Summer 1995- My brothers went to look at colleges in Boston. I went with them and my dad. Mo Vaughn hits a grand slam seven years before starting his career as a bouncer at Finnegan's (Pete got that joke).
December 2008- I went to John's Christmas party. Despite the fact that I had to put up with Boston College fans a month after they had beaten Notre Dame for the sixth straight time, it was really fun. Vin, Molly, and Darryl were there as well. We wanted to go to the Sam Adams brewery, but none of us could get up early enough after the Christmas party to get there before they had reached capacity. We went to the Harpoon brewery instead. Fun, but it's not Sam Adams. We also went to a comedy show and then we all drove back to New York together.
 |
| Darryl and me at John's Christmas party. I mean, it was a good weekend. |
July 2009- John took me on a Freedom Trail drinking tour and I got to Fenway Park for the first time in fourteen years.
February 2010- I planned to go to Boston to see the Celtics play at home for the first time in my life. The game was on a Saturday afternoon, but 20 inches of snow in New York cancelled my bus on Friday night. So I had to take the first bus on Saturday morning to get there in time. To get to Penn Station in time, I had to take a train at about 3:45. Let me tell you, Penn Station is a weird place to be at 5:00 on a Saturday morning. What was also weird was that the storm that cancelled my bus was all rain in Boston and there was no snow on the ground. John took me to the Green Dragon Tavern (where the Boston Tea Party was planned) and we had a few pints of Sam Adams before going to see the Celtics lose to a bad Nets team. I was convinced the Celtics weren't going anywhere that year. John and I watched Olympic curling that night (it's coming back soon, finally).
June 2010- Just two days after the Celtics lose Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals against the Lakers, I went to Boston for Dodgers-Red Sox. Manny Ramirez hit a home run for the Dodgers, but the Red Sox won.
August 2011- I went to John's wedding in Beverly (north of Boston). At some point at the reception, Darryl told me that I have to drive him to the airport the next morning. Because of that, I stopped drinking at when the afterparty started. Still, I wasn't 100% sure I was driving him to the airport until he called me as I was about to pass out around midnight and told me he needed to sleep in my room. I had to get up around 6:30 to drive him to Logan. He had just gotten back from Afghanistan, so really, I couldn't complain about anything.
And that's it. I love Boston. Fenway Park is my favorite baseball stadium. With Notre Dame playing Boston College in hockey at Fenway and Kyle going to grad school at Dartmouth, we had to make this happen.
Once again, the weather was against me. This time, New York got 6.4 inches of snow and Boston got 17.8 inches. My Friday bus was once again cancelled. That was probably good news because it was 8 degrees in New York City that night (ridiculously cold by New York standards) and 1 degree in Boston. The game was Saturday night, but I was determined to make it to Boston early so that I could finally get to the Sam Adams brewery.
My brilliant plan was to take Amtrak at 2:40 in the morning from Penn Station and get to Boston at 8:00. I got to Penn Station in plenty of time, but my train didn't leave until about 3:45. Being an hour late wasn't a big deal because Kyle wasn't supposed to get to Boston until 9:30. Not realizing it, I sat near two babies on the train. One was really chill and the other one wasn't. Kyle, I hope your baby is really chill. I got some sleep, but not as much as I could have. We were moving along well enough until we made it to Rhode Island. Then we stopped. And waited. And waited. They told us that we needed rescue engines to tow us to Boston. It was almost two hours before we were moving again. All part of the story.
I wanted to get to Boston as early as possible because the Sam Adams website says the brewery usually reaches capacity around noon on Saturdays. I made it to Boston around 10:50. Kyle was there waiting for me. We went to the hotel and then took a cab to the Sam Adams brewery. I guess weather kept people away because we got there right around noon and didn't have to wait long at all for our tour. The brewery is much smaller than i was expecting. There's not much to the tour. Our tour guide was really good. He explained that a lot of the brewing done there is experimental. Most of the beer that they sell is brewed in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania or Cincinnati. Anyway, they take you to an area where they go through the main ingredients that are used. They give you some different grains that you can eat and then you take a handful of hops and rub your hands together and then your hands smell like beer. After that, you go to another area and they go through the brewing process and the machinery that's used. The last part is a tasting room. The tour guide talked a lot about the Sam Adams glass. One thing I didn't realize is that you're supposed to hold it down low on the narrow part of the glass to reduce heat transfer. He also taught us how UV rays come down from space to kill beer. We got to sample Boston Lager, Winter Lager, and Rebel IPA. The tour guide talked about the proper way to drink beer. You're not supposed to drink it out of the bottle (much more difficult to get the sense of smell involved) and you're supposed to let your entire tongue taste the beer. I actually kind of instinctively figured out that you have to let your entire tongue taste the beer many years ago. The last stop is the gift shop. I bought a Summer Ale shirt. Of course I did. Much like I had to get to the Guinness brewery in Dublin, I needed to get to the Sam Adams brewery. I don't know how it took me this long. You should go if you're in Boston. I would have paid probably $20 to see where the magic happens, but it's free (except for a suggested donation of $2 that goes to local charities).
 |
| Sam Adams bottles from the beginning up until today |
 |
| Kyle and me at the brewery |
After the brewery, there's a trolley that takes people to Doyle's, which was the first bar to serve Sam Adams on tap. Apparently, there have been a few movies with scenes shot in Doyle's, but I hadn't seen any of them. The trolley driver was something right out of a Saturday Night Live skit. Amazing Boston accent. He also really loved Doyle's. He told us that it was the third best clam chowder in the city (I had it, it was very good). He also said their burgers are better than Five Guys. I like Five Guys, but Kyle and I both thought that was setting the bar pretty low. We had Sam Adams Brick Red, which I think is only available in the Boston area. If you bring your tour ticket (which is a label for one of their bottles) to Doyle's, you get the Sam Adams pint glass for free. I already have one, so I didn't bother taking it, but Kyle got one.
