Out and About in Boston

I like all the Legal Sea Foods I've been to. It's a chain, and they do a good job of giving them all the same atmosphere, food and service quality. I like the one at the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center particularly because there's plenty of parking, and there isn't usually a wait.

The food overall is delicious. The seafood is very fresh, just like they promise. The New England clam chowder is appropriately famous, as it's fantastic. If you've never tried lobster before, you MUST. Even their non-seafood items are great.

Legal is one of my favourite chains because they are very child-friendly. They have special kids menus, have plenty of high chairs and booster seats, they give you crayons and a coloring sheet to occupy the kiddos, and they don't seem bothered by the occasional rowdiness toddlers bring with them.

The New England Aquarium is one of our favourite downtown destinations. Ticket prices are high (almost $20 for adults, $10 for kids), but membership options are completely reasonable. A family membership ($90/year) pays for itself after only two visits.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first hassle of any trip out into Boston is PARKING. The Aquarium has a garage right next to it that is very expensive. As we usually only go for about an hour, we circle around until we find street parking, which is not impossible as you'd expect. Obviously, the Aquarium T stop on the Blue Line is right near the Aquarium, so that is a great option if you're on the T.

Once you get there, hopefully the weather is decent, because the ticket line is outside. Another perk of membership is that you don't need to wait in that line. If you want to become a member, you also get to cut the line and go directly inside.

Once in, you get your hand stamped, and they try to take your photo in front of an ocean scene to sell back to you as you leave. If you're into that kind of souvenir, go for it.

The sea jellies (it's not politically correct to call them jelly fish I guess) exhibit is easy to miss, as it's off to the left as soon as you enter, while the rest of the Aquarium is off to the right. The jellies are beautiful, but a lot of this exhibit is down stairs, so it's not stroller or wheelchair friendly. In fact, when it's busy there, they post a sign that strollers aren't allowed in the exhibit at all.

Conveniently, a free stroller check is right there at the entrance. The rest of the Aquarium is stroller-friendly (assuming the place isn't too packed to move, as it often gets) due to ramps leading to all the levels. Also up front are lockers and the rest rooms.

Once inside the main hall of the Aquarium, the first exhibit houses the penguins. Working your way up the outside ramps brings you to lots of little tanks, with tropical fish, local fish, deep sea fish, sea dragons, etc. There's a hands-on section where you can touch sea stars and sea urchins. Once to the top, you can take the center spiral ramp down. This encircles the main big tank, which has sea turtles, sharks, eels, and lots more fish.

Out back there's a seal tank, but every time I've been there it's difficult to see any seals. Much better is the seal tank out front that's behind the ticket booth. If you missed it on your way in, you'll see it on your way out. But before leaving, there's a cafe upstairs by the entrance. I've never actually eaten there, so can't recommend the food. But I love the gift shop.

I feel bad that I have to give the Children's Museum a rating of: eh. I know a lot of adults even love this place, but I wonder if that's due more to its nostalgic value rather than the actual fun you can have there.

Last year I took my then 2.5-year-old daughter. Surely she would be the target audience of a place called the Boston Children's Museum? Sadly, no. She was too young to get much out of it. Luckily I didn't feel ripped off because we didn't pay full admission price of $9 per adult and $7 per child. Instead, we got a discount admission of $2 per person through our local library.

We went early on a Sunday, so street parking was free and plentiful. The Museum is in a lovely spot on a boardwalk right along the harbor. We didn't have to wait more than a few minutes in line to pay to enter. At the front, we were able to sign up to attend a free short live theatrical presentation. We had about an hour till that show, so we made our way upstairs into the exhibits.

The Children's Museum feels less like a museum and more like a large indoor playspace. Which, depending on what you're expecting, is either a good thing or a bad thing. There's a "Big Dig" area with tubes to crawl through, and a climbing maze which my daughter was too young to use. There's a big water table with boat, and the section we stayed mostly in - the toddler section. This was just like a Gymboree type playspace for littler kids, which was guarded so older children couldn't enter. There were toys, slides, playdough, and dolls.

The whole place seems fairly rundown and difficult to navigate. It clearly was not custom built as a place for kids. With children running around, you wouldn't expect so many stairs, which made it not particularly stroller friendly (the elevator was small, old, and slow) and even a bit dangerous. The bathrooms didn't even have changing tables.

Finally we went up to the KidStage for the show, and again, it was aimed for slightly older kids. It was a telling of The Three Little Pigs, with some audience participation. Children (older) were picked to play the parts in the play. My daughter was quite bored by it. When it was over, we were done with the museum, and left.

Unless the weather is horrible, I would suggest going to a nice playground instead of the Children's Museum.

The Atrium is nice little upscale shopping mall, which happens to be particularly good to take kids to. Conveniently located right on Route 9, there's a large parking garage underneath, and there's even complimentary valet parking out front.

There's no food court, but the ground floor has a Bertucci's (pizza), a Cheesecake Factory (casual American), Le's Vietnamese Cuisine, and a deli if you're not in the mood for full waited on service. All are fine options for eating with little kids.

Then there are the many stores for kids clothes: J. Crew has their new Crew Cuts section, there's a Gap Kids and a Baby Gap, Janie and Jack has more expensive kids clothing, as does Benetton, and my favourite is babystyle on the top floor.

The Borders has a large kids book section, and there's also a cafe to sit and get a muffin or piece of cake with your little ones. The Pottery Barn Kids is perfect for decorating your children's bedrooms.

The mall is set up as, surprise, an atrium! This makes it fun for little kids, especially during holiday season when it's decorated nicely. It's a large open space with glass elevators to view all the levels from as you rise or descend, and escalators to astound your toddlers.