Things To Do
Boston Public Garden
Late April in the Public Garden means plenty of flowers and trees in bloom. The Public Garden is the setting for The Trumpet of the Swan, one of Ivy's favorite books, and Make Way For Ducklings (be sure to find the duckling statues...they're usually dressed up for the season!). Photo by K. Ashe
Boston Common/Frog Pond
The oldest city park in the country (est. 1634!). The Common is right across the street from the Public Garden. The Massachusetts State House is at the north end of the Common.
Boston Public Library - Central Library
The library is right across the street from the Lenox and is well worth a stop inside to check out the art and the architecture. The Reading Room is particularly gorgeous, as is the central courtyard.
M.J. O'Connor's
This is an excellent Irish pub that also happens to be attached the Boston Park Plaza- very convenient! Ivy and her coworkers went here during a newspaper conference.
Phở Pasteur
Boston's Chinatown is about a half-mile walk from the Park Plaza and a mile walk from the Lenox. There are so many great restaurants here; it's hard to go wrong with picking food spots. Pho Pasteur is a local staple for Vietnamese cuisine.
Flour Bakery + Cafe
Joanne Chang's bakery has locations all over Boston and Cambridge. Amazing breakfast sandwiches (actually, any sandwiches) and pastries!
Brattle Book Shop
Excellent used book shop tucked in a little alley off the Boston Common. The walls are lined with books from floor to ceiling.
Freedom Trail
You can set aside time to do a dedicated walk of the Freedom Trail--Old North Church, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, Old South Meeting House, the USS Constitution, among many other sites--but it's also likely you'll just stumble on parts of it as you explore Boston.
New England Aquarium
Myrtle the Turtle (above) has been an aquarium resident for longer than Ivy and David have been alive. The aquarium has a multistory coral reef tank (where Myrtle lives) as its main feature, as well as a penguin exhibit, stingray and shark touch tank, and sea lion enclosure. Even if you don't pay to go inside, though, you can still go see the harbor seals out front.
Union Oyster House
Ivy's dad never passes up the opportunity to polish off a dozen oysters or littlenecks here. The menu food is good (if you want Boston baked beans...this is the spot), but it's really the raw bar that stands out.
Cannolis in the North End
The North End is the oldest residential neighborhood in Boston. It's full of cobblestone streets- very pedestrian-friendly -and is best known for its Freedom Trail stops and its importance to Boston's Italian community. You can get there on the T by taking the Orange Line. Mike's Pastry, Modern Pastry, and Bova's are Italian bakeries on Hanover Street. It is impossible to go wrong getting cannolis from these spots.
Trillium Brewing Company
David's absolute favorite brewery. There are two locations in Boston. one in the Seaport and one in Fenway. The Seaport is a fun neighborhood to explore if you want to branch out of Back Bay.
Fenway Park
The Boston Red Sox have a home stand during wedding weekend! We have a block of group seats for the Saturday 4/29 game at 4:10 p.m. (please let Ivy know if you want to buy a ticket for $39). If you can't make the Saturday game, though, walking around the stadium area is still fun and a quintessential Boston experience.
The Seaport District
The Seaport is a trendy redeveloped industrial district along the waterfront. This is where David's favorite brewery is, along with museums like the Boston Children's Museum and the Institute for Contemporary Art. Take the T to South Station and walk across the Summer Street bridge or the Congress Street bridge.
Potato Shed Monument
This is a GUEST-SUGGESTED thing to do (please let us know if you have your own spot that should be on the list, and thank you to Irene!). The Potato Shed Memorial is a public art installation near the Bunker Hill Monument honoring the old buildings along the Charles River where potatoes from Maine were stored. This project was completed during the Big Dig (Boston's decades-long transit project) to honor Boston sites that were covered over by the Dig.