Sunday Multitrack
ARGFest ‘08: Sunday’s Optional Group Activities Suggestions
Track 1: Historical Highlights
Choosing this track will take you around some of the historical sights that Boston has to offer. The city makes this easy by offering you the Freedom Trail.
We suggest the following:
- Start with a stroll through the Boston Common, the oldest public park in the USA, which is right near the hotel (walk north one block via Charles Street/Park Plaza).
- Walk up to the Massachussetts State House, which is at the northernmost tip of the park.
- Follow the red brick/red painted line marking the Freedom Trail towards the Park Street Church. This will take you to several other sights where you’ll want to stop and look and around, and will ultimately brings you to the lovely Faneuil Hall Marketplace area.
- This is a great area to linger, do some shopping or just enjoy the scenery. Nearby is the Old State House, the oldest surviving public building in Boston, and the seat of the first elected legislature in the New World. It now houses a museum that details the events of the Boston Massacre, the legal aftermath of which helped spark the rebellion in some of the British colonies in America which culminated in the American Revolution. Adult admission is $5 and is money well spent for those interested in things historic.
- For lunch, we suggest Durgin Park, which is located at the Faneuil Hall marketplace. Their slogan is “Established before you were born”, and this fits right into the historic ambiance of this track. They offer a wide variety of soups, chowders, sandwiches and an endless list of lunch specials.
- For those who are still full of energy and want to see some more historical sites, the very last part of the Freedom Trail comes highly recommended. This part however is a little less accessible, so bear with us:
- Take the Orange Line T train from State Station (which is underneath the Old State House) in the northern direction (towards Oak Grove) and get off at Community College. Walk east, crossing under I-93 and through the classic Charlestown neighbourhood up to the Bunker Hill Monument. The monument is an impressive obelisk, towering over the rest of the city and the good part is: you can actually go up there and gawk at the even more impressive skyline of Boston. Beware, there are a little over 300 steps! Admission is free.
- Last but not least, walk southeast via Adams St. (in the lower corner of the park surrounding the monument) and up to the river. There you can admire and visit the USS Constitution, America’s oldest navy vessel, which is still operational! Admission, again, is free. The USS Constitution is accessible until 5:50pm.
- Get back to the hotel area by either walking back to the Community College T station, or by crossing the Charlestown Bridge by foot and getting on the T at North Station.
Track 2: Oceans and Oscillators
This track is for the lovers of the sea and its inhabitants, in more than one respect.
- First off, visit the impressive New England Aquarium, which is conveniently accessible through its very own T station. Take the Green Line in the Lechmere direction and get off at Gov’t Center. Then switch to the Blue Line towards Wonderland and ride that for two stops, until you arrive at the Aquarium station.
- The Aquarium offers all sorts of fun stuff, like witnessing seal training sessions, a penguin exhibit and an IMAX 3D show. Adult admission is $18.95 or $23.95 in combination with an IMAX show.
- The surroundings of the museum, right there at the harbor of Boston, offer an excellent location to have lunch. Right across from the aquarium is Legal Sea Foods which offers all you could ever think of, seafoodwise, for a reasonable price.
- For those who are still “hungry” for more after that packed program, we can highly recommend visiting the MIT Museum. It’s not a huge museum, but it does offer a broad spectrum of very interesting stuff, like a mechanical art section and an impressive hologram exhibit. The MIT Museum is located at 265 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge and can be reached via T by taking the Blue Line back to Gov’t Center, switching to any B,C,D or E train on the Green Line for one stop to Park St. and switching over to the Red Line in the direction of Alewife. Get off at Central Square and walk south on Mass. Ave for about half a mile. Admission is $7.50 or $3 for students, and the museum closes at 5:00pm.
Track 3: Scintillating Science
This track has only one point of interest, namely the impressive and huge Boston Museum of Science which is one of the largest science museums in the world. It has tons and tons of cool stuff to offer, including a planetarium, an OMNIMAX theater and a ton of special exhibits and shows.
The museum can very easily be reached by its own T station, Science Park, which is 5 stops up the Green Line from Boylston station in the Lechmere direction. Lunch can be had at the Museum Café, which offers a spectacular view of Boston, Cambridge and the Charles river, and a wide variety of choice in dining.
Track 4: Taking your Time
This track is for the lazy loungers among the Festgoers (”Festicles”) and starts by sleeping in late on Sunday morning!
- After taking your time waking up, it’s off to a fabulous brunch. A definitive location needs to be decided on, but the front runner at this point is Harvard Gardens which has the perfect ambiance to take it slowly and enjoy. Harvard Gardens can either be reached by a ~1 mile long walk which crosses the lovely Boston Common, or by taking the Green T line to Park St. and then the Red Line in the Alewife direction, getting off at the very next stop (Charles/MGH). Walk to the corner of Cambridge St. and Grove St. (one block in the eastern direction).
- After brunch, the really lazy can spend their time strolling around the Boston Common for a bit, enjoying the sights that Frog Pond and/or the Public Garden Lagoon have to offer.
- Those who are feeling slightly more active can take the T back to Park Street and then follow the Green E line to Prudential station. There, the Prudential Center rises above the skyline of Boston, containing an extensive shopping mall at ground level, and also the Skywalk Observatory at over 700 feet above sea level, to which adult admission is $11 (or $9 for students)
- Ending this track will be done in style, by having cocktails someplace TBA (probably the same place that the Stragglers’ Supper will be held).
