gomiki

If you go to Salem the Peabody Essex Museum is a gem. https://www.pem.org/about-pem

Nelson

Thanks gomiki, it's on the list and several of the exhibitions that will be running over our planned dates look excellent.

5alive

It has been quite a long time since I visited Plimouth Plantation but it was indeed excellent. Plymouth Rock was disappointing, however. Small, and they're not sure they found the "real" landmark.

There is another great reenactment village (Sturbridge) in Massachusetts, but you'd need a car.

Closer to Boston, my other favorite places include Louisa May Alcott's house in Concord and the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum. For my husband it's gotta be the aquarium. I will agree that the sea turtle was awesome.

jhk3rd

Newport, RI, is about 90 minutes from Boston, and the Cliff Walk (http://www.cliffwalk.com/) is a must-see if you're in that vicinity. October should be a beautiful time to tour the area, which is a huge sailing destination.

Nelson

Thanks for the recommendations 5alive and jhk3rd, that are on the ever growing list of options. The friend who gave me the language lessons above also suggested Sturbridge with the needing a car caveat. Both the aquarium and Alcott house were already on the list, now bumped up a bit.

Newport might be a little out of range, but the cliff walk does look cool. Hoping for good weather!

dfrostnh

I'm going to vote for Portsmouth NH, too. If you want foliage, I like the inland rivers cruise. I don't think sea sickness would be a problem but we've taken boat trips out of Portsmouth in summer. Portsmouth also offers Strawbery Banke Historic area but it's been ages since we visited and I don't recall if they had costumed docents or not. You can also get to Portsmouth by bus - Concord Coach Lines which departs out of Logan and South Station. The Market Square area is fun to explore and there are several restaurants on the water with a shared rear deck.

Plimoth Plantation should be fun for your wife. Have her ask if the children drank milk. We did Plymouth as a road trip and didn't care much for the town nor the haunted history walk but took a van tour to a cranberry farm and liked that a lot. It was probably about third week in September and harvest activity might be better in early October.

Should you decide to go to Newport RI, I think Beneath the Breakers is a fascinating tour.

Nelson

Thanks much dfrost. I was thinking Portsmouth too far but I'll take a closer look. Clearly the region deserves a whole lot of time but this was a quick decision trip. Have made a note about the milk question and will not use Google to find the answer in advance. She was looking at the Plimoth website this morning and is pumped about that.

We just booked our flights, hotel and hired the neighbor to keep an eye on the garden. We have a ton of options at hand and will not be bored. Much appreciated!

Bette

We did the Skywalk Observatory at The Prudential Tower last week on a stunningly clear day. Awesome visit and a great way to orient yourself to the city and the surrounding area.
If you can fit it in (and you have good weather), I would recommend doing this towards the beginning of your Boston visit.

Skywalk

sf7307

Nelson

Thanks much for the Skywalk suggestion Bette, that looks great and so far had slipped under the radar.

sf, Portsmouth is definitely still on the list but we'll have to see if we can still move after Faneuil Hall's food court, so I've been told.

We learned that Rowes Wharf Water Transport will get us from Logan right to our hotel's doorstep, so that should be a fun way to start.

islebethere

You might want to look at Marblehead, MA. It's a charming town steeped in history. Good restaurants, shopping, with a picturesque harbor. No big hotels, just inns. It's a short drive to Salem. Warning: Go to Salem well before Halloween. It's mobbed.

Nelson

Thank you islebethere, looks like another great option. And thanks much for the Halloween warning, I was getting that impression from the Salem website. We start our trip early second week of October so should be ahead of the big crowds, especially mid-week (?).

Marblehead looks nice and last night a friend who lived by Harvard Square in the '70's said we should definitely get to Cape Ann, which I see is Rockport, mentioned up thread. We now officially have more options than we'll have time or energy!

The other day we started re-watching a Great Courses series on American History to get us in the mood.

Nelson

Wanted to drop back in here and say we had an extremely successful trip to Boston. Our nine nights seemed like a very short amount of time and we were not at all ready to leave. In fact Tuesday evening, the day before our departure, United Airlines sent an email offering a flight change at no charge if we were willing to delay. This because of a weather system that was coming in on Wednesday afternoon, a nor’easter called a “bomb cyclone” I guess.

We came close to taking them up on that and spending several more days, but in the end decided against it. Our flight left as scheduled Wednesday morning. By Thursday morning there were over 100 flights canceled or delayed at Logan.

But not wanting to leave is one sign of a good trip.

We did have to deal with the nor’easter effects of tropical storm Melissa while we were there, 4-5 days of wind and rain. We mostly retreated to indoor sites, but we always travel with full rain gear, including pants so were able to walk outside during this, end even enjoyed a limited amount of that.

We used our one day of mostly full sun and little wind to go to Plimoth Plantation which was a good fun. Dfrostnh, I did have my wife ask if the children drank milk and we enjoyed the answer. Listening to the docents spin their stories was of course a highlight of that visit.

The next day was not bad either so that was our day trip to Salem, also thoroughly enjoyable. Peabody Essex Museum was a stunner, and a highlight of the trip.

But we didn’t get to even half the things on our list, or that you guys suggested here, so another visit to the region is most definitely in our future. Thanks!

emalloy

Thanks for coming back and giving the report of your trip. I love the Peabody/Essex Museum too. You'll have to return to do more of the list.

dfrostnh

LOL, Nelson. I bet you got the same answer we did and good for not telling the answer so others can wonder. Glad you stayed upbeat during the messy weather.

5alive

Loved Plimouth Plantation! My husband asked one of the Plantation women why she was drying the clothes on the ground, had she tried a clothesline?

Nelson

When we were there they seemed to be mostly drying by hanging on fences, but that's a good question. Perhaps rope was too precious? I'll save that one for a revisit! Thanks.

emalloy

If there was grass on the ground, it would be a preferred place to dry clothes. Think LAWNDRY. Ozone is a natural bleach.

crefloors

My friend and I stayed in Woburn a few years ago, but we had a rental car. Our hotel had free parking so that was good. It took us about 20 minutes to drive into Boston, as I recall so it was so much cheaper than in the city proper but really convenient.

The downside, you almost had to sell your first born to pay for parking. LOL It still was cheaper than staying IN Boston and the hotels their charge a lot for parking so, for us, it worked fine.

Melissa_G

Portsmouth, NH?