Taking a break from studying for finals:

[thisisnotajournal]

So.

Julie's graduating June 29th from TBS. That means I have an excuse to drag my godmother along on an almost-weeklong excursion along the East Coast - specifically, DC, Boston, NYC, and whatever else is serviced by the Acela Express.

Anybody local to the area(s) want to chime in on what to see/do and what to skip out on? I've been to NYC before and didn't find it to my liking, but this will be her first time on the east coast.

Comments

[camwyn]

Always adored the New England Aquarium, myself, but the lines can be stupid long. The Museum of Science can probably be skipped unless you really wanna see one of their IMAX movies as a break from other things. The USS Constitution is currently in dry dock for repairs if you wanted to see that particular bit of history from the outside. If you guys favor Italian food, wander into the North End and pick a random small restaurant; nearly all of them are really good. If your godmother favors expensive shopping, Newbury Street is the way to go, plus it's relatively near the Prudential Center (which has an observation deck at the top- I understand people go there a lot). There's a number of places along the Charles River where they'll happily rent you kayaks for paddling if you want to see parts of Boston and Cambridge from the water- none anywhere near the harbor, of course. Nobody really likes having to fish kayakers out of the engines of LNG tankers.

Not sure what the Sox schedule is like that month, but if you can get to a game and if you like baseball, it should be fun; the stadium's also surrounded by a lot of different bars and restaurants, so those provide some good options.

I do not recommend anything that involves walking the entire Freedom Trail unless both of you are really into history. However, the Old State House has some decent museum stuff inside and the site of the Boston Massacre outside, plus it's pretty close to several different restaurants and only a short walk from Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall, although that place is on the overpriced side at most stores. Unless one of you really has a thing for either Durgin Park (a restaurant) or the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (a three hundred year old military unit with a museum in Faneuil Hall), you probably don't need to go. The Old State House also has the advantage of being directly above a T station- State Street- so it's easy to reach.

The Bunker Hill Monument looks more impressive from the outside. Inside the stairwell is very narrow and has no landings whatsoever. The view from the top is gorgeous, just be aware that there will be sweaty tourists coming down the stairs and you will have nowhere to go to let them past.

[thisisnotajournal]

The Sox are out of town from June 23rd, I checked. They have a home game on July 1st against the - Rays, I think? Not sure. But she at least wants to visit Fenway, if not see a game there. (I've recently come to the opinion that watching baseball is like watching paint dry - I probably wouldn't last the first inning before resorting to fucking around on my phone.)

She's got a thing for the Duck Boat tours. I don't know how attached she is to it, but would you recommend kayaking over those?

Faneuil Hall and the Freedom Trail are things she definitely wants to check off her list. I don't know how much of the Freedom Trail she wants to visit, though. Do they allow bikes on it?

She also wants to visit the Cheers bar. I don't know, that sounds kinda tourist-trappy to me. Your thoughts?

[camwyn]

The duck boat tours are your best bet to see the harbor unless you want to take one of the ferries out to the Harbor Islands. Some of those make for nice hikes and a bit of history, but they make a better day trip than just a brief visit. The Charles gets a little crowded during good kayaking weather. If you pick the right duck boat company, you get a ride through the city and then a trip into either the harbor or the Charles, so you've got a bit of a combo package there.

The Freedom Trail isn't a separately defined trail per se. It's basically the best path they could draw between as many of Boston's historical points as possible. In most areas it's a paint stripe or set of bricks that runs down the pavement and stops in front of historic things. You can walk from the Old State House along the Freedom Trail to Faneuil Hall and then over to the North End, where the Old North Church and the Paul Revere house are. It also goes over a foot-accessible bridge into Charlestown, so the Constitution and the Bunker Hill monument are both stops for it. You could probably bike in the street parallel to the trail in most cases, but that's the best you're gonna get there. (We have decent bike trail along the river in Boston and Cambridge, but it's not of any historic significance unless you're into architecture or Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.)

The Cheers bar is incredibly tourist-trappy. Personally I think its major attraction is that it is across the street from the Public Garden, which is a rather nice park and includes swan boat rides on the pond plus the Make Way For Ducklings statue for people who have kids who've read that book. Mind, the Public Garden is next to Boston Common, which is a little bigger and often has things going on, and not far from the State House, which some people may think worth seeing.