The restaurant makes almost everything they serve from scratch, guaranteeing freshness. Pastries and breads (more about those in a minute) are made on the premises. Hankering for breakfast later in the day? No worries. Friendly Toast serves breakfast all day and night, in addition to sandwiches, burgers, and a full bar.

The first Friendly Toast opened in Portsmouth, N.H., 20 years ago. The Kendall Square location was added in 2009. Both have the same menu and have been featured on Good Morning America, and in Esquire magazine. The Cambridge Friendly Toast was named Best Breakfast in Boston magazine’s 2009 Best of Boston awards.

The first thing you notice as you arrive at the Kendall Square eatery is the kitschy, larger-than-life 1950s decor. The giant burger and outsized cow head are hard to miss. Ditto the life-size Barbie doll standing guard near the hostess station. Old advertisements for Levi’s, Shell gasoline, and Van Heusen shirts line the walls, and unique retro lamps adorn vintage laminate tabletops. You’ll probably find yourself taking a walk to the bathroom just to check out the decor.

The Caribbean Waffle ($9) has pecans inside and carmelized bananas on top.

But what stands out most at Friendly Toast isn’t the interior decorating. It’s the restaurant’s vast, inventive menu. Here you’ll find combinations of ingredients you won’t see at a typical diner, and the portions are enormous. Craving something sweet for breakfast? Try the Hansel & Gretel Waffles ($9), gingerbread waffles topped with pomegranate molasses and whipped cream. A heartier, hotter option is the Mexican Mashed Meal ($10.25)—spicy mashed potatoes topped with chorizo and two fried eggs, served with chipotle sauce and homemade toast. Vegetarians will find something to ooh about with Kate’s Tofu Scramble ($10.75), tofu served with vegetarian sausage, mushrooms, corn, feta cheese, provolone cheese, and cilantro. Pancakes can be made gluten-free, and vegetarian bacon can be substituted for the asking.

We had a yen for French toast ($5 for one piece, $7.50 for two, and $9 for three) the morning we stopped by. You can’t go wrong with this dish because the restaurant makes its own bread. Diners can select from among several homemade breads: oatmeal, whole wheat, anadama (bread with molasses and cornmeal), cayenne-cheddar, or cinnamon-raisin. The bread is similar in texture to Wonder Bread, but a whole lot tastier. We played it safe with whole wheat. The French toast was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, accompanied by thick maple syrup and whipped cream.

The Sklarmageddon ($12.50) is an omelet with sausage, bacon, ham, red-chile pecans, Swiss and jalapeno-jack cheeses, and topped with zesty maple sour cream.

Wanting to sample the eggs, we ordered the Basic Breakfast ($7): two eggs “any which way,” home fries made with red bliss potatoes, caramelized onions, and spices, and homemade toast. We chose scrambled eggs, which were standard, but the home fries were a standout, spicier than usual and complemented by the caramelized onions.

If breakfast food isn’t your thing, Friendly Toast also serves sandwiches, salads, and burgers. We didn’t try any of the sandwiches, but the Damned-Good Grilled Cheese ($10.25) (served with an olive-garlic spread) and the Le Petit Monstre ($12.25) (chicken burrito made with marinated breast meat, Tabasco cream cheese, roasted corn salsa, green olives, lettuce, and plum tomatoes) looked especially appetizing. The restaurant offers coffee, hot and iced (we rate it a C), tea, juices, frappes, and a full cocktail menu.

The biggest drawback is the restaurant’s popularity. A 30- to 60-minute wait is normal on weekends from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., says manager Madeleine Suter (COM’10). But there was no line during our recent weekday visit.

“We get a lot of MIT kids because we’re in Kendall Square, but we’re only about a 20-minute walk away from BU,” says Suter. “I think a lot of COM film kids know about us because we’re near the Kendall Square Cinema. The place is a lot of fun, it’s a different crowd than you’d see over at BU, and the food is great.”

