I slept for a little bit, but it was really horrible sleep. I decided to stay up with about an hour left on our flight to Boston. I had a hard time getting comfortable and kept adjusting my pillow. I knew I was going to be super tired, and we had a long day ahead of us in another time zone. It was fun to see the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean as we got to our destination.
We descended onto the runway, and I told Mom that it seemed like we just left here just a few months ago when we thought we weren't going to make our flight back home. This time, we actually get to explore Boston, a place that's been on my list for many years. I was so excited to get our adventure started!
We grabbed our stuff, got off the plane and made our way to the luggage carousel. We grabbed our luggage, used the restroom and tried really hard to find out how to get to the virtual cache, Logan Airport's 9/11 Memorial (GC7B93X). You could find all the answers on the internet except for one and I tried so hard to find it. I found out it was impossible, and you actually had to visit the place to actually get that last piece to log it. I underestimated how hard it was to navigate to the virtual cache from our concourse.
After asking a person in the parking garage and a lot of wrong turns, we finally found the memorial I was looking for. It seemed like it took forever to get there too. The silver lining was that we got some exercise in after sitting on the plane for 5+ hours and we got our first Massachusetts cache! My 26th state geocached! I am over halfway there!
We answered the questions, took a few pictures and took some time to remember everyone and everything that happened that day. By the time I was done with this trip, I would have been to every airport that was involved that day, Ground Zero, near the Pentagon, the United 93 crash site and several 9/11 Memorials throughout the United States.
Now we had to figure out how to get back to a concourse so we could get on the silver line (I thought it was a subway line, but it is a bus line) to be bussed to the subway. We stood outside for a little bit and a bus finally came by to take us to the South Station, where you can connect with the subway and the other bus systems. This service is free, which was nice, and the ride was somewhat quick. We were tired.
We got to the South Station, grabbed our luggage, got off and found a map to see where we needed to go. We saw we needed to get onto the red line to make our way northwest to our hotel in Cambridge near MIT. We were a little weirded out we didn't have to purchase a card, ticket or a pass, but we thought we would have to once we got back onto the subway to our next adventure.
We got up to street level and thought our hotel was right there. We tried to check in and the lady said she didn't have any reservations with that name in her computer. She said that our hotel was probably the other one a block and a half north of the hotel we were currently standing in. We wheeled our bags to the correct hotel and checked in. Mom got our key cards, and we headed up to room 508. We went inside and it was very roomy with plenty of places to sleep. We dropped of our stuff, got a little organized and walked back down to the subway.
This time we had to purchase our Charlie Card to continue riding the subway system while we were here. We got onto the red line to head to downtown because we had a donut tour through Underground Donuts to get to by 10 a.m. This was going to be a long day and I was hungry since we hadn't eaten since we were at SeaTac. These donuts better be good.
We got off at Downtown Crossing and I tried to figure out a quick way to get to Oliver St. We were late and we were even later when we turned left instead of right. We called our guide, to tell her we were on our way and that we went down the wrong side of the road. She said it was okay and that they will wait for us. We hurried.
We finally got to the meeting spot at Kane's and there were four ladies including our tour guide waiting for us. Three women from Wisconsin (one of them lived in Boston) and a lady from Ohio whose husband was in town for business, and she needed something to occupy her time. Our guide's name was Sabrina. We chatted, got to know each other and Sabrina told us what to expect on our tour...history and donuts.
At Kane's we ate our first donut, an award-winning honey dipped curler. It was probably the best donut I had on the tour after everything was said and done. Sabrina told us that we would be consuming roughly two and a half donuts when we were finished on the tour. We walked up the street towards the harbor while listening to her talk about the history of the donut and the harbor. Donuts were actually created in Quincy, Massachusetts, roughly 12 miles south of where we were standing, because they were easy to make and could produce mass quantities of them for the military. As for the history of the harbor, we learned that a lot of it was filled in to build the city that we see today.
We moved on to the next section of town, along the Freedom Trail, Faneuil Hall, and the oldest bar, The Bell in Hand Tavern, while Sabrina shared tidbits here and there. Mom and I did the Cradle of Liberty (GC9P4P7) virtual cache while we listened to our history lesson. She walked us over to the Boston Market for our next three donuts. I was excited to see what kind they would be.
We walked through the Boston Market, some purchased coffee, some used the restroom (while we were near a restroom), and others just followed Sabrina. She took us to the Red Apple Farm stand, and we got to see the donuts being made on the conveyor belt. This donut shop was famously known for their apple cider and apple cider cinnamon donuts. Sabrina picked up a box of donuts and a container of apple cider from them. She told us to follow her outside so we could sit together as a group at the picnic tables.
