Toeing the Red Line, Boston's Freedom Trail

At 3.2 miles long and with an average elevation gain of 183 feet I wasn’t entirely sure if the kids would be able to manage Boston’s Freedom Trail in a single day.

In the end they did pull it off and even though we would love to have spent more time at many of the sites along the way it turned out to be a memorable, albeit exhausting, day for all of us.

Inner Harbour Ferry
The tour started off with a short ride on the Inner Harbour Ferry. The little, aging, MBTA operated ferry boat snakes in between its larger sisters (Boston Harbour Cruises, Codzilla and Whale Watcher Catamarans) to collect passengers travelling from Long Wharf, home of the New England Aquarium, to the Navy Yard, where Old Ironsides is moored.
Though short, the 15 minute trip provides some stunning views of the Boston skyline.

USS Constitution
After the HMS Victory, the oldest commissioned warship is the USS Constitution, but since Nelson’s Flagship is permanently in dry dock, the Constitution has the honor of being the oldest commissioned warship not only afloat, but still sailing.

Aside from special commemorative sailing events such as Boston Navy Week the Constitution or “Old Ironsides” is usually moored at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

If you get there early you should be able to join a guided tour of the ship, presented by an active-duty sailor, with only a short wait.

Thankfully for us both the gun and crew decks are pretty large, so if you have excited and chatty kids, keep them occupied at one end of the ship and they shouldn’t be much of a distraction to the tour taking place at the other end.

Bunker Hill Monument

For a great upper-thigh workout, head to the 294 steps of the Bunker Hill Monument. Stroller parking is not allowed in the little building attached, so I ended up lugging the thing all the way up to the top.
The windows at the top are small, plexiglass and dirty so if it’s views you want head to the Prudential. Climb the obelisk purely for the bragging rights.

After the climb you can use the restrooms and enjoy the air-conditioning at the Bunker Hill Museum at the foot of the hill on the corner of High Street and Monument Avenue.
 

Warren Tavern
About 4 blocks off the Freedom Trail (counting from City Square) on the corner of Pleasant and Main Street is the restored 18^th century Warren Tavern. This is a great place to cool off, grab a drink and a bite before heading back out on the Trail.
Look for a more in depth review of this establishment under its own heading.

Italian District

After the Charlestown Bridge the Trail passes Copp’s Hill Burial Ground (Boston’s oldest after King’s Chapel), the Old North Church, the Paul Revere Mall and the Paul Revere House.

The kids can cool off a bit in the fountains of North End Park before you continue on Hanover Street, past a slew of Irish Pubs and on to Faneuil Hall.

Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market

At Faneuil you’ll often spot great street performers who entertain passersby with feats of acrobatics, juggling, music and comedy.

A little further up is Quincy market which consists of three main shopping areas: the historic Quincy Market Building has an inner promenade of dozens of vendor stalls selling just about every American and ethnic food variety you can imagine.

Along the outer walls of the Market Building you’ll find carts and stalls selling arts, crafts, jewelry, clothing and souvenirs.

Surrounding the Quincy Market are North and South Market Streets which, in turn, are bordered by more conventional shops, boutiques and offices.

Downtown

The downtown leg of the Freedom Trail hosts further sites of historical significance such as the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House with the Boston Massacre Site and the King’s Chapel and Granary Burying Grounds.

Unfortunately by this time the kids were getting tired of the long walk and we skipped most of the sites in this area to head to the Boston Common.

The Parks

End the day on a high for the kids and spend some time at the Boston Common Frog Pond. There’s a little playground there that is walled off and astro-turfed. It features some water fountains, slides and a bunch of climbing and swinging equipment.

Then head over to the Boston Public Garden and enjoy a relaxing ride on the Swan Paddle Boats. Two adults and two kids will cost you a little over eight dollars for a roughly 15 minute figure-8 tour of the pond.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canobie Lake Park, Salem NH.

In the heart of New England near Salem, New Hampshire, lies Canobie Lake Park a lightly themed, medium sized amusement park with rides for all ages.

For older kids and grown-ups Canobie features 3 Roller Coasters, a Water Coaster, 2 Log Flumes and 2 Extreme Spinners.

