Porter Square? We don't get out to Cambridge.
Maybe someday. Yang leaves for the mountains soon. I'd like to go to Boston and do all the touristy things we have not done for the past 11 years. Take a girl and go see Bunker Hill, Cambridge, go for a whale tour, that kind of stuff.
But . . . considering last year I almost got mugged in Boston Commons, maybe I should go somewhere safe--like the Southside of Chicago.
Well, that's a given. Only tourists go to Boston Commons, and the muggers know that. Go to Boston Commons, and you'll get mugged. The police are ineffectual.
Since everyone but the criminals is disarmed, it's a city of victims, and the only way to keep safe is to let other people look like victims...don't look like a tourist, no visible camera, look alert and be aware of your surroundings. They want easy targets, so they'll pick someone else. NOT a safe place. Also, homeless people tend to go from asking for money to going all twitchy and going after people, meth or what, I have no idea, so it's best to cross the street.
Fanueil Hall is a bit better just because it's so busy, but watch out for pickpockets there. There's also a walking tour of the historic spots that's safe because it's a large group. And, of course, the Duck tours are fun. You drive around in a WWII vintage DUKW that goes into the Charles River for part of the way. Only one has sunk.
Best way to stop in places in Cambridge is to do the horns-blaring aggressive-low-speed-driving like the locals, park in the pay lots close to a destination.
Also, best whale watches are out of Gloucester, not Boston. It's also neat to see all the fishing boats going out of there, plus the boat used in "A Perfect Storm" is there as a memorial. Neat statue, too, of the guy in a slicker and hat with his hand on a helm, and the plaque "They that go down to the sea in ships."
Battleship Cove is worth a trip. WWII battleship, fully restored, plus a captured Soviet missile cruiser.
Other stuff in the state, Salem is mostly t-shirt shops, but the Peabody-Essex is an excellent museum there. As far as quieter seaside communities, come up to Portsmouth, NH instead. There's the Smuttynose Brewery restaurant on the old cobblestone shopping street where you can get freshly made beers they don't sell anywhere else, boat tours of the old waterfront and naval yards, the restored Strawberry Banke area (like Williamsburg) plus you can be legally armed, unlike MA.
