#42 best destination in the world
Freedom Trail
- 2.5-mile-long path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States.
- Stops along the trail include explanatory ground markers, graveyards, notable churches and buildings, and a historic naval frigate.
- Other stops include the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, and the Paul Revere House.
Mapparium
- The Mary Baker Eddy Library is a research library, museum, and repository for the papers of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- Art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art
- In 1990, thirteen of the museum’s works were stolen; the crime remains unsolved and the works, valued at an estimated $500 million, have not been recovered
- A $10 million reward for information leading to the art’s recovery remains in place
Warren Anatomical Museum
- Museum housed within Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library of Medicine
- Founded in 1847 by Harvard professor John Collins Warren, whose personal collection of 160 unusual and instructive anatomical and pathological specimens now forms the center of the museum’s 15,000 item collection
- Also has objects significant to medical history, such as the inhaler used during the first public demonstration of ether assisted surgery in 1846, and the skull of Phineas Gage, who survived a large iron bar being driven through his brain
Fenway Park
- Oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball
- Since 1912, it has been the home for the Boston Red Sox, the city’s American League baseball team
Forest Hills Cemetery
- Historic 275-acre rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden located in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston
The Witch House
- Home of Judge Jonathan Corwin (1640–1718) and is the only structure still standing in Salem with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692, thought to be built between 1620 and 1642
- Corwin bought it in 1675 when he was 35, and he lived there for more than 40 years; the house remained in the Corwin family until the mid-19th century
House of the Seven Gables
- 1668 colonial mansion, named for its gables, and made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables
- Now a non-profit museum, it was built for Captain John Turner and stayed with the family for three generations
Mohawk Trail
- Trail that began as a Native American trade route which connected Atlantic tribes with tribes in Upstate New York and beyond
- Today the Mohawk Trail is a part of Routes 2 and 2A, and follows much of the original Indian trail, for about 69 miles
- There are numerous points of interest along the way, including many scenic viewpoints, roadside attractions and gift shops
- Within this area there is substantial acreage of old growth forest containing many of the tallest trees in Massachusetts
Myles Standish Burial Ground
- #8 of the oldest cemeteries in the world
- Oldest maintained cemetery in the United States
- Final resting place of several well-known Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, including Captain Myles Standish
- Was in use from approximately 1638 until 1789 at which point the cemetery was abandoned
- It was reclaimed in 1887, generating a widespread interest in locating the resting place of Duxbury’s most famous colonist, Myles Standish
- After two exhumations in 1889 and 1891, it was generally agreed that Standish’s remains had been located and a memorial was built over his gravesite
Cape Cod National Seashore
- Created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the shore encompasses 43,607 acres on Cape Cod
- It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion
- Includes nearly 40 miles of seashore along the Atlantic-facing eastern shore of Cape Cod
Costs
Number of Days: 18 days
Best Time To Fly: April-June, Sept-Oct
Airline tickets: $384
Seattle -> Boston (round trip) = $384
Food: $45/day x 18 days = $810
Rental car: $61/day x 11 days = $671
Gas: $43
Entertainment: $191
Airbnb: $233/day x 17 days = $3,961
TOTAL: $6,060