The Friendly Toast, One Hampshire St., Cambridge, 617-621-1200, is open Sunday through Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Take-out is available except on weekend mornings. The restaurant takes all major credit cards. Take the MBTA Red Line to the Kendall Square/MIT stop. The restaurant is less than a 10-minute walk. Check out the menu here.

This is part of a weekly series featuring Boston lunch spots of interest to the BU community. If you have any suggestions for places we should feature, leave them in the comments section below. Check out our list of lunchtime tips on Foursquare.

First incorporated into renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace in 1892, Jamaica Pond covers about 68 acres, with a broad 1.5-mile paved path tracing its shore. In the late 1800s, many of the grand homes fronting the pond were the summer residences of wealthy Bostonians. A glacier-formed “kettle” pond, Jamaica Pond is a haven for ducks and is stocked with fish each year by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which offers fishing permits.

Visitors can rent sailboats ($15 per hour) and rowboats ($10 per hour; $5 with fishing permits) at the Jamaica Pond Boat House, which is administered by Courageous Sailing, a nonprofit that offers sailing and leadership programs to Boston area youth.

Free parking is available along Perkins Street on Jamaica Pond’s west side. The park closes at 11:30 p.m. The path around the pond is for pedestrians only. Swimming, wading, and alcoholic beverages are prohibited. Dogs are welcome on leashes; owners must clean up after their pets.

Susan Seligson can be reached at sueselig@bu.edu.

This article was originally published on June 28, 2010.

A public park since 1896, Revere Beach was designed by noted landscape architect Charles Eliot to be “the first to be set aside…for the enjoyment of the common people.” Today, the beach once known as the Coney Island of New England remains the people’s beach, its boulevard bustling with stalls selling foods from a kaleidoscope of cuisines, its shelters shading visitors of all ethnicities. There’s a bandstand featuring summer concerts and a bathhouse, and lifeguards are on duty through September.

In the decades since Revere’s historic charms fell into decline—and hit rock bottom with the devastation caused by the notorious Blizzard of ’78—the beach has been completely revived, to the delight of its fans, with restored pavilions, seawalls, and sidewalks. Officially reopened in 1992, Revere Beach was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2004.

Revere Beach Reservation is open year round from dawn to dusk. To get there on the T, take the Blue Line to Revere Beach station. For more information, call 781-289-3020.

Susan Seligson can be reached at sueselig@bu.edu.

This article was originally published on August 2, 2010.

Watch this video on YouTube

View the walk to Brookline Village in the slideshow above. Photos by Brendan Gauthier and Edward A. Brown

When it comes to city exploration, public transportation is a popular option. In Boston, this is both a blessing and a curse. Since train tracks in this town run inward and outward, never across, the tendency is to follow those same patterns to explore.

Yet Brookline Village, which would be a four-leg round-trip on Green Line trolleys, is only a half-hour walk—and a beautiful one at that.

Beginning at Marsh Chapel, the journey winds through the Longwood Medical Area and delivers you into the thick of Brookline Village. To start, head across Comm Ave and over the Massachusetts Turnpike via St. Mary’s Street. Turn left on Mountfort Street and curve around right onto Park Drive towards Beacon Street and Audubon Circle. An assortment of restaurants and businesses lie near this intersection. A quick drink break at the Beacon Street Tavern or Johnnie’s Fresh Market may be in order—both have great outdoor patios.

Next, make your way across the C trolley tracks on Beacon Street and up the hill along Park Drive over the D tracks. Bear right as you start to pass the Landmark Center. On your right you will see the entrance to the Riverway, a parkway that comprises part of the Emerald Necklace, a chain of nine linked parks and parkways in Boston and Brookline designed or improved by 19th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Riverway starts here and winds through the Longwood Medical Area alongside the Muddy River, almost all the way to Brookline Village.

