A slow party boat along the Charles
WE HAD a big family wedding last summer. Lots of out of town guests from all over the world. They jumped on the classics - Fenway Park, Public Garden, Harvard Square - then they fanned out. Here's what they loved:
Charles River. OK, it was a wedding, so we sprang for a party boat on the Charles. A nice slow boat putting along from Longfellow Bridge up to Watertown and back. We shoved off just before sundown. A gorgeous evening. A little music, a few drinks, and all of riverfront Boston and Cambridge floating splendidly by. It was a hit. No one wanted that night to end.
Walden Pond. The price is right, and so is everything else. A gang of high-spirited guests grabbed Thoreau, read the best of him aloud just after dawn in the woods, then stripped naked and swam straight across the middle of the pond. I'm not sure that's all entirely legal, but their glow was worth a little civil disobedience. And they're still talking about it.
Peabody Essex Museum. We've enjoyed this pearl in Salem for years, but with its recent build-out, it's an eye-popper for visitors. The great day of sail and whale and exotic trade really breathes here. Climbing around the fully reconstructed Chinese manse inside feels like an experience you would only stumble on in the China clipper axis that runs right through Boston history. Tactile, brainy, grand fun.
Then we all danced!
Tom Ashbrook is host of NPR's "On Point," produced by WBUR Boston. 