Chasing the Freedom Trail (Boston)
- Cat
- Jan 13, 2017
- 5 min read
If you have the chance to visit Boston, take advantage of it and go. It was a treat rich in our country's history, but also had many modern experiences to sample. If you have the chance to go in summer, even better. As we were there in January, it was cold, windy, and downright miserable in the city proper (wind blowing between buildings really got to you). And then we experienced our first Nor'easter in Winter Storm Helena.
Because of that, we didn't get to see as much of the town as we hoped, but we made several day trips outside the city and still had an amazing time. This post concentrates on our first day only.
Our first day was so windy that we lasted 10 minutes walking (freezing) downtown before ducking into a Starbucks (there is one on every corner it seemed) to grab a hot cocoa and Google indoor things to do! Had it been Adam and I alone, we probably could have grinned and bore the weather, but poor G was absolutely miserable.
After settling on the Boston Museum of Science, the hotel manager had recommended it on the drive into town, we caught an Uber to head over. The museum is on the northwest end of town and not easy to get to on foot - we were glad we Ubered. The T DOES have a stop nearby, but the hassle of changing trains several times based on where we started from had us opting for the direct route with a driver.
Though not as fun as the Please Touch Museum (in case you missed it, see Philadelphia post here), it had plenty to offer for littles. G did keep asking for the toys section though. Prepare yourself for the outrageous price tag (we hadn't) of $70 for a family of 2 adults and 1 child - and be ready to also offer a donation when you pay (we didn't). Sticker shock fresh in our minds, we headed first to the Innovative Engineers section followed by Making Models and Theater of Electricity.
G made a bobsled, engineering his with a lycra-based fabric for "maximum glide," and 4 "people" (weights). There were excited shouts as the children placed their sleds at the top of the hill to race each other. When the engineer overseeing the races released the gate, all the sleds raced downhill - some faster than others. G's was the slowest, but it WAS the only one that hit the bottom without crashing and tumbling end over end, dumping the people. He still believes he won. The museum gave out cute magnets indicating you had completed the challenge and G did not put his down that day.
We then entered the Theater of Electricity, where we learned about lightning and positive and negative electrons. The show was pretty neat and the finale was awesome (though loud).
Other rooms in the museum included a dinosaur display, space travel section (G loved the space capsule, not wanting to leave this area despite numerous attempts to distract and bribe), the Hall of Human Life, and a traveling exhibit called DaVinci - The Genius (through February 26).
The Hall of Human Life was an interactive exhibit. You received a wristband at the entrance and scanned it at each display. Displays had you do different things (measure your ear size, walk to see how efficient your gait was, memory tests, select foods to determine your genetic disposition toward certain foods, listen to see how well you heard things compared to the average person, taste different things to teach how tastebuds worked, etc.) and at the end you could print your results. It compared your data to the average museum goers data overall, as well as compared to averages for your sex, height, weight, age, etc.
The tastebud challenge was enlightening. Most Americans learned in grade school about tastebuds and the way they work. You may recall the tongue chart showing the locations on the tongue where you can taste the 5 "tastes" (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami - to learn more about how these came about read this NPR article). According to what I learned (and most of American children) you can ONLY taste each type on a specific section of your tongue. However, the experiment we did proved you can actually taste ALL of the types anywhere on your tongue (Article from LiveScience debunking the tongue map myth here). In addition, we also learned that I am a supertaster as well as carrying the dominant trait for the ability to taste PTC (no wonder I don't like Brussels sprouts), while Adam and G do not have this ability. All of the guides and ushers in the museum were knowledgeable and went out of their way to talk and explain anything you seemed interested in.
The DaVinci exhibition was really well curated. There were examples of his inventions (many of which you could touch to test out their function) - did you know how prolific DaVinci was? He created the first tank - the weapon), an improved diving suit and underwater breathing apparatus, water walking skis - the wearer could literally walk on water using them, as well as sculpt and paint! The number of inventions and improvements on existing tools was vast. They also had a lengthy expose on the making of the Mona Lisa. It was apparently a different painting before it was the one we know so well today. A French scientist made the discovery and there have been many who agree with his findings, as well as those who do not. I found an article from BBC News about it here. I must say, the exhibit provided some pretty compelling evidence. If it comes to a museum near you, you should definitely try to catch it!
We ate a late lunch in Little Italy followed by a stroll along part of the Freedom Trail. The trail is something that runs through many areas of the city and has lots of historic stops or points along the way. You can pick it up by finding a red line on the sidewalk and following it.
We saw the Paul Revere Mall which has a statue of Paul Revere on his ride to the Old North Church to announce the British were coming.
We continued following the trail to Paul Revere's house, passing cute alleys along the way. We finished up the day with a stop at Mike's Pastry, famous for their cannoli. The place was packed and everything looked delicious. Unfortunately, they had no gluten free options so G was the only one able to sample their wares. He chose a chocolate fudge cupcake which he ate on the T back to Harvard Square and pronounced it to be amazing.
Overall, day one in Boston was fun, even though it was pretty cold that morning.
Have you been to Boston? When are the best times to go? Did we miss anything spectacular?
Click an image from the gallery below to enlarge.
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