A great option if you want to go jogging is to go to a local school and jog on the track. A standard track is 400 meters or a quarter of a mile. You can easily figure out how far you have gone on a track. Also most schools in the area have all weather tracks. High Schools are not the only schools that you can go to use the track. Middle schools also may have tracks. Some good schools that often have joggers and runners at them include the Belmont high and the Water Town high schools track. When running on a track remember that the inside lanes are for the faster runners and the outside is for slower runners or joggers and walkers.

Also you really should only visit when school is out though public schools are held in common trust which means when not in use by the school anyone can use them. Besides schools some of the local colleges have tracks that are accessible to the general public. One college that is easily accessible is the Harvard track. The Harvard track is located in Boston not Cambridge on JFK and is across from the Harvard Business school. The Harvard trick is not the best track to run on it fills like running on cement instead of a nice new all weather track like you can find at Belmont High School, it also is a big circle instead of an oval possibly because it is not on the outside of a football field but there are hardly any people on the field and even the Harvard team trains mainly in the indoor facilities which are not available to the public.

Along most of the Charles you can find good jogging paths that also offer great scenery. However you will want to go on the Cambridge side, as the Boston side does not have as much in the way of paths for bikers and joggers. To figure the distance you go you can mapquest the streets you ran between but the paths tend to wind a bit and are mapquesting will not give you the most accurate distance.

If you are willing to go out to Concord there are plenty of trails and many of them have distances marked so you can decide which trail to go. The trails from Concord go all the way into Cambridge so you can get on a trail in Cambridge and jog out to Concord. Some of the Concord paths take you around the famous Walden pond. Many of the paths connecting Cambridge and Walden are by lakes and offer great scenery while you jog. Even from the Cambridge side distances are clearly given so you can know how far you went.

During the harsh summer and winter you might want to jog indoors. Most places require some kind of membership. Even local cities have places for the residents even if you do not live in their city but live in the greater Boston area. The Roxbury Community College has the Reggie Lewis Center, which has an indoor track and other gym facilities available to the local public for a small fee, which is less, then you pay for a professional gym membership.

Remember most places in the Boston area do have jogging trails but some have better jogging trails then others. If you are not fortunate to live between Cambridge and Concord or on the north side of the Charles then a local school track might be a good option for you.

Boston is a small city-a walker's city. So even if the T is running obscenely slow, you can get most anywhere on foot. As you're walking around you're bound to notice a thick red line painted on certain sidewalks. This is the Freedom Trail, a must for any Boston tourist. Following it takes you through the old city and past numerous American Revolution landmarks-forcing even the most jaded American to swell with patriotic pride. I've often said that if they put Army recruitment centers at strategic points alongside the Freedom Trail, they'd never need a draft again. To avoid looking like a tourist, always walk next to the red line, never on it. This isn't a balance beam, people. The Freedom Trail

Not up for all that walking? Maybe a Duck Tour is in your future. Climb aboard these converted WWII amphibious transports for an eighty-minute tour-by land and by sea- of the historic, modern and trendy Boston sights. Unfortunately, it's impossible not to look like a tourist on the Duck Tours since all passengers are strongly encouraged to “quack” at people on the street. But hey, sometimes the locals are in a good mood and will even quack back. Duck Tours

Passing through the Public Gardens, many tourists enjoy taking a trip around the pond on a Swan Boat. For $2.75 per person you can board a pontoon shaped like a giant swan, and be peddled around for fifteen minutes with about twenty other people. Again, it will be blatantly obvious that you're a tourist because no local would be caught dead on a Swan Boat, but that's only because they're too proud to admit how much fun it really is. www.SwanBoats.com

After all that walking, floating and quacking, you'll probably be craving a bite and a beer. And, like most tourists, you'll find yourself drawn inexorably toward that most famous of bars, Cheers-where the only person who knows your name is the guy who swipes your credit card. The food at Cheers (it's real name is the Bull & Finch Pub) is forgettable and overpriced, and the bar looks nothing like on TV. You're better off taking a picture in front of the sign and then patronizing a local brewpub. www.CheersBoston.com

One of the best places to go when you only have a few days in Boston is Faneuil (said: FAN-yool) Hall. With that perfect combination of history, food, shopping and street performers, even the most cravenly anti-tourist Bostonian comes down here several times a year. Jugglers, mimes, and musicians of every style and genre converge on this gigantic performance space any day the weather permits. Make sure to drop a dollar in their hat or guitar case if you're watching for more than a few minutes. www.FaneuilHall.com

In 2004, the Red Sox won the World Series after eighty-six years of blowing it at the end of the season. This is huge. No, I mean really huge. Like, "American Revolution" huge. The Freedom Trail Organization actually repainted their red line to go past Fenway Park. Okay, so I made that part up. But be forewarned, it's been almost four years and this whole city is still coming down from an eighty-six-year contact high. Check out a home game and see for yourself what all the fuss is about. Go to www.redsox.com for tickets.

The only way to truly appreciate a game at Fenway is to sit in the bleachers. We'll have none of this box-seat-behind-home-plate nonsense. It's only in the bleachers where you'll see the true color of Red Sox fans. All the best waves start here. All the best fights start here. And you simply haven't lived until you've spent three hours heckling an opposing team's right fielder. But the best part about sitting in the bleachers at Fenway is that there are no tourists. Everybody may not know your name, but for nine innings you'll be an official Bostonian.

Wear a Yankees hat at your own risk.