Boston Feature

Be a Sport

Locals mark off the seasons by checking the sports lineup. The "Boys of Summer" arrive each spring, and the Bruins come out of hibernation in the fall. However, fans here can get a sports fix any time of year.

When the Red Sox play at home, being a Boston resident means braving the throngs along Yawkee Way, downing a Fenway Frank, and bellowing out "Sweet Caroline" during the seventh inning stretch. Sweet indeed.

Next stop, TD Garden (aka the "Gah-din"). Even if you can't score tickets to watch the Bruins or Celtics, you can see their arena via the Sports Museum. Come early on game day and you might catch players warming up.

Football fans get a kick out of Gillette Stadium in suburban Foxborough. It is home turf for the Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots and site of an entertainment complex that houses their high-tech Hall of Fame.

Book It to the Library

Think libraries are boring? Proper Bostonians will beg to differ. Once renowned as a hotbed of writers, the city remains a haven for readers. The continuing popularity of these institutions is a case in point.

Little wonder bookworms adore the Boston Public Library, just as Ralph Waldo Emerson and his literary buddies did in the 1800s. The building is beautiful, the collection is vast, and there is no charge to browse.

The Mary Baker Eddy Library isn't merely full of books. It includes the Mapparium (a mammoth walk-in glass globe, the interior of which is spanned by a 30-foot bridge) plus a virtual fountain that spews famous quotations.

Even in an age of political cynicism, folks cherish the memory of JFK. So the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Dorchester feels like hallowed ground. Memorabilia and multimedia displays chronicle his term.

Join the Festivities

The Brits who founded Boston get a lot of attention. Yet they were only the first of many immigrant groups who helped shape this city. Locals applaud the others' colorful legacy through equally colorful celebrations.

Irish eyes are always smiling on the Sunday closest to March 17. That's when the St. Patrick's Day Parade passes through Southie, proving in the process that all the Boston Celtics are not basketball players.

In America's third-largest Chinatown, dragon parades and firecrackers mark Chinese New Year, while the August Moon Festival features lion dancing, lanterns, and mooncakes. Events center on Gateway Arch.

Each summer the North End hosts fun Weekend Street Fests, honoring Italy's various patron saints with processions, boisterous music, and fab food that runs the gamut from cannoli to cutting-edge pasta creations.