I must admit that Boston is one of our favorite cities, having lived there and visited often when each of our children lived there either for college or in-between college and graduate school. It is New England's largest and most important city and the cradle of American independence, unless you are reading the PR from Philadelphia.
The city is more than 360 years old and so it does have some of the most recognizable landmarks that we know. At the same time, Boston is a financial center with glass towers and it is the place where many aspire to go to college. We used to joke that Cambridge is a place where your waitperson may well be getting a Ph.D. in something that you can't even pronounce. It is a city of neighborhoods, each of which has a different ethnic flavor, and wonder of wonders, it is a compact city which can be walked with ease. This is good because driving in this city can be a challenge. When we lived there, the first topic at any cocktail party was the "crazy drivers." In one hour you can walk from the North End where history comes alive and Italian food is everywhere around you to Beacon Hill where mansions line the streets and where Lowells spoke to Cabots and Cabots spoke only to God. You can explore the oldest public park, the Boston Commons, in the morning, remembering Make Way for Ducklings; Back Bay in the afternoon; and wind up in Chinatown for dinner.
The Freedom Trail - a self-guided tour of famous American historic sites takes you through layers of history and allows you to explore "Beantown" at your leisure. Arrive by air at Logan International Airport which serves most of our domestic and foreign carriers. For about $20 you can get a taxi into town. The airport is a tunnel ride away from Boston and a bit more to Cambridge which is across the Charles river. By car Boston is a hub of New England on I-95. I-90 heads West, I-93 connects Boston to the north and New Hampshire. A section of I-93 is scheduled to be turned into an underground highway as part of the Central Artery Project so expect construction and delays until well into the year 2000. Even without this construction, delays on Storrow Drive and any street in the city can be aggravating so do try to walk or take the famous MBTA, the subway, whenever possible. The later has visitor passes for unlimited travel on subways and buses for 1-, 3- and 7-day periods.
A three day excursion to the area will barely give you a taste of Boston, but it will make you eager to return and explore more. We have spent wonderful summers on Martha's Vineyard and at various towns on Cape Cod and Gloucester on Cape Ann. If you come back, do visit Bear Skin Neck on Cape Ann, rent a bike on the Vineyard and just kick back. You'll never forget the beauty. It haunts me till today, living in the center of the country. Lakes are OK, but living by the ocean for a summer is a joy. "Down to the sea in ships" was our motto when our children learned to sail, and make sand castles. If you have more time, do rent a car and travel to New Hampshire, the far suburbs of Boston and keep going. Eisenhower said that Dartmouth is what a college should look like, and boy was he correct. The White Mountains beckon, even if your husband is not president of the alumni association. If you are traveling to Boston in the Fall, join the troops heading north to be stunned by the colors of the leaves. The first time I took my daughter for that tour, her mouth never closed as she continually talked about the sun making the colors come alive.
But back to Boston. On one day you will want to walk Beacon Hill. Look at Beacon Street which epitomizes Boston. From the State House to stately mansions the street is lined with architectural treasures. The Athenaeum and Appleton Mansions at Nos. 39 and 40 are worth a look just for the windows. All along the street find important buildings of Charles Bullfinch-- the designer of the Federal style in America. Only 1,049 proprietary shares exist for membership in the Athenaeum which is the cathedral of scholarship, and these have been passed down through the generations. The public is permitted to walk through the first and second floors to view the marble busts, porcelain vases, oil paintings, and leather-bound books. Then go to the Public Gardens and see the Make Way for Ducklings statue. The Central Burying Ground is the final resting place of Tories and Patriots, as well as many British casualties of the Battle of Bunker Hill. On the Beacon Street side of the Commons sits the restored Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, executed in deep-relief bronze by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1897. It honors the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, led by Robert Gould Shaw, the first Civil War unit made up of Free blacks. Their saga inspired the 1989 movie Glory. If you want to visit the quaintest corner of Beacon Hill, go to Louisburg Square. Its houses - many built in the 1840's - have been inhabited by the Alcotts at No 10 ( Louisa Mae died here on the day of her father's funeral). In 1852, Jenny Lind was married in the parlor of No.20, the residence of Samuel Ward, brother of Julia Ward Howe.
On Mt. Vernon Street you can see many distinguished homes. Henry James once wrote that this was "the only respectable street in America." In the afternoon walk along the Esplanade. At the northern end of Charles Street you can cross Storrow drive on one of the foot bridges. The Storrow stretches along the Charles River and this scenic green is a wonderful place to watch crew teams, sailors or just look at Cambridge across the river. At night go to the theater after eating in the district. Ask the concierge to get you reservations and just enjoy. On another day start at the Museum of Science with a 15-ft lightning bolt in the Theater of Electricity and a 20-ft-high T. Rex model. Hop the T into Kenmore Square. Then go to The Museum of Fine Arts. Here you can see 50 works by John Singleton Copley plus major works by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and Edward Hopper. Other artists represented include Marry Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Berthe Morisot. The museum also has a wonderful collection of French Impressionists. I used to drag our son's English pram up the steps to the museum on a weekly basis when he was an infant, thinking he would love art. As a freshmen at Harvard he lived across from the Fogg, another wonderful art museum, which he never entered. What's a mom to do? Anyway there are at least 38 Monets, the largest collection outside of France, at the Museum of Fine Arts. Plus, you will find renowned collections of Asian, Egyptian, and Nubian art. You can eat dinner at the Fine Arts Cafe if you go late to enjoy this splendid museum.
Take a day to look at colleges. MIT is near to Harvard and both are worth seeing. Harvard Square is certainly worth the ride across the river. You can pretend you are in Love Story, The Kennedy Library is on the same side of the Charles and also worth a trip. That afternoon take a cab ride to Faneuil Hall and walk the Freedom Trail. In downtown Boston, the Faneuil Hall is also unique. Built in 1742, the original building is steeped in history, and houses Quincy Market with its food and flower stalls, as well as all sorts of shops and good places to eat. When we lived in Boston, the market was a regular Friday trip, with dinner afterward in an Italian restaurant on the North Side. Food stalls in those days had saw dust floors. The Freedom Trail is a 3-mile tour of sites of the Revolution and is a crash course in history. There are 16 sites beginning at the Boston Common and ending at Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Depending on how fast you walk and the depth of your visit, this can take from 1 1/2 hours, to half a day. Don't miss a night in the North End for dinner. There are bakeries that will make you wish for 2 viles of insulin.
Well, I've given you three days in Boston and have barely scratched the surface of what to do and see. I did not include the Bull and Finch, the bar of Cheers, Charles Street. the Old South Meeting Hall or Rowes Wharf. We missed the Museum of Afro American History, the Abiel Smith School and the Old Granart Burial Ground, the African Meeting House, and the Boston Center for the Arts. We did not talk about Paul Revere's Ride on Patriot's Day, Symphony Hall, Trinity Church or Fenway Park and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I did not tell you about Copley Square which is where our favorite hotel in Boston has been for years. This is a great place to shop at the mall and to see the John Hancock Tower. Nor did we talk about Newbury Street, another place to shop and eat. So dear reader, you can see that Boston really is a walking person's city. It is a wonder of old and new, and of beauty and history. Remember to take comfortable shoes for day time. This is New England, so bring warm clothes and shoe protection from the Nor'easters. Don't leave home without all of your meds and testing supplies. Get your maps together and go for a weekend you won't forget. As we said before, think of your visit as one of a series, as you too will be bitten with the Boston bug.
