šŸŒ· Bloom, baby, bloom!

Plus: šŸ–¼ļø The ISGMā€™s heist-aversary

Itā€™s Tuesday, Boston.

šŸ‘‘ If you need an excuse to go down the Kate Middleton rabbit hole ā€¦ The Globeā€™s writing about it now, so you can tell your friends youā€™re just supporting local journalism. 

šŸ‘€ Whatā€™s on tap today:

  • Spring sprung early

  • ISGM heist reward $$$

  • Local Amazing Racers

Up firstā€¦

OUT & ABOUT

Get a spring in your step

Image: Erin Clark/Globe Staff. Illustration: Gia Orsino.

Happy first day of spring! We collectively survived another New England winter (albeit, an underwhelming one). So as a reward, we rounded up some of our favorite underrated outdoor activities in and around the city:

šŸŒ³ Skip the White Mountains and try urban hiking. Itā€™s true, you donā€™t need to leave city limits for some top-notch hiking. Weā€™d recommend Bostonā€™s totally one-of-a-kind 27 mile Walking City Trail connecting 17 Boston neighborhoods from the Neponset River Reservation to Bunker Hill Monument. And for our indoor-ish cat readers who arenā€™t looking to break a sweat, the Arnold Arboretum is hosting a total solar eclipse viewing event at the top of Peters Hill on April 8.

šŸš£ Get up close and personal with the Charles. Anyone can rent a kayak or paddle board and set sail down the river with Community Boating starting April 1, or with Paddle Boston in Allston-Brighton, Cambridge, Somerville, or Medford starting the first weekend in May. And if you reaaaally love that dirty water, you can grab tickets to City Splash (not available yet!), where the public gets the rare opportunity to swim in the Charles along the Esplanade.

šŸƒ Prep for Marathon Monday (without running a marathon). Yes, Marathon Monday may be the main event, but the running events leading up to it are arguably just as fun, like this ā€œHalf half half half half marathonā€ (only .826 miles) or a race against the Green Line (yes, really). If you just like a good ole 5K, check out the Run the Fens 5k and the Rally for Research 5k in Cambridge on March 23. And if youā€™re not ready to commit to a date, the Jamaica Pond Parkrun hosts a 5k literally every Saturday morning.

šŸ˜‹ Peruse one of Bostonā€™s (many) food festivals. This spring will feature culinary delights like the spring wine and seltzer fest on March 30 at Time Out Market, the launch of the Greenwayā€™s 2024 food truck program with 25 local vendors on April 1, and Bostonā€™s own hot sauce festival on April 27 and 28.

ā›“ļø Go island hopping. Itā€™s not the Caribbean, but itā€™ll have to do. Starting May 20, folks can grab the ferry from Boston Harbor City Cruises to both Georges Island, which houses Civil War-era Fort Warren, if youā€™re a history buff, and Thompson Island, which has plenty of green space and nature to take in.

šŸŒ·Plus: Come April, be sure to check out the Isabella Stewart Gardnerā€™s annual nasturtium display, among these other prime flower-peeping spots.

šŸ¤” Need more ideas? Boston.comā€™s got 50 of them, which you can check out here

QUICK QUESTION

šŸŒ³ Whatā€™s your favorite outdoor space in Boston?

Let us know below!

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CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

Image: John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

šŸŒ·Youā€™re not imagining things: Spring sprung earlier than normal. We all know that this winter was more than a little underwhelming in terms of temperature and snowfall (every New England state experienced some level of record warmth, and Boston is barreling toward a top five least snowy season on record). But the first signs of spring are also cropping up earlier than usual, like the (frankly, lovely) weather weā€™ve been having, ice cover melting on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, and birds, bees, and mosquitoes making their seasonal debuts. 

šŸ™… Gov. Maura Healey wants her personal space. Healey didnā€™t mince words explaining why her aides refused to give the press info on a mysterious four day trip she took last month: ā€œMy personal life is my personal life,ā€ she said. While her work schedule is available for viewing, Healey says she wonā€™t be revealing her personal or family schedule to the public, in a break from her own past practices, and those of her predecessors. In November, Healeyā€™s team also stopped providing details about out-of-state travel in advance due to ā€œsecurity concerns.ā€ 

šŸ–¼ļø Want $10 million? Keep your eyes peeled for stolen art. March 17 was the 34th anniversary of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museumā€™s famous art heist, but the investigation still ainā€™t over, and tipsters are still consistently reaching out to try and help officials. Itā€™s common for stolen art to take decades to resurface (according to the Globe, thereā€™s still a high probability that those pieces will pop up), so the investigation team is asking the public to get familiar with all 13 missing works. And if we were you, weā€™d take a look, because thereā€™s a $10 million reward. Use this quiz to brush up.

šŸŽ¬ Get ready to embrace your inner film bro. The Boston Underground Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday at the Brattle Theatre. Through Sunday, the festival will show between two to five movies per day from across the world, celebrating ā€œunconventional stories ā€¦ fever dreams, nightmarish visions, and all manner of cinematic forms.ā€ And any event claiming to be bringing ā€œthe finest in Vanguard filmmakingā€ (a.k.a. wacky!) to Boston viewers canā€™t be a bad place to taste-make. Each film ticket goes for $15, and $150 badges get you unlimited viewing. 

ONE LAST THING

ā€œThe Amazing Raceā€ locals 

Image courtesy of CBS. Illustration: Gia Orsino.

Mass. residentsā€™ bang-up season of competition reality TV continues. Survivor? Check. HGTVā€™s ā€œBattle on the Mountainā€? Check. Chopped? Check. Now, the ā€œThe Amazing Raceā€ is the latest show to feature some Mass. representation.

Out of the 13 teams on the show this season, Waltham residents and father-daughter duo Chris Foster and Mary Cardona-Foster (who works at Boston media platform GBH!)  are competing for the $1 million prize in locations like Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Barbados, the Dominican Republic and, most excitingly of all ā€¦ Pennsylvania.

If you want to cheer on the Mass. locals, you can catch them on Paramount+ or, if you still watch cable, CBS on Wednesday nights.

ā€” Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

šŸƒ Thanks for reading! Judging by the photos and hometowns alone, Iā€™m all in on Chris and Mary for the W.

šŸš‡ The results are in: B-Siders are surprisingly empathetic to our T troubles. 42% of readers say that theyā€™re not loving the shutdowns, but are happy things are getting done. One reader said: ā€œSome things have to get worse before they get better.ā€

šŸ’ƒ Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].