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6 days in Boston with kids - a lovely family vacation

6 days in Boston with kids - a lovely family vacation

Old Oct 11th, 2015, 07:08 PM
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6 days in Boston with kids - a lovely family vacation

We had a lovely time in Boston. Although Boston is an area well traveled, I am writing a trip report for any other families who may want to visit in the future. We have three children, ages 7, 9, 11. We all like history and we are also book-ish. Boston definitely is the city for people like us!

Due to a hotel mix-up with our room, we were diverted from staying at the Hilton Back Bay to the Embassy Suites near the airport. I had already consulted my trusty Fodorites (thank you, Ackislander, CW, DonTopaz, China Cat, Ozarks bill, DFrist and CharlotteK, marvelous mouse, Samba Chula – you all have NO IDEA how helpful you all were!). I had made many reservations and plans with the Hilton in mind as our home base, but in the end, this proved to be a better hotel for us. The convenience of the Back Bay can’t be beat, but the corner “board room suite” at the Embassy was the largest space we have ever stayed in. With 5 people, that is a huge bonus. Not sure how the construction around the Hilton would have affected us, but glad we didn’t have to find out.

One down side about staying at the Embassy is that it made for one (or two) more stop(s) on the subway. We had no problems with the subway and my kids loved figuring out our routes. But the line closure at Govt Center is a bear and we had to deal with the route-around every time we went anywhere. It was no major hassle, but took some forethought and planning, which we would have been able to avoid more if we had stayed elsewhere.

Our kids have learned a good bit of colonial history already in school, but as a family we prepared ahead of time for this trip by watching the entire Liberty’s Kids series over the course of a month. It is an excellent, historically accurate series for any age person. This made later points in the trip very understandable for all of my children.

We also like to find letterboxes, and we found several in the Boston area. This was an added bonus as well. If you are not yet into letterboxing, Boston is a great place to start. Find out more at atlasquest.org.

I had quite a schedule planned and figured we would have to make some concessions somewhere. As it turns out, the food was the point of negotiation. Most of our reservations had to be cancelled or rescheduled due to logistics or tired people. Anyway, if I had to concede somewhere, I am glad it was with the food and not the siteseeing. Having said that, we did enjoy Summer Shack, Tia’s, and a pizza dive called Santarpio’s. We also really liked Mr. Bartley’s for lunch at Harvard, and Abigail’s Tea Room was a perfect light lunch. In Concord I really wanted to eat at one of the places suggested here but they did not open until 11:30 and we were there at 11:00 on a tight schedule. We ate at Main Street Café, and it was the best meal we had all week, who would have guessed that?! The food was delicious at Chart House but the service was not so great. The rest of the time we ate at the hotel.

I will do a day-by-day report next, to break things up a little. I am sure it will be long-winded no matter what.
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Old Oct 11th, 2015, 07:08 PM
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Day 1 – Started with a Duck Tour. As all the Fodorites suggested this was a big waste of time, but my children were dying to try this after not being able to go on one in another city. I wanted to get it out of the way. My middle daughter says this was the favorite part of her whole trip (groan!) so I guess it was worth it. (?) We had originally planned to eat at the Prudential for lunch but we decided to eat later and did the skywalk instead. The audio tour (complementary with tickets to the skywalk) was excellent – every person in my family enjoyed this. I liked that it was not too high up to see the attractions below. I am glad we saw things from up high early in the trip because everyone had a better sense of direction afterwards.

That afternoon we walked most of the north end of the Freedom Trail in a guided walk. Our guide was charming and informative, but we later decided we would do the other half (scheduled on a different day) on our own. The guide left us near the water, and we crossed on our own to see the USS Constitution. The ship is dry docked, but the very day we visited they had just opened up the inside to walk through as well as the deck. Both were interesting but the highlight was the museum. Hands on for the kids – great activities and we all got to write our names in copper to be put on Old Ironsides later. The water taxi is a convenient way to get back to the harbor from here. At some point we visited Faneuil Hall which was a very busy souvenir kind of place (plus ice cream). Quincy Market has tons of places to eat, like a restaurant food court. My kids had a blast at the open air art stand in this general area.

