Travelogue-Boston
UPDATE BELOW--
so I went to Boston this past weekend to visit my good friend Reed. As is usual when we get together, we had a pretty good time. We went to Fenway Park on Saturday night to see the Red Sox take on the Devil Rays. Fenway, and the whole area was very interesting to me. for starters, as a baseball fan I knew that the Boston faithful took their team seriously, but I wasn't really prepared for the degree of hardcoredness (hardcoredom?) everyone, and i mean everyone, was wearing some sort of Red sox gear- a hat, or replica jersey, or t-shirt, etc... The fans cheered when the team took the field, everytime there were two strikes on a batter, or two outs in an inning, and of course for all of their heros as they batted. the level of collective baseball knowledge was fairly impressive. and yet, there were aspects of the crowd behavior that I didn't understand- there was a constant stream of people moving up and down the aisles towards concessions and the restrooms, seemingly regardless of the game situation. certainly there did not seem to be any sort of effort made to move only during switchovers. some of that probably had to do with the lack of beer being sold by in-aisle vendors, but it was still a surprise given the level of committment by fans to their team.
on Sunday we were unabashed tourists- saw the Aquarium, and walked much of the freedom trail, starting at Fauniel Hall, and ending at the USS Constitution. Fauniel Hall was disappointing as the entire first floor is just a shopping mall for tourists- book stores, T-shirt shops and food vendors. somehow, it just doesn't seem right to go to the trouble of having saved such an important historic icon, and then turned it into a place to buy fudge and salt water taffy. The Constitution was interesting because it is still an officially commissioned warship of the US Navy, and as such all visitors have to go through airport style security to enter, and the ship is entirely staffed by active duty sailors. we ended our night by taking the T towards boston common, and seeing a movie.
Monday was a trip to the Peabody-Essex museum in Salem, Mass. I would highly recommend the museum for anyone interested in the maritime history of the Boston area. their collection of maritime artifacts is both large and interesting- figureheads, exact model ships, sextants, etc...
Finally, I want to comment a little bit on Airports, as a traveller. Because of weather and scheduling snafu's I ended up going to Boston via Chicago O'hare, and coming back by way of Dallas-Fort Worth. Of the Four Airports I was in, Boston was the worst- not because of the travel issues, but rather because unlike MSP, DFW or ORD, the secured areas are small and oriented to specific airlines. in otherwords, there was very limited room to roam once through security, and the shopping options were highly limited. I am not one to go wild in the airport gift shop, but when i've got time to burn, and no-where to go, it is nice to be able to browse, and also to have options of food to buy. in Dallas, Chicago and Minneapolis, the security area is all linked up, so whether you are flying the dominant carrier, or someone with only a one gate presence, you still have the full range of options offered, which can be nice if you have an aversion to Taco Bell, or Mc Donalds. the downside is that it can be quite a hike from the gate to the exit those sorts of airports-but for me, that is a trade worth having.
UPDATE: no I didn't follow up with the Finbergs. I have no excuse beyond my own scatter-brainedness. I feel terrible about forgetting- but now have extra incentive to get back as soon as possible...
so I went to Boston this past weekend to visit my good friend Reed. As is usual when we get together, we had a pretty good time. We went to Fenway Park on Saturday night to see the Red Sox take on the Devil Rays. Fenway, and the whole area was very interesting to me. for starters, as a baseball fan I knew that the Boston faithful took their team seriously, but I wasn't really prepared for the degree of hardcoredness (hardcoredom?) everyone, and i mean everyone, was wearing some sort of Red sox gear- a hat, or replica jersey, or t-shirt, etc... The fans cheered when the team took the field, everytime there were two strikes on a batter, or two outs in an inning, and of course for all of their heros as they batted. the level of collective baseball knowledge was fairly impressive. and yet, there were aspects of the crowd behavior that I didn't understand- there was a constant stream of people moving up and down the aisles towards concessions and the restrooms, seemingly regardless of the game situation. certainly there did not seem to be any sort of effort made to move only during switchovers. some of that probably had to do with the lack of beer being sold by in-aisle vendors, but it was still a surprise given the level of committment by fans to their team.
on Sunday we were unabashed tourists- saw the Aquarium, and walked much of the freedom trail, starting at Fauniel Hall, and ending at the USS Constitution. Fauniel Hall was disappointing as the entire first floor is just a shopping mall for tourists- book stores, T-shirt shops and food vendors. somehow, it just doesn't seem right to go to the trouble of having saved such an important historic icon, and then turned it into a place to buy fudge and salt water taffy. The Constitution was interesting because it is still an officially commissioned warship of the US Navy, and as such all visitors have to go through airport style security to enter, and the ship is entirely staffed by active duty sailors. we ended our night by taking the T towards boston common, and seeing a movie.
Monday was a trip to the Peabody-Essex museum in Salem, Mass. I would highly recommend the museum for anyone interested in the maritime history of the Boston area. their collection of maritime artifacts is both large and interesting- figureheads, exact model ships, sextants, etc...
Finally, I want to comment a little bit on Airports, as a traveller. Because of weather and scheduling snafu's I ended up going to Boston via Chicago O'hare, and coming back by way of Dallas-Fort Worth. Of the Four Airports I was in, Boston was the worst- not because of the travel issues, but rather because unlike MSP, DFW or ORD, the secured areas are small and oriented to specific airlines. in otherwords, there was very limited room to roam once through security, and the shopping options were highly limited. I am not one to go wild in the airport gift shop, but when i've got time to burn, and no-where to go, it is nice to be able to browse, and also to have options of food to buy. in Dallas, Chicago and Minneapolis, the security area is all linked up, so whether you are flying the dominant carrier, or someone with only a one gate presence, you still have the full range of options offered, which can be nice if you have an aversion to Taco Bell, or Mc Donalds. the downside is that it can be quite a hike from the gate to the exit those sorts of airports-but for me, that is a trade worth having.
UPDATE: no I didn't follow up with the Finbergs. I have no excuse beyond my own scatter-brainedness. I feel terrible about forgetting- but now have extra incentive to get back as soon as possible...
posted by Eric at 7:48 AM
2 Comments:
Glad you enjoyed it.
My friend here at work says the reason for so much intra-inning activity is because the city refuses to allow the beer vendors to roam the aisles and of course there's a two-beer per trip limit, the lines betweeen innings are really long and they stop selling after the 7th. The only thing Bostonians care about as much as the Red Sox is booze.
What? You were in Boston and didn't visit the Finbergs. Sigh! Karro and family will be visiting in July.
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