Although the Muddy is referred to as a river, it is actually a collection of brooks and ponds running about three and a half miles, starting near Jamaica Pond in an area once known as Muddy River Hamlet, draining into both the Fens and the Charles River. It appears natural, but was actually rerouted as a part of the Emerald Necklace project and contains a number of conduits and pipes to aid water flow through the city.

The Muddy has at times made the news for less than happy reasons. Since October 1996, it has flooded three times, the first causing millions of dollars in damage to the Kenmore MBTA station and forcing temporary closure. The Muddy River Restoration Project has since been formed to clean up the river and prevent further flooding. The Riverway segment of the Muddy has benefited from its work.

Once you’ve descended onto the Riverway, you’ll find yourself surrounded by greenery and the sound of chirping birds, interrupted only by an occasional D trolley speeding by. The aptly named Muddy River is very shallow, but there are enough ripples to suggest life beneath the surface.

The other main form of wildlife demands careful treading. The Canada geese inhabiting this part of the city are not shy about their business. Be sure to keep a respectful distance, especially if their young are about. If a parent starts hissing, that’s a bad sign.

Continue along the path until you’re forced onto a street. Instead of following the path on the other side, turn right. You’ll be walking along Pilgrim Road, although there’s no visible proof of that. Follow the road until you reach a stop sign and continue straight onto Netherlands Street until it ends. Turn right on Aspinwall Avenue, cross over the D tracks again, and take the first left onto Kent Street. Follow Kent, bearing right at a fork, until it intersects with Harvard Street at the center of Brookline Village.

A delicious lunch can be had at Sichuan Garden, a Chinese restaurant specializing in Sichuan, or Szechuan, cuisine, quite different from the Cantonese and Chinese-American offerings on Comm Ave. Appetizers include unusual items like rabbit and ox meat with a roasted chili vinaigrette, julienne jellyfish with scallion pesto, and shredded cucumber with garlic sauce.

But Sichuan Garden is only one of Brookline Village’s many treats. And if you’re too full to walk back, just hop on the 66 bus to Comm Ave.

Brendan Gauthier can be reached at btgauth@gmail.com.

Watch this video on YouTube

From iconic statues and landmarks to Boston’s brownstones and serene settings, see pictures from a stroll along Comm Ave in the slideshow above. Slideshow by Amy Laskowski

Commonwealth Avenue isn’t all rumbling Green Line trolleys and construction barrels. Its easternmost stretch offers a leafy look into Boston history, urban parkland, and Victorian architecture that blends elegance with surprise.

The walk begins at Commonwealth’s intersection with Silber Way and runs almost immediately into the hurly-burly of Kenmore Square. As you pass under the famous Citgo sign (erected in 1965), take a peek at the steel-and-glass wave soaring above the Kenmore Square T station. On your left is the Barnes & Noble at BU and then Cornwall’s pub, where, at the right time of day, you might catch some BU Today staffers sharing a few pints or trying to shoot pool. But don’t dally. The real heart of this walk waits beyond elevated Charlesgate Road.

The Muddy River, which sneaks through Boston’s Emerald Necklace, pokes its head up after the overpass, offering a glimpse of river life beneath a concrete balustrade, before dipping back under the asphalt. Across the street is the Comm Ave Mall, not very wide but long enough to encompass eight grassy acres studded with statues and benches, stretching from here to your destination: Boston’s Public Garden.

This is still an urban space, with multiple lanes of high-speed traffic on either side. The edifices of Back Bay loom in the distance, including the Hancock Tower, whose front courtyard is rumored to be one of the coldest places to stand in Boston during the winter. Another contender, City Hall Plaza, also was designed by architect I. M. Pei. But once you enter the mall, there’s a reduction in scale and noise, a welcome coolness beneath the tree canopy. Ample opportunities appear to cross to either sidewalk and amble past stately brownstones, many ivy-covered or detailed in wrought-iron. Do so before reaching a crosswalk-less break at Massachusetts Avenue, which slices through this bucolic parkway on its way north to Cambridge and Arlington, south into the Back Bay, the South End, and Dorchester.

