Things to See & Do in Boston

Now that it’s getting cold, I’m thinking about an icy drink in a frozen glass.  At least, that’s what we had when we bundled up in the cold at the Frost Ice Bar in Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  Kept at a cozy 32 degrees, guests are given heavy parkas and gloves to enjoy their time in the frozen hangout (boots can also be rented for an extra fee.)  Everything inside is made of ice, or really really cold plexiglass, and even the drinks, served in molded-ice “glasses,” are even a little frozen.  It was fun, in a why are we paying to be frozen but we’re on vacation why not kind of way.

Frost Ice Bar, Boston

If you’re going to Boston, here’s a few other stops to make in the city.

Eat, shop, and people watch at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  I guess every city has it’s little tourist-y square and this is the one for Boston, complete with street performers who cajole you to give them a couple dollars to do magic tricks or dance.  But, as the tourist, you got to stop by.  Visit the market, especially if you love options for foodstands.  Down both sides of the market they’ve got everything from seafood, pizzas, pastas, to endless options for clam chowder.  (I've even worked on a recipe inspired by the made-for-you macaroni and cheese stand - Everybody's Favorite Mac & Cheese.)

 

Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Do the college tour.

Harvard Gates

Stop by Harvard for lunch.  Lunch trucks and a mini-farmers market line up on one of the squares at lunch time.  We enjoyed wraps, noodle dishes, hydrogen blasted ice cream, and cheesecake pops.

Go to MIT Science Museum.  This is a very cool science space. It’s MIT – what would you expect?  When we were there, an exhibit about gaming was on the entry level with various stations depicting how a video game is developed.  Two of my kids are in a magnet program at school and one of the courses is on programming and gaming.  Careful stepping here, this vacation trip could get really close to being school-related.  There were also exhibits on the evolution of robots, holograms, and kinetic machines.  I know – doesn’t sound like “vacation,” but really – it was fun.  And for $10/adult and $5 for kids, it's pretty reasonable as far as family-friendly stops go.

The college campuses =also turned out to be the city with three ice cream stops - Lizzy's, Churn, and Christina's (you can read more in this post on our ice cream tour.) 

Take a historic walking tour.  We all know Boston from American history class – Tea Party, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, Underground Railroad.  There’s a multitude of options focused on various stories of history and interests. We took the Black Heritage walking tour, which started at the monument to the 54^th Regiment, the Black regiment depicted in the movie, Glory.  The tour went past various houses which once were old churches, segregated and integrated schools, Underground Railroad stops, and meeting places during the abolition movement.

 

54th Regiment Memorial and recruiting sign

Visit the Old North Church.  You really cannot go to Boston and say “one if by land and two if by sea” if you passed American history class, so go to the church where the lanterns (there were two) were hung to signal that the British were coming.  Inside, the pews are still divided in boxes.  According to the tour guide, parishioners back in the day had to pay for a box so that they would have a pew in church, then they would decorate their box in whatever manner they would like – cushions, wallpaper and such reasonable decorations for a church.  In the balcony were the cheap seats, often paid for by the box owners so that their house staff could also attend church and have a seat. The tour guide said that is no longer the practice, although the boxes remain.

Old North Church - steeple and box pews

And of course, take time to walk around the city. Enjoy the the city hills and the beautiful parks, the old and new.  Let us know your favorite sites in the city.

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Take the History Tour

It's what makes kids moan about and fear whenever there's a family visit to the city. Any city. Any city with a museum or historical site or old church. Eventually, the parents are going to drag them to somewhere at which they will hear or (gasp!) read something that might be educational or cultural or the least bit intellectual.  They kids know it's coming, that moment when they'll be pulled into some exhibit that one day may be vaguely familiar when a teacher mentions it in class. And as parents, we feel the need to do this, to expose them to culture and history, because, well, just because.

 

We've done a pretty good balance of the historical and potentially educational sites while on vacation. We visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and the kids didn't complain. Whether that was because they were actually interested or knew that this site was something they should not complain about, they were respectful and questioning and exploring when we went.

 

In Boston, we walked the Black History Trail, starting with the 54th Regiment Monument.  Along the route, there were homes where various Black Americans once lived and hid runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad and held abolitionist movement meetings, the first colored school and the first integrated school in the city, the African Meeting House that served as church, community center, political meeting place, and school.  We made our way to the spot that Crispus Attucks died and the Old North Church where Paul Revere instructed the men to hang the lanterns (one if by land...) 

 

"Why do we have to go? It's so hot. All these hills!" The kids whined.

"Because it's important. This was where the Revolutionary War started.  And these people worked toward ending slavery.  You'll be able to talk about it in school," I said.

"We don't even learn about all this in school, we don't talk about slavery," they reported.

"Well, then that's even more reason why we're here. Keep walking." 

 

I knew they were going to complain.  I didn't expect that they would have the same excited reaction as when we went to the aquarium, which is just as educational, in a different way. These are the experiences and knowledge, however, to which we want to expose our children. Seeing the Boston harbor will illustrate the point when they learn about the Boston Tea Party.  Understanding that "Glory" wasn't just a movie (although a great one) emphasizes that there were real, live people willing to sacrifice their lives for future generations' freedom even when they weren't even considered full citizens themselves. And now, having made it to New England on vacation, driving, perhaps it's more evident how long a journey it is from a southern (slave) state to a northern free state, and the distance people were willing to walk to escape slavery; and then there's the poster hanging in the museum, warning Bostonians about a law that would allow slave catchers to capture Blacks and take them back to the south as slaves, whether they were free or runaway slaves.  That may or may not come up in the history lessons at school, but it happened.

 

There's a lot that we want our children to know and understand about our history, culture, religion, world. As parents, that is one of our responsibilities, to teach them and expose them to as much as we can that we feel is important.  Even if they whine and complain.

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