She handed us each a glass of cider if we wanted one and an apple cider cinnamon donut--right out of the fryer so they were still warm. Both were delicious. There were a couple extras, so I had another one. She went inside to grab our second box from the Union Square shop. This time they were maple bacon and pumpkin spice. I did not partake in the pumpkin spice.
We chatted with the group of women who were on the tour with us while we ate donuts and drank cider. We talked about our hometowns, what we did for a living, sports, what we were going to do while we were on vacation, some of the places we've been on vacation and where we would like to go someday. It was a fun conversation.
Mike's Pastries was the last stop on our donut tour. It was located in the North End part of town, where a lot of Italian American culture was apparent. There were many Italian restaurants, businesses and flags waving their Italian heritage with pride. Sabrina told us that our final donut was the most famous, the Boston Cream Pie donut. I was not a huge fan of custard filled donuts or cream filled donuts for that matter, but we were on vacation, in a new city and that I should at least try it.
She walked us down the street to Polcari Park so we could sit, eat and visit. This was also the end of the tour. She said she brings everyone here when she takes people on tours. This time, since it was a weekday, the children attending the school nearby were on recess. We had to dodge basketballs and children for about fifteen minutes. I ate my Boston Cream Pie donut, we chatted with our group of ladies and Sabrina told us a little bit more about Underground Donut Tour, thanked us for attending, handed each of us a gift and we took a group photo. We thanked Sabrina for a good time!
We sat there for a few minutes to decide what we wanted to do next. I asked if we could go back towards Faneuil Hall and that shopping area to waste some time before we had to hop onto the subway to do our next tour. Mom and Rhonda said sure, and we walked back over towards that area. We took a bunch of pictures, went into a few stores to browse and get ideas of what we wanted to bring home for everyone and went into the Hall. We really couldn't purchase anything right away because we had the Fenway Park Tour and couldn't have bags with us. We knew we would have some time later and the next day to do some shopping.
I looked at the time again and told Mom and Rhonda that we better start headed over to the subway just to allow ourselves some extra time just in case we got turned around or did the subway wrong. I saw we needed to be on the green line and get off at the Kenmore stop. We walked down the stairs, onto the correct platform and our train arrived a few minutes later. We hopped on and a few stops later we were almost to Fenway Park. I was getting excited!
We got off the subway and followed the stairs up to ground level. We saw the Fenway Park art plastered all over the subway interior. We reached the sidewalk and had no idea where to go. There weren't any signs that pointed you in the correct direction. We definitely got turned around. We finally asked someone, figured it out and walked over I-90 on the bridge and over to the street we were supposed to check in on. I could not believe I was finally here. It is not how I imagined it because it is so different on television than in real life. I had no idea it was that close to I-90. It was so weird seeing the different landmarks, bars and streets that I've seen on movies, ESPN and in articles. As a sports fan this was a dream come true. It's too bad it was the wrong time of year, and we couldn't go watch an actual game inside Fenway Park. Maybe another time.
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We checked in with the ticket people, got physical tickets because Mom's phone died, and she didn't send me the new tour time (we had changed our tour time to 3 p.m. because we knew we wouldn't be able to make it at the original 9 a.m. time) and we went inside the team store to wait for our tour to begin. I looked over some stuff to see what I wanted to take home after our tour was done.
Our tour guide Dave, let us know what we were going to do and walked to one of the entrances to Fenway Park. We went through security, he introduced himself, told us the rules and had us follow him. Right away, one thing I wasn't a big fan of was the size of the crowd. There were way too many people for a tour like this one. There had to be at least 50-75 people on this tour. It was hard to maneuver around to all the hotspots Dave took us too. I had to be patient.
We went inside and I was in awe as the field and Green Monster came into view. I could not believe I was inside Fenway Park! Part of the experience of most tours is that you could purchase group pictures at the end of the tour. We got ours taken but chose not to buy when we got to that point. Dave rattled off tons of information, some of it I knew and some of it I didn't know. It would have been awesome to go out on the field and into the dugouts but that, unfortunately, wasn't a part of this tour. We did walk past home plate in the stands and sat in the section of the original 1912 seats while he told us more of the history.
Fenway Park is a registered historical place and the oldest ballpark still in existence in the United States, which means, if the Red Sox ceased to exist, Fenway Park would still be there. Wrigley Field in Chicago is the next oldest ballpark still being used today. Obviously, over the years they have renovated and added seats and levels to the field as the population and popularity of baseball grew. They had to keep up with the times. It was amazing to me how much history happened at Fenway. Oh, what it has seen over the decades.
