Cheers to Boston

(From Penny)

Boston is a great city! This is the view from my room at the Sheraton. I highly recommend it for your Boston trip. It is close to the park and walking distance to many restaurants, bars, and the most famous (arguably) bar of all: Cheers.

The walk up Beacon Hill is beautiful!

And, of course, you should take a walk along the Freedom Trail.

Randy found this great little bar/restaurant, McGreevey's, (named after "Nuf Ced" McGreevy) close to the Sheraton that has a Boston baseball museum. There are tons of pictures and memorabilia to look at. (They also have vegetarian entrees to choose from.) We liked it so much we went back the second day for lunch. It was started by the Dropkick Murphys' (Tessie) lead singer, Ken Casey. If you aren't familiar with the song, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR4tTQVjHUI
I'm pretty sure it didn't sound like this in 1903 when the Boston Rooters went to Pittsburgh.

If you are going to Fenway, go really early. I can't stress this enough! The crowds two hours before the game are unbelievable. There is such a small space to pack everyone in, the bars and restaurants fill up early. It probably doesn't help that they don't open the gates until 90 minutes before the game. We absolutely couldn't get in anywhere, and we were there two hours early.

Yawkey Way is a carnival atmosphere. Don't worry if you hadn't picked up your souvenirs, there are shops everywhere!

You may remember, I wasn't a huge fan of Wrigley. I had a great time there, but to me the park was just old! Of course it is old, the oldest active park in the country. So, my thoughts before heading to Fenway were to expect about the same. Yes, Fenway was old. Yes, there is a lot of history, and I enjoyed that aspect. As far as a park I would want to return to, not so much. The seats are tiny and our seats in the bleachers did not allow me to see the scoreboard, which was behind us. There is plenty of food. which is a good thing since you would have to go to the restaurants three or four hours before the game to get in. I recommend the kettle corn. My friend, Kathy, who went with us enjoyed the fried dough.

The retired Red Sox numbers are attached to the wall right of the scoreboard. They are Ted Williams (#9), Joe Cronin (#4), Bobby Doerr (#1), Carlton Fisk (#27), Johnny Pesky (#6), Jim Rice (#14) and the universally retired Jackie Robinson (#42).

I didn't take a picture, because we were not at a good angle to get a decent shot and it was just too tight and cramped to really move around to get one.

 You know I've been keeping score, and I had a good scoring lesson at Fenway. The Blue Jays scored nine runs in one inning, so I learned what to do when there are 14 batters in one inning!

This statue is outside the ballpark. This is a terrible picture because I was using my phone to take pics. There are several statues outside including one honoring Cy Young.

Kathy and I (Randy flew back a day before us) decided we really wanted to go to the Cask and Flagon, so the next night we walked back to the park, figuring everyone would be inside the game. We were right. We sat at this table where we could see the park and hear the noises from inside. They had good food, and we enjoyed sitting outside and taking in the atmosphere. I actually enjoyed the area much better without the huge crowds.

Thumbs up
Atmosphere outside the park
History of the park
Help inside the park
Randy's excitement at being at Fenway! He was like a kid in a candy store!

Thumbs down
The Monster- why in the world did they put all those ads on it???
Mascot - I don't even remember seeing one
Crowd enthusiasm - a 14-1 loss to the Blue Jays had to be a factor here, but they did enthusiastically sing Take me out to the Ballgame and Sweet Caroline, after which most of the crowd left.
Tight space for a lot of people
Music/entertainment- we did see a proposal which everyone seemed to enjoy, though I guess that really doesn't count as entertainment!
Still waiting for a free program :)

We couldn't leave Boston without trying Boston Cream Pie. It was a sweet ending to a great trip!