Things to Do

If you are looking for things to do when you're in town for the wedding, you could follow an official <yawn> guide like the City of Boston provides. Or you could choose one of our favorite things to do in Boston or Jamaica Plain from the finely curated list below. Any of the activities with an asterisk(*) next to them are free!

Things to Do in Boston:

• Walk the historic Freedom Trail, visiting the site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's home, Sam Adams's gravesite, the Old North Church, and many other attractions related to the founding of our country.*
• Have an authentic Italian pastry or some fresh pasta in the North End, Boston's historic Italian neighborhood, which was also home to the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.
• Walk through the Boston Common.*
• Go on a swan boat in the Public Garden.
• Take in Augustus Saint-Gaudens's stirring bas relief of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, a decorated Civil War unit of African American soldiers.*
• Take a ferry out to the enchanting Boston Harbor Islands and view the historic Civil War-era Fort Warren, where dastardly Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens was held prisoner for five months at the end of the Civil War.
• Have a meal at our favorite breakfast spot, the Friendly Toast (in Back Bay). Breakfast all day amid tres cool mid-century modern decor!
• Visit Harvard Square.*
• Browse the stacks or take in one of the many exhibits at the Boston Public Library.
• Catch a movie at the Coolidge Corner Theater, an independent, Art Deco movie theather in Brookline, MA. Maybe have a crepe before or after the show at Paris Creperie. Or eat at our favorite falafel shop, Rami's.
• Re-live the first televised presidential debate or the unnerving Cuban Missile Crisis at the JFK Library.
• Learn about the history of the Senate, especially our favorite senator, the inestimable Charles Sumner, and argue bills currently appearing before them in a replica of the Senate chamber at the Ted Kennedy Institute.
• Kayak on the Charles River.
• Take a tour of Fenway Park.
• Oogle some paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts.
• Oogle some more paintings at the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum.
• Sample some delectable dumplings at Gourmet Dumpling House in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood.

Things to Do in Jamaica Plain:

• Have a coffee cookies 'n cream ice cream cone at the original JP Licks.
• Take a long walk around or a short rowboat on Jamaica Pond.
• Take a tour of Sam Adams Brewery.* And have a pint at Doyle's Pub (a two-minute walk from our house) aftewards.
• Take a leisurely walk through the lovely, verdant Arnold Arboretum .*
• Have a pint at our favorite local watering hole, Eugene O'Neill's.
• Eat a slice of pizza at Bella Luna.