Big update: to Boston and Back

A little late in getting this update posted. It's taken me a while to get the process of downloading photos from my camera-phone and uploading them to Blogger, but I think I have got it together for this mega-post.

Last weekend was fabulous. We flew to Boston to see my brother Teige and his wife Becca, and go to a Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway and sit on the Green Monster. Totally great time. Here's how it all went down.

Thursday
G & I are miserable failures in our first attempt to get to LAX in our own car. The remote parking lot shuttle and of course our own lateness combined to make us miss our 12:15 flight. The following flight was overbooked, but we finally got on a 4:00 flight and got into Boston around 12:30. Cabbed it to the Omni Hotel from the airport which took about ten minutes, met Teige and squeezed in a few beers at the Beantown Pub just down the street. Becca picked the hotle and did an awesome job. The location was excellent, just around the corner from Quincy Market. The air conditioner conked out somewhere in the night, leaving the unfortunate Genevieve stuck in a hot 14th floor hotel room with two slumbering Sheehan boys. Becca had been under the weather so we weren't sure if she was even going to make it.

Friday
Got up and went off in search of Irish breakfast. Found it at a nearby pub, Kitty O'Sheas, part of a chain, I gather. They played the most random and bizarre assortment of music in the place -- like, John Sebastian followed by some French pop song followed by the Beastie Boys. Food was good, though, and it was followed by a couple of pints and the welcome news that Becca would, after all, be joining us. The it was off to the Harpoon Brewery for their "tour," which as it turns out consists of sitting at their lovely bar drinking free, freshly-brewed beer. As you can imagine this was very upsetting.


Harpoon Brewery "tour." Mmmmmmm.

Then it was off to the hotel to meet Becca and get on over to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox take on the evil-doers of all time, the Yankees. Let me get this straight -- I HATE the Yankees. HATE them beyond all reason. I've said it before and I'll say it again, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see Derek Jeter's face shoved into a belt-sander. So it was with grim determination that Teige and I suited up for the big game.


Pre-game. Take no prisoners. Shoot the wounded. Please note "Yankees Hater" caps.

Along the way the excellent signage work of the Transit Authority guided us swiftly to the ballpark.


Irony.

Outside the park all was hustle and bustle. Great area around Fenway, better in some ways then Wrigleyville. I don't remember this being the case in bygone days but now they close off Yawkey and fans can hang out on the street to smoke or grab a burger and go right back into the ballpark. Looked in vain for a "Jeter Swallows" sticker for my friend Mark.


Yawkey by day . . .

The Fenway Faithful had some good advice for Nomar:



. . . and plenty of love for my man Jeter:



Then it was into the park. The day had been hot and sticky but up on the Green Monster there was a nice breeze blowing. All the beer and sweating had made me fatigued, so I didn't booze up much during the game. Also, it must be said that the official scorecard at Fenway sucks. It's inside a Sox magazine and just printed on magazine paper, so it is hard to write on and flops around all over the place. Very aggravating. Threw mine in the trash after the fourth inning.


Fenway as seen from atop the Green Monster


Teige and Becca on the Monster

The game looked to be a Sox victory for sure, but Schilling had a rare bad outing and the bullpen didn't do him any favors when the Sox had come back to tie.


The Sox blow their lead and Teige is displeased.

So they lost, but we had a great time anyway. Millar hit three homers, which was a treat and shut up the jackasses who booed him after his first because of a bad play which wasn't his fault. Such a joy to hang with my bro and his wonderful wife. And to be in Fenway on top of it! What a marvelous old gem it is.

Had a few beers after the game at a local pub but I for one was thoroughly dehydrated and wasted; we were all kind of beat so we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday
Got to the lobby of the hotel and oh, yes, it is convention time. From our window in the hotel we could see the media trucks rolling in.


The media amass at Government Center, as seen from our hotel room.

The lobby was a mass of milling, confused delegates. I gathered from eavesdropping that the New Jersey delegation was housed at our hotel.


The Omni lobby filled with confused members of the New Jersey delegation.

