You could spend your time getting to the "finish line" by starting out after breakfast checking out the interesting shops in Boston. From where the Holiday Inn-Select is on Blossom St., just walk right up Cambridge St. and when you see Boston's City Hall Plaza, cut through here and walk across the street to the Quincy Market. You'll be busy for at least an hour in through here. Leave here and walk up to Downtown Crossing because Filene's Basement will be closing over the summer for a few years and I KNOW they'll have some interesting things on sale for the next few months at least! Leave here and walk up through Downtown Crossing right to the Boston Common. Walk all through here and cross over to the Public Gardens. Head down Newbury St. from here to Copley Square and you'll be at the finish line. You'll definitely see the crowds along the way and the Finish Line will be obvious to you, if not, just ask any one where it is. It'll hopefully be a nice, sunny day for you to explore the City. Walking through this whole area is in my opinion, the best way to really enjoy it all any way.
You could also do one of several things besides what I mentioned above here. You can walk from the Holiday Inn-Select straight up to Beacon Hill and explore Charles St. and look for some of these homes where some very interesting people lived at one time. One of them mentioned here still lives here as a matter of fact, it's none other than Senator John Kerry and his wife Theresa Heinz Kerry:
46 Joy Street - African Meeting House
67 Joy Street - Resident Rebecca Lee Crumpler, prominent physician, considered to be the first black woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S.
Louisburg Square
4 Louisburg Square - resident William Dean Howells while editor of the Atlantic Monthly
10 Louisburg Square - residents Bronson Alcott and Louisa May Alcott and family
19 Louisburg Square - residents John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry
20 Louisburg Square - singer Jenny Lind married Otto Goldschmidt here
Mount Vernon Street
32 Mount Vernon Street - residents Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe and his wife Julia Ward Howe
45-47 Mount Vernon Street - site of Portia School of Law, founded for and by women in 1908
51-57 Mount Vernon Street - architect Charles Bulfinch
57 Mount Vernon Street - residents Daniel Webster and later Charles Francis Adams
72 Mount Vernon Street - erstwhile site of the Boston University School of Theology
77 Mount Vernon Street - House of the Club of Odd Volumes
85 Mount Vernon Street - 2nd Harrison Gray Otis house, architect Charles Bulfinch
87 Mount Vernon Street - architect Charles Bulfinch
Phillips Street
2 Phillips Street - Resident John Coburn
18 Phillips Street - Vilna Shul, now the Boston Center For Jewish Heritage
41 Phillips Street - Erstwhile site of the Northeast Institute of Industrial Technology
66 Phillips Street - Hayden House, associated with the Abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad
83 Phillips Street - Resident John Sweat Rock, prominent black dentist, attorney, and abolitionist activist
Pinckney Street
15 Pinckney Street - a site of Elizabeth Peabody's Kindergarten
Other residents
Writers Brad Meltzer and Judd Winick lived in a tiny apartment in Beacon Hill in 1993 before they achieved success. While living there, Winick developed his first successful comic strip and Meltzer worked at Games Magazine by day while working on his first novel at night.
You can spend all day on Beacon Hill alone. Walk down to Charles St. and you'd almost be near the finish line. Head over to the Public Garden and stroll through and don't forget to see the Make Way For Ducklings while you're at it. You can't miss them!
Sites of interest on Beacon Hill include:
Massachusetts State House (Beacon Street): Home of the state's government
Louisburg Square
Nearby Acorn Street, a narrow lane paved with cobblestones, often mentioned as the most picturesque (or the most frequently photographed) street in Boston
Mt. Vernon Street: "The finest address in all America"
Bull and Finch Bar (Beacon Street): Source of inspiration and exterior shots for the Cheers television show.
Charles Street Meeting House
The Club of Odd Volumes (Mount Vernon Street): Bibliophiles club, library, and archive
Suffolk University
Suffolk University Law School
Park Street Church
**The route taken by the fictional Mrs. Mallard and her children, depicted in "Make Way for Ducklings"; a book for children by Robert McCloskey. The story is commemorated every year in May by a parade through Beacon Hill to the Boston Public Garden.
Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial: Intersection of Beacon Street and Park Street, opposite the Massachusetts State House
Museum of African American History, New England’s largest museum dedicated to preserving, conserving and interpreting the contributions of African Americans, located at the African Meeting House.
Nichols House Museum, a historic 1804 townhouse
Harrison Gray Otis House, 1796. The Otis House also houses Historic New England's headquarters.
You can either walk through the city this way or shop along the way, it's up to you. You ALSO could take the City Tour trolley and hop off at Copley Square right at the finish line IF the trolley can make it that far up to that end of town with the crowds. So think about that as well, if you didn't want to walk from Government Center that's probably a good idea, especially if it's rainy or too cold out that particular day.
Have fun!
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Boston trip last Sat.
I stayed at the Ritz Carlton on Avery and Tremont. For being a property built in 01 I was not very impressed. Even a local woman walking her two yorkies on the North End said it was a surprising location. Walking along Tremont and then theres a Ritz. That's the Ritz though. Boston itself was great. 
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