Boston-bound!

I'm heading back to one of my favorite cities this morning: the land of chowdah and beeah, more history than you can throw a history book at, and my house of baseball worship. So many fantastic memories on those perfectly walkable streets! Boston is the city where I realized how much I love cities, so it's only fitting that I'll be conferencing there for four days with a bunch of other transit/land use nerds. And bonus: on Friday night I'm welcoming my opposite-marriage partner to town! (Because chilling solo until I'm done talking streetcars is way more fun for him than chilling solo for an entire weekend in an empty apartment.)

To Beantown!

Boston is a town of history, and my favorite thing to do there is to immerse myself in that history. I was the Boston resident who really did walk the Freedom Trail all the time, really did go to every museum, and really did spend time in the "burying grounds" (not cemeteries), taking geeky pleasure in recognizing the names on the obscure graves, not just the ones on the visitor map. Nerd paradise, this city.

I worked in Faneuil Hall through much of college and still secretly love working retail. Boston also hooked me on city blocks that juxtapose old buildings with new.

Ahh, Newbury Street. Scary to think I could do more actual shopping than window-shopping there now, given that I'm no longer resorting to selling my CDs for going-out money every week.

I was on the freshman crew team, and though I wasn't tall enough or competitive enough to be great, I really loved getting out on the Charles River in the morning. Such a water girl... even if it means 5 a.m. wakeup calls.

Fenway Park!! This painting is from JRWStudios and is totally on my wish list. I never really knew baseball until I got to Boston, and once I got a taste, I was hooked. The 2004 World Series will always be one of my most precious memories. This place is just magic to me.

Boston's also where I discovered what a difference real transit makes to cities and citizens' way of life. Hopping on the T, jumping off wherever I felt like it, and walking the city end to end. Kind of my perfect Saturday back in the day... (when it wasn't baseball season, of course)

Oh wait... Did I mention that I'm visting during the prettiest time of the year?

(images shamelessly ganked from Google unless otherwise noted)