Ever since it was proposed by Boston architect Arthur Gilman in the mid-1800s, this stretch of Comm Ave has been identified with the city’s upper crust. The Harvard Club of Boston fits right in, as do faux gas lamps that line the sidewalk, and festive strings of small-bulb white (and only white) lights that decorate the mall’s trees during Christmas. On a sunny day, the mall is equally populated with tourists, joggers, and well-heeled residents sitting on park benches, chatting on cell phones, toting yoga mats, pushing baby strollers, and walking dogs (which trend toward the small and purebred).

But there’s a quirky side to this stroll, too. You’ll find it, of all places, in the statues. The first you’ll encounter is Leif Eriksson. That’s right, a Viking in the Back Bay, complete with chain-mail tunic and a bone-handled knife. Eriksson’s voyage to North America occurred about 500 years prior to the landing of Christopher Columbus and more than 600 years before the Pilgrims became New England’s “first families.”

Who’s next but Domingo F. Sarmiento. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him; neither have most of the people who stop and snap pictures. Sarmiento was president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. He founded Argentina’s public school system, modeling it on what he learned from the Massachusetts school reformer Horace Mann. The statue was a 1913 gift to Boston, but didn’t arrive in the city until 1973.

At the Boston Women’s Memorial, near Fairfield Street, bronze likenesses of Abigail Adams, abolitionist Lucy Stone, and African American poet Phillis Wheatley (a slave in colonial Boston) relax on gray granite blocks. Posed on a barnacle-encrusted rocky outcrop, the sailor and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Samuel Eliot Morison gazes east toward the harbor, binoculars in hand. Via inscription, he wishes his readers, “a flowne sheat, a fair winde, a boune voyage.” A bit further on is an elliptical black granite arc, draped by a bronzed firefighter’s helmet and coat, marked with the names of nine Boston firefighters killed battling a fire that destroyed the Hotel Vendome, at 160 Commonwealth Ave., on June 17, 1972.

The first statue placed on the mall (in 1865), a neoclassic chiseling of Alexander Hamilton, is also the final one before you cross Arlington Street into the Public Garden’s manicured flower beds, winding paths, and Swan Boats. Your 30 minutes are up, and you can hop on a BU-bound Green Line trolley at the nearby Arlington T station. Then again, now that you’re steps from Beacon Hill, the Theater District, and Chinatown, you may want to extend your trip.

Take more walks from campus here.

This article was originally published on October 7, 2009.

You’re in luck. Tuesdays happen to be 3P nights (Sundays and Mondays are the others).

The deal includes an hour on one of the Allston hall’s 15 pool tables. Big City also has four foosball tables. Here’s the biggest number of all: there are 80 beer varieties on tap. Those under age 21 can play pool and have pizza or other food before 9 p.m.

Big City, 138 Brighton Ave., Allston. Take the MBTA Green Line B trolley to the Harvard Avenue stop. On-street parking only. Big City doesn’t take reservations. Credit cards accepted. More information is here or call 617-782-2020.

Rich Barlow can be reached at barlowr@bu.edu.

The three-story house at 83 Beals St. was occupied by the Kennedy family from 1914 to 1920. The president’s parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy, moved into the wood-frame home as newlyweds. By the time they left, six years later, they had four children—Joseph, Jr., JFK, Rosemary, and Kathleen.

The Kennedy family bought back the Beals Street house in 1966, and three years later, after a restoration supervised by Rose Kennedy, the property was given to the National Park Service, which continues to operate the National Historic Site today.

The house is comfortable, but far from palatial, with only three rooms on the ground floor. Only 20 percent of the furniture now in the house belonged to the Kennedys when they lived there; the rest are antiques provided by the family or bought during the refurbishing in the late ’60s. In the living room, visitors can see the baby grand piano that was given to Rose Kennedy as a wedding gift and played by a young JFK. Under the front window in the dining room are a small children’s table and two chairs, where JFK and his older brother, Joe, Jr., ate their meals as toddlers. Two small silver porridges, each engraved with their initials, sit atop the table.

