Since eBay Live! in Boston is right around the corner, I thought the following article was very helpful when deciding on activities during the trip. I recently returned from a job in Florida on American Airlines and found the following article on day trips around Boston. There are some great suggestions and I thought I'd share them with you. I especially like Revolutionary War history and enjoyed the trip to Concord & Lexington. I hope this article helps add to your trip. The trips start with the closest locations to Boston and get progressively farther in distance.
I've visited many of these places during trips to Boston and they are worth the effort to see. Here we go...
(Reprinted from EagleLattitudes.com)
Boston is full of memorable attractions, but just past its borders are a handful of places that shouldn't be missed. The following four easy side trips are all less than two hours away from "The Hub."
Cambridge: Home of the Wicked Smaht
(Three miles from Boston)Across the landmark Charles River stand two of the country's finest educational institutions, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although your own college days may be long gone, traversing the campus, especially with the student-run "Unofficial Tour," is the best way to get a glimpse of future minds at work and play. Do your homework in advance and find out who's lecturing (sometimes for free) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics, where past, and often controversial, speakers have included Angela Davis, former President Bill Clinton and Stephen Colbert.
A bastion of bookstores, art and science museums await in and around Harvard Square. One can spend a few days in this bustling college town, so a stay at The Charles may just be what the future doctor around the corner ordered. Dinner at Henrietta's Table, located within The Charles, is a lesson in freshness with ingredients from the local market infused into down-home dishes like Yankee pot roast, baked Gloucester scrod and buttery mashed potatoes. Its patrons are equally laidback with a multiethnic smattering of students, farmers and charmingly disheveled professors dining amongst Nobel laureates and celebrities.
We Need a Revolution: Looking Back in Lexington
(Eight miles from Boston)The "War is Not the Answer" sign on a Lexingtonian's lawn may be a reference to the current U.S. military involvement or a respectful nod to the town's legacy as the birthplace of the American Revolution. The free National Heritage Museum showcases a wealth of ever-changing exhibitions from 19th-century inventors to Sowing the Seeds of Liberty: Lexington and the American Revolution. At the museum's doorstep, the Liberty Ride and its costumed and energetic guides await us to discuss the tumultuous events of April 19, 1775 with an enthusiasm all history teachers should emulate. The trolley shuttles visitors along the Battle Road and meanders through a 90-minute jump on/off tour, pausing at key sites like the infamous Battle Green and the 900-acre Minute Man National Historical Park. Visit Lexington during Patriots Day, and reenactments of the empowered farmers' battle and Paul Revere's ride (complete with his myth-busting statement regarding the British) might leave you with a renewed interest in the nation's past and present history or, at least, the desire to rent the movie 1776 for a more lighthearted perspective.
A Literary Quest in Concord
(24 miles from Boston)If the writer within begs to tap in to the inspiration behind some of the world's literary heroes, head to the Concord Museum, where the short Exploring Concord film is an easy primer to the town's remarkable treasured homes and precious collections of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Orchard House, home of Little Women author Alcott, gives a fascinating look at the author's suffragette campaign and participation in the Underground Railroad. The very desk and inkwell where she penned the 50-times translated classic is on tangible display in addition to original wall-art by her artistic sibling, May.
Thoreau was quite transient, residing in several Concord sites, including spending two years on the banks of tranquil Walden Pond, where he wrote the famous ode to life's simplicity. In 1835 he lived in the Colonial Inn for two years while he attended Harvard. Today, he might be pleased that the 56-room hotel, built in 1716, has retained its Victorian flavor in the original wood floors, antique furnishings and an authentic looking tavern, but nods to the future with rich, earnest cuisine and wireless Internet, perfect for present scribes.
Whale Watching in Cape Cod
(70 miles from Boston)Cape Cod's peninsula is full of gable-roofed, shingled houses, sandy beaches and dunes. Golf, hiking and biking are quaint pastimes, but many descend on this seaside mecca in search of the behemoths of the sea. Every year from early summer to late fall, humpbacks, sperm, blue and belugas make their way from mating and calving in warm Caribbean waters to the refreshing Atlantic for a feeding vacation. Barnstable, located Mid-Cape, is a prime location for cetacean spotting, especially on a high-speed Hyannis Whale Watcher cruise.
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