Boston Strong

Tomorrow is Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts, Maine and Wisconsin- a day also known as Marathon Monday in Boston. As many will recall, Marathon Monday 2013 was marred by a pair of improvised explosive devices that were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in the early afternoon, including one that was placed just in front of the building in this photograph, One Exeter Plaza (sometimes nicknamed the “Darth Vader Building”).

I went to school in Boston for four years and consider it my second home, second only to the city I grew up. While I wasn’t in the city during the bombing last year, I was certainly with everyone there in spirit, particularly during the city-wide lockdown the following Friday as the search for one of the primary suspects took place.

Several months later, the Boston Red Sox won the 2013 World Series and I drove up to celebrate the victory with the Red Sox Nation as the team and the front office drove through the winding streets in the now-traditional celebratory DUKW Boat Parade. I set up my spot not too far from the finish line location and made a special trip over to Ground Zero of the bombings only to find Old Glory hanging in a window overlooking the marathon’s finish line as One Exeter Plaza undergoes a ground floor renovation.
Boston Strong.