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Trip the Second - Boston
After coming home from Philadelphia, I spent a few days doing boring household things, then flew up to Boston on Monday morning (June 14th). Yes, flew - for the first time since mid-February 2020. It was, admittedly, a short hop from DCA to BOS on JetBlue, but it still felt weird to be back in the air. The trip was fine, though the flight up had been delayed due to weather in Boston.
I stayed at the Hilton in downtown Boston, which is conveniently located. My first excursion was to Hingham to get together with an old friend who lives in a retirement community there. It’s reachable by ferry, though it wasn’t entirely obvious how to actually buy a ferry ticket. (It turns out you can buy it on board. Having a sign to that effect might have been helpful.) Anyway, we had a late lunch, a lot of conversation, and a short walk in between raindrops.
Tuesday started with meeting another friend, Ron, to go to the New England Aquarium. This is still one of my favorite places, though it was rather more crowded than I would have liked. We saw all the typical aquarium things - sharks, rays, penguins, fish of all colors and sizes, eels (yuk), a giant sea turtle, jellies, sea horses, and (my favorite) sea dragons. We also found one of the docents very helpful in telling us about some of the critters on display. We followed the aquarium with lunch at Legal Seafoods - and, no, I don’t feel guilty about eating fish after going to the aquarium.
Later on, we walked down the greenway to South Station and took the train to Worcester to go to Polar Park, the ballpark for the Woo Sox, the minor league team that replaced the PawSox (in Pawtucket). Checking out Polar Park had been the excuse for the trip and we were fortunate that the weather cooperated, despite a forecasted chance of rain. It’s a longish train ride, mostly because of the large number of local stops. It was not obvious where to go when we arrived, but we figured things out and had time to explore the ballpark a little. It is still somewhat under construction, but functional enough. The WooSox were playing the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, who have the absolute ugliest uniforms I’ve seen in my life. Their playing wasn’t much better. The game was exciting and helped by our having excellent seats on the third base line. The fans were nicely enthusiastic, too. And, yes, they do “Sweet Caroline” in the 8th inning, just like at Fenway. Overall, it was a good time and we made it back to the train station in time to get the last train back to Boston. I am contemplating a few driving trips to check off more minor league ballparks (as well as flying to Dallas to go to the replacement Rangers ballpark).
For my final day in Boston, I met up with my doppelgänger, Janet, for one of our periodic get-togethers where we prove we are not the same person by being seen in public together. We went to the Institute for Contemporary Art, which gave me an excuse for a pleasant stroll over to the Seaport District, which is radically changed from the semi-industrial wasteland it used to be. We looked at art, with the most notable piece being “The Visitors” by Ragnar Kjartansson, which consists of film of musicians playing various instruments (alone or in small groups) in different rooms of a house in upstate New York. We also spent some time admiring the view of the harbor from the museum. Afterwards, we had lunch at a Greek restaurant. I also had some time for just general strolling around Boston, which is always pleasant. If only it weren’t so expensive a place to live.
I flew back early the next day and my flight even arrived early at DCA. All in all, it was a good trip.
I stayed at the Hilton in downtown Boston, which is conveniently located. My first excursion was to Hingham to get together with an old friend who lives in a retirement community there. It’s reachable by ferry, though it wasn’t entirely obvious how to actually buy a ferry ticket. (It turns out you can buy it on board. Having a sign to that effect might have been helpful.) Anyway, we had a late lunch, a lot of conversation, and a short walk in between raindrops.
Tuesday started with meeting another friend, Ron, to go to the New England Aquarium. This is still one of my favorite places, though it was rather more crowded than I would have liked. We saw all the typical aquarium things - sharks, rays, penguins, fish of all colors and sizes, eels (yuk), a giant sea turtle, jellies, sea horses, and (my favorite) sea dragons. We also found one of the docents very helpful in telling us about some of the critters on display. We followed the aquarium with lunch at Legal Seafoods - and, no, I don’t feel guilty about eating fish after going to the aquarium.
Later on, we walked down the greenway to South Station and took the train to Worcester to go to Polar Park, the ballpark for the Woo Sox, the minor league team that replaced the PawSox (in Pawtucket). Checking out Polar Park had been the excuse for the trip and we were fortunate that the weather cooperated, despite a forecasted chance of rain. It’s a longish train ride, mostly because of the large number of local stops. It was not obvious where to go when we arrived, but we figured things out and had time to explore the ballpark a little. It is still somewhat under construction, but functional enough. The WooSox were playing the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, who have the absolute ugliest uniforms I’ve seen in my life. Their playing wasn’t much better. The game was exciting and helped by our having excellent seats on the third base line. The fans were nicely enthusiastic, too. And, yes, they do “Sweet Caroline” in the 8th inning, just like at Fenway. Overall, it was a good time and we made it back to the train station in time to get the last train back to Boston. I am contemplating a few driving trips to check off more minor league ballparks (as well as flying to Dallas to go to the replacement Rangers ballpark).
For my final day in Boston, I met up with my doppelgänger, Janet, for one of our periodic get-togethers where we prove we are not the same person by being seen in public together. We went to the Institute for Contemporary Art, which gave me an excuse for a pleasant stroll over to the Seaport District, which is radically changed from the semi-industrial wasteland it used to be. We looked at art, with the most notable piece being “The Visitors” by Ragnar Kjartansson, which consists of film of musicians playing various instruments (alone or in small groups) in different rooms of a house in upstate New York. We also spent some time admiring the view of the harbor from the museum. Afterwards, we had lunch at a Greek restaurant. I also had some time for just general strolling around Boston, which is always pleasant. If only it weren’t so expensive a place to live.
I flew back early the next day and my flight even arrived early at DCA. All in all, it was a good trip.
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