Leaving for Boston Friday and looks like we're in for rain. We planned to do the outdoor thing - and walk a lot. Suggestions for indoor activities, please?

Don't look now, but the weather report is on the TV as I type - perhaps snow Friday.

Last I heard the rain/snow was supposed to move through quickly and a warmup with blue skies is expected, so if you're also here for the weekend you may be OK.

But to answer your question - the Museum of Fine Arts and the smaller but very elegant Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum should be first on your list for indoor activities. The restaurant in the MFA (the upstairs one, whose name escapes me at the moment) can be a worthwhile destination on its own.

My second choice would be to head over to Cambridge and Harvard's variety of museums, specifically (for my taste anyway) the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Museum of Natural History (home of the glass flowers) and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. The Boston Museum of Science can also be a bit of fun, particularly if there's something of interest on at the Omni theatre or in the planetarium.

I also wouldn't totally give up on the walking thing - with umbrellas, shielding from tall buildings, and dropping into interesting places from time to time a little bit of inclement weather may not be all that bad.

If it's only Wednesday and the weather people are predicting a wet weekend, you can be almost sure that the weekend will be sunny. Just pack an umbrella in case.

I also heard snow for Fri. but clear for the weekend. Do anything that you had planned. It should be fine especially if it's snow. This time of year it will barely reach the ground and will not soak you like rain. Have fun!

I second the Gardner museum and the Harvard museums. The Boston Public Library (the old part) is also interesting with great murals.

A fun website with unusual Boston information is www.metaboston.com.