Attractions that are fun for the whole family: Boat, Cable Car & Train Rides, the Castaway Island Water Park, a Ferris wheel, various Arcades, a Pirate Ship and a Theatre with daily tribute shows to popular artists.

The littlest ones will enjoy a seemingly endless host of Carousels, Spinner Rides, Track Rides, Bumper Cars and a kiddie-sized coaster dubbed the “Dragon”. This choice of rides for younger kids is why we opted for Canobie instead of “Six Flags over New England”. (That and the 2 hour drive from Boston to Springfield).

On the day we visited only one ride appeared out of service, not bad considering they offer over 85 of them.

We noticed that a lot of effort was made to theme several areas in Canobie, something that you don’t often find in local seasonal theme parks. In particular the South side around the Mine of Lost Souls is themed as the American Frontier and the West side around the Boston Tea Party which has nicely detailed elements of historical coastal New England.

Places to buy food and drink abound, but most are counter-service affairs with small, sometimes shaded, seating areas.

The only exception is Portofino Restaurant which is indoors, air-conditioned and has bay windows overlooking Lake Canobie. Don’t let the name fool you though, the fare at Portofino is not what the name would suggest. The Chicken Parigiana, Spaghetti and Meatballs and Garlic Bread all taste like mass-produced, thaw and heat deals with very little good in the flavor and texture departments. I can’t comment on the Lasagna, but the kids did enjoy their Pizza (hand-tossed according to the blurb), so stick with that if you absolutely have to have your AC fix on a hot day

Pizzas, Hot Dogs and Burgers are pretty much the standard choices around the park with a few exceptions such as:
Minuteman Clams - West side by lake: Seafood
Poncho Cantina - West side: Mexican
Dancing Bear Cantina – South side in the Frontier area.

Out of all the menu options at Canobie I would certainly recommend the Pulled Pork Sandwich, available at the Dancing Bear. It is not quite Kansas City, but still head and shoulders above anything else that we tried.

Due to its central location this attraction is within day-trip range of many major towns in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and can easily be reached via the I-93.

With discount coupons offered with McDonalds Happy Meals, three of us were able to spend the day at Canobie’s for less than a single ticket to Disney (kids three and under as well as parking are always free).

Chuck E. Cheese's Natick MA.

Chuck E. Cheese’s is a chain of pizza restaurants slash gaming arcades with a cartoon theme surrounding the title character and his band. The various locations offer an animatronics stage show, token operated kiddie rides, arcade & video games as well as a small indoor play area for tots.

The penny arcade games offer players rewards in the form of tickets which can be redeemed for a selection of prizes. Rewards range from small candies and dollar-store toys viewable in a glass counter up front, to the larger stuffed animals and board games displayed on the wall behind.

For some reason our kids really dig going to Chuck E. Cheese’s, so we usually plan for half a day at a local branch on every family trip to the US.

When in the Boston area you have four options in the immediate vicinity: Everett, Danvers, Burlington and Natick. We chose Natick since it was the closest to where we were staying and because of its proximity to Natick Mall where we were also heading.

Despite the somewhat mixed reviews on other sites regarding this particular branch, we were pleasantly surprised to find a large and relatively clean Chuck E. Cheese’s, outfitted with a good range of games and rides.

In addition to all the standard rides and games listed above, Natick has a full-cast animatronics band which features Helen Henny, Mr. Munch, Jasper T. Jowls and Pasqually as well as Chuck E. Cheese himself. (Some of the other locations we’ve visited only had the Cheese.).

While the staff did look a bit bored, they were generally courteous and helpful. Especially the fellow manning the exit, stamping and checking stamps, was jovial and friendly.

Two small issues are worth mentioning however:

The first is a matter of taste; in our opinion the Wings Platters are awful: Original, BBQ and Buffalo are all equally bad. Stick with the Pizzas which, while not great, are a lot better than their other food offerings.

The second is regarding the location: there is only one way to get to this Chuck E. Cheeses and that’s driving west on Worcester Street, a separated dual-carriageway. If you overshoot the entrance to the plaza you’ll have to take the off-ramp and drive all the way around via Ruthledge, Wentworth and Wethersfield Roads to be able to give it another shot. Look for the entrance immediately after Dover Carpets!