Boston, Massachusetts: My Brother's Birthday, in the Cold

My older brother had a birthday in the winter, so we all went to Boston. That was the itinerary. There was a new nephew to meet, an Airbnb in Roxbury to argue over, and a birthday to celebrate properly — and it was cold enough that "walk around and see the city" never seriously came up.

On baby duty

Half of this trip was me holding a baby while everyone else got ready. New nephew, plus his big brother Xavier, who narrated the entire weekend at top volume. This is the part of traveling nobody films on purpose, and it's usually the best part.

Eating our way through it

We ate like eating was the reason we came. A Dominican spot with mashed plantain and stewed everything. Jollof and party rice somewhere else. And one proper sit-down dinner — seafood towers, then a chocolate plate with "Happy Birthday" written on it for the man of the weekend.

The all-black party

The party was all-black-everything, dress code enforced at the door — a private room, a gold balloon arch, everybody filming everybody. We closed it out where a cold night in a strange city is supposed to end: an IHOP, sometime around 2 a.m., a stack of pancakes and a burger and nobody saying much.

If you're actually going to Boston to see Boston — the Freedom Trail, the North End, the T — everything practical is in the Boston travel guide. The whole trip is in the vlog below, cut by my editor @topaz_ziii. Planning a family trip somewhere cold? Ask about it in the community.