| Geography | The City of Boston Massacchusetts is made up of many smaller areas: Charlestown North End South End Allston Brighton Kenmore Square Back Bay (Newbury Street) Beacon Hill Chinatown Nearby is Cambridge. Kendall Square Harvard Square Porter Square Davis Square Inman Square Union Square | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transportation | Driving in boston is a nightmare, particularly with the Big Dig going on. While several of the bridges and tunnels have tolls, the only toll road in the state is Interstate 90, the Mass Pike. While there is a lot of traffic, that doesn't prevent the natives from speeding and otherwise acting like lunatics. The MBTA runs the oldest subway in the US, known as the T. It also runs extensive bus lines and the commuter rail to get you to work in the morning from the suburbs. Some people love it and others hate, but there's a lot to say about it. To come and go from further, you can fly in and out of Logan Airport run by Massport. Lesser used regional airports are: Worcester, Hanscom, Manchester, and T.F. Green in Providence, RI. Amtrak also runs to South Station, but until Acela runs to New York City in a mere 3 hours, it's not really competitive with USAirway's or Delta's shuttle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History | www.iboston.org/buildings/building_index.html Boston National Historical Park Boston History www.plimoth.org Society for the Preservation of NE Antiques Freedom Trail Black History Trail Boston Women's Heritage Trail Boston Tea Party Paul Revere Patriot's Day Minute Man Park How to decode the weather beacon:Take a Duck Tour. |
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| Events | The USS Constitution is docked here. We have many yearly events such as the Boston Marathon, Head of the Charles Regatta, Boston Dragon Boat Festival, 4th of July, First Night, Boston Harborfest The Topsfield Fair is America's Oldest County Fair. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nearby | Within Massachusetts we'll often travel to the Cape (Cod) * **, and the islands (Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket). north to Cape Ann, or west to the Berkshires. The rest of New England offers the White Mountains, Foxwoods Casio, Newport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sports | Boston is home to some true sports fanatics. There are countless sports bars with TVs tuned to NESN. The old Boston Garden was torn down and replaced by the Fleet Center. Fenway Park * is still here, but probably not for long. Foxboro Stadium is going to get rebuilt since the Patriots are not moving to Hartford. High School sports are big here too. |
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| Food | There are many restaurants of all cuisines here. Check out
Zagat for
professional reviews and
Boston Dine,
CuisineNet, and
Dining Out for amateur reviews.
Boston Chefs and
RealEats.
You can get reservations at Open Table.
Boston Night Guide Voted the best liquor store around is Brookline Liquor Mart but also try Gordon's for wine in Waltham and Table and Vine in North Hampton. Or leave a gift at the Food Bank. Restaurant Row Food Line |
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| Stuff To Do |
F1 Boston white water rafting boating Cross Country Downhill Skiing hiking rock climbing Mass Bay Lines for Harbor cruises and whale watches. |
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| Skiing | I don't like to ski but it seems like everyone else up here does.
Cross Country Downhill Skiing snow boarding.
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| Leaf Peeping | New England has an autumn event called Leaf Peeping. People get in their cars and drive to places to see the leaves change colors. It can be pretty spectacular. You can stay in Massachusetts or drive to Vermont or New Hampshire. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Museums | There are many
museums in Boston.
The best known is the Museum Fine Arts
which is second in the US to only New York's Metropolitan Museaum of
Art. The Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum's three floors houses antique furnishing and
masterpieces by Rembrandt, Botticelli and Whistler among others.
Concerts are played in the museaum's courtyard. The
Institude of Contemporary Art exhibits 20th century
painting, sculpture, photography and video.
