April 28: Boston, MA

Today was all about education, and since I'm a generous person, I've decided to share the knowledge I gained. But first, the learning objectives.

After reading this blog post, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the significance of the Red Seat
2. Name the four basic ingredients of beer
3. Know the death toll at the Boston Massacre
4. Effectively deal with a napkin that is sticking to the bottom of your drink
5. Explain why the northeast sucks.

And this will be on the test.

I had originally planned on making the 9 AM tour at Fenway, but I've been getting progressively lazier, so I had to settle for the 10 AM. The tour was pretty informative. For example, they told the story of the longest home run hit there. It's marked by a single red seat.

Kinda tough to see here, click on the picture for the larger version

They also gave us some history about the Green Monster. Back in the 30's, it had an additional screen added to the top because too many home runs were going over the wall and breaking windows across the street. There's seats on the Monster now, but those were only put in a few years ago.

Yaz's foul pole

It was starting to get pretty cold, so I had to get some hot chocolate before my next stop: the Sam Adams brewery. I liked the tour for a few reasons: it was free, it was concise, and they had beer. The "tour" part was only about 20 minutes, but it was also pretty informative. They even had us eat some barley and crush some hops so we could get an idea of the different flavors and aromas that go into the beer. (The other two main ingredients: water and yeast). I didn't know this, but apparently there's ale yeast, and lager yeast, and that's what decides if a beer is an ale or a lager. After that, there was 40 minutes of beer tasting. We had the Boston lager, summer ale, and brick red (only available in Boston). I also picked up a bottle and a sweet opener at their gift shop.

Utopia, $150 a bottle (this one was empty)

Lunch was at Legal Sea Foods. I of course had to try the chowder, it was solid, no Splash Cafe though. The fisherman's trio was damn good. It's fried shrimp, scallops and clams. I've never had fried clams before, but this was pretty amazing. It practically melted in your mouth.



After lunch I wanted to walk the Freedom Trail, which is a path through the city that takes you to a bunch of important historical sites. I got to see the cemetery where Paul Revere and others are buried, and the site of the Boston Massacre. By the way, only 5 people died there. Can that really be considered a massacre? I would think you'd need at least 10 before it qualifies.

Old City Hall, which now houses a Ruth's Chris

Anyway, the rain and the cold just kept getting worse (and yes, this is why the northeast sucks), so I gave up on the Freedom Trail about 2/3 of the way through and decided to find Cheers.



This place was apparently the inspiration for the show. Originally called the Bull and Finch Pub (or something like that), they changed the name to Cheers to capitalize on the popularity of the show. I had to go in and have a drink. Sadly, everyone didn't know my name, but the people were all pretty nice and happy to converse. I think this may have been because it's pretty much all tourists that go there now, so it feels a little like an airport bar. I was talking with a married couple and a guy from Virginia named Sam. At one point, Sam asked me for the salt shaker, and he proceeded to sprinkle some salt on his napkin. I asked him what he was doing, and he explained that keeps a wet napkin from sticking to your glass. This would've come in handy earlier, as I was having this very problem at lunch.

Then it was off to Cambridge where I saw this



and this



and ate this.


Picture uploading is slow here, so I'll remain a day behind. Perhaps a double hall of fame post tomorrow.