This years Boston Trip is a little different with Shihan George Thibault hosting the MAGMA training event. Details can be found here. The weekend includes the opportunity to train with many great instructors.
Each year on the weekend before Fathers Day, we take a group to the Boston area for a mix of training, eating and sightseeing!
The trip is an opportunity to experience some of the sights and sounds of the world famous city and also to train alongside our good friend shihan George Thibault and his students at Dracut Kenpo Karate.
A typical weekend involves flying in to Logan International Airport on Thursday or Friday and enjoying some of the cities cultural activities, in the past students have gone to a Baseball game at Fenway Park, explored the city on a Duck Tour, gone shopping on Newbury Street, or just wandered around the Freedom Trail, Faneul Hall or the Wharf area.
If you arrive early enough you can run through a workout with our instructors on the new greenspace created by “The Big Dig” known as the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Friday night is a walk along Hanover Street down the middle of the North End (Little Italy) to enjoy the sights and sounds of this colorful area. We have dinner at one of the great Italian restaurants and then wander over to cafe Vittorio for a Canolli and a Capuccino, and for those in the know maybe a Lemoncello! After that it’s a walk down to “Mike’s Pastry” or “The Modern” for cookies or a Lobstah Claw to go!
Saturday is all (or at least mostly) about training! We start with a hearty breakfast at the famous Owl/Four Sisters diner in Lowell, MA and then head to Dracut Kenpo Karate for the completion of Black Belt testing and workshops by Professor Chamberlain in Kenpo and shihan Kiyoshi Takeuchi in Hico Ryu Tai Jutsu. We then head to Shihan Thibault’s for the Lobstah Boil and Clam Bake including the famous Lobter Eating Contest for which the winners receive the coveted trophy which shihan keeps at the dojo! Don’t worry, if you want to enter the competition but don’t know how to eat Lobstah, sensei Norman has created some videos which painstakingly get you through the whole process.
Sunday morning is coffee and a drive into Boston’s famous Chinatown (boston-chinatown.info). This is the third largest Chinatown in the U.S. after New York and San Francisco. Here we train at one of the local Kung Fu schools to work up an appetite and then head over to Albert’s restaurant the Hei La Moon (heilamoon.com) for Dim Sum and a Tsing Tao.
Depending on time, we have then toured “Old Ironsides” in the harbor, taken a Duck Tour of the city, or wandered back through Quincy Market to sneak some cookies at the Boston Chipyard or visit Ned Devine’s for one last bowl of the best clam chowder in the city.
Come join us, it’s a great martial arts weekend of friends, family and food!