Harvard University Art Museums house over 150,000 works of art. The Fogg Art Museum is known for its collections of American and European art from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum houses asian, islamic, and ancient european art. The Busch-Reisinger Museum is the only museum in America devoted to promoting the informed enjoyment and critical understanding of the arts of Central and Northern Europe, with a special emphasis on the German-speaking countries. The Harvard Museum of Natural History is actually three museums in one: the Botanical Museum with the most amazing glass models of flowers, the Museum of Comparative Zoology with rooms full of life-like stuffed animals and dinosaur bones, and the Mineralogical and Geological Museum. There are other Harvard University Museums, including the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology. On a more educational bent, you can visit the Museum of Science including the Charles Hayden Planetarium and the Mugar Omni IMAX Theatre. The Children's Museum is outstanding for toddlers to 10 year olds and the Computer Museum is next door. The only zoos around are the Stone Zoo and the Franklin Park Zoo and neither is world class. However, the New England Aquarium has a huge 200,000 gallon seawater tank and some very entertaining seals. A little outside of Boston the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park is a local favorite for contemporary art and georgeous gardens overlooking a lake. Peabody Essex Museum. |
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| Theater | Boston hosts touring Broadway companies in two theaters. The Colonial Theatre is the oldest continually operating theater in Boston. The restored Wilbur Theatre serves as a home to world premieres and pre-Broadway and touring shows alike. The Charles Playhouse, home to fringe and "off-Broadway" theatre, has two stages. One currently shows Blue Man Group and the other has been showing Shear Madness since 1980. The Emerson Majestic Theatre built in 1903 hosts local non-profit music and theater companies and traveling productions. The Wang Center for the Performing Arts is host of really bigs shows such as opera, ballet and touring groups. It includes the Wang Theatre and the Shubert Theatre across the street. Boston has many local theater companies. The American Repertory Theatre at the Loeb Drama Center of Harvard University in Cambridge performs world premires and translations and adaptions of classics. The Huntington Theatre Company has been performing new plays and classics since 1981. The Lyric Stage produces classics to contemporary works. The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company performs for free in the summer on Boston Common and aspires to the heights of professional theatre. A bit further a field Jacob's Pillow performs during the summers west of Boston. Founded in 1978, Shakespeare & Company is a classical company, working on national and local levels. You can (try to) pick up half-price day-of-performance tickets at BosTix. Comedy Theater. Theater Mirror. Arts Boston. Seating Charts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Music |
Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Seiji Ozawa plays at
Symphony
Hall.
In the summer they play at
Tanglewood about 2.5 hours west
of Boston in Lenox, MA.
Boston Philharmonic is conducted by Benjamin Zander and plays Saturday
nights at the New England Conversatory's Jordan Hall and on Sunday
afternoons at Sanders Theatre.
Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Keith Lockhart plays light classical
and popular music at Symphony Hall from May to June. They also play
free concerts the Esplanade during the summer including the Fourth of
July.
Boston Lyric Opera.
Handel & Haydn Society
have played choral and orchestral concerts since 1814.
Boston is home to some of the premire music schools in the country. The New England Conservatory of Music presents over 600 concerts a year and is the only music school in America designated a National Historic Landmark. The Berklee College of Music contains the Berklee Performance Center a world class 1220 seat theater. Boston Academy of Music . |
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| Jazz | The two big Jazz venues are Regattabar and Scullers. Wally's Cafe is a little dive that gets a lot of Berklee College of Music students peforming good stuff. Other places include the Good Life on Mass Ave in Cambridge and one downtown. They have decent jazz in a laid back, loungy setting. You'll probably want to get there a little early (7-7:30) for the best seats. Jazz usually starts around 9pm. Les Zygomates has jazz almost every night in the Financial District If you want a restaurant that plays jazz in the background, go to Saffron, on Newbury St. Not only is the food outstanding and the staff superb, the music is almost always classic, straight-ahead jazz. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Movies | Most of the movie theaters in town are Loews. Outside of town you'll find the General Cinema and Showcase chains. You can find listings at: AOL DigitalCity, boston.com, and citysearch. There are at least four film festivals in Boston: the Boston Film Festival, the Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Boston Blues Festival, and the Nantucket Film Festival Local art theaters include the Brattle, the West Newton Cinema, the Coolidge Corner Theater and the Belmont Studio Cinema. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More | ShoppingPrudential Center, Cambridgeside Galleria, Natick Mall, Arsenal Mall, Burlington Mall, Atrium Mall, Chestnut Hill Mall, Copley Place, Hanover Mall, Liberty Tree Mall, Manchester Outlets, North Conway Outlets, South Shore Plaza, Silver City Galleria, Wrentham Village, Worcester Common OutletsMusic:Music SitesBoston Bands mp3.boston.com www.dlclive.com/247.html Dance:Boston Ballet Swing Dancing Info www.apastudios.com/harney.htm www.gottadance.org Theater:www.theatermirror.comwww.boston.com/artsboston Seating Charts
Fleet Boston Pavilion - Boston - entertainment complex and architectural landmark along Boston's waterfront. |
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| Radio |
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| Companies We Hate | If you have cable it's one of Comcast or RCN. All the banks in the area seem to merging into Fleet Bank. The other large (not community), banks are Sovereign Bank, Citizens Bank and US Trust. The bank fees are high so many are turning to credit unions. If you want a cell phone there's no obvious choice. The best coverage in the area (and the US) is Verizon which is on a CDMA network, but they have the least interesting phones. Sprint is also a CDMA provider but their coverage isn't as good. Verizon is also ahead of Sprint in rolling out 3G on CDMA2000 1xRTT. On the other side of the technology wars, the two older TDMA providers are AT&T and Cingular both of which are agressively switching to GSM networks which have more interesting cell phones. Cellular One and VoiceStream were adding 2.5G support via GPRS but didn't get too far. Now as Cingular and T-Mobile respectively they are going with 3G support via EDGE, though still AT&T is in the lead. For coverage info check out Dead Cell Zones. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||