❄️😬 This winter trip is a big fat FLOP

👭 To celebrate: Here’s an adorable picture of Gia and Emily being extremely embarrassing and showing up to work in the exact same outfit this week. At least it’s a cute fit.

💜 Also: ICYMI, we launched a membership this week! Our first weekly membership email full of exclusive foodie recs, things to do, and more is going out on Saturday (just one of many member perks). To give you all a taste of the action, all B-Siders will get the first one, but after that, it’ll be members-only. You can sign up here!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Is it possible to find good tubing less than 30 minutes from the city? That’s the question we bravely set out to answer for this edition of Wintering in Boston. 

Last time, we covered snowshoeing and cross-country skiing at the Weston Ski Track. This time, we headed to the Blue Hills Ski Area in Canton to try out its new tubing setup.

Here’s what we thought:

🏔️ Blue Hills Ski Area is small but mighty. It’s around 60 acres and has a 309-foot vertical drop (about one-third of Wachusett’s, or one-eighth of Stowe’s, for reference), 16 trails of all levels, four lifts, and of course, a tubing area. Weekday tubing tickets cost $28 a pop, though weekends will run you $32.

🚗 Getting there is a schlep. You're not going to find skiing or tubing much closer to the city than this. Without traffic, it's a 24-minute drive from downtown Boston. And while you can technically get there via MBTA with the right combo of the T and various bus routes, it would have taken nearly two hours from Gia’s apartment (and that’s assuming all the buses show up on time). So, she drove.

🎿 For a small hill, the facilities are upscale. If the Blue Hills Ski Area ever had the opposite reputation, we’re officially debunking it. Under new management this year, everything from the snowmaking, to the food and rentals, to the website was impressively revamped. When we visited on a weeknight, the ski area was bustling with kids coming for after-school lessons, though we were the only tubers. 

🛷 That said, we wouldn’t describe the tubing sitch as “upscale.” In fact … we’d say the opposite. The hill and lanes were pretty underwhelming, but the ride down was chaotic. Between the uncomfortably uncushioned tubes where you could feel every bump, the haphazard rubber mats at the bottom of the hill meant to slow you down, and the fact that each ride ended by hitting the perimeter fence (just look at the gif, lol), it was giving sledding in your friend’s backyard. Definitely not worth the cash.

⛷️ Our takeaway: Blue Hills’ skiing > tubing. We thought Blue Hills’ revamped skiing situation was impressive, and we’d go back to check it out. But unfortunately, we can’t say the same about the tubing. For 15 extra minutes in the car and $20 more, Nashoba Valley Ski Area has a pretty legit tubing setup. Pro tip: They offer 50% off on Wednesdays. 

❄️ One snow down, two(?) to go. Consider Thursday’s inch of snow and freezing rain an amuse-bouche for the next week because Mother Nature is just warming up. As of Thursday evening, forecasters are projecting that from Saturday evening into Sunday, Boston and most of Mass. will be getting the biggest snow of the season — there’s potential for six inches or more. And that’s not all. After a quick break on Monday, it looks like there will be more snow coming our way Tuesday … and again on Thursday, though the deets are TBD. Keep up with the latest here.

🚇 If we had a nickel for every B-Side Red Line shutdown writeup … We’d have a lot of nickels. You know the drill: The Red Line is shutting down this weekend between JFK/UMass and Braintree to make some signal upgrades. Per usual, shuttle buses will make all of the line’s normal stops. That said, the MBTA is encouraging riders to use the *fare free* Middleborough, Kingston, and Greenbush Commuter Rail lines instead for service to Braintree, Quincy Center, JFK/UMass, and South Station. 

🏘️ How many new homes would it take to ease Mass.’ housing crisis? 222,000, apparently. Gov. Maura Healey’s admin said that’s the magic number of new houses Mass. needs to build over the next 10 years to head off our worsening housing crisis. But, surprise, surprise, it’s not that simple. To hit that number, we’ll have to seriously ramp up construction (the state built about 19,000 houses a year between 2010 and 2020), which won’t be easy given our financial headwinds and some towns and cities' resistance to new developments. 

💸 Tell TurboTax to take a hike. If you’re a Boston resident making $70,000 or less a year, there’s no reason to be shelling out dough to get your taxes done. Boston Tax Help Coalition offers help preparing and filing your taxes for FREE. It’s completely legit and run by the city — all you have to do is make an appointment (there are services IRL or online), gather the necessary information (find that list here), and show up. They’ll get your taxes done right, and maximize the credits you’re able to take advantage of. Find more info here.

❣️ Level up your Valentine’s Day card game. Hallmark hates to see this print-making workshop coming. You’ll learn the ins and outs of block printing and use your new skills to make your own Valentine’s Day cards.

🥘 Meet soup season’s final boss. The fourth annual Bowl of ‘Zole festival is back on Saturday, where you can eat an absurd amount of pozole (a traditional Mexican stew) from renowned New England chefs.

🐍 Head to Chinatown’s biggest party of the year. Step 1: Watch the iconic Lion Dance parade at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Step 2: Keep the party going at Chinatown Trade Center for origami, Chinese calligraphy, performances, and more.

👯 Have a Sunday funday with your bestie. Aeronaut Brewing is throwing an epic besties and brews Galentine’s celebration, equipped with psychic readings, a women-owned market, a flower arrangement class, and more. 

🏈 No Super Bowl plans? No problem. Skip being the hostess with the mostess and head to a cover-free watch party with tons of food. See: This one at Game On Fenway or this one at Sam Adams’ downtown taproom.

🐶 Celebrate something Super Bowl … adjacent. Like we mentioned earlier, consider us sat for this Tom Brady look-alike contest at Time Out Market on Saturday, along with Park-9 Dog Bar’s iconic Puppy Bowl (with adoptable pups!). 

💦 Have a Sunday sweat with a side of brunch. Your ticket to this 45-minute sculpt class at Loco Taqueria comes with a mimosa and complimentary patatas bravas for the table (if you stay for brunch).

🎨 Show your partner you care … with a portrait. Trident may have chosen violence with this paint-your-partner paint and sip class on Monday. But tickets are selling like hot cakes, so clearly they’re doing something right. 

The Pats aren’t in the Super Bowl, but you can still root for New England on Sunday. This year, two local pups representing Mass. will be competing in the 21st annual Puppy Bowl. 

B-Siders, meet Bark Kent and Lex Woofer, both shih tzu dachshund mixes from the Great Dog Rescue New England. Bark will be representing Team Fluff on Sunday, while Lex will be playing for Team Ruff — the competition is going to be intense. 

Even more exciting than the game itself, both puppies (plus all the other puppies on the field)  will be up for adoption. You can read more about both puppy squads here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🏈 Thanks for reading! Bark Kent v. Lex Woofer > Chiefs v. Eagles. 

🐶 The results are in: 62% of readers correctly guessed that Bella was the second most popular female dog name in Boston. One reader said: “I think I had 3 coworkers with a Lucy and one with a Bella... in a 15 person department.”

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