In Boston for World Series. Go the Red Sox!

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Monday 28th October

Boston, South End

Sunny 14'C

This morning we woke up in Salem to another beautiful day. Our last task of the roadie ahead - just needing to drop off the RV at the Camping World RV depot. It only took us about half an hour to get there after refueling and emptying out the unmentionables at the West Essex Treatment plant in Salem - for free. Had a funny surprise when we walked into the office at the depot - Jimmy, who had checked us out from the NY office 10 days ago, was there helping out! In no time our vehicle was all handed back with no hassles; only an additional $175 for an extra 400 kms driven over our quota. The depot paid for a shuttle into Boston instead of to the airport, so that was very helpful. We arrived at our apartment for the next four days and were pleasantly surprised. Up two flights of stairs, but very roomy and well decked out. Nice big lounge and dining area, which still only took us about 5 minutes to mess up once our bags had exploded their contents over every flat surface! We like to call it the 'lived-in' look. Pretty quiet day hanging around and recharging the batteries. We ended the day with a big walk around the area before discovering a fantastic restaurant right outside our front door called Teranga. This served the most amazing flavours from Senegal. The owner/chef even came out to describe the different dishes and we followed her advice, with citrus infused lamb shank and a herb stuffed fish soon on their way to our table. We retired next door and upstairs to our abode, first time on a normal bed for 10 days. We stayed up to watch the 5th game between Red Sox and the Cardinals, with the Sox pulling off a blinder to bring the score to 3-2! Next game is on Wednesday in Boston so the crowds will be awesome.

Tuesday 29th October

Sunny, slight breeze 9'C

Wow, you can feel the cooler mornings now, with the mercury showing 2'C at 8am. After a relaxed breakfast we decided to walk into town from our apartment, located in the South End, corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Washington Street - a very busy corner! We went via a UPS store to suss out printing some documents, but they were refurbishing their office so couldn't assist. Next stop was a Post Office to check on their international freight charges and box sizes - as we plan to send some stuff home. We walked down Columbus Ave to Boston Common, where we picked up a two day hop-on hop-off trolley bus pass for $36 each. This also includes a free tour of the Boston Tea Party. We jumped on a trolley and headed off around Boston Common, stopping at the Boston Library to do some printing. This was when we noticed Jen's wallet was missing in action! After a thorough search of our bags we went straight back to the trolley office where we bought our tickets. Unfortunately the girl working there had seen Jennie take her wallet out at the counter but this is when her amnesia set in. So the next few hours were taken up with heading back to the apartment to make some international phone calls to cancel or put cards on hold. Bum! We weren't going to let this little blip ruin our day so we walked back into town to catch the trolley to do the full circuit around Boston. Around 5.30pm we jumped off the trolley bus at the Prudential Centre shopping centre on Huntington Ave to check out the boutique stores - Jen finally found a replacement top and Shaun grabbed a Red Sox cap. On the way home we found a health food supermarket in our neighbourhood and grabbed some provisions. Off home for a garlic shrimp salad!

