26th September - Boston

Day 2 - Boston

First stop today was Fenway Park to pick up some tickets to the Batting Practice tour before the game tonight.  We caught the subway out to Fenway Park (which was an event in itself) and then jumped back on the Hop on Hop off bus from there.  

We got off the bus near the Boston Public Library.  The Boston Public Library was established in 1848 and was the first free lending library in the USA.  We went inside to have a look around (probably the first time Wade has been into a library since high school - although I’m not sure he went inside the library in high school much either!!!).  It was a beautiful building inside, reminded us a bit of some of the buildings in Rome.  They also had a really nice courtyard area that we walked through.  

After we had been quiet for long enough, we left the library and headed to Newbury Street to check out the shops.  Probably the one thing we found here is that most of the historical buildings seem to still remain (or if they aren’t an historical building, they have been built to blend in).  Newbury Street was no different, with a mixture of shops in old buildings and churches all in together!  After a visit to H&M (painful for Wade as it is the third H&M I’ve dragged him into in two days) we headed towards the Boston Public Gardens.  We wandered through the gardens (saw lots of ducks and squirrels and of course flowers/plants) and then headed out to the main road between the gardens and Boston Common to jump back on the Hop on Hop Off bus.  

From here we went back to the Faneuil Hall Market Place to grab some lunch. Today’s lunch was pizza from Regina Pizzeria - thanks Michelle & Josh for the tip - it was great!!  Back on the bus and we headed out to check out the USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young.  USS Constitution is an old wooden hulled boat that was first launched in 1797.  We were able to walk onto the boat, although apparently only about 15% of what is left is actually original.  From there we headed across to the USS Cassin Young.  This ship was used by the US Navy from 1943 and was used in World War II.  It was pretty interesting and there was even a veteran on board the ship who had actually served on the ship in World War II.  

From here we headed back into town on the bus and then walked back to our hotel.  After a short rest (like 1/2 hour) we trekked back to Fenway Park to go on our Batting Practice tour.  The tour was really great and we got to walk along the edge of the field while the Red Sox were warming up, we then got a quick history of the park from our guide before heading up to Green Monster to watch batting practice.  We were really glad we were able to experience this.

We had to head out of the park before the game start time, but by the time were were allowed back in, there were people everywhere.  We went and found our seats and checked out the view.  Definitely not the most comfortable seats (Wades knees were pretty much under his chin), but given they are 80 years old we probably shouldn’t complain (they must have been much shorter 80 years ago)!!  We then went and got the required beer and hot dogs and settled in for the game.

Even though the Red Sox lost to the Yankees, it was still a great experience!!  Off to bed now, and tomorrow we are off to New York.

Here are some pictures from today:

Fenway Park

Boston Public Library

Boston Public Gardens

USS Constitution

USS Cassin Young

Red Sox Batting Practice

Red Sox v Yankees Game at Fenway Park