by Whalehead King

Created on: February 08, 2009

If you are visiting from snow-free states, children will be entranced by Boston in the winter months. Other times of the year, the city is rich with sights and smells and little details that deilight tykes and adults alike.

Boston is a warren of twisted streets and alleyways where even a seasoned traveller gets lost. With children in tow it becomes more an adventure. "How long til we get there?" "I don't know. Keep your eyes open for clues." A stroll becomes a hunt with treasure turned up all along the way. You'll be ecamining cornices gutter spouts, and the molding around shop windows as well as what the things housed in the window displays.

Boston has many beaches and parks. It has many playgrounds. As a city that fronts the ocean by way of Massachusetts and Dorchester Bays, the water and the shore are never far away. If you visit South Boston you can walk the sand around Castle Island and L Street and M Street Beaches. In Dorchester you can visit Malibu and Tenean Beaches. Castle Island is along the route airplanes take to Logan International Airport so not only can you chack the catches of fisherman on the piers, you can watch jetliners from all over the world make thier descent and land across the waterway. Malibu Beach is studded with periwinkles when the tide is out and everyone likes to walk the moist mud turning these little snails over to watch them flip back upright.

You can't walk half a mile in Boston without encountering a park and most have a jungle gym or swings. Mother's Rest on Washington Street just north of Codman Square in Dorchester is one. It has a commanding view of Dorchester Bay high up on a hilltop. Roxbury has a similar park that is home to a Victorian-era water tower shaped like a turret of Cinderella's castle. Little nooks and vest pccket deligts abound all over Boston. On Parker Street is a little playscape and benches dedicated to a local poet. Few people beyond the locals visit the place, but it is a lovely neighborhood well worth the visit, as is the park, snuggled between apartment buildings constructed of puddingstone and brick and three-decker, matchstick gingerbread. Puddingtone Park behind Brigham Circle, reached by the E Train on the Green Line, is a gem that overlooks Boston's skyline and has informative plaques as well as choice, looming examples of the Commonwealth's state mineral.

Children like anyone of any age, can enjoy Boston. It is a family-freindly place like any city in which family's live. You don't need to be ashamed about visiting Boston. This isn't a sinful city. Every city contains delights for children of all ages, but Boston has univeral, cross-generational appeal. It is historic, it is cultural, it is hip, it is stodgy, it is walkable, it is vibrant., it is modern and it is parochial, it is world-class while staying unique. You can't go anywhere in Boston where something isn't happening. You can visit museams and tourist attractions. You will stumble across them on your journeys. If you just get into the city itself, it will offer as much as every member of your family offers it. Boston will become as much a part of your family as your family becomes a part of the city.

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