greatest sports town (even better than louisville)

last month i spent half a week in boston and had a great time. the fact that it was unseasonably warm greatly contributed to my enjoyment. i have a lot of great memories of my two years there and made some great, great friendships that i think will be lifelong. i also got to hang out with mpg a lot...he's probably the cousin to which i am closest (and i'm very close to a lot of my cousins).

click here for the pics from boston

click here for my tour of the good old h.

click here for my morning in beacon hill (esp. good if you like black & white photos).

for my money, boston is arguably the greatest sports town in the country. die-hard fans (such a contrast with atlanta, where braves play-off games don't even sell out turner field) everywhere and such an appreciation for each team's legacy. knowing your history is so important and helps you appreciate wherever you are--your city, your school, your sports team, whatever. in college i ran our school's tour guide program and i think it was a big reason i loved emory so much. when i walk through the quad, i'd look at each building and think about its namesake, or why a certain bench was positioned here, or who a particular tree planting honored.

boston fans know their players going back to the turn of the century. i bet more than 50% of the folks at a braves game don't even know that the braves used to be in milwaukee. i bet less than 10% know that the braves started in boston! how many could even tell you who played for the braves in all three cities (eddie mathews)?!?!?

mpg and i hit a bar that has the greatest boston sport moments painted on its ceiling. here's a sweet shot:

top right corner: sox win the series in '04; bottom right corner: bobby orr

i think this shot from the stadium sums up one more reason why boston is a great sports town: the celtics. eight straight nba championships from 1959 to '66, and ten total from 1957 to '69.

count 'em

i also got to see the bruins kick some ass saturday night and see the "next one" play. if crosby turns out to be the next gretsky, i'll be able to tell my kids that i saw him.

of course, no hockey game is complete without a good fight:



i also got to hit my favorite breakfast joint in the world: the paramount. nestled in the historic beacon hill neighborhood, it makes getting up early to stand in line worth it. mpg lives in beacon hill, which makes it a lot more convenient, esp. when i'm staying with him.

slimy shady and number one blog fan were nice enough to meet me there (well, as it turns out, slim shady lives in the neighborhood now, too). so we had 3/4's of the study group together. i always have a great time with this crew. wish that our fourth musketeer was there with us, but alas, london beckoned him home.

after breakfast the girls did some window shopping. which was, err, fun. some highlights:

nobf likes rules

slim shady and nobf window shopping. i haven't figured out what's fun about looking through windows. but i did have a good time walking around beacon hill with them.

in beacon hill, even the 7-11 is quaint and lacks the usual neon barrage

the real reason that jayne is smiling is because she's window shopping. not one of mpg's favorite activities

if we end up in boston again, i like to dream that we'll live in a garden courtyard townhouse like this one. more likely we'll be in a 1 BR 4th floor walk up in allston.