Day 2 – We started with a riverboat tour on the Charles River. This was pleasant but we did not go very far up the river and all things considered it just wasn’t very memorable. After that we headed to Harvard, had lunch at the burger place (very good!), and had a Hahvahd Tour led by a student. Our guide was very practiced, but it was a good tour. My preconceived mental picture of Harvard was totally different than what Harvard really looks like. After that we went to the Museum of Natural History (free entry with our local ASTC membership). This is a great museum with many specimens of fossils and the like, but it honestly just wasn’t what we came to Boston to do, so we lost interest pretty quickly. We also got lost leaving the building (apparently the museum is connected to the Peabody Museum) and it was time for a snack and we were all just cranky. An early night and a lot of rest fixed this and we were on to….

Day 3 – We did the Hop on, Hop off bus tour this day. Originally we had planned to do the HOHO tour and a guided walk of the Freedom trail this day, but we decided to scrap the guided tour and just use the HOHO as transportation between many attractions that we wanted to see. We started back at the north end of the Freedom Trail and saw the Old North Church – one of our favorite places of our trip (with a lovely gift shop). We also saw the Paul Revere house, which was more reproduction than original artifact. And, importantly, we sampled Mike’s pastries, which I highly recommend.

We rode the bus to Charlestown to see the Bunker Hill memorial. Several people in town had downplayed this attraction but it was a major highlight of our trip. My history guys loved the little museum dioramas and all of us were crazy enough to climb to the top of the memorial (Do not underestimate this endeavor! I walk 3 miles daily and my legs are still sore 4 days later from this stunt). The walk to and from Breed’s Hill is lovely as well.

We also enjoyed the Old State House. The kids had several hands on activities to learn from here and all of us got a feel for what the meetings might have been like in colonial times.

As an artist and a huge fan of Sargent, I was glad to have the chance to see the beautiful Boston Public Library. It is truly a masterpiece itself, and the Sargent murals are amazing. We had planned to fit in the Gardner Museum, so I could see the Sargent collection and for the kids to see the empty frames. This museum did not appear to be an easy, quick stop and I had not factored in enough time for a half day there, so we settled for the library instead. We enjoyed seeing Trinity Church there and the park had a most lovely market that day.

We also skipped the maparium, which is one thing we skipped that I think the kids would have enjoyed. We did walk the rest of the Freedom Trail and were surprised to find that we liked the north end better that the south end (this was the opposite of our expectations).

Day 4 – We needed to switch gears a little so this day we rode out to Lexington and Concord. Both are beautiful, quaint little towns and definitely worth seeing. We relied on public transportation and this worked out for us, but I can see why so many Fodorites recommended getting a car for this day only. Taking the subway and using the bus for the final leg was easy. Using the Liberty Riders Tour was not as easy. Though it is advertised as a hop on, hop off bus tour, it is clear that they do not usually operate that way. There is only one trolley, making a 90 minute loop 4 times a day. It is supposed to stop at 6-ish places, but in reality it makes one full stop and everyone gets off, and you really have to stay on top of things to let the driver know if you want to be dropped off anywhere else (to be picked up in an hour and a half, because that’s when the trolley will be back). Thankfully we were there for the first ride out at 10:00, stopping at Old North Bridge with the group – a great site to see -- and then we hopped off in Concord, planning to eat (quick) and then see the museum. The cafés were late to open, but we did finally find one where we could grab some food to go. We ate it while walking down the road to the museum – how we escaped indigestion I do not know – but somehow it all worked out and we were able to see the museum for about 40 minutes before the trolley was back. It was worth it in the end. We rode the trolley back around to the Minute Man Park, my son’s favorite attraction of the week. This is a MUST SEE with the movie to really pull things together. Also the short walk along the battle trail is beautiful and you can see Paul Revere’s capture site. Great stop, took exactly 90 minutes. We caught the trolley again and rode it back in, no time for more, and by the time we arrived back all the museums and shops at the beginning had closed. Too bad for us, because we’d picked out several books at the tavern museum by the visitors center to purchase later. I feel like we made it my the skin of our teeth on this day to see what we wanted to see. Thankfully we got a letterbox on this day and that made everyone happy as a bonus.

