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One or two nights in Boston -what should I do?

TheLeon

By TheLeon
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TheLeon

TheLeon

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I’m going to be in the area for a wedding in a few weeks. Depending on which flights I end up taking, I’ll have either one or two days to spend in Boston before heading to Salem for the wedding. Since I’ve never been there before, what should I make a priority? 

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

This one's for @Kal-El814


@Ghost_MH’s museum recommendation is on point. The ICA in the seaport is pretty cool also but I dunno what’s in it at the moment. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is unique and beautiful. 
 

The Freedom Trail is touristy and a little cliche but if you’re looking for some of the colonial history stuff you could do a lot worse than that. 
 

If the Sox are in town while you’re here a trip to Fenway for a game is worth it if you care about baseball at all, there are very few, old stadiums left and Fenway is pretty rad. 
 

The Common and the Public Garden are worth a trek. You can always parley a walk through those to Newbury Street if you want to gawk at the Brahmins and feel poor.

 

Probably worth walking through the North End too, it’s usually a scene on nice evenings. 
 

The Freedom Trail will take you close to a bunch of these, FYI. 
 

You have a specific vibe or kind of food you’re looking for?

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TheLeon

TheLeon

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1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:


You have a specific vibe or kind of food you’re looking for?

Nothing fancy. I'll always take a solid dive over fine dining any day. 

 

30 minutes ago, stepee said:

You should live, Leon. You should live.

Sounds exhausting. 

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Ghost_MH

Ghost_MH

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1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:


@Ghost_MH’s museum recommendation is on point. The ICA in the seaport is pretty cool also but I dunno what’s in it at the moment. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is unique and beautiful. 
 

The Freedom Trail is touristy and a little cliche but if you’re looking for some of the colonial history stuff you could do a lot worse than that. 
 

If the Sox are in town while you’re here a trip to Fenway for a game is worth it if you care about baseball at all, there are very few, old stadiums left and Fenway is pretty rad. 
 

The Common and the Public Garden are worth a trek. You can always parley a walk through those to Newbury Street if you want to gawk at the Brahmins and feel poor.

 

Probably worth walking through the North End too, it’s usually a scene on nice evenings. 
 

The Freedom Trail will take you close to a bunch of these, FYI. 
 

You have a specific vibe or kind of food you’re looking for?

 

I haven't been to the ICA in a while. I should swing by sometime. Last time I was there, the Seaport was a parking lot. It and the MFA are neck and neck for me after the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It just depends on what the ICA happens to have in display.

 

That said, yes, a stroll through the North End is really nice in the evening. Only bit of Boston left that still feels old world.

 

Oh yeah, and don't bother driving through Boston. I understand the temptation from folks from out of state, but you'll waste more time getting lost on one ways and in tunnels.

 

Thinking about getting around, this time of the year is a pretty good time to take the water taxis to get around the harbor. They're like $20 a trip and it's the only direct path from Logan to the North End, though it'll also get you to like the Navy Yard, TD Garden, the Aquarium, or the ICA.

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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1 minute ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I haven't been to the ICA in a while. I should swing by sometime. Last time I was there, the Seaport was a parking lot. It and the MFA are neck and neck for me after the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It just depends on what the ICA happens to have in display.

 


My current company has an office in the seaport and they’re putting up a whole building. I’m not in the office often but when I am and I see the ICA my initial thought is “shit did they move the ICA again?” Reader, they did not. They just built a town around it. 

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Ghost_MH

Ghost_MH

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1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

My current company has an office in the seaport and they’re putting up a whole building. I’m not in the office often but when I am and I see the ICA my initial thought is “shit did they move the ICA again?” Reader, they did not. They just built a town around it. 

 

Ha! I understand that feeling perfectly.

