Here is a list of fun activities to fill any vacation afternoon:
Harvard Museum of Natural History
- 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MassachusettsEveryone from grade school children to ecology grads will enjoy a trip to this museum located just North of Harvard Yard. The museum houses botanical, mineralogical/geological, and zoological sections boasting a number of exhibits. One such exhibit is a massive collection of delicate, hand-fashioned glass flowers. Another is the 42-foot Kronosaurus skeleton encased in the zoological section. No matter if guests are viewing the fossils of extinct mammals or the exhibits featuring stuffed exotic animals from today, they will assuredly find the museum fascinating.
Open daily 9am-5pm. Admission: $9 adults, $7 students/seniors, $6 children, FREE under 3. (617)495-3045
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
- 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Located on the first floor of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, this gallery holds one of the world’s finest collections of Native American and Meso-American artifacts. From wall reliefs unearthed in Mayan temples to totem poles from the Pacific Northwest, the museum offers great insight into America’s history.
Open daily 9am-5pm. Admission: $9 adults, $7 students/seniors, $6 children, FREE under 3. (617)496-1027
Harvard Art Museum
– 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MassachusettsThis collection of art, ranging from the contemporary to the antique, takes up four floors of a building in the heart of America’s oldest university. The gallery of modern American art is rather modest, and to a lesser extent so is the museum’s Islamic and Asian art section which features numerous pieces of sculpture from the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. But the museum’s fourth floor houses a grand exhibition of Western art including ancient Greek and Roman antiquities, Renaissance paintings, and several pieces from the Impressionist era such as Renoir, Degas, and Manet.
Open Monday-Saturday10am-5pm and Sunday 1pm-5pm. Admission: $9 adults, $6 students/seniors, FREE under 18, FREE Saturday 10am-Noon. (617).495.9400
MIT Museum- 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MassachusettsThis museum, located in the middle of the country’s foremost leader in scientific and engineering research, is an interesting compilation of MIT’s current research. Exhibitions in the two-story building introduce visitors to the Institute’s work in data communication, holography, robotics, and DNA research. Some of the most prestigious highlights are a full-sized, three-dimensional hologram of Bob Marley and displays of various MIT-developed robots that are capable of bipedal movement, inquisitive intelligence, and replicated human emotion.
Open daily 10am-5pm. Admission: $7.50 adults, $3 students and children, FREE Sunday 10am-Noon. (617)253-4444.
U.S.S. Constitution
– Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Nicknamed “Old Ironsides” from her first battle, this darling of the United States Navy is the oldest commissioned ship on the water. Tours guided by active duty sailors take tourists from the sea deck through gun deck and down to the cramped crew’s quarters. Through five stations, the sailors serving aboard the Constitution reveal the ship’s impressive undefeated history and her place in the beginnings of American naval superiority. The is also a museum and souvenir shop on campus with the historic vessel.
Open Thursday-Sunday 10am-5:50pm. Admission: FREE. (617)242-5671
Kevin Moore - Kevin Moore is a student at the University of Toledo and an aspiring novelist. As of late, his work has focused primarily on revising the ...
