My love of Boston started when I first visited in 1996. I was on a trip to see two divinity schools, Harvard and Yale.
At age 24, I traveled alone to see the two schools; an adventure that would shape my life. I took a huge suitcase, carrying more clothes than I could wear in a short week. In my time in Boston, I walked the Freedom Trail, I ate cannolis at Mike’s pastries, and I felt a sense of history, that I’d not ever experienced in either Minnesota or California.
Boston is a city that reminds me of my San Francisco. A city on water, a city with gorgeous brick, a history shaped out of a drive for freedom, and a city with amazingly authentic people.
This last week, like so many across the country, my heart ached for Boston. I can’t imagine the fear that the marathon bombing created. And then as the events in Watertown unfolded on Thursday evening, I was glued to Twitter. To a news feed from Boston, and I prayed that the innocent people, the law enforcement, that they would remain safe.
This weekend I found myself wanting to relive the good memories, to remember the happy and amazing place that Boston is and was. Sean and I went back to Boston three years ago, and here are a few of those pictures.
We arrived at South Station from New Haven:
We went to see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park:
We hoofed it all over town and followed Boston’s Freedom Trail:
I love this area in downtown Boston on the Freedom Trail. We hid in the Einstein’s Bagels to avoid a rain storm. 
I stopped by the site of the old Filene’s Basement, and recalled shopping there with my mom several years prior. 
It was amazing to see the demolition of the Filene’s building:
We spent some time at the East Coast Holocaust Memorial in Boston, which was near our hotel. It was especially moving and haunting at night, when it was lit from below, with steam bellowing from underneath. In the daylight we saw it was covered in stones and flowers.
Today I send my prayers for Boston, that they may witness great healing, that the people retain their loving and strong spirit, that the know and can feel that an entire nation is standing in solidarity with them. And that a great peace come over those who were effected by last week’s bombings and acts of terror.