Boston is a Busy City!

Written by Bob

"Boston is a busy city!" Matthew exclaimed as we emerged from the Back Bay subway station into a sea of people on the Boston streets during the morning rush hour. He would alternate between saying "Boston is a busy city!" and "Boston is an amazing city!" for the next ten minutes.

To get a jump start on our summer vacation week, I also took the preceding Friday off from work to take Matthew into Boston. He was all smiles as we rode the commuter rail from Grafton to Boston.

Our first stop of the day was Fenway Park for a tour. We got to walk around much of the stadium, including the Green Monster seats. Matthew listened very diligently to the tour guide and shouted out "100 years!" when asked how old Fenway was. For the rest of the day, he re-told the story of Ted Williams' 502 foot home run that hit the straw hat of a man who was (supposedly) sleeping in the bleachers. After the tour was a trip to the souvenir store where Matt eventually relented on "needing" a $80 jersey and settled for a $15 helmet instead.

After Fenway, we ate lunch at Matt's favorite fine dining location - McDonald's. Then, it was on to the Green Line subway and on our way to North Station, home of the TD Garden and Sports Museum. When I was a kid, the museum was in the Cambridgeside Galleria, but it has since moved to the Garden. Matt was very excited to see the jersey of his favorite player, Tim Thomas (he refuses to believe that Thomas doesn't want to play for the Bruins this season).

We also saw a Rajon Rondo made out of Matt's favorite toy (Legos), and a bobblehead as big as Matthew holding up the Stanley Cup.

The highlight of the museum was the behind-the-scenes arena tour. We got to go into the visiting locker rooms for both hockey and basketball. Matthew was once again a great listener, and learned that the biggest locker in the hockey locker room is for the goalie because he has the most equipment, and the biggest locker in the basketball locker room is for the star player so that he can hold post game press conferences at his locker without spilling into his teammates space. 

We got to walk onto the arena floor, where the ice was covered and the crew was still cleaning up from an Aerosmith concert the night before. Matt got to see the banners hanging from the rafters, and pretend he was a hockey player crashing into the boards. We also got to see the Celtics' basketball hoops and parquet floor in storage under the arena.

After the tour, we took a quick trip to the Cambridgeside Galleria to get a birthday present for Mom, and then it was time to take the train back home. As the train pulled away from South Station, Matthew said "This is a wonderful day and I earned it!".