Wow, I don't even know where to begin to describe our Thursday in Boston. It was an amazing day. The morning slipped by pretty quickly and we really didn't get rolling until 11:00 or so, but it's vacation. Right? To start the day off we dined at Brassiere Jo. It is in the lobby of our hotel the Colonnade. I think that it is the first time I've ever eaten at a French restaurant. The omelet I ate was as big as my head, I couldn't even finish it. I felt bad that I didn't have my yellow and black checkered slip-on Vans because the guys at ODJFS used to tease me and my 'stache about being a French Taxi driver when I'd wear them on casual Friday.
When we finished lunch we hit the street. One of the nice things about the hotel is that it is close to everything that we wanted to do in Boston. It was a short walk to the ball park. The girls and I arrived at 12:45 so we could go on the Fenway Park tour. There were no tickets available to the 1:00 tour so we got tickets to the 2:00. The Red Sox offer tours of the ballpark every hour between 9:00 and 4:00. This gave us time to mosey around outside for a little bit and visit the gift shop before hand. I wonder if they do that on purpose (the gift shop is where the tour originates).
The 2:00 group was so large that we had to be split up between two tour guides. Our tour guide Steve navigated us into the park and up on to the sun deck in the right field. There we all had our photos taken by Red Sox staff photographers and learned a little bit about the history of the park. From there, we went back inside and went past all of the luxury suites and press box. The hallways are lined with memorabilia. Every style of uniform since the club's inception, the hall of fame plaque wall, commemorations of all of the Cy Young winners, every cover of Sports Illustrated that's ever had a member of the Red Sox on it, and my personal favorite. The foul pole from game six of the 1975 World Series. The one where Carlton Fisk waves the home run ball fair as he's trotting down to first base. They don't talk about game 7 of the 1975 World Series in Boston, but I felt that it was my duty as a Cincinnati Reds fan to remind the tour who won game 7. From there, we went and sat in the seats on "The Green Monster" and after that we went to the grandstand section behind home plate. Those seats are the oldest in use in major league baseball. They were installed in the 1930s during the first renovation of Fenway Park. They are wooden seats and are not, shall we say, suited for the average modern American. The Red Sox can't replace them due to modern fire code regulations because they'd lose about 6000 seats and they're already the second smallest seating capacity in the Major Leagues with under 39,000 seats.
When the tour had concluded we walked over to the park where there are bronze statues commemorating the Caldecott Award winning children's book "Make Way for Ducklings." It was a pleasant walk through the park and the girls had their pictures taken with the ducks. It a big photo opp and was a beautiful day so there were lots of people waiting to take photos. Afterwards, we walked through Chinatown so that Miranda could experience that. She picked up a couple of souvenirs. We then got on the subway to go back to the hotel. The girls when up to the Colonnade's rooftop pool, while I took a quick nap. Before we knew it, 6:00 rolled around and it was time to leave the hotel and go to the ball park again for the Red Sox vs. Rangers game.
There were throngs of people making there way to the game, it was tough not to get separated. It got even worse once we made it onto Yawkey Way. That is the coolest sporting atmosphere I've ever been immersed in. It's all foot traffic and it's wall to wall people who are super hyped to go see the Red Sox play. We made it to the ticket window at Gate A got our tickets, and proceeded to our seats. The truly amazing thing about Fenway park is how crammed with people it was on a routine Thursday night game. It's a shame that other major league cities don't get the fan support at the games that the Red Sox get. The game itself ended up being not very eventful after the Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield gave up six runs in the top half of the first. Just being at Fenway was awesome enough and it was truly an experience being a Red Sox fan for a day.
In the middle of the fifth inning on the center field John Hancock scoreboard, there was a huge greeting that read "The Red Sox welcome Rob Behler." We were so busy enjoying the sites and sounds that we weren't quick enough on the draw to get a picture. During the top of the ninth, a representative of the Red Sox organization came to our seats and presented us with a photograph of the scoreboard. I was absolutely stunned. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been a victory for the Sox.
After the game we made our way back to the hotel anxious to share all of the photos on Facebook and then crashed because we were exhausted. There are a couple of things in Boston that we didn't get to do, but I think we could spend weeks here and not do everything. I'm looking forward to New York city today and getting to visit my dear friend Anthony Fischetti!