 

Like ten years ago I was handling some planning during the construction of 1 Marina Drive. There were like no buildings around 1 Marina Drive at the time. It was literally parking lots, a church, the ICA, and the courthouse. Four years later, I'm taking care of some renovations of the old Neilson buildings just off Seaport Boulevard. By then it was an already entire city with foundations set for more construction. I haven't swung by there since the PAX East before the pandemic, I imagine it's nigh unrecognizable by this point.

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Ha! I understand that feeling perfectly.

 

Like ten years ago I was handling some planning during the construction of 1 Marina Drive. There were like no buildings around 1 Marina Drive at the time. It was literally parking lots, a church, the ICA, and the courthouse. Four years later, I'm taking care of some renovations of the old Neilson buildings just off Seaport Boulevard. By then it was an already entire city with foundations set for more construction. I haven't swung by there since the PAX East before the pandemic, I imagine it's nigh unrecognizable by this point.


You’re right on the money. 
 

I’m in OMPD once in a blue moon and at PAX East every year and it never occurs to me that they’re so close together; the seaport is truly unrecognizable. 
 

I have similar vibes about Kenmore and the Public Library; I moved to the area for grad school in 2002 when both those places were under heavy construction. Whenever I go back my initial thought is, “ooh they finally finished.” It’s been done for 10+ years now :p First impressions are strong. 

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Chris-

Chris-

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1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:


My current company has an office in the seaport and they’re putting up a whole building. I’m not in the office often but when I am and I see the ICA my initial thought is “shit did they move the ICA again?” Reader, they did not. They just built a town around it. 


Walking around Seaport last summer I thought, ‘this feels weird’, then I found out Seaport as a neighborhood has only existed for like ten years. 

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Ghost_MH

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11 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

You’re right on the money. 
 

I’m in OMPD once in a blue moon and at PAX East every year and it never occurs to me that they’re so close together; the seaport is truly unrecognizable. 
 

I have similar vibes about Kenmore and the Public Library; I moved to the area for grad school in 2002 when both those places were under heavy construction. Whenever I go back my initial thought is, “ooh they finally finished.” It’s been done for 10+ years now :p First impressions are strong. 

 

It all popped up at like the same time. 2002 is around the time I started commuting into Boston for work everyday. Long enough ago that it was still the Fleet Center with the elevated green Green Line. I did that commute until around 4 years ago. I remember the crater at the old Filene's building in Downtown Crossing just there blowing dust around for what felt like forever. Then the Millennium Tower was up in just a couple of years along with the optical illusion of the ICA moving around. It all seemed to happen at the same time and far faster than it had any right to. Hell, even during the pandemic, the entire area around North Station and the TD Garden has become unrecognizable.

 

7 minutes ago, Chris- said:

Walking around Seaport last summer I thought, ‘this feels weird’, then I found out Seaport as a neighborhood has only existed for like ten years. 

 

Yeah, it all looks like big, very important neighborhood. However, it wasn't even a bunch of small businesses and houses prior to a decade ago. It was nothing but parking lots as far as the eye could see. That's also why the the only subway service they have is the shitty Silver Line. The city has spent no money making a proper subway line out in that direction.

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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7 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

It all popped up at like the same time. 2002 is around the time I started commuting into Boston for work everyday. Long enough ago that it was still the Fleet Center with the elevated green Green Line. I did that commute until around 4 years ago. I remember the crater at the old Filene's building in Downtown Crossing just there blowing dust around for what felt like forever. Then the Millennium Tower was up in just a couple of years along with the optical illusion of the ICA moving around. It all seemed to happen at the same time and far faster than it had any right to. Hell, even during the pandemic, the entire area around North Station and the TD Garden has become unrecognizable.

 

 

Yeah, it all looks like big, very important neighborhood. However, it wasn't even a bunch of small businesses and houses prior to a decade ago. It was nothing but parking lots as far as the eye could see. That's also why the the only subway service they have is the shitty Silver Line. The city has spent no money making a proper subway line out in that direction.

 

Prior to moving to the north shore a few years ago, I lived in east Somerville, I am extremely familiar with gravel pits / parking lots that suddenly become whole things :p 

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