How to get to lots of useful and fun places in a car.

MIT

To get to MIT by car, take Rt 16 to the Mass Pike. Get on the Pike going eastward into Boston, and stay on until the Allston-Cambridge exit, which is Exit 18. The exit is to the left, and there's a $.50 toll. You will end up on Cambridge St, and will see the DoubleTree Guest Suites hotel out your windows on right side. Follow the road across the bridge (it turns into River St), and continue driving straight on that road until you intersect with Massachusetts Ave in Central Square. A lot of streets come together at that point, but the big intersection is with Mass Ave. Turn right onto Mass Ave, and drive for about a mile. Just before the river, you will see the MIT Student Center on the right and the entrance to the Infinite Corridor on the left. You should park somewhere before the river - Mass Ave and most of the streets intersecting it have meter parking. The trip takes just less than half an hour in regular traffic.

Logan Airport

Take the Mass Pike till it ends, then follow the signs to Logan and take the left curve of the fork. Then merge and you're on 93, take the Logan/Callahan Tunnel exit and go through the tunnel. The ramp to the airport will be on the right and it's about .25 miles from the end of the tunnel. The trip is a little over half an hour in good traffic - but it can take an hour or more at rush hour.  The round trip from Wellesley will cost you $4.00, which included $1.00 each way on the Pike and $2.00 for the Sumner Tunnel toll on the way home.

Freeport, ME

Freeport, ME is an entire town of outlet stores. The base of the whole operation is the L.L. Bean headquarters and main store (not an outlet), which is open 24 hours a day. Basically, any store you can think of has an outlet in Freeport (except Crate & Barrel).  Take Rt 16 as if you were going to Boston. At the intersection with Rt I 95, get on I 95 North. I 95 will take you all the way up to Freeport, and there'll be signs on your right pointing you toward the outlets and L.L. Bean. I've made the trip a couple of times in a little under 2 hours, although it's supposed to take longer.

Natick Mall

For shopping closer to home, you can drive to the Natick Mall (and Shopper's World, and everything else along Rt 9). There are two ways to get to Rt 9, the simple way and the fast way. The simple way: Turn left at the Rt 135 exit from the college (going away from Boston). Take 135 through Natick Center, until you hit Speen St just past the lake. Turn right on Speen St. Take Speen St. for a couple of miles, until you see signs for Rt 9, the mall, and the Mass Pike. For shopping and restaurants other than the mall, go west on Rt 9. The fast way: Turn left at the Rt 135 exit from the college (going away from Boston). Turn right onto Bacon St, the first right, under the train tracks. Follow Bacon St until you get to the stoplight just beyond the school. Turn right onto Oak St. You'll hit Rt 9 after about a mile.  Turn left on Rt 9 to get to the mall.