Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientist (the mother church) at Mass Av and Huntington.

They have an amazing fountain the length and design if which required accounting for the curvature of the earth in its construction.

In the admin building is a room called the maparium. A thirty foot diameter, stained glass world globe with a walkway through the center. Stand just inside the entrance with a friend on the opposite end and you can whisper to each other from almost thirty feet away.

Sugar Hill NH: (on the way to Mt Washington) Polly’s Pancake Parlor makes the best pancakes I have ever had. You order them in sets of three 3″ cakes with choices of white, wheat, buckwheat (my favorite), and more, each with the choice of blueberries, walnuts, pecans, and other additions. Of course they are served with their own maple syrup, tapped and processed right there on the farm.

Another offbeat thing to see in Barre is Hope Cemetery. It has some of the most ornate granite headstones you can imagine. Do a Google image search for “hope cemetery barre vt” to get an idea of what to see.

Newport is also fun. The cliffwalk is a trail that runs along a cliff about 20 feet above the ocean right behind some of the Newport Mansions. It has some of the most beautiful scenery around.

In Maine, the LL Bean main store is pretty cool. I always thought it was fun that the stores outside doors have no locks because the store never closes. They get customers coming in from 2 hours away at 3 am on every Christmas day from people who forgot to buy someone a Christmas gift.

I think the Boston Museum of Science is amazing, even for adults. I went there with a group of friends a few years ago – ages 40-60. We spent the entire day and really had to drag ourselves away to catch the train home.

NH – I love the Squam Lakes Natural Science Ctr – nhnature.org
It is home to a wide variety of native wild animals that can’t be released due to injury or over familiarity with people. It is by far the nicest facility of its type I’ve ever been to. It has a nice nature trail layout, with some non-critter exhibits, a frog pond with a shaky bridge, butterfly fields, and more staff around to answer questions than most places. They do a lot of scheduled animal talks. There’s a nice garden attached, and there are lake cruises of some kind – to see loons I think?.

RI – Just in case I haven’t mentioned enough animal places, Roger Williams Park zoo is a nice AZA certified zoo.

I agree with the other folks posting about Hammond Castle and Salem. Salem not only has historical witch trial sites, it also has an unusual concentration of practicing religious Wiccans and also shops with both touristy witch and ceremonial wiccan stuff. Kind of an interesting environment. There’s the house of seven gables too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbot_Hall_%28Marblehead,_Massachusetts%29

Mary Baker Eddy House

http://www.longyear.org/historic_houses/lynn

Other North Shore spots are Fisherman’s Beach and Bass Point in Nahant, which out at the end of it has a really great view of Boston Harbor and the Bay (worth seeing at night because you are a good several miles north of the city). Fisherman’s beach happens to be one of the longest continuous stretches of public beach anywhere.

Marblehead: see where the American Navy was born AND the original “Spirit of 76” painting. You really should see that in person. The old cemetery there is great and lots of houses in Marblehead have the little plaques on them where famous and not-so-famous Revolutionary War figures lived. The Colonel Lee House is particularly good, as is General Glover’s place.

And in Lynn is the Mary Baker Eddy House. She started the Christian Science Movement.

OK, done plugging my old neighborhood. 🙂 It is on the way, it looks like.

One bit of route advice: if not in a hurry, do drive north over the Tobin Bridge (Route 1). The tunnels are just depressing, and the view from the Tobin is fantastic. As you go north, bear right on to the coastal roadways, towards Revere and Lynn, you go to rte 16, pass by the Wonderland dog track and then end up on 1A (the Lynnway), then rte 129/ 114 rather than I-95. That takes you through Salem, gets you on your way to Gloucester if you’re headed that way, and is a MUCH nicer ride along the water as you are going through town rather than a strip or the marshes. The only strip mall like spot is the Lynnway, and you can see stuff.

It isn’t August so the algal blooms shouldn’t be apparent on the beaches (it’s a longstanding environmental problem). On the off chance they are, close the car window. You’ll be glad you did.