Our next stop was the visitor's club house. We followed Dave into the club house, and it was pretty cool to see where the visiting team got ready before the game. Thousands of players have been in this locker room over the many decades. Every single athlete that's dressed for the Mariner's has been in this room. Of course, Dave had to tell us which locker Derek Jeter used when the Yankee's came into town.
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We moved over to the Green Monster seats. I made sure to be one of the first ones down so I could see the view of the field from the Green Monster. I also leaned over and touched the face of the Green Monster. I went full on sport geek mode.
It was so awesome it's so hard to explain through words. Dave rambled off some information on the Green Monster as everyone had a chance to sit in the highly coveted seats. We moved onto the next section, the press box.
We followed Dave up the stairs to the press box. I've always wondered what kind of vantage point the press had and how much room they had to do their work during a game. It was so fascinating being up there. There were several photographs of huge historical baseball moments, articles and other memorabilia to look at while we shuffled through.
We went back outside and learned about Pesky Pole, the lone red seat in right field and some other random Red Sox and Fenway Park trivia. He said the tour was officially done and he would be available for questions while we got some more pictures in of us at the Sam Adams deck in right field. I just stood there taking it all in just in case I was not able to come back for a game.
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We exited through another room full of memorabilia and a chance to purchase our professional picture we took earlier. Again, we decided not to.
We left Fenway and I immediately went to the statue outside the stadium that I needed to do for a virtual cache I had on my list. I found the correct statue and got my selfie with The Kid at Fenway Park (GC9P7XX).
I also did part of the Adventure Lab that was nearby. I couldn't finish it because we had to go into the team store before it closed. We had about a half hour to browse and purchase what we wanted so we hustled. I ended up with a sweatshirt, a magnet and a postcard.
I took a couple more pictures of the stadium as we walked back over I-90 and to the subway. We got back on the green line, got off at Park Ave and then went to the red line platform to back to Cambridge and the hotel to meet with Mindy at 5. We were a smidge late, but it was alright. This was my first-time meeting Mindy in person, and she was hilarious and full of energy. We went up to the room to get more settled in and called Amy to see how she was doing. She told us she wasn't going to leave until Saturday because she got sick and didn't feel good. She said she wasn't going to make it to the Sam Adams Brewery tour later that night and to go without her. Bummer, Amy caught a cold from visiting Katie and her grandchild earlier that week when she was in Washington.
We got ready to go and made our way to the subway again to take the red line to Downtown Crossing and then walked to the platform for the orange line to Stony Brook. Once we got to Stony Brook we relied on Mindy's directions to the brewery. Those directions led us astray. We walked the wrong way for like a half a mile the opposite way of the brewery. We were going to be super late to our 6:00 p.m. tour time. We turned around and walked back. We figured out what we did wrong and finally got to the brewery. We walked inside explained our situation and the guy was able to give us all a 7:30 p.m. time slot instead. We thanked him, took a seat after getting our tickets, stamp and wrist band.
The tour wasn't what we thought it was going to be, but it was an experience. We had a pint of Oktoberfest while we did the short half hour "spooky" tour. They basically took us from room to room sharing stories with us about the creepy stuff that has happened in the brewery since 1984. One, Ben and I tried Sam Adams beer years ago and were not fans (I drank mine and Mom's beer), two, I thought this brewery was way older than 1984 and three, the tour guide could have been better. Oh well.
We finished our beer, went through the gift shop, I got some stickers, and we walked back to the subway to head back to our hotel. We got back on the orange line and transferred to the red line at Downtown Crossing.
We got off at MIT/Kendall stop. It was getting late, and we were hungry so we all collectively decided to get some food. We went to a place nearby called The Shy Bird. I had a Caeser salad and some chicken nubs. While we ate, the fire alarm went off in the upstairs of the building. The staff told us it was okay and that we didn't need to evacuate. I used the restroom and then paid for my food. We walked back to our hotel.
I got cleaned up and we watched the Phillies beat the Astros 6-5 (10 innings) in Game 2. Sports are on so late on the east coast! I worked on my blog for a little bit, and we went to bed just before midnight. I was so tired. I basically was up since Thursday morning at 6:45 a.m. Pacific Time. I sure hope I don't get sick because of that. We will see. It did feel good to finally sleep after a very long day of traveling and sightseeing.
Next Adventure: MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip: Graffiti Wall, Harvard, Freedom Tour, Chinatown, Cheers and Acorn Street (Day 3)
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