Batons, boats made this Hub getaway just 'ducky'

Duck Tour passengers look out the Boston Back Bay skyline while plying the waters of the Charles Saturday. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp photos)

BOSTON - When folks from the Northern Seacoast and Southwest Maine head to Boston for a little holiday time, the range of familiarity they have with the Hub varies greatly.

Some know the nooks and crannies of Beantown like a native, while others have only been there a handful of times or less.

This writer is closer to the former having grown up on the South Shore and worked in downtown Boston for four years.

So when we decided to get away for a little quality Boston time last weekend, we scrubbed the usual Boylston Street, Public Gardens and Quincy Market itinerary for a less-stressed, more narrowly scoped venue.

The major attractions we intended to hit were the world-famous Duck Boat tour, a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, some casual dining and a little pub-discovery, all along a mile or so of Huntington Avenue just west of the Prudential Center.

First off, there was the getting there, which being a Mainer, was easy. You take the Downeaster from Dover.

A round trip for Martha and I was $72. Of course the parking at the Dover Amtrak station is free.

Most of ticketing is mobile these days. We made our reservations online, received an email ticket moments later and showed it to the conductor, who scanned it to verify our passage.

The Downeaster whisks its way from Dover to Exeter at speeds of around 70 mph, but both coming and going we had to slow as we moved on to commuter rail track for both track work and to make allowances for MBTA trains coming in the opposite direction. We arrived at North Station in Boston Saturday morning about a half-hour late.

Once we got to North Station it's a two-minute walk to the Green Line, where we took a trolley ($2.65 apiece) to the Symphony stop. Three of four Green Line trains don't head down Huntington Avenue so make sure you get off by Copley and change to a Heath train if you didn't get one at North Station.

Since the BSO plays an evening performance on Saturday we decided to book a hotel nearby and chose the Midtown, a modest but AAA-approved motel just a two-minute walk from Symphony Hall and the Green Line.

I'd always assumed hotel rates went down in the summer. Not so in the Hub where between Labor Day and Columbus Day the hotels are at their busiest. Heavy demand means high rates. Even with our AARP discount, the cost including taxes and fees, was $215.

Not that bad if you consider most of the Back Bay and downtown hotels were twice or even triple that, topping out with the Mandarin Oriental at about $800 a night!

What we liked about the Midtown was the large room (over 400 sq. ft) with plenty of nooks and crannies for luggage and laptops, plus a work table.

The Midtown ... oh so reasonable, and oh so comfortable and close to the Pru and Copley Square. (Courtesy photo)

Since we got in around noon and check-in wasn't until 3 p.m., we headed over to our 1 p.m. Duck Boat tour (35.99 apiece, adult) where "Capt. Blackeye" awaited to take us and about 25 others from around the world on a memorable voyage aboard his DUCK boat, fashioned off of a WWII amphibious vehicle.

The Boston Duck Tours started back in the 1990s, but Saturday was my and Martha's first ride.

If you're a seasoned Boston visitor or still wet behind the ears, you will love your Duck Tour.

I've visited all the neighborhoods of Boston - both rough and refined - and this 90-minute tour almost gives you the impression you've seen it all.

From the Huntington Avenue departure point just outside the Prudential Center Shopping Area, we traveled down Dalton to Boylston then on to Charles to Beacon streets and down by the Museum of Science. All the while Captain Blackeye, who was actually from Scituate, Mass., pointed out historical and cultural facts that both informed and entertained.

After we went into Charlestown, we turned right and headed down a ramp as Capt. Blackeye pointed out where the life preservers were just in case. Then with a splash and plenty of ooohhhs and ahhhhs, we were chugging west up the Charles River toward the Esplanade and the Harvard Bridge.

After about 20 minutes on the river we turned around and went back through a canal to the same egress point, then back up onto dry land, over the Charlestown Bridge and back toward Tremont Street via Congress and Court. Back on Tremont we passed the Granary Burial Ground where several past governors of Massachusetts, three signers of the Declaration of Independence and all of the Boston Massacre victims are buried. It's actually informally called the All-Star Burial Ground it has so many luminaries lying in repose there.

After turning right on Boylston it was back through the Back Bay to our Huntington Avenue terminus.

Included among the landmarks seen and discussed were the Prudential Tower, the Christian Science Church, Trinity Church, New Old South Church, Swan Boats, Beacon Hill, Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Old North Church/North End, Holocaust Memorial, Quincy Market, Cheers and the Boston Public Library.

After the tour we walked through the tony shops at Prudential and ended up at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch before heading back to the motel.

After checking at the Midtown, we sauntered around this thriving, student- and music-driven area of Huntington Avenue, along which Northeastern University and the Wentworth Institute of Technology both reside. It is also home to the Boston Conservatory of Music and every other young person you see along the street is toting some type of instrument.

With all the students you're bound to find good food cheap and we did, too, in abundance.

The area is fraught with little specialty pizza, chicken, oriental and crepe eateries on both sides of Huntington Avenue, but we found a little pub on Gainsborough Street called Our House, about two blocks from Symphony Hall, where the food is good and the beer is cheap, starting at just $2 a draft.

We were there on a Saturday so there were no specials, but Tuesday's you get an 8-ounce burger with fries and a 16-ounce beer for $6.95.

And on Wednesday it's free chili cheese fries with every pitcher of beer.

And what's not to love about campus life. (Maybe we can get the BSO to alter the schedule.)

For more than an hour before the performance musicians begin tuning their instruments, making for an increasingly loud cacophony of sound as the start of the concert nears.

But now it was getting dark and closing in on the highlight of the day, a visit to hallowed Symphony Hall ($37 apiece) to hear piano child prodigy and superstar Evgeny Kissin, who began playing by ear and improvising at the age of two and performed two concertos for a Russian orchestra at 10.

Born in Russia and now in his early 40s, Kissin, who has dual British and Israeli citizenship, is seen as one of the great pianists of our time.

Sandwiched around Kissin, who performed Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor Opus 23, were Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances Opus 45.

Taking the baton for all selections was maestro and BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons.

The first thing you notice about Nelsons is that he often - while conducting portions of a work that involve only perhaps one or two sections, say strings and woodwinds, will lean his left hand casually on the podium while he conducts with just his right.

Some of his antics, like crossing his legs, lunging forward at pivotal sequences or crouching down to quiet the orchestra have drawn criticism from pundits.

If you go, look for these idiosyncrasies and judge for yourself. We found him, overall, very entertaining and exuberant.

After the concerto that featured the BSO and Kissin three rousing standing ovations convinced the virtuoso pianist to extend his performance with an encore, which drew uncontrollable gasps from audience members in bewilderment that he actually consented.

During intermission we had a cocktail ($10 each) in the downstairs foyer, where what astonished us most was that there were several reserved tables set with cocktails already served to which no one ever came.

Now that's rich.

A Duck Boat heads out of the Charles River headed for dry land in Charlestown as seen from the Amtrak Downeaster on Sunday.

It was close to 11 p.m. when the program finished, but after getting up around 5 a.m. that day, let's just say I was dozing to Rachmaninoff. Surprisingly, outside on the street we heard several people saying they'd experienced the same phenomenon.

The next morning we contemplated having breakfast at the Colonnade but it would've been close to $40 for the two of us, so we opted for the Dunkin' Donuts at the shops at Prudential for a third the price.

By noon we were back at North Station and rolling north on the Downeaster out of the station and over the Charles River, when looking out the window we spied a Duck Boat in the water nearing its egress in Charlestown. Somehow the trip had gone full circle.

I guess you could say it was pretty ducky.