Now that Spring has arrived, many folks in the country are planning their vacations. I've had numerous requests about the best places to see in Boston. Here's my top 10 list1. Boston Museum of Fine Arts - check out John White Alexander's "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" (the photo above) and explore the Japanese Temple Room
2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - check out John Singer Sargent's "El Jaleo" in the entryway. Stop for lunch at the Cafe.
3. The Institute for Contemporary Art - check out the Shepard Fairey exhibit
4. The New England Aquarium - check out the jellyfish
5. The Museum of Science - check out the Electrical wing
6. Harvard Square and the Harvard Museums - check out the glass flowers
7. Faneuil Hall Marketplace is a great site for walking. For shopping, check out Prudential Center/Copley Square or Newbury Street.
8. Take a walk in the Boston Common - check out the Granary Cemetery, the Freedom trail, the Boston Statehouse, and the Swan Boats. The Theater district is nearby - check out the Blue Man Group
9. Farther afield, check out Concord and Walden Pond to the West, Plymouth Rock to the South and Salem/Marblehead to the North.
10. I often stroll the many forested lands of the Audubon Society nature preserves. Also, the beaches in Ipswich, Manchester by the Sea, and Duxbury are wonderful spots.
Coming to Boston is also a great opportunity to get back to our Nation's roots by walking the Freedom Trail, looking over the deck of the USS Constitution "Old Ironsides", or venturing out to the Minuteman National Park in Concord to stand on the Old North Bridge and listen for "the shot heard round the world!"
ReplyDeleteI have always found enjoyment, as have out of town guests, in the eclectic collection at the Peabody Essex Museum: http://pem.org/homepage/index.php
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the Glass Flowers aren't available... because of renovation.. On June 30, 2008, the Harvard Art Museum’s building at 32 Quincy Street—the home of the Fogg Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum—closed to the public for a renovation project which is projected to last approximately five years. During the renovation, selected works from the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Sackler collections are on display in the exhibition Re-View at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at 485 Broadway. Public access to works from the Art Museum’s collections not on view, including access to the study rooms, will be unavailable after June 30, 2008 until further notice
ReplyDeleteYour list of the closed museums is correct. However, the Glass Flowers are part of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, which is not affected by the closures.
ReplyDeleteI live just outside Boston in 1979 (Beverly) and loved hitting the Boston Common and Faneuil Hall Marketplace on my one day off a week. I didn't have much money and both were places where lots of low-cost fun could be found. I returned to Boston about four years ago for a conference and hit both spots again. Both were still as neat as I had remembered them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/
ReplyDelete/this is where i learned to freestyle skate board as an undergrad in the 70s. nice trees too....
I'd love to come to Boston. But since I cannot this year, forgive me, I'll use Touring Boston to 1) vicariously visit one of my favorite cities; and 2) respond to some of your recent comments re: HITSP's / CCHIT's future frameworks and "meaningful use", since many of my response were gleaned from your comments from various articles, webinars (the recent CAeHC), and HIMSS09 sessions.
ReplyDeleteFor years healthcare informaticists agreed that an EHR system is not one or even two or more "products". Rather, an EHR system is a construct that consists of a plethora of integrated, (hopefully) interoperable, component systems and technologies (e.g., PACS, [and medical device systems, even Voice/Text/Speech systems], which, woefully, were omitted from the HITECH Act). Therefore, I agree with you and add that technologies based on the latest technical approaches suggest that functional and technical "components" ("services") - not products - should be the focus of certification and standards efforts (especially in the case of HITSP, because the use cases were never value cases).
Thank you for articulating these important concepts in your many meetings / presentations.
Although this may be old news, Boston's mass transit system is an excellent provider of transport around the city to visit the sites listed here. MBTA's 7-day unlimited ride pass, for less than a typical cab ride to one of these locations, is just a steal. I enjoyed taking the MBTA around town and the schedule was frequent on weekends and weeknights too. The best part was that I could divert the money saved to dining (no, it's not cheap to eat well in Boston).
ReplyDelete