<p>Holy Cross and Clark are both in Worcester, about an hour west of Boston. Just get on the Mass Pike and head west. If you are staying in Burlington, you are about 15 minutes away from Brandeis, Bentley, and Babson, which are all in Waltham. A fun thing for the guys would be the Duck Tour - pricey, but worth doing just once. They are the amphibious vehicles that take you on a sightseeing tour through Boston and then go into the Charles River. I believe the ticket booth is located near Copley Place/Prudential Center. <a href="http://www.bostonducktours.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.bostonducktours.com/</a> These are the same ones that the Red Sox rode in when they did the parade after winning the World Series. Have fun (and BTW, it is supposed to be very hot and muggy here in MA the rest of this week into the weekend, so be prepared!). Have fun!</p>
<p>Hi Jolynne:</p>
<p>If I calculated correctly, your S is a rising junior, right? In that case, I would not do too many college tours yet, especially in summer when regular students are not attending. If he is at MIT, he already has a chance to see MIT; he probably has a chance to tour Harvard during the week as well. So focus on doing fun things with him. If you really do want to see another campus, Brown (I keep forgetting it's only one hour away) or Tufts or Brandeis would be good choices for him to take a look at--but not all three.</p>
<p>drb: Tufts is right on the Red Line at Davis Square- very easy to get to by subway. 2 stops further and you are at Harvard. Can easily do both schools in the same day; Can lunch in Cambridge or Davis..........great little cafes in both squares. For some reason people think Tufts is hard to get to....NOT. Medford/Somerville is a suburb and easy, easy access from the Alewife (sp?) direction of the redline.</p>
<p>Red Line:</p>
<p>Alewife (terminus)--Davis Square (Tufts); Porter Square (commuter train--17 minutes to Brandeis); Harvard Square; Central Square; MIT/Kendall; Charles/MGH; Park Street (Green Line to BU, Northeastern and BC--different branches)</p>
<p>If you're driving down to see Brown, go see Providence College also.</p>
<p>I second the Duck Tours--their guides are famous for being really wacky and funny. This is the tour actual Bostonians tell their visiting friends to go on. You'll probably want to arrive early in the day, though, because tickets can only be bought at the kiosks and they sell out really fast. I'd suggest going to the Science Museum (tours leave from there as well as the Prudential Center)--you can buy your tickets, visit the museum and then go on the tour.</p>
<p>Mehfud is not hard to get to by Red Line, but it is in an alternate universe with respect to roads and impossible to get to by car. (Not really).</p>
<p>Consider a trip to the beach, I'd especially recommend Crane Beach in Essex (near Gloucester). Stop for some fried clams at Woodman's in the Rough along the way.</p>
<p>Whale Watches are fun -- from Gloucester or from Boston Harbor.</p>
<p>You can also take a ferry from Boston Harbor to Provincetown -- that would make a fun day trip.</p>
<p>There is also a Water Park, <a href="http://www.watercountry.com%5B/url%5D">www.watercountry.com</a>, in Portsmouth, NH(just over the border from Massachusetts), if that is more your cup of tea.</p>
<p>drb: so right you are. Been lost many times on Mystic River something or other.........there must be 12 roads named for that river!</p>
<p>fendrock, I love Water Country.</p>
<p>I was going to pipe up with a suggestion of shopping on Newbury Street, but realized that teenage boys probably like shopping just about as much as they like museums. ;) (Although even my anti-museum fiance likes Boston's Museum of Fine Arts -- they have mummies and lots of other cool Egyptian stuff.)</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, at lunch today, some co-workers and I decided we're going to try and make Mass General Hospital the new hip tourist attraction, so that we can have lots of tourists around the hospital and make our lives more interesting. So come to MGH! There's a tour! And we're the fifth-best hospital in the country!</p>
<p>Those are great, additional possibilities for the trip! Really appreciate it all!! We are leaving at 5 or 6 a.m. tomorrow so will copy/paste the info and bring it along! </p>
<p>Marite, you have a good memory; my son is a rising junior. Figuring that we have a group of high schoolers in the biggest academic town in the US for two weeks--just going to try for a little college exposure...although not serious 'tours' (difficult in summer, any way!). </p>
<p>Again--many thanks for all the input!!!</p>
<p>Simmons is still a women's college.</p>
<p>Jolyyne:</p>
<p>Some academic programs organize school visits. You could ask if that is the case and eliminate those your S will be visiting. </p>
<p>Twinmom: Oops about Simmons. I should know better.</p>
<p>Holy Cross-Top30 LAC-in Worcester also Babson in Wellesley.</p>
<p>Marite: I only know because one of my kids has a friend attending there.</p>
<p>I'd second Duck Tours and Science museum for teens. Also popular with my son at that age (and now!) was the top of the Prudential Tower. On a clear day or night it is extraordinary!</p>
<p>The Prudential Center Skywalk Observatory
<a href="http://www.prudentialcenter.com/shop/shop_detail.php?id=64%5B/url%5D">http://www.prudentialcenter.com/shop/shop_detail.php?id=64</a></p>
<p>MGH as a tourist destination? Good luck. It has as much ambience as Newark airport crossed with a chicken-processing plant.</p>
<p>I bet if MGH created a Medical Museum the tourists would come. You could do displays of important milestones in the history of medicine that happened at MGH like the first use of anesthesia (did I get that right?), or life histories of great MGH physicians (John Crawford comes to mind), or current cutting-edge treatments being done there, or general education about problematic and widely experienced conditions like Lyme Disease or arthritis or migraines. The possibilities are endless...you just need a big room and some $ and somebody to put it all together. </p>
<p>Of course, if there were a TV show like "Grey's Anatomy" or "St. Elsewhere" based on life at MGH, it would really bring in the crowds.</p>
<p>MIT Museum.
Harvard Natural History Museum (Agassiz Museum)--glass flowers and mineral samples.
Herrell's ice cream shop.
This is a link for the Harvard Med School Medical Museum: <a href="http://www.countway.med.harvard.edu/warren/%5B/url%5D">http://www.countway.med.harvard.edu/warren/</a>
I went about a zillion years ago and don't remember anything about it.</p>
<p>It's apparently pretty cool to go up to the Etherdome (where, indeed, the first surgery with anaesthetic was performed, or so the MGH people claim), and it's open to the public. And there really are tours. :)</p>
<p>MGH is a good place to work. Probably not such a good place to be a tourist, though. (But my lab, we're on the case! MGH will be the #1 tourist destination in Boston by the time I finish my thesis, I promise.)</p>