I leave for Boston early Saturday for a meeting of a professional law group I belong to, the Inner Circle of Advocates. So, it seems appropriate to share some information about the city and state. The city of Boston is also known as "Beantown" or "The Hub." It’s population is nearly 600,000 people. It is the largest city in Massachusetts and New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut), and the capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts, like Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, is called a "Commonwealth". Commonwealths are states, but the reverse is not true. Legally, Massachusetts is a commonwealth because the term is contained in the Constitution.

Did you know that the Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane? Or how about the fact that the first lighthouse in America was at Boston on Little Brewster Island (1716). The original tower was destroyed by the British and eventually reconstructed in 1784. Today, all of the lighthouses in the U.S. have been automated except this one. The state takes its name from the Massachusetts tribe of Native Americans, who lived in the Great Blue Hill region, south of Boston. The Indian term supposedly means "at or about the Great Hill".

We all know the significant role in American history this state has played. The Pilgrims, looking for religious freedom founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. Massachusetts was a leader in resisting the British. It was in 1773 the Boston Tea Party took place. It was at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 the Minute Men battled the British troops in the start of the revolutionary war.

I’ll post a travel report later.