The Boston Traveler

This guest post is from Mary Jo Manzanares, b5media’s Travel & Culture Channel Editor and travel blogger at Flyaway Cafe.
I love college campuses, even though it’s been many years since I spent any time as a student on one.
I love the buildings, and the libraries, and the bookstores. I love checking out the architecture and the landscaping, and people watching, and buying a sweatshirt to wear so I can pretend that I am an alum.
On a rainy day last summer, I had a layover in Boston with my best friend, Anita. She and I took a couple of hours and …read more

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Today’s guest post is from Mary Jo Manzanares, b5media’s Travel & Culture Channel Editor and travel blogger at Flyaway Cafe.
Have you noticed how the nights are getting just a little bit cooler? And in the mornings, there’s starting to be a little crispness in the air.
When the weather gets like this, I start thinking about the fall foliage, and how beautiful nature can be this time of year.
Word is that this year’s foliage New England foliage should be spectacular. The warm days and cool evenings are perfect conditions for dramatic color and foliage.
If you’re interested in planning a driving tour …read more

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If you plan to travel to Boston this winter or already live in the area, do yourself a huge favor and make sure to protect yourself against seasonal influenza, also known as simply the flu. The flu season is hitting the Bay State, in addition to ten others [PDF], particularly hard this year, resulting in a noticeable increase in the number of confirmed cases of the illness.
People who should follow extra stringent measures to avoid getting seasonal influenza belong to one of four high-risk groups:

Anyone with a chronic medical condition, whether a child or adult
Women who are pregnant
Adults aged …read more

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Officials at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency announced a bit of a change for area residents and visitors on Tuesday. In cooperation with the Council of Massachusetts United Ways, the organization has started operating a new emergency telephone number, namely 211.
One major point of the service is to decrease the number of non-emergency calls to the traditional emergency number 911. As a result of the new distinction, individuals who have inquiries about disaster, health, and human services issues can now get assistance from 211 operators between 8am and 8pm on weekdays. The service is also capable of …read more

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Last Saturday in the post “Happy Birthday, Charlie!,” I wrote about the first birthday of Boston’s CharlieCard transit payment system. The innovative “smart card” contains an electronic chip that allows passengers to preload money and then tap their payment when boarding public transportation instead of swiping or inserting it. If a passenger has mastered the tapping routine, the newer process can speed boarding times substantially (and if they haven’t, settle in for a brain-numbing wait while they and their ten — it’s always ten, minimum — clueless companions each attempt to learn on the fly).
Anyway… While …read more

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I knew it!
The results of a recent study titled Footloose and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas confirmed what I’ve suspected for quite some time: Boston is one of the best locations in the United States to live if you enjoy walking. The city placed second in the Walkable Urbanism report, behind only Washington, DC.
I first realized how easy it is to get around Boston by foot when I decided to take an off-campus job downtown during graduate school. The position would allow me to earn more money …read more

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