We are driving in to Boston this Sunday to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. We usually park at the Alewife station and take the T in, but thought we would drive in this time. The MFA parking garage charges an outrageous $7 an hour for parking. Is there any place near the Musueum that we can park cheaper? Also, can anyone reccommend a place for dinner nearby. We usually walk quite a bit to find places to eat, but this Sunday will be too c-c-c-cold!

The only other parking nearby is on-street, which is often available if you arrive at least 15 minutes before the museum opens. IIRC, the meters are not in effect on Sundays.

Although the parking rate is indeed $7 per hour for nonmembers, there's a maximum of $22 and the max for members is $12; perhaps it's time to join!

THere is a restaurant right in the museum, (used to work there as a kid) and they serve sandwiches and have a fairly good menu. Be much easier to just stay there (not to mention warmer).

Enjoy the MFA is a real treasure.

There are actually at least 3 restaurants in the museum, including the basement pizza-and-sandwiches place ("Courtyard Cafe"), the light-fare-and-fancy-desserts place on the ground floor of the new wing ("Galleria Cafe"), and a lovely new fancy restaurant up above that, atop the gift shop: "Bravo".

But none of them is open for dinner on Sundays, since the museum closes at 5.

We usually find a spot near the Gardner Museum, 3 or four blocks away.

The on-street spaces on a Sunday morning are usually gone half an hour before MFA opens (there are a number of Sunday morning classes held there), so you'll want to be there no later than 9:30 if that's your plan. The alternative is to park anywhere along Huntington Avenue and use the T. Later in the day, spaces open up on a catch-as-catch-can basis, especially along the Fenway behind the museum (much of the surrounding area is restricted to residents).

You specified "dinner" rather than lunch, so the museum isn't an option. I'd opt for Jamaica Plain along Centre Street, about three miles away. Here's a map; the star indicates the cluster of restaurants in the 700 block: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed...+MA&country=us.