Historic New England – Massachusetts
When we’re not overseas the travel bug is still biting. Fortunately, this a part of the country within easy driving distance from the sea, mountains or cities. You can look at any old travel guide on or off-line for all the major Boston sites, so here we try to bring you experiences slightly off the beaten path.
MeetUp.com is a great place to make new friends, see new places, and experience special events. We’re regulars at Secret Dining Hub (which we discovered on a trip to Old England-London and then found its New England offshoot). Whether attending a food and wine event, music, outdoor walk, museum gathering or you name it, MeetUp is open to anyone from anywhere, and in our travels nation and worldwide we check to see if there’s a local event of interest happening.
Here I am pouring wine for my wife and a couple of friends, who are regulars at some pop up supper clubs with local chefs. This is a spontaneous cheese event on a fine summer afternoon in Cambridge. These events are organized through Meetup, and we encourage travelers to check out Meetups in other cities. We’ve joined Meetup groups in places like London, Madrid, and NYC and made new friends and had great experiences. Airbnb Experiences offers a similar opportunity.
Copley Square in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay hosts a seasonal farmer’s market and you can enjoy a meal in the park, but any time of year it’s the city’s focal point.
The courtyard of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Enjoy a snack and a concert here in summer during the free courtyard concert series. Art & architecture tours of the library are offered almost every day of the year.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, always free on your birthday so Annabella took advantage of a rarely warm February birthday to visit.
February birthdays usually look like this.
Few Boston neighborhoods have undergone a more radical transformation that the Seaport District. On a warm evening the waterfront area affords an opportunity to enjoy a walk and a meal.
Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory offers music throughout the year, much of it free and including student and faculty recitals.
Manning the WGBH table at the Beantown Jazz Fest. Free music, food trucks, and good company every September.
Pouring wine at one of the many special events held at the WGBH studios: Happy Hours, show screenings, panel discussions, storytelling performances, food & wine festivals – something at least weekly.
We are members of Historic New England (formerly SPNEA). Membership entitles us to unlimited admission to the member properties and to numerous special events throughout the year. We often use a visit to one the the Historic New England properties as a anchor point and then expand our travel to surrounding sites and neighboring towns. We find restaurants and other things to do through TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Lobster roll at J.T. Farnham’s in Essex, MA, named best lobster roll in the USA by Travel & Leisure magazine. The clam shack is just a short ride down the ride from Historic New England’s Cogswell’s Grant, a centuries-old home with a vast folk art collection.
Cogswell’s Grant, Essex, MA. The town of Essex hosts a cornucopia of antique shops, seafood eateries and the Essex Shipbuilding Museum.
Chesterwood in the Berkshires was the home and studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French, perhaps best known for sculpting Abe Lincoln.
Studies for the Lincoln Memorial at Chesterwood in Stockbridge.
The Berkshires are special any time of year but the Fall brings sites like Naumkeag’s pumpkin festival.
Naumkeag is open all year and special events include a winter lights festival in December.
We are also members of Trustees of Reservations, which has nature sites and historic houses across the state.
At the end of the Caryl Trail, a 0.5-mi. walk to an old mill site that is part of Naonet Woodlands, a Trustees of Reservations property in Dover, MA.
Holiday Bakery in New Bedford is a great place to celebrate the city’s Portuguese heritage (and a bargain!).
Shrimp mozambique is one of the New Bedford Harbor Hotel restaurant’s excellent dished. The hotel is walking distance from the Whaling Museum and other downtown venues.
Tutto Italiano, one of the many annual car lawn events at the Larz Anderson Museum of Transportation in Brookline, MA, where we are also members.
Highclere Castle in England? No, it’s the WGBH Studios in Brighton for Downton Abbey night! Our local PBS station sponsors many great arts and food events at its studios, open to members and the public alike.
Volunteering at the annual WGBH Celtic Sojourn concert for St. Patrick’s Day at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, a great venue for world music and other events like the annual Christmas Revels.
If you can’t go to Portugal, you can still go to Holliston, Mass. and visit the Fatima Shrine. It’s free to walk the grounds, which are peaceful and pretty. The have a huge lights display at Christmas time.
Beauport Mansion (the Sleeper-McCann House) , Gloucester, MA. Unfortunately interior photography is not allowed, but this property features distinctive (and somewhat eccentric) interior design and many collections of objets d’art.
View from The Lobster Pool clam shack in Rockport, MA. The lobster rolls have no celery (yay!), but still they are not the best rolls, though still worthwhile as the view is terrific and the drive out is nice.
Walk off your lobster roll at Halibut Point State Park, just half a mile from the Lobster Pool. Unfortunately no swimming is allowed in the old quarry, but there are trails all the way around and also down to the ocean.
Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum is enjoyable for the building as well as the collections, which include an authentic China House and art that reminds us of the city’s maritime history.
Summertime treat: Fresh figs from Russo’s market in Newton, MA (walking distance from our house), peasant bread from the Waltham Farmer’s Market (walking distance from our rental property), ricotta cheese from Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA, all drizzled with honey from one of our European adventures.
Watching the butterflies eat in the Butterfly Garden at Boston’s Museum of Science, where we used to hold a Premiere membership, which entitled us to free parking for 2 hours, numerous Imax and Planetarium tickets and guest passes.
Inside the JFK Presidential Library. Membership at any of the presidential libraries (we are members of the Reagan Library in California) grants you reciprocal admission to all the other libraries.
Mount Auburn Cemetery (Cambridge) in the Spring. It is also gorgeous in Fall.
You can pick up maps at the front gate or download a podcast from the Mt. Auburn website, or just enjoy a reflective ramble. Special events and tours occur year-round.