Boston Harbor Islands

On a warm, sunny day, the Boston Harbor Tour is a pleasant way to while away three and a half hours. The 45-minute ride to Little Brewster Island is a lesson in history, lighthouses and shipwrecks. Along the way is Spectacle Island, with a past that runs the gamut from a home to an 18th-century quarantine hospital, a resort and even a garbage dump. Other interesting islands in the 34-island national park area include Long Island (not open to the public) and Georges Island. Its Fort Warren served as a Civil War jail. The first US lighthouse (1716) was built on Little Brewster Island. Although the British burned it when they left, it was rebuilt in 1783. Today it is manned (womanned, really) by a lady lighthouse keeper. Visitors can climb its 76 winding steps and two ladders for an amazing view of the ocean, the isles and the Boston skyline.

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