Boston, Massachusetts

Photo credit: Corbis

Bostonians are feeling good. They have lots of pretty things to admire, both old and new: World Series rings. Super Bowl trophies (three in 4 years). A picturesque river and a rejuvenated harbor. College campuses that incorporate buildings of all ages and styles, from colonial-era to Frank Gehry's latest brainstorm. A reconfigured interstate that passes over a landmark bridge. Acres of real estate that used to be trapped under a hideous highway.

In years to come, a footnote to the year 2004 will be the completion of the Big Dig, a highway-construction project that moved Interstate 93 into a new tunnel system and demolished the elevated expressway that used to blight downtown. It took 15 years and cost $14.6 billion, and it's a footnote? Well, yes -- 2004 was the year the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1918.

Footnote or no, the new highway runs beneath a modern metropolis that's also a relentlessly historic destination. An ongoing building boom may overshadow the famous 18th- and 19th-century architecture, but even rampant development can't change the colonial character of the central city.

It's not perfect, of course. Nightmarish traffic, daredevil drivers, and grating accents don't help any city's reputation. Although Boston is the biggest college town in the world, it doesn't have much of a late-night scene. And far from gone is the inferiority complex epitomized by the description "like New York, but smaller." Still, as it has for over 375 years, Boston offers cosmopolitan sophistication on a comfortable scale, balancing celebration of the past with pursuit of the future.

Here's hoping your experience is memorable and delightful.

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