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Things to do in Boston?
- Thread starter Bass Mule
- Start date
sadly, mr. butch passed away last year.
when you get into boston, pick up a copy of the BostonPhoenix. it's free, it's all over, and it gives a full list of all the happenings for the week.
check out wally's. live music every night, free admission. it's berklee central.
Ptown is awesome! can't wait to visit this year.
omg, and esperanza spalding is playing the regattabar next thursday!!!!
Actually, we take them from where they are supposed to be, and put them where they don't go.
"It's not a good ideer to plug yeh bass guitah in'o a guitah amplifiah"
In case you don't know, Provincetown is a mecca for the LGBT community. Doesn't bother me, and i doubt it bothers you, but just in case you'd like to know that, i thought i'd throw it out there.
Again, it doesn't bother me in any way shape or form, and i didn't say it was a bad thing.
Probably a good thing to know before you go there. (I've never been, but I want to go)
1) +1 on Newbury Street and the Pru/Copley area. The S.O. will enjoy that.
2) The North End is a must. If you like seafood, there is a tiny hole in the wall restaurant called the Daily Catch that makes delicious fried calamari, steamed mussels, clams, grilled haddock, etc etc etc. Also, you have to go to Mike's Pastries for cannolis and Modern pastry if you want cakes and such (across the street pretty much).
A lot of people don't realize that Boston's a tiny city geographically. You can do a lot of stuff just by walking around. Definitely pick up a Phoenix when you get here, but all the touristy things suggested so far are good ideas. Have a good time!
Take the train North to Salem and check out the Derby Wharf area. There are some nice restaurants and pubs in the area.
Derby Wharf, Peabody Museum, House of Seven Gables and the Witch House are all in walking distance of the train station.
There are many interesting sites north of Salem as well.
I just thought I might give some ideas of places to go if you didn't want to spend all your time in Boston proper.
Fried seafood platters are awesome!
Now I'm getting home sick!
Derby Wharf, Peabody Museum, House of Seven Gables and the Witch House are all in walking distance of the train station.
There are many interesting sites north of Salem as well.
I just thought I might give some ideas of places to go if you didn't want to spend all your time in Boston proper.
Fried seafood platters are awesome!
Now I'm getting home sick!
Hi Guys! Sorry I hadn't posted when we got back. Our vacation was officially over on Saturday (when we got back to Minneapolis). Loved it. Legs were VERY sore by the end of the week. I apologize in advance for this long post. I'll try to leave some boring stuff out.
We stayed at the Radisson downtown the first 3 nights (check-in Saturday, check out Tuesday). I'm a part-time employee at one of the Radisson's here in Mpls, so I got a discount. It was nice, as it's located 2-2.5 blocks from the Commons and fairly central to everything. We checked out the church (Trinity, I think?) on Copley Square, and even did the tour. While I enjoyed the architecture, art, and history of the church, I was rather bored with our stuffy tour guide.
We walked down to the reflecting pool outside the Christian Science place. Didn't go inside.
We walked the "Freedom Trail". This was a funny experience for me, because I didn't really know what the Freedom Trail was, until we got to the first cemetery (we started in the Commons). I kept asking my girlfriend (to my own amusement, and to her horror) "So, people walked this trail to be free??? I don't get it..." LOL! She explained to me that it's just basically a path that happens to go nearby a lot of historical landmarks. It was funny, every time we veered from the path and walked near a church or police car, I would say to her, "oops, now we're on the oppression trail" which got a few laughs from her. We checked out EVERYTHING along the freedom trail, EXCEPT Old Ironsides. Neither of us felt like paying admission, so we skipped it. I made a huge mistake by running up the entire Bunker Hill Monument. Our legs were sore when we got to the monument, so the GF didn't want to go up. I wanted to see the top, just so I could say that I climbed it. (Is it 280 steps?) Anyways, I was dumb about it, and sprinted the whole way to the top. Basically messed up my legs for the first half of the trip, and my GF said I looked like a hobbling old man every time I had to walk up/down steps.
Chinatown was a huge disappointment. I've been to a few Chinatowns, and the one in Boston was a ghetto.
I think it was Monday that we rode the train up to Harvard and walked around the yard. It was just OK, maybe even a little underwhelming. Harvard campus is nice looking, but I currently attend the University of Minnesota, and I guess I just took for granted how beautiful our campus and its architecture is.
Little Italy was by far my favorite area. There are a ton of restaurants, and all the ones we tried were great.
