Tea Partay: Boston Tea Partay

As the plane took off over St. Paul I couldn't help but snap a photo as the Fall colors were nearing their peak.

I flew to Boston for a work event, but managed to maximize my time to play tourist a little as well. There is something magical about the first time you visit a city. I love when everything is a new discovery even if what you are discovering is more than a century old.

My colleague, Emily, and I enjoyed tea in the 1895 McKim building at the Courtyard Restaurant of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. America's first public library.

We took shelter from the rain and our table overlooked this central Renaissance-style cloister courtyard with arcaded gallery and fountain.

Once seated you are provided with a hardcover book.

The inside reveals the menu and tea selection.

I enjoyed my classic selection of Earl Gray. Emily ordered the lemon herbal for her very first afternoon tea.

A view of the tea room.

Our three tiered tray arrived carrying sweet and savory delectables.

Plain and currant scones served with a berry marmalade, Devonshire double cream, and lemon curd. Divine!

The sweets and petit fours were too much to complete. Fresh fruit tartlet with vanilla cream, glazed lemon poppyseed cake, raspberry thumbprints, devilish chocolate 'sinclairs' and the best French macaron I've ever tested - pistachio and salted caramel.

So many sandwiches!

-wild mushroom butter and watercress

-cured onion, fine herbs on rye

-Roquefort spread with walnut jam

-cucumber and hard egg yolk on pumpernickel

Emily also had some non-veg options:

-lobster salad with chestnuts

-smoked salmon

-deviled chicken and espelette pepper

Emily and I enjoying the tea service.

After all those treats we perused the oldest library in the country.

Such a beautiful place to study. Notice the coffered ceiling of the great Bates Hall reading room.

The Abbey Room 16 panels depict the quest for the Holy Grail.

Throughout the library are murals by John Singer Sargent.

A final view of the courtyard.

We also checked out some sites, because sometimes you wanna go...

We stayed at the Omni Parker House - the longest continuously operating hotel since 1855. We actually had dinner at Table 40 where JFK proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier.

Malcolm X was a bus boy at this restaurant and Boston Cream Pie was perfected here. It's a spongy cake that while beautifully presented I was not fond of.

The hotel was also home to Charles Dickens who first read A Christmas Carol here.