As soon as we did get packed up, we left our luggage with the doorman and headed to Copley Square. We wanted to see a church there that is the second oldest church in the city and one of great architectural acclaim. It was named the most significant building in the US in 1885 by the American Institute of Architects and it is the only building from that original list of significant buildings to still be included on AIA's list. It is Trinity Church.
Across from Trinity Church is another large church. I don't remember the name of it, but it is made of Puddingstone. Roxbury Puddingstone to be exact. While that sounds like a made up stone or worse a made up hero in a mystery novel, it's actually a stone. It's the state stone of Massachusetts as it's only found in two locales - Massachusetts and somewhere in England.
Doesn't she look delicious?
After visiting these two churches, we hopped back on the Green Line and visited a different kind of church.
I'm not a Red Sox fan, not one little bit, but I am a baseball fan. Fenway Park is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium in the US. It turned 100 years old this year - thus making it's first season of play 1912. I love taking ballpark tours. This is only my second one. The first was Wrigley Field - the second oldest MLB stadium, so it's possible I wouldn't love a tour of say, the Royals ballpark. I think I would though. I'd like to take a tour of every MLB park at some point in my life.
The Wrigley Tour was better than the Fenway tour to me, but I think that's simply because Wrigley goes a bit deeper into the history. I felt the Fenway tour was more, "let's walk around Fenway and you look at Fenway and occasionally we'll tell you stories". I really did enjoy seeing the Green Monster and being on top of the Green Monster. It was fun seeing the red seat where Ted Williams hit a 502 ft homerun - and hearing the story of the sleeping man that was surprised by it. He later asked a reporter how far away he had to sit to be out of Williams' range.
Hearing stories of the greatness of the early Red Sox being sold away to, mostly, the Yankees and hearing of burned out seats being left unrepaired for almost a decade was very entertaining, too. All of it was great. Definitely tour Fenway if you make it to Boston.
After touring Fenway, we were pretty hungry so we ducked into Bleacher Bar which is attached to the stadium in straightaway centerfield. It once served as the visiting team's batting cage and still has a rather large opening that you can sit in front of and see into Fenway. It's pretty cool to visit, but the food was basically ballpark food and not very good, so don't go for the meal.
We hopped back on the train after that with a plan of heading back to the North End, specifically Mike's Pastries and the Old North Church. We wanted to go back to the Old North Church because we realized we missed an opportunity to go down into the crypt which is supposed to be a great experience. Apparently, many Revolutionary War soldiers are buried down there. And we were headed back to Mike's because, well, the cannolis.
By the time we got back to the area, though, we realized we probably needed to start the next leg of our trip, so Stacie hopped off the train to go take care of Vaughn and get us cannolis for the road while I stayed on the train to head to the airport and pick up our rental car. At about 4PM, we were back together at the hotel, loaded up with luggage and headed to Martha's Vineyard.
Due to a fortunate happenstance, Stacie's uncles Steven and Jim were in the Northeast for various events - a Food Network Show where they got to meet some Food Network stars, a tour of beautiful homes in Rhode Island, and some work stuff. Since they were going to be here already, we coordinated to meet at Martha's Vineyard, so we were originally going to try to meet them at the ferry. Naturally, things got a bit complicated, so we just said that we'd meet at the hotel.
After sitting in traffic trying to free ourselves of Boston for about 45 minutes we were glad about this decision. Once we broke free we wound our way down through some beautiful country to the southeast Massachusetts coast line. We passed over rivers and through forests of trees that were setting the countryside on fire as they shed their summer green for winter's brown. We made it to the ferry, and though we hadn't made a reservation, we were fine to stand by for the 6.15PM ferry. Who shows up a few cars behind us? That's right - couldn't have done that if we had planned it.
Soon we all have our cars aboard the boat and we're upstairs catching up with Steven and Jim and looking forward to a great few days on the Vineyard. I carried Vaughn around the ship when she got restless, and once again, she made friends with nearly everyone including a beautiful dog, a little boy named Cole who insisted he was a big boy now, and pretty much everyone else she smiled for. That little girl is just a bright spot in many people's day and it couldn't make mine and Stacie's hearts fill any more full.
We're staying at the Vineyard Square hotel in Edgartown, and though it is very dark on the island at night, we can tell that we're going to have a fun time exploring this town and much of the isalnd. We already ventured out a little for dinner to a pub just across from our hotel called The Newes from America Pub. I know what you're wondering. Did I get the award winning chowda?
I did.
The newly updated Chowda Scoreboard standings are:
- River House
- Anthem
- The Newes From America Pub
- Legal Seafood
I hope that didn't ruin your fantasy chowda score-keeping week.
No comments:
Post a Comment