hosted at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Cambridge–right across the bridge from Harvard Law School (you know, the school Elle Woods graduated from). Boston Calling is renowned for their lineups, and true to form, when my partner saw the lineup earlier in the spring and pre-sale ticket prices, he knew this would be a good trip for us, and a great way to kick off our summer.

After missing the Friday night lineup (thank you checked luggage), we made sure we got to Cambridge with plenty of time to spare. Saturday afternoon wasn’t too crowded which was great, and we were first row center for d4vd, Tyler Childers, and Khruangbin–my partner’s all time favorite band. We had an amazing time soaking up the sun, listening to the music and taking in Gen Z’s take on Y2K fashion trends.

Day 3 - Sunday

11am Seaport & Boston Harbor

Since we had a late night at Boston Calling, we slept in and started our day with a leisurely stroll up to the harbor to look at the sail boats and enjoy the ocean breeze. We explored more of the commercial end of the Seaport district and purchased some brunch treats at the mid-morning farmers market before heading back to the hotel to get changed for the rest of the day.

1:30pm Fenway Park

Since we were in Boston, and my partner loves nothing more than classic American pastimes, we got tickets to see the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Fenway Park has been a cultural institution in Boston since its doors first opened in 1912, and I loved hearing the sharp Boston accents of the stadium vendors as they called out “hawt dawgs” and “coald beerah” to spectators.

Luckily we had seats in the shade and the Sox won their game, against the Milwaukee Brewers. We headed out at the top of the ninth inning, so we could beat the postgame crowd surge and make it over to Boston Calling in good time.

4pm Boston Calling

The final day of the music festival had an incredible line-up. We made it to Cambridge from Fenway with no trouble and surprisingly little traffic. Our first stop was the port-a-potties and (after a generous application of hand sanitizer) the food stalls. From there we just enjoyed the music and vibes.

A few of the shows we got to see Sunday afternoon included: Chappell Roan, Megan Thee Stallion, and–my raison d’être for coming in the first place–Hozier. All of those folks, as well as the closing act, The Killers, are tried and true performers, and the size of the crowd reflected that…Both my partner and I enjoy going to concerts on a regular basis and have a high tolerance for crowds and the general chaos that comes with larger shows. After nearly experiencing crowd crush, we both came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t be doing this particular festival again (though to be fair, I would do it again in a heartbeat, if only to see Hozier IRL).

We walked out of the show, elated and enjoyed strolling through the student side of Cambridge before taking the subway back to our hotel where we collapsed into bed.

Day 4 - Monday

8am Boston Logan International Airport

We learned our lesson the first time, and arrived at Logan International Airport bright and early to check our luggage for our return trip home. We toasted to a successful trip with some obligatory Dunkin before boarding our flight.

Rockin’ in Boston