Boston

From April through October (hopefully) I have the Boston Red Sox games on the TV when I'm not out in the yard.  I became afflicted with loving the Red Sox when I was a child through what now seems like a fluke, a random twist of fate.

Boston is a city that reflects its history
and progress at the same time.

My grandmother bought me a bat for my birthday and on the barrel of that bat was a copy of the Red Sox's left fielder's signature, Jim Rice.  I used to take that bat up to the plate with me in our backyard baseball games and I was, on those endless summer days, Jim Rice in a little boy's body.

I loved the Red Sox the way only a boy can love something.  With my whole heart, with hope, with expectation.  And for years the Red Sox found new ways to disappoint me.  

But that all changed in 2004 when they finally broke the curse of the Bambino and won a World Series.  Years of bitterness, heartache, and feeling like life was unfair had been washed away for me and for millions of Red Sox fans like me.  The last 10 years or so have been great for New England sports fans.  Just yesterday the Red Sox continued their surprisingly good start to this baseball season with a walk-off hit.  Fans left Fenway Park in a great mood.  Meanwhile, the rest of the city was celebrating Patriot's Day and the running of the Boston marathon.  It was a joyous day. For a while.  

I have never lived in Boston.  I don't have family there either.  But I do have friends there.  I have vacationed there.  I have raised a mug of beer with strangers there.  I have high-fived eight-year-old kids and octogenarians there.  I have walked the Freedom Trail, watched the boats out in the Bay, and touched the dirt of the warning track in Fenway Park.  Without forgetting the tragedy that happened yesterday, these are the things about Boston that I will choose to remember.  The people of that quintessential American city are in my thoughts and prayers.  May they find peace and comfort in these dark times.

These are some of the pictures I took while vacationing in Boston in September of 2012.   

There are gardens everywhere in the city.  Unfortunately, most of my pictures were taken at night.

This front entrance was regal.

This door in an alleyway captured my imagination.

Mecca for a Red Sox fan - on top of the Green Monster in left field.

Singing of the national anthem.  God bless America and God bless Boston.