Red Sox Nation

Our tour guide Steve
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Apart from being home to some of the most die hard sports fans in the world, Boston is also one the most enjoyable cities we have been to yet. Even though it's a big city it doesn't really have that big city feel that comes along with it. We had a great couple of days there wandering around the city and mixing it with the local squirrels in Boston Common.

Boston is also full of American historical landmarks, most of which can be found on the Freedom Trail. We decided to take a walking tour which came complete with a guide dressed in period costume named Steve! Steve was great, and even gave us a little extra on the tour after we finished off all the historical stuff by taking us through the ritzy part of town, Beacon Hill, home to Senator John Kerry (it obviously pays to be in politics in America) and famous author Robin Cook.

On the road again
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We stayed a little out of the city itself choosing to camp out in Cambridge which is home to Harvard University. A lot of smart people out and about, I think my IQ went up just wandering around the streets! Cambridge is just a quick ride on the subway from Boston, meaning that we were able to ditch the car for a couple days which made getting around a lot easier, as well as improving both our carbon footprint and relationship at the same time!  As well as visiting all the historical sites in the city we also made sure to take in the cheesy ones as well, having lunch at the Cheers pub and taking a tour of the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park. The Cheers pub was cool, it looks exactly the same from the outside but once you get inside that's where it ends. Apparently they never actually taped any of the show inside the pub and did all the taping on a set in LA! We didn't really mind, obviously some people do though as they have also built another pub down the road that's an exact match with the one from the show! Anyway the beer was flowing and the food was great so we were happy!

Long and windy road
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Straight after lunch we headed down to the main shopping strip in town to check out what bargains could be found in this great city! I don't know if it was the beer or the ridiculous amount of nachos that we ate for lunch but we must have been on some sort of high because before we knew it Em and I had picked ourselves up a pair of Campers each! Campers, for anyone not in the know, are Emma's favourite brand of shoes. The most comfortable and coolest on the face of the earth (according to Emma that is) and anyone who knows Emma knows that she is an afficiado when it comes to shoes! Anyway Emma assures me that we got that them at a great price!

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After maxing out our credit card on the Campers (just kidding!) we took a brief stop at a local cafe. Well actually, it was a high class restaurant but I didn't  figure this out until after I had dragged Emma in there assuring her that it was a cafe. Mother Nature was calling pretty loudly at the time, so I wasn't really thinking straight! I think the waiter was also a bit surprised to see us after I asked whether it was fine for us to just have a couple of coffees, but he obliged anyway. Obviously all this stress must have taken it out of Emma as she decided that she didn't want a coffee anymore and was going to go for a sparkling water instead as she was feeling a bit thirsty. So the waiter went ahead and took our orders and was back in no time with my miniature sized coffee and Emma's one litre bottle of 'Perrier' sparkling water! You read right, one litre! I'd hate to see what they would bring out if you were ordering for the table! Emma did her best though and with a little help from me she managed to get through the whole thing, without even taking a trip to the restroom!  As I said before, we also managed to fit in a visit to Fenway Park, home to the World Champion Boston Red Sox. We found it a bit confusing that they call them the 'world champions' when the only teams that play in the 'World Series' are teams from America, but hey we weren't going to argue with a whole city of Red Sox supporters so just went along with it. You have to give their fans credit though, before they won their last championship in 2004 they hadn't won it for eighty six years! All through that time the Red Sox nation stuck with them (obviously not the same ones) and a seat at Fenway Park was still the hardest (and most expensive) ticket to get in baseball.

lighthouse- house!
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The area around Fenway Park is also amazing, basically the whole area is devoted to the Red Sox with a souvenir shop on every corner and sports bars on every other corner. It was in one of these sports bars that we found ourselves knocking the head off a couple of frothy ones at 11.30 in the morning!! Don't worry, we're not becoming alchos, it's just that we went in there to get a coffee before our tour started and there were already people sitting at the bar drinking and we didn't want them to think a couple of Aussies couldn't keep up with them! Emma finished the beer off even quicker than the water the day before, it was amazing to watch!

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The tour itself was great, although I was hoping to see more of the behind the scenes stuff and maybe get to walk on the famous pitch, but it wasn't to be. I shouldn't complain though, we did get to sit in the press box and get views of the park from seats that would usually cost upwards of $400 a game! It's pretty crazy stuff, to become a season ticket holder you actually have to sign up for seven seasons which can end up costing up to $320,000. A little bit more than Brooky Oval to watch the mighty Sea Eagles run around!

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It was a great couple of days in Boston and I'd definitely recommend the place to anyone travelling through these parts. Next we're off to Cape Cod to do some island hopping over to Martha's Vineyard before heading off to visit Emma's cousin Sarah. Then our last stop on our adventure (the American part anyway) is New York City!