Tag Archives: Boston Guy

The axiom, if you can’t beat’em join’em applies here.  If you live in Boston you will inevitably have to make peace with the fact that winter is here to stay. Take advantage of the many activities available to you.  The city has many public ice skating rinks and cross-country / down hill skiing is available outside of Boston.

Get tickets and check out Stowe, Vermont’s Winter Rendez-Vous, January 20-24.  If skiing isn’t your thing, head up to the mountains and skip the slopes. You can still partake in all the apres-ski activities such as hot tubbing and cocktailing.

Boston has a number of fantastic museums that you can walk around and lose yourself in for several hours when the weather isn’t nice. I refer to these months as “Museum Season” because it is when I’m most likely to visit.

However the best museum to fend off winter blues is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Their inner courtyard garden has flowers in bloom, flowing water and grass. The combined affect chases away the winter blues. Even if you don’t consider yourself much of a ‘museum person’, there are so many exhibits you might be surprised by what you find and how much you enjoy yourself. Below are a few other interesting museums you may want to visit.

Bad Art Museum: Located in the basement of the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Admission is free with the purchase of an event ticket to the Somerville Theatre so catch a movie or show before or after touring the museum.

Harvard Natural History Museum: Your tickets to this museum can also get you into Harvard’s neighboring Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology so you could consider this a twofer. 

Harvard Art Museums: Harvard has an amazing collection of fine art and it is free for Cambridge residents; MA residents can enter for free every Saturday from 10:o0 am – 12:00 pm.

JFK Presidential Library & Edward M Kennedy Institute for the Senate situated overlooking Boston Harbor the JFK museum in particular takes you back to the early 1960s; it is a must see for any political junkie. 

Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the city’s largest museum with extensive collections that include interesting current exhibitions ranging from ancient jewelry, abstract landscapes and fashion illustrations just to name a few.

Since we can’t all afford to fly away every week, one needs a more practical if not economical option as well.  For this reason I strongly recommend identifying a cuddle buddy. Not only can this help keep you warm during those colder months, it has a number of other benefits that I don’t care to get into detail. Let’s face it hibernating is more fun (not to mention warmer) with another.

While many in New England love the winter and all the sports and activities associated with the season, it is hard for me to embrace the cold. If you too are battling the winter blues, take note of my “Surviving a New England winter” posts. I can’t promise that you’ll love winter, but it won’t seem quite so awful.

For those who don’t know me, I think chocolate is the cure for everything, and when the winter blues come – nothing fends it off better than a deliciously rich mug of steaming hot chocolate.  Boston has a number of truly delicious purveyors of hot chocolate. Find your favorite by turning it into an afternoon activity with a good friend.

I know who makes my favorite cup of hot chocolate in Boston, and I visit them regularly in the winter.  Do you have a favorite selected? Do your research – don’t waste your money and calories on inferior hot chocolate.  If you have a particular place that you love, please share it in the comments section.