 |
| Clam chowder at Doyle's |
From there, we were ready to go to Fenway. We still had a few hours until our game, but we figured we'd walk around for a little bit and go to a bar and drink and have some dinner before the game. We started walking north toward Fenway. We were a few miles away, but we figured we'd reduce our cab fare by heading in that direction. We ended up walking a good mile and a half before we got a cab. The cold was tolerable (perhaps because of the alcohol), but walking in the snow was annoying. We got to Fenway, picked up our tickets, and said hi to John. We tried to go to Cask 'n Flagon, but it was too crowded. We went to another bar and watched some of the Chiefs-Colts game, the first hockey game (Merrimack vs. Providence), drank, and ate dinner. Kyle and I talked about how it was nice to go to a game that we didn't really care about too much. If we go to a football game and we lose, it ruins my week (or entire fall, whatever the case may be). But I can't say that I care very much about Notre Dame hockey. I probably won't watch another game unless we get to the Frozen Four. It would be nice to beat Boston College, but I wasn't going to be too upset if we didnt. The first hockey game went to overtime, pushing our start time back. When it ended, we left and headed into the park.
We definitely didn't realize how much time there would be between games. We got in with about 55 minutes until the start of the game. We walked around Fenway a bunch to try to keep warm. I had never walked around the inside of the park that much. I never truly appreciated how weird Fenway is until this weekend. You have all these randomly placed ramps and stairs all over the concourse. It's such an oddly designed ballpark. Anyway, our seats were supposed to be out in right field (very far from the rink, not a good view), but we could pretty much sit anywhere we wanted on the lower level. The best views were higher up, but they wouldn't let you up to the second level without a ticket. Despite the bad views from many seats, I'm totally in favor of outdoor hockey, especially at a place like Fenway. The snow on the field added a nice touch. We sat behind one of the goals for the first period. That wasn't a bad view because it was reasonable close to the ice. Boston College took a 2-0 lead. John got done working and took Kyle and I on a little tour. He took us up to the Green Monster seats. Those were pretty good seats. John left before the start of the second period. I couldn't blame him since he had been standing out in the cold for several hours. Kyle and I watched the second period from the Green Monster. It was colder up there. The temperature for the game was around 25 degrees. According to the box score, the Notre Dame-Syracuse game in 2008 was 27 degrees. It was also the most miserable sporting event I've ever been to. This hockey game was probably colder, but I was much better prepared. I wore six layers (undershirt, two thermal long sleeve shirts, another t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and heavy jacket). After the second period, we couldn't handle the Green Monster anymore, so we went down to the concourse behind home plate where it was fairly warm during the intermission. With the game tied at 2, we went back behind one of the goals for the third period. Boston College scored, we scored, and then they scored again. With Boston College leading 4-3, we left halfway through the third period. We had seen enough. If Notre Dame had come back and I had missed it, I could have lived with that, but it didn't happen. The final score was 4-3. So that was the end of my three consecutive Saturdays of three different Notre Dame sports. We went 1-2, but fortunately the win was in football.
 |
| The ceremonial puck drop |
 |
| The view from on top of the Green Monster |
The next morning, I went to mass right by Harvard and the walked around the Harvard campus for a bit. Fortunately, the students weren't back yet so there weren't a bunch of hippies around. I went to Yale four times when I was in high school and I don't really remember their campus. Harvard didn't impress me much. Actually, of all the college campuses I've been to (which isn't a huge number, but probably like 15), the campuses that really impressed me were Notre Dame and Virginia (I'd probably put Georgetown third on my list of favorite campuses). At least I can say I've seen Harvard. It was an adventure getting there, but it was well worth it. I'm not going back to Boston in the winter, though. Thanks again, John and Kyle. I'll have to get back to Boston when the weather is good.
 |
| The gates to Harvard. If I could trade my Notre Dame degree for a degree from Harvard, there's no way I would make that trade. |
I've been to 20 of the largest 77 cities in the United States and two foreign cities. Quickly, here's my city power rankings:
5. Pittsburgh. Yes, Pittsburgh. I saw my first college football game there. Notre Dame won and it was a great night. They also have a great baseball stadium.
4. Dublin. It was the first foreign city I visited. The Guinness brewery was great. Temple bar was great. Notre Dame beat Navy. And the Irish accent is my second favorite foreign accent (a distant second to the Australian accent).
3. London. I had wanted to get to London for a long time. I spent five days there last summer. The history is amazing. Going to the Churchill War Rooms was one of my favorite touristy things I've ever done. Wimbledon was a lot of fun. The tube is really easy to use. The only drawbacks are how expensive it is and the fact that the queen lives there.
2. Boston. Like London, the history is great. It's the home of one of my heroes, John Adams, and my favorite beer, Sam Adams. My favorite basketball team plays there. My favorite game of all time in any sport happened there (Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals). I've already said how much I love Fenway Park.
1. Los Angeles. If I was rich, I'd have three homes. One on Long Island, one somewhere close to Notre Dame, and one in Los Angeles. I would absolutely be a Dodgers season ticket holder. I've had travel issues with Boston. I've actually had travel issues in Los Angeles. But that was because of a hurricane in New York pushed back my return flight three days, not terrible. Los Angeles weather is never a problem. Dealing with Laker fans and USC fans might be rough, but the Dodgers and the weather would make it worth it.
Happy Birthday Bart Starr! He's a really underrated quarterback (he should be easily considered top 10 all time), but this is gone on long enough so I'll try to tackle that another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment