Boston Trip

Last month I did a trip to Boston to visit family, and I have a trip report!


Things ended up being busier than expected- normally I plan for 'first day arrive and get settled in, don't do a lot, last day get ready to leave and recover, don't do a lot,' on trips. Instead, the flight out was really early and the flight back was really late, so I did things all four days. First day! My dad took us to the MIT campus (he's an alum) via the T (local rail service) and we did the new MIT museum- which was interesting and well done, had cool and informative exhibits. Also tried hitting the MIT Coop which my dad talked up some but in it's current location it's more 'giftshop with a book section' than anything impressive, disappointing. Came back, went out to dinner with Dad, Aunt and Uncle and Sister-who-was-also-there (Italian place, kinda expensive, food was alrit, not great, but they loved it so hey).

Second day! Aquarium, as planned! Also in front on the Aquarium they had an area that had a lot of art stalls out- I got woven animals for my aunt and sister (bird and shark respectively), as well as a couple anime pins at a great price, all from a place that gave proceeds to refugees, which was nice, while there was an India (the country in Asian)-American parade/band going by. Went to the aquarium, ate at their cafe (fine, nothing special), went up and down the whole Aquarium- tons of cool fish, turtles, harbor seals, informative stuff, good times. Also there was a ray petting tank but the edge was all lined with people many of whom weren't even petting so c'mon people! On the way back there were issues with the T (one section was down, there was another train that was supposed to take us back one before we switched over to go on another route but they didn't move and it was hitting like 100f so we left) so we took a lyft to Newbery street which had comic shop (with surprisingly few comics, tons of funkpops) and two anime shops (good selection but overpriced so got nothing) and got on the T from there. Anyway really enjoyed that trip. Came back, Chinese takeout with Aunt and Uncle and Sister, I liked this meal more.

Third day! Science museum (other museums were dad and I, this time sis was there). At the suggestion of my dad we hit all the shows- 4D theater (think 3d theater except every 50-60s theater gimmick- seats shake, poke, spray water, bubbles, and smells. Animal kingdom show), Omnimax (space show), and Planetarium, as well as an electric show at the world's largest van de graaff generator, including playing a song on electricity at the end. As for the exhibits, there were some good ones, some not so good ones (robotics, yay, actually had a Boston Robotics dog running around! AI... boo, felt like an ad for generative stuff. Artic, boo, seemed mostly games for kids who wanted to spend time there. Dinosaurs and minerals, yay, perceptions/senses, yay, older ones, kinda neutral, just a buncha specimens). Dinner that night was pizza, also included my.... Aunt's nephew I think? He's definitely in the family but I forget the exact relation. Also a good meal. Also my uncle hates having leftovers around so for the next day he kept pressuring me to finish off the remaining slices even though I already finished my flavor the night before! (Did eat one of the remaining three slicing for breakfast, so I did my part)

Fourth day! Harvard Natural History + Peabody museum (which are in the same building). Like with the science museum, you could tell the difference between older style and newer exhibits, but even the older ones have more information posted and more information, and tended to be pretty dense (on the minus, lotta taxidermy and some of it was of iffy quality). Peabody had a Mezoamerican and Native North American section- the latter was full of a lot of separate tribes, tended to be focused on some aspect of them (like how the tribes in this region built boats, the history of pottery trade at that one, and so on), and had a good deal of items removed for review by the tribes in question. Unfortunately it was a half-mile from the T so my dad's legs were giving out near the end (he's old and it was 14 miles in one weekend!) so we walked as far as the nearest pizza place on Harvard square (Otto's- very good slice, I recommend! Small place), while he was sitting and recovering I went around the corner to the Harvard coop (which is by the same people as the MIT one but this one is both way larger and actually has stuff! I got the latest volume of Black Lagoon) except for a Harvard Business School hat my dad wanted (he was MIT but they have a deal where you can cross over? So he did some study there), but they did have it at the other coop around the corner from that. So hat acquired! Took a lyft back, stayed and rested for a bit, took a lyft to the airport, made it two blocks and turned around because my uncle found my dad's jacket which also had the bordering places, turned back around, got a traffic jam, made it, ate at the airport (legal sea food- good clam chowder!), took the flight back (actually left early since everyone was there and onboard 5 min ahead of schedule), made it home!



A couple general observations: Boston driving is bad. We went on one taxi and several lyfts, and the drivers almost universally were more aggressive and changed lanes more than DC, and we saw plenty of other people rushing, blocking the box at intersections, etc.. The drivers themselves were nice! One had water bottles in the back for passengers, two had phone chargers in back, they were all friendly. One took us down alleyways to get where we needed to go. Interesting experience, glad I don't drive there myself.
On the T, we ended up going on like, 5 or 6 different cars? And they have a huge variety of designs, Some were modern and had videos with screens showing the inside. Some had seats in rows, some had more facing each other, must've been made in lots of eras.
Which was a contrast to DC metro, which has like, two styles of cars.


So busy trip, loved visiting the fam, got a lot done!