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Stuff to do in the Boston area?


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If you have a car, drive up to Portland, Maine. I recently did that, and it's a really cool little town, great seafood and drinks. Plus, they have a Bullmoose record shop, and it was really awesome (good selection and prices). There's other records shops there too, which I didn't go to, and there's supposed to be a pretty cool art district.

 

Besides that, going into Boston, you have Newbury St, Faneuil Hall, Haymarket, the Aquarium, all that tourist stuff is pretty fun the first time. Plus if you're in the area, you can see the site of the Boston Massacre, a bunch of other super historic sites, the Boston Harbor, all that. 

Check out the Harvard area. They have a Newbury Comics (which probably has the best selection of the three in the Boston area), Shake Shack (pretty good fast food-esque burger place), Armageddon Records (great for punk, metal, and hardcore stuff), and a bunch of other shops.

Davis Square is pretty cool too. There's a bar there called Saloon. It's a speakeasy-type place. No sign outside, just next to a small theater, walk down the stairs, at least a hundred whiskeys on hand.

If you're into professional wrestling at all, there's an indie show, EVOLVE, coming to Wakefield, MA on July 15, which should be pretty cool. I'm looking forward to it anyway.

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4 minutes ago, texan4life said:

Venture up to Salem and check out witch trial stuff, that was so fucking awesome.

Forgot about Salem, good call! That was pretty great. Some of the museums are pretty "basic" stuff though if you've taken history classes, read The Crucible, watched movies, or whatever. If you plan on doing Salem, I'd do some research on it first, since tours and museums are not free, and see which ones sound most appealing to you. I just hopped into one and was pretty disappointed, but the vibe of the town overall is VERY cool. Highly recommend going.

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As previously said, if you have a car, take road trips to VT and ME. VT is just a stunningly beautiful state and Burlington is a great little city. Great beer there too! 

Maine is amazing in the summer, but yes, Portland is pretty damn cool and Bullmoose is a great store to check out. 

If you happen to be an ice cream nut, you are in the right place as New Englanders are crazy for ice cream! Look up a place called Kimball's in Westford. The mecca of ice cream IMHO! There is a tiny little record store right down the road in Littleton that is worth checking out. Run by a young guy and his mom. Nice folks!

Even if you don't like baseball much, Fenway park is awesome, unique and very historical. The Sox are pretty good this year too, so that helps. 

 

Also, FWIW, the band Overcast is from Milford. Dudes that went on to Shadows Falls and Killswitch Engage of course. 

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Theres lots of record shops in Boston/Cambridge. One is in Littleton, called the Vinyl Vault,  it's a great shop. It's usually just the owner and his son working.

The NC in Norwood MA is by far the best one with A LOT of new and used records. It dwarfs the others for their vinyl stock.

 

You could go have dinner on top of the "Pru" (Prudential Building), or just go shopping in there. There's Castle Island in South Boston. It's an old Fortress from 1890. There's a tasty little fast food place there too called "Sullivan's". It's been there since the 50s or so.

If you are into hiking I can tell you a cool spot too that's only about 10 minutes from the Vinyl Vault where you can see about a half dozen Great Blue Herons nests with all the Herons flying around everywhere. It's beautiful.

 

You can go hit up New England Dragway on a street night and take in some drag racing (or even race your own car).

It really all depends on what you are into. There's lots to do. What else are you into?

 

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Thanks for the all the recommendations!

 

Ive already done a ton on this first trip. I've got 3 more trips up here--5 more weeks (and 2 weekends) to fill. Already drove out to Cape Cod/Provincetown and had a fantastic dinner at a little spot called The Canteen, visited Gillette Stadium/Patriots Place, drove up to Portland, ME to visit my favorite brewery (Allagash) and had probably the best meal of my life at Eventide Oyster Co, and went to Regina Pizzeria and Kimball Farm. 

 

Record shopped at a few Newbury's and Bullmoose up in Portland. Didn't find anything worth hauling back home though. 

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Yeah I'm sure it was. Kimball's has some great ice cream though!

There's a couple good shops in Lowell too. (about 20 minutes from Kimball's area)

Garnicks - one of my favorite shops, just tell him what you are looking for and he will point you to a pile of records to go through

 

Vinyl Vault - Dave is a great guy and always has some great records and prices.Great guy to chit chat with too. He's good friends with the guy who owns the shop in Littleton (I forget his name).

 

RRR Records- kinda a weird store, hard to go through the stuff and he's not open all the time. I hardly ever shop in there, seems like the same stuff all the time.

 

Oh yeah, and all 3 of those stores are within walking distance of each other (all within a half mile, 2 of them are on the same block)

 

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On 6/7/2016 at 2:14 PM, texan4life said:

Red Sox game, Freedom Trail (so much history if you're into that).  Venture up to Salem and check out witch trial stuff, that was so fucking awesome.

There's also The Record Exchange in Salem which has a great jazz selection. There's also great beaches on the north shore like Cranes in Ipswich which is way less touristy and crowded than the cape. Life Alive has the best vegetarian and vegan food I've ever had at a restaurant if you're into that sort of thing, there's one in Cambridge and Salem.  Salem also has one of the best pizza places I've ever been to called Amazing Pizza. There's lots of venues and bars venues in Cambridge and Allston that have shows to check out. Paradise Rock Club, Brighton Music Hall, The Sinclair, O'Brien's Pub, Great Scott, Wonderbar. There's always music going on. Oh and Tacos Lupita in Lynn rules.

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2 hours ago, anthemforadoomed said:

There's also The Record Exchange in Salem which has a great jazz selection. There's also great beaches on the north shore like Cranes in Ipswich which is way less touristy and crowded than the cape. Life Alive has the best vegetarian and vegan food I've ever had at a restaurant if you're into that sort of thing, there's one in Cambridge and Salem.  Salem also has one of the best pizza places I've ever been to called Amazing Pizza. There's lots of venues and bars venues in Cambridge and Allston that have shows to check out. Paradise Rock Club, Brighton Music Hall, The Sinclair, O'Brien's Pub, Great Scott, Wonderbar. There's always music going on. Oh and Tacos Lupita in Lynn rules.

I want to go back so bad

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