Well, I haven’t wrote anything since right after the Olympics were done, and if you have a problem with that, oh well. Doesn’t bother me I’m sweet. How sweet? Well I’m so cool, that I’m about to head to a destination much cooler than Grande Prairie for the second time in 6 months. Next Tuesday, Brant Stillborn, Darren “Daddy of the Bun” Walker and myself will be heading down to Phoenix, Arizona for some leisure, golf, hockey,baseball, and most of all drunken debauchery. Who knows what is going to happen south of the border in the next couple weeks, but my guess is that we won’t be invited back for a very long time. However, I can’t write a whole article on a trip that hasn’t even taken place yet, so I’ve decided to tell ya a little bit about the place I went to 6 months ago. A place I like to call my future home, Boston, Massachusetts.
I did it!!
Now I’m not sure how many of the things I want to do before I die that I will actually do, but hopefully it will be most of them. I mean, I’m no famous golfer like my good friend Luke who is already a celebrity and living large, but I’d like to think that anything is possible. I may not ever get to raise the Stanley Cup over my head after battling a tough 7-game final, but whos to say that I’ll never get to kiss it? And I may not ever be a celebrity, but why couldn’t I ever get the chance to throw the first pitch at a MLB game? I think I’ll meet Wayne Gretzky one day and be able to chat with him 1 on 1 about hockey.And you never know, I just might meet Megan Fox one day and marry her. This past fall I was able to achieve a personal goal I set with myself, though not a lifetime one. It was manufactured a few years ago when I fell in love with the Red Sox. I wanted to go to the most historic ball park in the continent and watch my favorite baseball team play. As you can tell in the above picture, I did it.
It started as a kind of joke with a buddy, “Hey wanna come to Boston with me?” And it ended as what will be one of the best weeks of my life. We booked hotels and flights, and I soon realized this was actually going to happen. The trip kept on getting closer and closer, and it was like waiting for Christmas as a kid all over again. Finally the time came, and we flew out of Edmonton, destination Boston. A five hour flight later, a wide-eyed cab ride to the hotel, and before I knew it I was sitting on Harvard campus enjoying cold brew. Or as Bostonites would call it, “Hahvahd”. Love that accent.
The next day was a rainy one, but unreal none-the-less. We made the hour long trip out to Foxboro for the Week 3 game between the New England Patriots, and the Atlanta Falcons. Gillette Stadium. Wow. What more can I say? The biggest arena/stadium I’ve ever seen with my own eyes for sure. And a way different atmosphere than a FL game. Not dissing, but come on. It’s not even close. Ever hear 70,000 people cheer loud, non-stop the entire game? No? Then you’ve never been to an NFL game. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced, other than sex for the first time, but we won’t go there. I could tell already, this was going to be the SECOND coolest thing I’m going to see this trip. Because the next three night involved a Red Sox game, another Red Sox game, and you guessed it. A third Red Sox game.
Hey Tom, where’s Giselle?
The next day started with a walk-about tour of the entire campus of Harvard University, or at least what we thought was all of it. That place is like its own little city inside of Boston. With the Harvard owning all the surrounding apartments/houses/condos along with MIT, the entire river front seems like one gigantic school. After buying some swag we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Red Sox game #1. When the cab dropped us off about a block away from Fenway, it seemed like I was just in any other large city, with a bunch of people walking down the street in Red Sox gear. Then I saw it, and it was amazing. Up the next street were the lights of Fenway. I walked toward it like a moth to a porch light, unaware of the honking car horns and busy street corners. I was being called home. We got closer and there i was, just like I had imagined it from TV. First there was Lansdowne street, right behind the Green Monster. Then, Yawkey Way. With all the championship banners hanging outside, and the multitude of stores, bars, and hot chicks, I thought to myself “This is all I need, I never need to leave”. It was truly amazing. We got our tickets scanned and went to find our seats. On our way we walked by an exit out into the seat and saw that the pre game warmup equipment was still on the field. We wandered out and saw the tail end of the Red Sox batting practice. We walked up right behind the visitors dug out and watched David “Big Papi” Ortiz smash a half-a-dozen homers out into right-centre field. I was in Heaven. Next we walked by Pesky’s Pole out in right field. No picture today though, didn’t bring a marker to sign it. That would have to wait. And then it was time to go sit in the most well known seat in baseball. We ventured out to high right field field and sat in the chair where, supposedly, Ted Williams hit the longest recorded homer at Fenway, 502 feet from home plate. Then we got to our seats and there we watched the Blue Jays spank the Sox in just 6 and 1/2 innings 11-3. The game was called on account of rain, and boy was it pouring! We ended the night at a local pub with a few fellow Canadians who made the trip from Toronto to watch the Jays. How we got back to the hotel si a mystery to Carter and I until this very day. The only proof we have are these two pictures from the cab.