Day 5 - Many Fodorites cautioned me against this day, but I planned a bus trip to New Hampshire anyway. We have always wanted to go leaf peeking and this gave us a small taste of that. We also stopped at an apple orchard. This tour was the fall foliage tour with Grey Line tours. It was a great day – a more relaxing day than the others, which was needed by this point in the trip. It ended up being 10 hours round trip but we stopped several times and my kids enjoyed both the stops and the down time on the bus. All three of them read a lot and had other drawing books and played cards games galore. We found 3 or 4 letterboxes on this day, which made them super excited every time we stopped. The leaves were gorgeous especially in New Hampshire. Our best photos were on this day!

Day 6 was our last day. We started with a trip to the Science Museum. This is a HUGE museum and we could have spent all day here. We spent a ton of time in the Pixar exhibit and then in the galleries we had to pick and choose what to see before we let time get away from us. This was the only day with a threat of rain. I had worried about the weather because of the previous week’s threat of a hurricane but the week could not have been more perfect. This day we had planned to go to the Tea party ships and I did not want the weather to detract from that, so we moved on along down to the harbor by lunchtime. We ate at Abigail’s and then did the Tea Party experience. This was well worth the time – it takes over an hour and you move at the pace of your group. Of course the tea throwing was a highlight but the film at the end was moving and we enjoyed participation as “characters” in the experience. This was a great way to end our trip.
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Old Oct 11th, 2015, 07:08 PM
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One thing I wish we had been able to do was see more of the harbor by water. I had planned to do a Boston Harbour tour but we did find that October begins a “down-season” in Boston. There are large periods of activity or the boat race and Columbus Day but may businesses change to reduced hours in October or reduce what they offer (no whale watching, no harbor tours). I guess we will work these in next time!

We had a late flight out the next day but spent the morning packing and sleeping in rather than heading out for brunch as planned. This was a smart idea as we were delayed coming home and very tired by the time we arrived. We will definitely be back to visit Boston again – it is a lovely city full of historic treasures!
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 04:07 AM
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What a great trip report! You sure did see and do a lot.

So I'll bite. What was your preconceived idea of what Harvard (my front yard) would be like?
And hey, no calling Santarpio's a dive! It's a tradition.
Sorry you missed the Gardner. It's been a favorite since I used to race to see the (sadly, stolen) Degas jockey sketch as a young horse-loving child. It's even better now that the ballroom has been restored. Easy for a kid to imagine those romantic and interesting times. Share Mrs. Gardner's biography with the kids.
And the harbor islands. Try to find some of Edgar Rowe Snow's stories of wrecks and ghosts and such on the New England coast. It was his own daughter who proved that the story of the woman who got into the George's Island fort's very narrow windows to rescue her Civil War prisoner husband could have happened, that she could actually have done so. (She was hanged and became the ghost that many have seen there over the years.) In his prime, this local historianused to give intriguing boat tours of the harbor.
You didn't see the unique glass flowers at the Harvard museum? Or race down the ramp of the only Corbusier building in the US? See the Henry Moore sculpture?Gotta be a next time then....

Looking forward to having you back in the area and another interesting report.
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 05:06 AM
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Thanks for the terrific report -- you obviously took full advantage of your time. (And Santarpio's is indeed a revered place in these parts -- the ability to walk there from the Embassy Suites is the hotel's great selling point!)

This is a perfect time of year to visit Concord and Lexington. If/when you return, be advised that the walk along the Battle Road is not so short at all -- it's 3 or 4 miles long (and not a loop). If you enjoy cycling, going to the Lexington & Concord (including the Battle Road Trail) ia a fantastic day trip via the Minuteman Bikeway.
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 07:09 AM
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Oh goodness, we totally enjoyed Santarpio's! I didn't mean to sound like it wasn't good - it's just, you know, old. Which is definitely part of the charm.

