Boston has all the excitement of a big city without being too big. It is walkable and has a simple and convenient subway system, making it very accessible for tourists.

Boston is a wonderful place to visit in the summer. Visitors can walk along the Freedom Trail, a red line running through the heart of the city that takes tourists past many historic locations in America's early founding, such as the site of the Boston Massacre, the USS Constitution, Paul Revere's house, and the Old North Church where Paul Revere saw the lanterns that warned of British invasion. Along the Freedom Trail is also the historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace, filled with street performers and outdoor vendors during the nice summer days. Many other markets, squares, and streets in Boston are famous for being popular places to stroll and shop.

Boston is a multicultural city. In Harvard Square you can buy newspapers from around the world or visit Schoenhof's foreign bookstore. Subway ads in Chinese, Haitian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese are frequent. There's of course Chinatown. And a stroll down Harvard Street in Brookline will turn up Hebrew shopsigns. And there's the North End, an old Italian district, whose narrow and windy streets make you feel like you're stepping into Europe when you enter. The North End is famous for its pastry shops and restaurants, and you can still hear Italian spoken on the streets. And of course there's no lack of Irish pubs in Boston. At The Burren, you can hear authentic Irish music every night of the week while being served by real Irish waitresses. If you're looking for food, you never have to walk far to find an ethnic restaurant, whether it's Brazilian, Indian, Jamaican, Japanese, Tibetan, Thai, or Vietnamese.

Boston is teeming with fine arts. With an assortment of art museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, and an endless supply of private galleries lining Newbury Street, the art-lover will find himself in heaven. For music lovers, there's the Boston Symphony Orchestra which will be performing during the Independence Day festivities.

Boston is home to over 200 colleges and universities, making it both an academic center and hopping with young nightlife. The campuses of Harvard and MIT are available for tours. And as for the nightlife, the area is packed with small clubs and coffee shops where all kinds of music from jazz to rock to punk, and even poetry, can be heard most nights of the week.

For shopping, there's everything from the big downtown department stores to the unique one-of stores that sell things you can only find in the city. In the Downtown Crossing shopping district, there's Filene's and its famous discount basement store appropriately named Filene's Basement. The basement is a real mad house crowded with people looking for good bargains. Make sure not to visit during a sale or you could lose an arm! Boston is also home to an incredible variety of music and book stores, particularly used music and book stores which are some of the best in the country!

And the baseball fan will want to stop at the famous Fenway Park where the Boston Red Sox play.

So make plans now to join us for the 51st ELNA Convention in Boston!

For more information on Boston, visit http://www.cityofboston.gov.

For more information on Cambridge, visit http://www.ci.cambridge.ma.us.

For more visitor information about Boston, see http://www.bostonusa.com/visitor/visitor.php.

For more visitor information about Massachusetts, see http://www.masstraveljournal.com.