Our first stop was to the legendary Fenway Park, where the Boston Red Sox play. We got there just before 7am, so there wasn't much happening (except for them setting up for the Phish/Dave Matthews concert). We walked around the ball park took some pictures and left.
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*Note: My spell check had a hard time with me spelling Red Sox with an X. It didn't believe me that that was how it was spelled. So I started wondering why it was spelled that way, and ended up reading an article about it. Here is a section that explains the origins of the alternate spelling. Read it if you want or skip it if you don't care.
"Many early baseball teams were named after their uniform colors. In the 19th century, there were clubs called the Red Stockings, Brown Stockings, and Blue Stockings. Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune often shortened these nicknames to "Sox." When Charlie Comiskey founded the American League's Chicago White Stockings in 1901, the Tribune wasted no time in dubbing them the White Sox. Boston's AL franchise seems not to have had an official name during its first few years. Reporters called them different names on different days, including the Americans (to distinguish them from Boston's National League team), the Bostons, the Plymouth Rocks, and the Beaneaters. In late 1907, the club's owner settled on Red Sox." -Daniel Engber www.slate.com
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The architecture is what impressed me most about the city. Tall buildings stood next to historic landmarks, integrating the old city with modern growth.
Here are a few of my favorite buildings I saw while I was there, in the first few photos notice the relationship between old and new.
We drove to Boston Commons, an old park designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead,(the worlds first Landscape Architect) who designed a series of parks in Boston called "the emerald necklace" and also Central Park in NYC.
From there we took a tour of various historic sites often referred to as the "Freedom Trail". Our tour guide looked like Geaorge Washington, but he was dressed in a 18th century English Red Coat uniform.
Our tour included 12 of the 16 stops on the freedom trail.
Boston Common
Massachusetts State House
Park Street Church
Granary Burying Ground
King's Chapel
King's Chapel Burying Ground
Former site of the first public school, Boston Latin School
Old Corner Bookstore
Old South Meeting House
Old State House
Site of the Boston Massacre
Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market
It was a really nice tour and it was a great way to see a large part of Boston in a short period of time.
After the tour we drove to a little restaurant along Boston Harbor called the "No Name". It was in an out of the way section of the harbor, in what appeared to be an abandoned building. Truly a dive in every sense of the word, but we heard that they had good Lobster. And no trip to Boston would be complete unless you eat in entire Lobster!
I always find it a little awkward eating an animal while it is looking at me, but for a Lobster I would definitely make an exception. He was delicious!
After lunch we decided that we decided to see the Harvard Campus. And how do you pay homage to a school as prestigious as Harvard? By taking a nap on their lawn, thats how.
Their grass was very soft and made for a very comfortable nap. Thanks Harvard!
Our nap ended around 5:00 that evening, and we decided to drive back to Rochester so that we could get to bed at a decent hour and be rested for work the next day. It was an awesome day trip and if I had a bucket list, I could draw a line right through Boston.