The fourth night we were there (Tuesday), we switched hotels. Those of you employed by hotels are familiar with blackout dates when trying to get employee rates. If we had stayed at the Radisson that night, they wanted full rate, which was close to $400 for the night. No thanks. We checked our luggage, so we could wander a bit before checking into our next hotel. We walked down to the Isabella Gardner (sp?) museum and checked it out. That place is very cool.
We checked into the Harborside Inn (I think?) near the financial district. It was nice to have a different locale, but the hotel was a dump. That was the night we got dressed up and had a nice dinner. We chose some random Italian place (I think it was Artu), and the dinner was delicious. We went to have drinks afterwards at a place called the Green Dragon. On our walk back to the hotel, we happened upon an open blues jam at some Irish pub (can't remember the name). We stopped in at my request. I didn't jam though, seeing as I didn't bring my bass on vacation with me, and I've read a few threads on this board expressing displeasure of loaning your bass to other musicians at a jam. There was a bassist I spoke with who offered to let me use his fretless jazz, but I declined. I was okay just listening, as the music was great.
Wednesday, we checked out of the Harborside and caught a ferry to take us to Provincetown, where we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast (The Oxford) for two nights. The weather had been nice until we got to P-town. It rained and/or was cold the whole time we were in P-town. Our whale-watching tour was canceled because of the weather, so we just walked around P-town, exploring the main street with all the shops, and one street up, where it's very residential. Interesting town. I knew it was GLBT-friendly, but I didn't realize how GLBT it was going to be. It was VERY GLBT, which doesn't bother me, but it always made me wonder if straight guys like me stuck out like a sore thumb. The Lobster Pot was one of the more memorable eateries we tried while we were there.
On Friday, we checked out of our B&B and caught the ferry back to Boston, where we checked back into the Radisson for our last night in Beantown. We were so tired out we just stayed in our room and watched TV that night.
On Saturday, since our flight wasn't until 6pm, we slept in (10ish), checked out, and checked our luggage at the bellstand so we could wander to kill time. Nothing interesting, really. We went back to Newburry street, but the weather was hot and almost uncomfortable (hottest day the whole vacation on the day we leave. nice.) We spent a lot of time just sitting in the park (near the commons).
We did go to Newburry comics that day, which I loved, but couldn't spend too much time in. Didn't buy anything.
There were a couple disappointments:
-The Indian restaurant we ate at (I think it was called "Tantric"?) had the worst staff I've ever seen.
-The cab drivers are atrocious (compared to Minneapolis/St. Paul cabbies).
-Chinatown (see above)
-Coco Crisp (yes, I saw the highlights on ESPN in the hotel room)
-Losing KG to you guys. Oh well, I hope he helps you all win the championship. He deserves it.
-I had my girl take a pic of me outside Berkley School of Music. I would've liked to have gone inside, but she didn't want to.
We stayed at the Radisson downtown the first 3 nights (check-in Saturday, check out Tuesday). I'm a part-time employee at one of the Radisson's here in Mpls, so I got a discount. It was nice, as it's located 2-2.5 blocks from the Commons and fairly central to everything. We checked out the church (Trinity, I think?) on Copley Square, and even did the tour. While I enjoyed the architecture, art, and history of the church, I was rather bored with our stuffy tour guide.
We walked down to the reflecting pool outside the Christian Science place. Didn't go inside.
We walked the "Freedom Trail". This was a funny experience for me, because I didn't really know what the Freedom Trail was, until we got to the first cemetery (we started in the Commons). I kept asking my girlfriend (to my own amusement, and to her horror) "So, people walked this trail to be free??? I don't get it..." LOL! She explained to me that it's just basically a path that happens to go nearby a lot of historical landmarks. It was funny, every time we veered from the path and walked near a church or police car, I would say to her, "oops, now we're on the oppression trail" which got a few laughs from her. We checked out EVERYTHING along the freedom trail, EXCEPT Old Ironsides. Neither of us felt like paying admission, so we skipped it. I made a huge mistake by running up the entire Bunker Hill Monument. Our legs were sore when we got to the monument, so the GF didn't want to go up. I wanted to see the top, just so I could say that I climbed it. (Is it 280 steps?) Anyways, I was dumb about it, and sprinted the whole way to the top. Basically messed up my legs for the first half of the trip, and my GF said I looked like a hobbling old man every time I had to walk up/down steps.
Chinatown was a huge disappointment. I've been to a few Chinatowns, and the one in Boston was a ghetto.
I think it was Monday that we rode the train up to Harvard and walked around the yard. It was just OK, maybe even a little underwhelming. Harvard campus is nice looking, but I currently attend the University of Minnesota, and I guess I just took for granted how beautiful our campus and its architecture is.
