My sister Lindsay came to visit me this weekend, so the only thing I made was a pot of coffee.
Not that we didn’t still eat like queens…
I took her to Sherman when she arrived on Saturday morning – she had a cinnamon roll and I had a vegan bran muffin filled with blackberry jam. Later, John met up with us for supper and we went to the always-stellar Highland Kitchen for drinks, deviled eggs, and sandwiches. I got the black bean veggie burger (big surprise) and a few gin & tonics (another big surprise). Then, because she is insane and gets up at the crack of holy dawn, Lindsay had us out the door before 8 AM on Sunday in search of breakfast.
I wanted to take her to Neighborhood, the Portuguese diner-y spot in Union Square that is regularly called “the best” for breakfast. The benefit of being up so early was that we did not have to wait in the long line that usually snakes down the block on the weekends.
This line deters me from eating here more often, which is a shame, because if there is one thing that I love…it’s breakfast.
And breakfast at Neighborhood is an experience. Not only do they give you a ton of good food, but they give you the option of fruit or cream of wheat with every order. CREAM OF WHEAT! It’s delicious and warm and buttery and cinnamony. Do not miss it.
Lindsay got a spanish omelette and I got wheat pancakes. I make so many omelettes at home I like to try to get syrupy items when I am out. As you can see, the food came with a whole bunch of extras. It’s embarrassing to have that many plates on the table. The pancakes were good (though I was kicking myself for not bringing some pure maple syrup) and Linds said her omelette was equally delicious, as well as the thick slices of Portuguese sweet bread toast.
After my coffee, (free!) orange juice, cream of wheat, and pancakes I had that stomach-full-of-bricks feeling, so we headed over to Harvard Square to walk around and do some shopping.
Of course, none of the stores were open because it was SO EARLY (not that I complained).
Okay, maybe a little.
There is still a lot of beautiful foliage, like this tree in the Old Burying Ground.
I made Lindsay pretend she was posing for a yearbook photo in Harvard Yard.
Then I posed. We are dorks.
And of course, a visit to Harvard Yard wouldn’t be complete without stopping at the John Harvard monument.
And rubbing his well-worn (and fancy) shoe for luck.
The monument was sculpted in 1884 by Daniel Chester French, who also did the Lincoln statue in the Lincoln memorial. Its nickname is supposedly “the statue of three lies” because its inscription (“John Harvard, Founder, 1638”) is total baloney.
No likeness of John Harvard existed when the statue was commissioned, so a student posed for French and he did his best with the clothes..meaning it’s not actually John Harvard. He was also not the founder of the college, just a big donor. It was actually established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and it was founded in 1636 not 1638.
People also say that students pee on the shoe.
The same shoe you see my hand on in the photo above. I prefer not to think about that.
I prefer to think that it DID bring me luck, since I got some great news this morning… but more on that next time!
Did you have a nice weekend? Did you eat cream of wheat? Did you find a penny on the ground or a cat hair in your cereal? My mom used to say that last one was good luck.
It should be.
