Boston

I’m a New York guy. But I really loved Boston. This was my first time here, and it definitely got under my skin.

Later that evening, we were lucky enough to be in town while there was a performance by the Boston Pops. It was Gatsby night, so it was fun to see how everybody dressed up, quite the opposite of us. Symphony Hall is really a classic. It felt like I was back in Europe again. The seating arrangement on the floor is unique. Instead of rows of seats, they have tables like a banquet dinner. Our seats were in the upper mezzeanin. You can tell how “classic” they were as well, something Bostonians take pride in. Having been to a handful of famous orchestras around thw world, I must say that we Oklahomans should be extremely proud to have the Civic Center and especially lucky to have such an outstanding Philharmonic to go with it.

Speaking of old seats, we took a tour of Fenway Park. It’s about as classic as it gets when it comes to American sports. The seats in the grandstand behind home plate are the original seats. Sitting in those seats takes you back in time. They’re not without new traditions too. The song Sweet Caroline is played at every game in the 8th inning. I thought it was a long tradition, but it started only less than 15 years ago.

Until a few years ago, Boston had a similarly tragic history as a franchise as the Chicago Cubs. So I can appreciate the strong ties people have to the team. They have more famous names for many parts of the ballpark than any other ballpark that I know of. The most famous one is probably the Green Monster. The leftfield wall is a relatively new addition. Even newer are the seats that are built into it. Management wasn’t sure how much fans would like the seats. They’re now some of the most expensive and sought after seats in all of baseball.

We went to a game that evening.

After the tour, against my recommendation, we went to the elitist university Harvard. I was unimpressed. Sure it’s pretty, and it’s old, but I didn’t see much else past that. I rejected this place. I refused to pay the $10 fee for the tour, so we just slipped into one already in progress. So I feel like I got some of my application fee back.

The next day, we did something that had some REAL history: The Freedom Trail. It’s literally a line drawn through the streets of Boston that takes you to many landmarks of historical significance. It’s a fantastic tourist plan. You don’t even need a map. It felt like Dorothy following the yellow brick road. Each stop has placards with some information on what we’re looking at. We visited old churches, cemeteries of famous people including the midnight riders, the site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere’s house, the USS Constitution, and many more.

On our final day, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts where I acquired a new appreciation for furniture making.

And of course, we ate a LOT of seafood. Lobster roll after lobster roll.

Maine lobster.

And oh so many osters.

My favorite restaurant that we went to had 10 different kinds of oysters. We ordered 1 of each, + 2 of the smaller, midler oysters for Stephanie, who, I am proud to say, is starting to like oysters.

This was the last stop on our East coast portion of the trip. Next we were off to a very different part of the country: the national park areay of Utah and Arizona including the Grand Canyon. First stop was Bryce Canyon.