Our Gluten Free Trip to Boston

enjoying a gluten free cupcake from Glutenus Minimus

When the kids and I went to Boston, we didn't bring the trailer. I thought about it, but it's all cleaned so we can sell it, the closest campground didn't open till halfway through our visit, and the roads were a big unknown (they turned out to be terrible, so I'm glad I wasn't driving the trailer on them).

So we embarked on a ten day trip with no kitchen to prepare our food and with plans to stay in hotels- something that has made me quite nervous in the past. I'd looked for hotels with kitchens, but hotels in general in the Boston area are quite expensive and the ones with kitchens seemed to be a bit more so. We ended up staying next to where Mr M was doing his training, which was outside of Boston, and neither of the hotel options offered kitchens. Our hotel room did have a mini-frig, a sink, a tiny counter space, and a microwave.

For the drive up there we brought sandwiches (GF, of course) and snacks to eat along the way. I knew we'd be eating enough restaurant food on our trip and wanted to have one more day of "real" food.

While we were in Massachusetts, we had breakfast at the hotel every morning. We were able to eat juice, yogurt, and fruit from the hotel dining area and we supplemented that with toast made from GF bread we brought and toasted in our GF toaster that we also brought. I prefer more protein for breakfast, but we didn't starve or get glutened, so it was a win.

Lunches had a bit more variety and because of our schedule were sometimes combined with dinner.
Chipotle - standard GF carnitas burrito bowl. A safe standby when made without lettuce or cheese, which can be contaminated.
Panera - turkey chili (meh) and chicken cobb salad. The food was ok, but it made me nervous to eat there because bread is everywhere. This was the day we walked a good portion of the Freedom Trail and we were hungry and hadn't seen anything else even remotely promising. We managed not to react to anything.
Stone Hearth Pizza- GF bacon and bleu pizza. It was ok, but I should have stuck with pepperoni. The bacon seduced me into trying something more exotic.... This is a Boston-area pizza place that has a dedicated gluten free area and seemed pretty knowledgeable about proper GF procedures. No problems after eating here.

Whole Foods - GF sushi  (a couple times).
New England Aquarium cafe - Chef salad and gross potato salad. The potato salad had sugar added to it. Who adds sugar to potato salad? Neither LMS nor I liked it.
Hotel room - Sandwiches we made there.

Dinners were fairly repetitious as we stuck to our known standbys.
5 Guys - hamburger wrapped in lettuce, fries
Chili's - ribs, chicken salad
Chipotle - burrito bowl
Hotel room - meat and cheese sandwiches with fruit, tuna sandwiches with veggies

We also found some treats:
Gluten free chocolate cake from Whole Foods - for LMS' birthday
Glutenus Minimus GF cupcakes - we found a cupcake shop right on the Freedom Trail that carried GF cupcakes from Glutenus Minimus. They were in plastic containers so avoided any contact with the gluten-filled cupcakes. It was fun to actually be able to sit down and eat something in a bakery.
Pinkberry frozen yogurt - They even brought out new containers of toppings for us, just to make sure there wasn't any contamination.

All-in-all, it was a successful trip. We didn't get glutened, we managed to eat fairly well, even being adventurous enough to try out a pizza place, and we didn't eat at 5 Guys or Chipotle every meal. It was a bit nerve-wracking to think about and plan, but the results were worth it.

This was a good experience because it showed me we can do road trips without the trailer. We want to get an RV, but realistically it'll be at least a year or two before we can buy one. Since we're selling the trailer now (anyone want a 2012 FunFinder 189 FDS in great condition?), next summer's road trip will be without our own little kitchen. I've already started thinking about how we can make it work, and I think it'll be doable, though I'm still looking forward to when we buy the RV :)