Little Italy was by far my favorite area. There are a ton of restaurants, and all the ones we tried were great.
The fourth night we were there (Tuesday), we switched hotels. Those of you employed by hotels are familiar with blackout dates when trying to get employee rates. If we had stayed at the Radisson that night, they wanted full rate, which was close to $400 for the night. No thanks. We checked our luggage, so we could wander a bit before checking into our next hotel. We walked down to the Isabella Gardner (sp?) museum and checked it out. That place is very cool.
We checked into the Harborside Inn (I think?) near the financial district. It was nice to have a different locale, but the hotel was a dump. That was the night we got dressed up and had a nice dinner. We chose some random Italian place (I think it was Artu), and the dinner was delicious. We went to have drinks afterwards at a place called the Green Dragon. On our walk back to the hotel, we happened upon an open blues jam at some Irish pub (can't remember the name). We stopped in at my request. I didn't jam though, seeing as I didn't bring my bass on vacation with me, and I've read a few threads on this board expressing displeasure of loaning your bass to other musicians at a jam. There was a bassist I spoke with who offered to let me use his fretless jazz, but I declined. I was okay just listening, as the music was great.
Wednesday, we checked out of the Harborside and caught a ferry to take us to Provincetown, where we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast (The Oxford) for two nights. The weather had been nice until we got to P-town. It rained and/or was cold the whole time we were in P-town. Our whale-watching tour was canceled because of the weather, so we just walked around P-town, exploring the main street with all the shops, and one street up, where it's very residential. Interesting town. I knew it was GLBT-friendly, but I didn't realize how GLBT it was going to be. It was VERY GLBT, which doesn't bother me, but it always made me wonder if straight guys like me stuck out like a sore thumb. The Lobster Pot was one of the more memorable eateries we tried while we were there.
On Friday, we checked out of our B&B and caught the ferry back to Boston, where we checked back into the Radisson for our last night in Beantown. We were so tired out we just stayed in our room and watched TV that night.
On Saturday, since our flight wasn't until 6pm, we slept in (10ish), checked out, and checked our luggage at the bellstand so we could wander to kill time. Nothing interesting, really. We went back to Newburry street, but the weather was hot and almost uncomfortable (hottest day the whole vacation on the day we leave. nice.) We spent a lot of time just sitting in the park (near the commons).
We did go to Newburry comics that day, which I loved, but couldn't spend too much time in. Didn't buy anything.
There were a couple disappointments:
-The Indian restaurant we ate at (I think it was called "Tantric"?) had the worst staff I've ever seen.
-The cab drivers are atrocious (compared to Minneapolis/St. Paul cabbies).
-Chinatown (see above)
-Coco Crisp (yes, I saw the highlights on ESPN in the hotel room)
-Losing KG to you guys. Oh well, I hope he helps you all win the championship. He deserves it.
-I had my girl take a pic of me outside Berkley School of Music. I would've liked to have gone inside, but she didn't want to.
Thanks for the update. Glad you and the GF enjoyed your stay.
"Oppression Trail"
Love it - OK if I steal that line?
"Oppression Trail"
Love it - OK if I steal that line?
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
Interesting thing I learned walking the Freedom Trail a few years ago: Paul Revere lived in an Italian neighborhood.
Go ahead and use "Oppression Trail" all you want.
Don't remember any of the Irish Pubs, just that they were in the Financial District (I think? Near Faneuil hall? Somewhere between there and Little Italy?)
I remember the Green Dragon, because they had their own Lager, which wasn't bad (and I don't care for lagers.) It was a Tuesday night when we went to the pub with the blues jam, and I can't remember the name. Sullivan's seems to ring a bell though.
Don't remember any of the Irish Pubs, just that they were in the Financial District (I think? Near Faneuil hall? Somewhere between there and Little Italy?)
I remember the Green Dragon, because they had their own Lager, which wasn't bad (and I don't care for lagers.) It was a Tuesday night when we went to the pub with the blues jam, and I can't remember the name. Sullivan's seems to ring a bell though.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
Go ahead and use "Oppression Trail" all you want.
Don't remember any of the Irish Pubs, just that they were in the Financial District (I think? Near Faneuil hall? Somewhere between there and Little Italy?)
I remember the Green Dragon, because they had their own Lager, which wasn't bad (and I don't care for lagers.) It was a Tuesday night when we went to the pub with the blues jam, and I can't remember the name. Sullivan's seems to ring a bell though.
Government Center? There are a lot of pubs down there, especially as you get close to the Garden.
