Interested in trying a farm-to-table restaurant? With great service, an awesome drink selection, and some fantastic food? This... was worth it. We luckily scored a table (I think I nabbed it 48 hours in advance) and it was on par with any of the great places I've eaten at in LA.

Note: very low light means it's hard for parents with various stages of cataract to see. Luckily, they were equipped with their smartphones. And luckier still, we weren't chased away for shining bright lights onto the menu!

There's a lovely backroad (highway 2) that will take you up through the island that's a little north of Burlington in Lake Champlain. Worth the drive if you have some time. Lots of farms up here.

Boston: a city home to so much culture. From museums to historic greens where great battles were 
fought, this was definitely a totally different experience from California.

It felt a little deja vu the first time I walked down the streets of Wellesley (a suburb near Olin, where I went to school)-- it felt almost exactly like Old Town, Pasadena (just a lot smaller). I later discovered that Pasadena was modeled after the East Coast. So in some sense, I never really lived in a different place (moved from one highly affluent area to the next), except, the weather was quite different.

It's a small enough place where public transportation actually works pretty well! Be sure to get a multi-day pass or a Charlie Card to get around-- a subway ride is about $2 now (as of 2015).

If you only have a day, well, you have a lot of walking ahead of you! 
"Follow the red brick road"-- check out the Freedom Trail-- it connects a bunch of historic sites but they have nothing to do with each other.

If it's a nice day, take a walk across the bridge to Cambridge/go to the Esplanade/check out Beacon Hill (a very pretty neighborhood with a great knick-nack store, The Black Ink. Get ice cream at Toscanini's in Cambridge (you might want to ask for a kiddie size).

If it's a crappy day, check out the Aquarium, the Museum of Science, or get some clam "chowda" at Faneuil Hall or Legal Sea Foods.  There is also the first public library (aka. the Boston Public Library) located in Copley Square, and the Harvard Museum of Natural History if you're into old-school oddities.  Check the box offices at Symphony Hall or Berklee's auditorium if you want to catch a music performance.


If you've got more time, check out the squares in neighboring Cambridge:

Kendall: famous for MIT, it's an interesting walk around. (There's also an interactive music chimes display in the T station underground.) They've got decent food trucks on the weekdays.

Harvard: famous for Harvard, you can join in the hordes of tourists trying to see John Harvard's statue. Lots of great eats here!

Or Somerville:
Porter Square: There's a multi-story building next to Lesley University that's got a Japanese/Asian food court! Additionally, they have an awesome book store in the Porter Square Shopping Center known as Porter Square Books, and just next to the shopping center is probably one of the best ramen places in the greater Boston area.
Davis Square: Good burgers can be found, as well as things college students like. (This is where Tufts is located.)

And if you have a car, you can go see...

• Nearby Lexington Green, Minuteman field, and many other sites from the Revolutionary War
• Plymouth Rock. (Though it's not nearly as huge as I was expecting it to be.)
• Salem. Witches, anyone? (Worth a look during halloween.)
• Gloucester/Rockport.
• New Hampshire (you'll see the state liquor stores right on the border)
• Cape Cod/Buzzard's Bay.
• Providence, RI
• Haraseeket, Maine, for lobster 
• New York City (it's only a 4 hr drive/bus ride)

Where to Eat:

• Summer Shack (there's one next to Berklee School of Music and another next to the Alewife T station)
  
• Courthouse Seafood, located on Cambridge St (north of MIT)
  
• Legal sea foods-- there's one in the Prudential Center and by the Aquarium-- I think of it as a Cheesecake Factory equivalent
  


• If you're into bars, there are a lot of Irish pubs in downtown Boston near the waterfront. There's also a great Irish/Lord of the Rings-esque pub in Harvard Square known as Grendel's Den.  There's also Harpoon and Sam Adams Breweries in town... and they have tours....
  

• In Arlington, there is szechuan's dumplings on Mass Ave.
  
• There is also a penzey's spices, which is a great place to spend time inhaling goodness (that will definitely empty your wallet if you decide to buy some-- highly recommend smelling/trying Sunny Paris).
  
• Check out Wilson Farms if you are into local growing. (CSAs are also common around here.)
  

Ice cream. New Englanders take this very seriously.

• Cabots in Newton (old school parlor)
  
• il Casale in Belmont, and Tosci's in Cambridge
  
• Dairy joy in Weston if you don't have time to drive out otherwise GO TO KIMBALL FARMS!
  
• Try raspberry lime Rickey, fish and chips, fried clam strips, and black raspberry ice cream.
  

Kimball Farms deserves to be mentioned on its own-- they've got bumper boats, a driving range, a batting cage, a general store, classic summer eats, and they're in quite a pretty part of New England!

Asian Supermarkets (hey, they're important!)

• Go experience the dinky places in Boston's Chinatown
  
• Super 88 in Allston (near Boston University)
  
• H Mart in Cambridge and Burlington (Korean stuff)
  

By the cape

• Oxford creamery (easy to stop off at if you're headed towards Rhode Island)
  
• Woods Hole: Pie in the sky. Best pie ever (or at least rivals the place in Milwaukee,Wisconsin that my brother-in-law's mom always gets apple pie from)
  
• There's the Cape Cod chip factory!
  
• Check out the oysters, clams, and lobster at the local seafood joints.