#28 - Fenway, one the last of the great old ball parks

My first visit to Fenway Park was during a playoff game with the New York Yankees in the storied 2004 run to their World Series win.  Of course, I went to the third game.  This was the game where the Red Sox got clobbered 18-9 by the Yankees, and went down 3 games to none.  The next four games led to their improbable breaking of the Curse of the Bambino, and their first World Series in 86 years.

I stood by the famed Pesky Pole that night.  Somewhere I still have the picture of it.  It was a good night to see Fenway.  We had the seats, which are no seats: a standing only area underneath the stands on the first level.  Yet I ended up somewhere near first base on the second row by the 6 inning, because everyone starting leaving the slaughter.

A game at Fenway is a must see for people visiting Boston.  Even if you do not like baseball, it carries a sense of history like few places on earth.  Entering the ballpark and looking onto the field for the first time, you can imagine Ted Williams or Babe Ruth stepping to the plate.  The Green Monster, the highest outfield wall remaining in a major league park stands glaring at you from left field.  The place looks, feels, and smells of the gods of the diamond and takes you back 50 - 75 - almost a 100 years to the times romanced by young men for almost a century now.

Are you planning your holidays to Boston?  Fenway Park should find its way into the plans.  It will certainly find its way into your heart.

It was once on my bucket list of 1,000 things to do before I die, but I checked it off in 2004.  I could have gone again tonight if I had been available - tickets were offered, but oh well - I saw them loose in the most famous series they ever played.

Boston's Freedom Trail

A red line snakes through the city of Boston. Like a child enamored with a grade school teacher your imagination rushes through stories learned in your youth. The trail leads through graveyards with names like John Hancock, and the Old North Church where Paul Revere held his lanterns to declare "two if by sea."

Wisely one begins the Freedom Trail at Faneuil Hall, where John Adams called for independence. Upon returning - your head bursting with history, your heart beating with the wild fight for freedom, you sit down in the marketplace behind Faneuil Hall. In the cradle of liberty you take your lunch break among rows of culinary options, and digest your day in the belly of freedom's birthplace.

Boston is just a four-hour trip north-east from your New York City break. For an adventure all its own you can capture one of the Chinese bus lines (Lucky Star, or Fung Wah) for $15 for a one-way trip. They typically run all day and night beginning in New York’s China Town and dropping you off near Boston’s China Town at South Station.

The Freedom Trail packs loads of history in a small space, and is set among other places of interest such as The North End (Boston’s Italian community and a culinary theme park), the New England Aquarium, and the Holocaust Memorial.

I live near Boston. This is one of my one thousand things, which I have returned to many times.