Upstairs, visitors can peek into the master bedroom, where JFK was born 94 years ago. All of the clocks in the house have been set to 3 p.m.—the time of day he was born. Across the hall is the small bedroom shared by JFK and Joe, Jr. The bassinet and christening gown used by all nine Kennedy children are on display here, as well as several children’s books that belonged to the future president. Often sick as a child, he became an avid reader at a young age.

The John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, 83 Beals St., Brookline, Mass., is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays from mid-May to early November. Between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., the house is shown by guided tour only; guided tours last about 30 minutes. From 4 to 5 p.m. visitors may take self-guided tours narrated by the president’s mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Admission is free. The house is accessible by public transportation. Take the MBTA Green Line C trolley to Coolidge Corner, walk four blocks north on Harvard Street, and turn right on Beals. Or take the Green Line B trolley to Babcock Street, walk four blocks south on Babcock, turn right onto Manchester Street and left onto Steadman Street, and take the right fork onto Beals. More information is available here.

John O’Rourke can be reached at orourkej@bu.edu.

The Boston Public Library’s North End branch screens the 1980 movie, starring the late Anne Baxter in her last big-screen performance, beginning at 6 p.m. The plot centers on rival teachers competing to mount an Austen play. Sean Young debuted in the movie.

The films of Merchant Ivory will be shown Wednesdays through June 29 at the BPL North End branch library, 25 Parmenter St., beginning tonight, June 1, at 6 p.m. The other films in the series are A Room with a View (June 15 at 6 p.m.), Howard’s End (June 22 at 5:30 p.m.), and Before the Rains (June 29 at 6 p.m.). Admission is free. You can reach the library by taking the MBTA’s Green Line or Orange Line to Haymarket Station. At street level, take the Rose Kennedy Greenway to Cross Street. Turn right and walk to the first intersection, Salem Street. Parmenter Street is at the first intersection on the right.

See a trailer for Jane Austen in Manhattan here.

Rich Barlow can be reached at barlowr@bu.edu.

“There’s a mystique about the club,” says Strachila (CAS’12). “I get emails all the time saying, ‘I don’t know if you’re an exclusive club, but can I please join?’ Or, ‘I don’t smoke cigars very well, but here are my qualifications.’ I’m like, no, please come, there aren’t any applications.”

BU’s Cigar Aficionado Society is one of the school’s 400 or so student clubs, and at 10 years old, among its longest running. And despite the tradition-bound and ancient activity of smoking, the group is seen as one of the University’s quirkiest. At the semiannual Student Activities Expo, it’s the table that gets the most double takes, and school tour guides are known to single it out to prospective students.

On a recent Friday evening at Churchill’s Lounge, near Faneuil Hall, cigars are slipped from cellophane wrappers, clipped, and lit, a constellation of orange suns glowing through mist. The conversation is as thick as the smoke, swirling around such topics as the origin of brandy, the disparity in quality of BU dorms, the University’s printing quota, and concerns over finding work. In a box on the table, club president Strachila (below) fingers out a San Cristobal, a boutique cigar handcrafted in Nicaragua by José “Pepin” Garcia, and hands the stick to a visitor. She’s also brought a box of Ashton Aged Maduros, a medium-bodied smoke with Dominican-grown leaf.

“I enjoy the flavor and the taste,” she says. “I like that smoking a cigar is a communal event. A good cigar takes an hour to smoke. You enjoy it, you enjoy the company of people around you. It’s not like a cigarette, where you go outside for 10 minutes. You’re able to develop conversations more.”

Strachila’s love of cigars was born during a summer-abroad trip to Nicaragua in high school, which included a visit to a village where cigars were hand-rolled. Cigar smokers often talk about the intimate connection between smoker and maker that spans geography and culture. As a BU freshman, Strachila knew she wanted to join the club, but admits she was intimidated.