We did see the glass flowers - my youngest daughter loved those and I can't believe I forgot to mention that! I guess I thought Harvard would have larger buildings, closer together. We are from the South, where our universities are architected on a grand scale. I liked Harvard, it was just different from what we usually see. My favorite buildings were the dorms with the pretty colored spires on top.

We did think a bike trip would have been a fantastic way to explore Lexington and Concord. Maybe the next time we come my youngest will be a better bike rider and we can take advantage of more time there. We would love to go the entire length of that battle trail. (We only had time to walk from the museum to Revere's capture site and back but, yes, it's much longer than that!)

Boston has so many things to do and I wish we'd had time for everything, but that just ensures us another trip. Thank you all again for your help!
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 08:06 AM
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Great report. You and your family certainly did a lot. When our son was a high school student, he was the only one in his history class who had been to some of the famous sites in the mid-Atlantic. A lot of kids had been to Disney though. Bet your children do well in history.
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 08:32 AM
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Funny you say that, nearly every friend we have went to Disney for our fall break. Nothing against Disney, but if I have a full week I am not spending it at an amusement park!
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 09:19 AM
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That was a terrific report. Thanks for writing. And now I've learned about letterboxes. I noticed that there were two in the large park next to where I live so I'm going to check it out.

You really did a lot in the time you had here. I love that your children got to see a lot of the sights they studied. That makes an impression. So many people bypass the Concord Museum because it has an entry fee but it really is a gem.

You will have to return to see the other things on your list. Government Center Station should be open by then. That makes transport easier even if you're not out near the airport.

And yes, the weather was perfect for sightseeing.
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 03:11 PM
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Sounds like you packed a lot in and had a good time.

I was surprised to see you say that people here told you the duck tour was a waste of time, so I looked at the thread where you discussed it. It looked to me like people were saying it was fun, just not to expect a serious historical tour.

Personally I thought the duck tour was a blast. I have only been on it once, and the driver was a friend of ours and we filed the duck with friends and people who were in town for our daughter's wedding, so I'm sure that colored my experience. I'm glad your daughter liked it but sorry you didn't.
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 03:22 PM
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Been checking out letter boxing.
Apparently there's one at the Maparium for your next trip.
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Old Oct 12th, 2015, 05:28 PM
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Nikki, the duck tour was fine - certainly not a bad experience. At the end of the week, after all as said and done, I just felt like we should have spent our time doing something else during that time. I really felt like that was what was being suggested from the forum too. Not that it was awful, just maybe there are better things to do. We really didn't learn much and truthfully, we didn't see a lot either. Although she was very funny, our driver talked mostly about herself and had a male-bashing fest the *entire* time. She also kept "taking short cuts" which meant we went down the same streets we just drove, and we didn't go far into the water at all. So -it was mildly entertaining but not really anything of value. That's all, nothing horrible. I am sure if the boat were filled with all of our friends, it would have been a total blast!

cw and samba - so glad you are checking into the letterboxes. It is a fun hobby. My children have log books that they made when they were very young. They have stamps from many locations around the country. It really amps up the fun for them when we travel. Now I REALLY can't wait to see the maparium next time!
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Old Oct 13th, 2015, 01:34 PM
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Busy but fun trip!
Sorry to hear that your driver for the Duck tour wasn't so good.
I too was surprised that you didn't love this as I've been twice (once with my own kids and again when family with children visited Boston) and both times it was excellent especially the commentary and historical information. I guess it really does depend on the driver

Probably made a wise choice to skip the maparium. It's entertaining for 10 minutes or so plus a cool photo opportunity on the bridge inside the globe but the museum part is rather preachy.
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Old Oct 16th, 2015, 05:11 AM
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This sounds like a wonderful trip for you and the kids. It also let you know that there is plenty in the Boston area to keep you entertained for the next visit. Did you get to see the static electricity demonstration or the planetarium program at the Museum of Science?

Perhaps take the train or ferry to Salem and visit the Essex-Peabody museum and the House of Seven Gables.

Thanks for the report.
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Old Oct 16th, 2015, 06:40 PM
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Thanks, sassy and emalloy! We did see the static electricity demo - very cool - but the planetarium didn't have a show scheduled until after lunch. Next time!
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