Wednesday 30th October

Overcast 9'C

We jumped on the 'silver-line' bus down to South Station to do the Boston Tea Party tour this morning. This two hour experience was an absolute blast and we would highly recommend! You are gathered into a small room and handed a feather and given a role of an actual participant from the Boston Tea Party. The speeches are so passionate and sincere that you are drawn into the whole experience of the fateful night of December 16, 1773 and can't wait to dump the tea into the sea! Being a revolutionary is hungry work so we had lunch at James Hook and Co. - a bit of an institution right on the harbour. The original building burnt down so they are operating out of a temporary shack. This didn't stop the magic happening inside and we warmed up with Lobster mac and cheese, clam chowder and stuffed scallops - yum! If wanting to purchase a whole lobster, you could pick the one to tak your fancy from the tanks inside. Caught the trolley around Boston Common onto Beacon Street, home of the original inspiration and set for the Cheers bar; and had a beer across from ‘Norms’ seat. Great crowd in there readying themselves for the 6th game out of 7 for the World Series between Red Sox and the Cardinals. After a bit of banter with the barman we headed into the Boston Public Garden and saw the famous ‘Make Way for Ducklings’ sculpture. There are only two of these made by sculptor Nancy Schon in the world - the other is in Moscow's Novodevichy Park. Useless trivia - this 2nd sculpture was presented to Gorbachev by Bush in 1991 as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a bilateral treaty between the United Stated of America and the then USSR on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. As we walked through the gardens we noted that George Washington was obviously a Red Sox fan as the 4 metre statue of him riding his stomping horse was adorned in a Red Sox players shirt and sporting a red beard! We jumped on a trolley again bound for Fenway Park to check out the crowds, but unfortunately they were avoiding the area due to the massive crowds and road closures. Not only were the roads congested due to the game tonight but Obama had decided to pop into town for a speech or two on the contentious ObamaCare. At Fenway Park there had been people waiting in line outside the ticket booths for last minute tickets since Monday when they’d won their last game in St Louis! The cheapest ticket available online was for a standing general admission at the back of the park for US$723.00! A bit outside our price range for sporting entertainment. We got off at the Prudential Centre on Huntington Ave and grabbed some provisions from Shaws supermarket for dinner and some naughty treats for watching the big game live tonight in the comfort of our apartment. The game was awesome and the Red Sox were on fire right from the start. By the bottom of the third innings they had 3 homers from a huge hit from Shane Victorino. Final score was 6-1 to the Sox - first time they had won at their home ground since 1918! We could see the fireworks over the stadium from our apartment window. It was a long night with huge celebrations in the streets, cars honking and sirens blaring all over the city. We were used to the sound of sirens as our apartment is located a few hundred metres down from Boston Medical. Tonight we were serenaded by the constant cacophony of blips, chirps, honks, air horns, screeches, chanting, singing and sirens from the unceasing procession of revelers and ambulances dropping off their precious cargo.

Thursday 31st October - Halloween

Cloudy, some rain - 17'C

Jumped online to buy (ice) hockey tickets for tonight - Boston Bruins against the Anaheim Ducks. We found some reasonably priced tickets on StubHub - an online marketplace where season ticket holders and others can offload their unwanted tickets. Although we will be seated up on the balcony high above the rink we know the atmosphere will be great! We left the apartment around 10am and purchased our Charlie card for $11 from the 711 store across the road. This travel card gives us access to the buses and trains all day. Caught the silver line bus
Downtown where we caught the train out to Harvard University. The day looked a bit miserable but a bit milder than last night and the rain held off while we wandered about the grounds. A brief stop at the Peabody's and Harvard Natural History museums and then the Coop store was enough for us and back to town we went. The Coop had thousands of books and even more varieties of Harvard branded apparel, souvenirs, bags - you name it - they had it! We caught the red line back as far as Copley Place where the library is. The public library in Boston is a convenient place to do some free computing work and they allow you to print documents as well. We stopped there for a while to print off a couple of docs and made our way into downtown. Both due for some grooming we went to a little barber/nail bar on State Street and spent some time getting tidied up for tomorrow's cruise embarkation. By this time the rain had come and when we stepped outside it was time for the brolly to come out. We had spied a 99cent shop in Chinatown earlier and decided to find it - expecting it to be a likely place to find some packaging tape - as we are about the package up all our winter clothes to send home! True enough we found some tape amongst the hundred of thousands of items bulging from the shelves in this tiny little store. Assisted by a tiny little old Chinese lady (she's the only one that could squeeze into the tiny little store) we found what we needed and got out of there smartly before there was an avalanche and we drowned in all the stuff! Across the street there was a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Pasteur where we enjoyed an early dinner and left feeling very full and ready to watch some hockey. Our Charlie card is melting from the constant use and represents great value as we catch yet another train up to North Station where we find the TD Garden - home of the Boston Bruins and the Celtics basketball team. The pro store is large with a fantastic selection of fan gear. Too packed in there to shop properly we head for our seats - up, up and up to the highest seats in the stadium - the very back row! Lovingly referred to as the nose-bleed seats, but still a great view. It was an awesome game, with a guest appearance of the Baseball World Series trophy brought out onto the ice sending the crowd crazy! Really close game with the Bruins stopping the Ducks' 4-win streak in a goal shoot out in extra time. We beat the stampede to the train and slid out of the station heading for our apartment and stayed up to pack in preparation for tomorrow. We have had a great time in Boston and were so fortunate to be here during an awesome sporting week! There's certainly a lot to do in this town. Again, we've run out of time to do it all but we've had a great taste.

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Comments

[Annmaree]

What a trip !
From Salem around Haloween - see any witches ;-) To Cheers ... to the Boston Tea Party ... to a World Series game WOW !! Your trip sounds amazing - look forward to the movie and commentary xx