“I dragged two friends with me, and we came to a meeting and really enjoyed it,” she recalls. “I liked the social nature. It was an eclectic group of people with different opinions. It’s a good way to meet people you don’t live with.”

Today, Strachila estimates that there are 10 or so regulars, with 45 people on the mailing list. Members hail from all over the University, from the College of Arts & Sciences to the School of Management. Students from other local colleges drop by, too, she says. The club always gathers at Churchill’s, one of only a handful of cigar bars still left in the city (the Boston Health Commission has ordered them all shut by 2018 and banned the opening of new ones). The group also puts on formal events at the lounge and organizes trips to Suffolk Downs, with stops at local tobacconists. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore has been known to show up for a stogie.

“The cigar club is one of the last social things you can do at a university where you can just meet people without any real goal to accomplish at the end of the night,” says club treasurer Dan Loperfido (CAS’11), a philosophy major. “We’re not raising money, we’re not putting this on a résumé.”

The club attracts more males than females, something members would like to change. Of the 10 students smokers who showed up this evening, 4 were women. “My first meeting, I was the only girl,” Strachila says. “It’s associated with men. It’s seen as not feminine to smoke a cigar.”

Katie Parolin (CAS’13) (above) couldn’t care less about that.

“I come every week,” she says, rolling a San Cristobal between her fingers and shooting out smoke rings. “I like the people. It’s kind of like a cult, but a welcoming cult. Anyone who wants to join, can.”

The club traditionally does “monologues” at some point during the evening, where group members introduce themselves, talk about something on their mind, and describe aspects of the cigar they’re smoking. Another feature of the outfit is that the leadership earns the opportunity to work at Churchill’s. Both Loperfido and Strachila make extra cash bar-backing a couple of nights a week. It works out for both parties, since the students already know about cigars and are familiar with Churchill’s policies and the selection in its humidor.

No one is more pleased about the growth of the Cigar Aficionado Society than Drinnan Thornton (CAS’03, SED’05), a bartender at Churchill’s. It’s his baby. He started the club when he was a freshman. Like Loperfido, he was a philosophy major, a course of study that seems to fit well with puffing on a stogie. “Smoking a cigar lends itself very well to just thinking and ruminating about the world, without a doubt,” he says.

Thornton started the club after looking for something to do in the city over Thanksgiving break his first year at BU. He and a friend ended up at L. J. Peretti Company’s Cigar Shop near Boston Common and bought a couple of cheap smokes on a lark. Thornton fell in love. Next semester, he and some friends launched the group, and were eventually welcomed by Churchill’s, which doesn’t impose a cutting fee. He points out that contrary to popular perception, cigars are not prohibitively expensive. “You can still get a premium hand-rolled cigar for $5, and you can take an hour and enjoy your life.”

“The club is good for college students,” adds Thornton, who is also a residence hall director at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. “You’re in such an insular community. A lot of students don’t leave campus all week, and this can get them out and into the city, even though it’s a 20-minute train ride. In fact, that should be part of the allure. It makes it feel like more of an occasion: I’m going to go have a cigar, not just step outside.”

Thornton is the first to admit that smoking cigars is not the healthiest pursuit, but neither is wolfing down burgers and pizza or pounding Four Loko, he says. The cigar club at least offers students a socially safe environment.

“You don’t have to get shit-faced to socialize in college,” he says. “You come here, you learn how to interact, to be kind and respectful, and to have good conversation. Now that’s a skill you can use later in life. Trying to figure out how to get a girl drunk at a frat party so you can make out with her—well, that’s just not going to be applicable down the road. No one smokes a cigar and then decides to get naked and run through traffic. And when was the last time you saw two cigars smokers say, ‘Ef you, let’s brawl!’”