Started our day by heading to the Eagle's Deli near Boston College. Great greasy-spoon cafeteria-style eating and plenty of it. It's a must-visit every time we go to Boston. Spent plenty of time there when Sean and Teige were in college and I'd go and visit them. Even ate the Godzilla Burger, which is like a pound of meat with a pound of fries. You used to get your picture on the wall if you finsihed it. They also offer another burger which offers FIVE pounds of meat and fries. If you finish it in one hour it's free. Great deal!


The glorious Eagle's Deli near BC. An absolute mecca for the underfed. Named #2 Best Place in the World to Pig Out, I kid you not, by the Travel Channel.

We were served by Stein the grumpy Eagle's deli guy. We were both wearing Yankees Hater caps, a fact I cheerfully pointed out to him. He regarded me with a baleful, withering look and went back to preparing my sandwich.


Stein.

At the brewery we had heard about an event called the "Hophead Throwdown," a beer tasting benefitting the MS Society, so of course it was a must. Drank some VERY hoppy beers; we only really liked a couple of them. Decided to go back down to Faneuil Hall and visit the Union Oyster House, another must-visit for us. The girls went shopping for a bit and Teige and I searched in vain for a long-sleeved Red Sox shirt, the likes of which I have imagined but never seen. (Finally did find the desired item at Moonlight Graham.)

Around Quincy Market the media were setting up for the big convention coverage. There was a heavy military and police presence. Something mildly unnerving about seeing armed soliders on every corner and Federal Protective Service Police (who ARE those guys?) swarming in the streets.


At Faneuil Hall, MSNBC crew prepare for Chris Matthews's bellowing coverage of the convention

Teige and I were walking around catching glimpses of the Sox game through open bar windows. What a baseball town Boston is. Every bar had little groups of people gathered outside the windows, attentively following the action. Pandemonium broke out when the A-Rod beaning/Varitek smackdown fight occurred. Plenty of "Kick his ass!" and more colorful terms were explosively expressed in broad New England accents. Personally I loved seeing A-Rod, that swaggering, egotistical, pretentious ass who bats like .162 with runners in scoring postion receiving what the MLB coverage delightfully terms "an old-fashioned hockey face wash." And in Boston, I wasn't alone.


An "old-fashioned hockey face wash."


The crowd at Quincy Market watches the Sox/Yanks game raptly, just after the big fight broke out.

As we strolled around we occasionally came across some poor actor dressed as a founding father trying to engage the tourists, generally unsuccessfully.


A child flees in horror from a founding father.

We went over the the Oyster House where we had a little seafood snack and watched the game in privacy for a bit -- there was nobody but us in the small dining room off the bar and a big-screen TV all to ourselves. It soon filled up with families including many screaming children. An umpire blew a call and Teige screamed "Bullshit!" And then realized there were little kids there and almost as loud, said "Sorry!" Everyone laughed their asses off. Eventually the screaming infants drove us next door to Hennessy's where we watched the rest of the game in relative comfort. An amazing end to the game as Bill Mueller hit a two-run shot in the ninth to win it for the Sox. Such rejoicing all over Boston! Strangers hugging each other, absolute celebration. Totally wonderful.

Finished off our day with a trip to Harvard Square and dinner at another must-visit, the Border Cafe for some kickass Tex-Mex. Then back to the hotel and a midnight drink at the Beantown Pub to celebrate Teige's 31st birthday.

Sunday
G and I got up very early -- around 6:00 am -- to catch our flight. After the debacle at LAX we wanted no mistakes. Got to the airport with no problems and thanked our stars we had decided on the early flight as the airport at 7:30 am was really starting to turn into a zoo with all the convention folks arriving and the attendant security concerns. Got on our plane and squeezed my ass into one of those asinine bulkead seats, slept fitfully for much of the flight and desperately tried to get blood flowing to my feet for the rest. The shuttle to our car at LAX was a 40-minute wait. We stopped at the fabulous Canter's deli and loaded up on deli food, came home, ate, and went to see The Bourne Supremacy, which was very effective, simultaneously relying on and defying the conventions of the genre.

Mostly, a day spent in a fog of "where am I?" "what time is it?" jet-lagginess.

Monday
See Mike buy Tivo. See Mike unpack Tivo and install. See Mike curse. Curse, Mike, curse! See Tivo's program guide not work. See Mike curse some more.