Drunk?
Yep!
The seat beyond Williamsburg, 502ft from Home Plate!
The next two days involved a lot more sight seeing, alot more drinking, and a lot more baseball. We checked out Boston University, walked around MIT for a bit, and took the famous Duck boat tour around the river. The weather was beautiful, and the people were nice. We even went to the place where everybody knows your name! We went to the zoo, museum, and checked out a few malls. We were also so privileged to witness Doc Halladay pitch a complete game shutout, which was unbelievable to be at live. Two days of touring around Boston, and two more Red Sox games, we thought “How could this trip get any better?” Well it turned out that the Boston Bruins were playing their home opener that Thursday night against the Washinton Capitals. What luck eh? So ya, after an NFL game and 3 MLB games, we went to an NHL game. Ovechkin got a couple ginos, the game was hard-fought and fast, and we consumed many more beers. And to boot, we learned that the 2 guys sitting beside us held those two season seats for a mere $1000 each. WTF? I was going to have a hard time coming home. I’m pretty sure I told carter on more than one occasion that he would be taking the return trip home, alone.
TD Garden. Canada Represent!
With only one day left in Beantown, and nothing planned, we tried deciding on something to do. We were watching TV, and saw highlights of the Red Sox game that happened while we were at the Bruins game. It turned out that the Braves were in town for the last series of the regular season. So what did we do? Well I’m glad you asked. That’s right, game number 4 bitches. We went to our sixth straight major sporting event in a row. Now, being a guy and a sports fan, most likely, can you ask for a better trip? I’ll tell you one thing, this one is going to be hard to beat. So we spent our last day relaxing at the hotel and made our way down to Fenway, one last time. Turns out it was fan appreciation night. To make a long story short, and to spare you with many exclamation points and capital letters of excitement, I walked onto the field (dirt warning track right in front of the red sox dugout), shook hands with Jason Varitek and Dustin Pedroia, and got my picture with Kevin “Yoooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu” Youkilis. It was like the icing on the cake. I met players, walked on the field, signed Peskys Pole, and watched my boy, Jonathan Papelbon come in for the save. What a game, what a ballpark, what a city, what a trip.
Yoooooooooouuuuuuuuu
The Dropkick Murphys put it best in “I’m Shippin Up to Boston”. Although I am neither a sailor, or will I be trying to retrieve my wooden leg that I lost climbing up the top sail. But mark my words; I’ll be back. This article may have sounded like a lot of bragging, and you know what? It was! I still can’t believe what I did back in September-October of 2009. I will remember it for the rest of my life. And I suggest to you, that if you ever get the chance, go to Boston. It will amaze you. If you want to see any more pictures of Beantown, leave a comment. Address it Attn: Darren Walker. He has had the picture for months, yet theyre still not up. Maybe they’ll look better on the new and improved Bun. That’s gotta be why they’re not up yet. Right? Well here’s one that’s different than all the rest i posted. This one was taken specifically for the Bun. Enjoy.
Northeastern USA has now been tainted
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