The BU Cigar Aficionado Society meets every Friday, from 5 to 8 p.m., at Churchill’s Lounge, 140 North St., Boston. Take the Green Line to Government Center.

Caleb Daniloff can be reached at cdanilof@bu.edu.

You don’t have to go too far for good sledding, either: Brookline, Boston, and other nearby communities have great hills just a short T or bus ride away. Check out these locations:

Larz Anderson Park
Newton St., Brookline
This park is said to have the best sledding around, offering both large and small hills. City officials occasionally smooth out bumps in the turf to keep sledders from soaring a little too high. The park also offers an ice skating rink and a snack bar. To get there, take the Green Line C trolley to Cleveland Circle. Change to Bus 51 and get off at the corner of Newton and Lee Streets. From there it’s a five-minute walk. Take a left on Newton Street, then bear left onto Goddard Avenue. The park is on your right.

Outlook Park
Summit Ave., Brookline
Outlook Park, just a short T ride from campus, is easy to find, off of Beacon Street. To get there, take the Green Line C trolley to Fairbanks Street. Walk up Lancaster Terrace and then take a right on Summit Path.

The Sugar Bowl
Jamaica Pond, Brookline
This sledding spot is an inverted hill, so the aim is to get enough momentum for the sled to go back up the other side. To get there, take the Orange Line to Green Street and walk toward Jamaica Pond.

Flagstaff Hill
Boston Common
Running parallel to Charles Street, this hill is right near the baseball diamond. It’s popular with families and can get crowded on snowy weekends. Take the Green Line inbound to Boylston Street or Park Street.

Tufts University
Davis Square, Somerville
Sledding is allowed on the steep President’s Lawn, and Tufts looks out for your safety by putting haystacks around trees and fences to cushion any crashes. Take the Red Line towards Alewife and get off at Davis. Walk up College Avenue towards the Tufts campus. Head up the stairs and the President’s Lawn is on your left.

Tubing Parks
A bit north of the Boston area, two tubing parks offer the best sledding conditions around. Nashoba Valley’s snow tubing park in Littleton, Mass., is open until 10 p.m., making for a fun evening outing. A two-hour ticket costs $25. Lifts take you and your tube to the top. A lodge also offers shelter from the cold, with snacks and hot chocolate. Snowmaking makes the trails great no matter the weather. A three-hour pass at Amesbury Sports Park, Amesbury, Mass., costs $22, $30 for the whole day. Both parks offer group rates, so get the dorm floor together to save some money. Driving directions to Nashoba are here. Directions to Amesbury are here.

Sledding enthusiasts will take any path down the hill—whether it’s atop a garbage bag or a cafeteria tray—but you can buy the real deal near the BU campus. City Sports, 1065 Commonwealth Ave., sells sleds and winter gear, and offers a 15 percent off coupon, available here. EMS, 1041 & 1045 Commonwealth Ave., has sleds for as little as $10 and offers a student discount with a Terrier Card. 

The best kind of sled is up for debate. Inner tubes are fast and offer a cushion over bumps, but can spin out of control on steeper and slicker hills. Classic wooden toboggans allow several people to ride at the same time, but are heavier and therefore go slower and are more difficult to lug up a hill; they can be upwards of $100. Plastic saucers are the least expensive, but the rider feels every bump, and they’re prone to break.

Sledding can result in serious injuries, so to be safe, keep these safety tips in mind:

Dress in layers—waterproof pants, a warm jacket, mittens, a hat, and a neck warmer—to prevent frostbite.

On the hill, there may be trees, rocks, and exposed areas of grass that can disrupt the sled’s path and make sledding more dangerous. Take a walk up and down the hill before your first sledding run to be sure there are no dangerous obstacles.

Make sure you know how to stop the sled to prevent sliding into a nearby road.

Doctors recommend wearing a helmet while sledding because of the risk of serious head injuries.

Amy Laskowski can be reached at amlaskow@bu.edu.

This updated story originally ran January 16, 2009.