I Love Boston!

This week the Debs are going local and sharing five things about the city they call home. 

I moved to Boston twenty years ago from Seattle, a city that I truly loved. I thought I would live in Boston for a couple of years then go back, but well, life had other plans for me. It turned out that I love this city. A lot.

Here are five things that I love about this place that tourists call Beantown (but none of the locals do).

1. Boston’s writing community:
   
   I love GrubStreet SO much. It is through this amazing place that I began writing my book, met my writing group, met my agent and my tribe.
2. ICE CREAM
   
   New England states consume more ice cream than any other part of the country which is awesome on a bunch of levels, especially for an ice cream freak like me. My favorites are Toscanini and Kimball Farms. YUM. And while the location (in a mall) is really sucky, Morano has the best gelato…the closest we have had to the awesome gelato in Italy.
3. The Boston Skyline…both ocean and riverside. 
   Boston is just a gorgeous city. The river that runs through it is beautiful (and even more so now that they’ve really cleaned up the trail along Memorial Drive). The views from the ocean are beautiful. We have the Boston Harbor Islands to make it even more gorgeous, and at night we have the Zakim Bridge and the Citgo sign to brighten up the night. I will never tire of the view here.
4. The history
   
   There is SO much of it! From the Freedom Trail to the oldest naval ship still in commission, The Constitution, to Paul Revere’s House, to the glory that is Concord, MA, to Harvard Yard, to Longfellow’s House and to walking through burial grounds and seeing where John Hancock and Sam Adams are buried…New England, and Boston in particular, is jam-packed with history.
5. Because we are wicked smaht.
   
   
   Not only do we boast some of the best universities in the country, and in the world, but we have insane biotech, an incredible literary community, fantastic art museums and a whole lot more for anyone looking for a bit of intelligentsia and culture in their lives.
6. Because I can’t not mention THE RED SOX at Fenway!

When this post goes live, I won’t actually be in Boston, but in NYC, where I will have just talked at the Queens Book Festival. I’ll be packing up my suitcase and readying myself for the train ride home, along the beautiful CT, RI and MA coastline. And while I really love New York, it will be good to be back in Boston once again. It’s always good to come home.