Staycation~ Omni Parker House

I barely made it to vacation, like hanging by a thread, calling JO to help me get from my car to the house, when I got home on Friday.  I almost made it to vacation without getting sick but I came up short by a few hours.  I woke up sick on Friday, and there's no way you can be out of school the day before vacation, so I sucked down the Dayquil, somehow made it to 3:00, and drove home.  By the time I parked my car I was just done.  JO was nice enough to help me get all my stuff inside, throw some blankets over me, and get me some takeout.  I mustered the strength to watch my Huskies before falling asleep with a fever and a sore throat!

We had this fun Staycation thing planned for the next day and I really wanted to cancel and just stay in bed, but JO convinced me to give a go and I'm glad I did.  We did cut out the second half of the Christmas Tree Challenge which was disappointing but other than that we really had a good time.

A while back we had seen a Groupon for a night at the Parker House, which is my favorite hotel in the city.  We thought it would be a fun way to kick off Christmas so we booked it.  When we checked in, they asked us where we were from.  It was kind of funny to say Cambridge.  The staff was so nice to us and even sent up a complimentary Boston Cream Pie (which I had never had before...delicious!)


After the early dessert we headed over to our favorite restaurant, The Marliave, for dinner.  The Marliave is the oldest chef owned restaurant in the city.  I can't remember the last time we went here and we both agreed that that was a mistake.  We both agree that The Marliave is the best restaurant in the city.  The upstairs dining room is elegant without being pretentious.  There's a soft lighting courtesy of flickering candles and the tables aren't right on top of each other.  The service is impeccable and the food, a mix of Italian and French, and drinks, prohibition era cocktails are their speciality, are outstanding.  This is the first restaurant I recommend when people ask me where they should go for dinner in the city.  We ended dinner with their delicious chocolate truffles!

After dinner we headed back to the Parker House to enjoy bubbles at The Last Hurrah, my absolutely favorite hotel bar in the city.  The Last Hurrah is a throwback to quaint, old-fashioned Boston and I love it.  Nothing fancy, nothing modern.  Round tables, with old-school arm chairs and couches, and lots of bubbles!

We decided we needed to continue to the night so we hopped over to Highball Lounge (the complete opposite of the Last Hurrah) for one last drink before calling it a night.  It was so fun to be able to walk three minutes home to our hotel room (I mean the ten minute drive back to our house is not bad but this was super convenient.)  The hotel was lovely and it was fun to get to stay there for a night!

The next morning we decided to check our Explorateur for breakfast.  We had walked by this place a few weeks before and it looked really interesting.  It's got a cafe in the front, perfect for hanging out, a beautiful bar and a dining room for dinner.  It's a really cool space and the food and coffee were yummy!  It was really fun to be in downtown Boston on Christmas Eve and we even did a little shopping at Macy's before heading home.  Staycation success!