Dear List -- Attention anybody who is considering being in the Boston/Providence area over the 4th of July weekend before the convention ... Anybody who loves crowds of gigantic proportions will not want to miss the 4th of July as it is celebrated in Boston. Go down to the Esplanade along the Charles River (take red line to Charles Street Station), watch the fireworks and listen to the Boston Pops. Another good vantage point is near the Community College station on the orange line. Other vantage points can be found near the Lechmere and Science Park stations on the green line and Kendall on the red line. I mention the subway lines because I don't recommend driving there. The traffic jams following the celebration have been known to take 4-5 hours to untangle. Subway stations that offer parking are Braintree and Alewife (red line), Oak Grove and Wellington (orange line). Other stations are listed as having parking, but sometimes the number of spaces is very limited. Hint: Bring a radio in case the crowds are too noisy for the music. The most comprehensive events listings in the regular daily papers can be found in the Thursday editions of the Boston Globe. There are other papers that offer events listings, but I don't know which ones are still active. Any and all newpapers you could hope to look at can be found just above the Harvard Square station (red line) at Out of Town News and at Nini's Corner across the street. For tourist info and how to get around, you might want to check out a booklet called Car-Free in Boston. More detailed tourist info can be found at the Visitors Center next to Boston Common, between Park Street (red and green lines) and Boylston stations (green line). Anybody wanting a sneak preview of Boston's transit system can look it up at <http://www.mbta.com>. Likewise, you can pick a train from Amtrak's offerings to get you between Boston and Providence at <http://www.amtrak.com> The Amtrak and the commuter rail trains come and go from South Station (red line). Hope this helps --- ZR! RPT Ann Arbor MI (originally from Boston) diskladame@provide.net
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