Boston Trip 2010

Okay before I start, I just want to fore-warn that this is going to be a long post. I'll keep the stories short and just put up the photos so you can check them out.

Ashley and I left Denver on Sunday the 5th and took a non-stop flight to Boston. I had to work the night before, so I was pretty tired once the almost 4 hour flight was done. We picked up our car, and headed to our hotel. Right out of the airport, we entered this REALLY long tunnel.



We went out to eat and then headed to our hotel in Burlington, MA, which was about 20 miles north of Boston. Ashley's cousin Katie lives near Boston, and she is currently in grad school at Emerson College. She was off on Monday and Tuesday and did and AWESOME job giving Ash and I a tour around Boston. We met Katie at her house on Monday morning and we took the the subway called the "T" to downtown.

Our first stop was a park called Public Garden.



This is one of Emerson College's buildings. It's crazy that it's right in the middle of downtown Boston.



After walking around for a bit, we headed down this brick alley to eat some lunch.


More walking and we saw some street performers. This was in front of a place called Quincy Market, where this dude was juggling his hat for a large crowd.



We then went to a popular pier where boats were dropping people off and picking people up to go on whale watching tours. Here's Ashley and Katie and Katie and I.





One thing that's really cool about downtown Boston is that there is a great mix between modern buildings nestled close to old churches, as the below photos shows.



Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, so we had to take a quick walk around the state capitol building.



The Freedom Tour is a 2 mile walking path that runs all around downtown Boston. Lots of history is on the tour, and we hit most of the famous spots.



You can't go to Boston without visiting the original "Cheers" bar, which was the inspiration for the longstanding television show.



Me and the crew.



Gotta have a cheers at Cheers.



After we left the bar, Katie had to take off so Ash and I walked around Harvard Square, which is near the famous college. Below is a beautiful park called John F. Kennedy Park.





On the campus of Harvard, folklore has it that if you rub the shoe of the statue of Harvard founder John Harvard, it will give you good luck. Looks like we weren't the first to do so.







Entrance to where the first building of Harvard was built.



On our way back to the car, we walked past a FedEx Kinkos, and this dude looks like he is LOVING his job.



Tuesday we woke up and hit downtown again before picking Katie up. Here is the Boston Garden where the Celtics and the Bruins play. To the right is an awesome looking bridge.



We picked Katie up and went downtown to grab a bite to eat. We ate and drank what the place is called, Fajitas and Ritas.



More walking, and we stopped in a park near the North End to eat some ice cream.



Paul Revere's House... $3.50 each for a tour. We were happy with just looking at the outside of the house.



One thing that I like most about Boston is the architecture of the all the buildings. Especially in the North End.



Ash and I.



Another old church near a HUGE modern building.



As many of you know, I'm kind of a library geek. Currently I hold 5 different library cards. This is the Boston Library. One of the most beautiful buildings I've seen, inside and out. Check it out.







We then proceeded to infamous Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, for their game against the Tampa Bay Rays.





Of course I had to buy a Red Sox t-shirt.







Me prior to my first view of Fenway Park's field.



I always enjoy the "First" look at a stadium I've never been to. Fenway didn't disappoint.





View from the top row in dead-center field.











This is one of my favorite photos from Fenway.



One of the really cool things at the ballpark is that on the left and right field foul pole people have signed their name and date and who the Sox were playing. In left field they've even signed the foul portion of the "green monster".



This is the right field foul pole. There will be a very funny photo later in this post of a situation involving this foul pole.



The seats at Fenway are very old school. Wooden and they don't even have cup holders!





Daisuke Matsuzaka warms up prior to the start of the game. He wouldn't last long as the Red Sox got beat bad, 14-5.



It was really interesting to see that when Matsuzaka starting warming up, there was a large group of Asians who were taking photos and video of him. Baseball is very popular in Asia, and when their players come to America to play, they have a large following here as well.



Standing room only seats in the upper deck down the 3rd base line.



Tampa Bay pitcher David Price warms up prior to the start of the game. He pitched awesome and easily got the win.



The sun sets and the Rays are cruising.



View from the bridge between the seats on the Green Monster and the upper deck seats down the 3rd base line.



Upper deck view.



One really cool thing in the upper deck is they have a hallway that has EVERY Sports Illustrated cover that has featured someone on the Red Sox framed.



One of the last manually operated scoreboards in the big leagues.



Okay, now comes the funny right field foul pole story. So it's the bottom of the 6th, we're getting ready to leave, and Katie says "What the heck is that guy doing?" I look over and see a guy climbing the foul pole! Apparently he wanted to find a clean spot to sign his name, so he decided to climb up and sign with his pen. Bad idea.





It wasn't long before he climbed down and security was waiting for him to escort him out of the stadium. Hope that was worth it.



We left soon there after and as we were walking back to the "T", we came across these three dudes playing their buckets to a large crowd. They were really good!



Wednesday Katie had class and her internship, so Ash and I were on our own to explore. First stop was Boston College and we found an open gate and so we hit up their football stadium. I was just going to take a photo from the stands but I saw a guy walking on the field so I figured it'd be cool so I went down to the 50 yard line.







More buildings in downtown.





Back on the Freedom Trail is Bunker Hill Monument Park. The monument has a spiral staircase to the top, but it was under renovation so weren't able to go up.



We headed over to Harvard's football stadium and we lucked out twice. 1) we found an open gate and 2) they were having practice.



Harvard's stadium is VERY old. The pillars surrounding the field and the seats themselves are just slabs of concrete.







In addition to practice, there were several people using the stands to exercise, like this guy who was sprinting up the stands and jogging back down.







Being on the East Coast, we had to go to the beach. So we hit up Carson Beach in South Boston to hang for a little bit on our Thursday, our last day in Boston.



Being a former newspaper worker, I always like to go check out the local newspaper. Here's the HUGE Boston Globe building.



Very large printing press.




We had such an awesome time in Boston. Thanks to Katie for touring us around. Next trip scheduled is Michigan for Thanksgiving. Sorry for the long post. Hope you enjoyed!