Final Tour of the Trip

With no alarm set, it was another “late” wake-up this morning at 8:30. We got ready, packed our stuff, and shared the éclair from Mike’s Pastry. The éclair was good, but not as good as the cannoli. To take it over the top, I would have put more chocolate on top of the éclair. We checked out of the hotel and got subway directions to Fenway Park. Unfortunately the subway line was closed at the stop prior to Fenway, but they had a shuttle bus to continue the route. We got on the shuttle bus and waited for 10-15 minutes before it took off. As we pulled away we discovered that we could have easily walked to Fenway from the stop we got out at and I think we actually had a longer walk from the Fenway stop. We felt kind of dumb that we hadn’t noticed how close we were.

We got to the Fenway tour ticket counter and found they still had tickets available for the Noon tour and that we saved $8/person for the tour for the military discount. We had about 45 minutes to kill so I found there was a virtual geocache at the park that we walked to. We went back to the pre-shop where the tour starts and asked if they had a bathroom. They did not, but the guide said there was one at the Marshall’s around the corner on the second floor. Tom stayed behind and I went to the Marshall’s. I have never seen a line at a bathroom inside a retail store before, but there was like 4 women in line with 3 already occupying the stalls. It was 11:47 by the time I made my way out of the bathroom and I started to speed walk back to the pro shop. As I was rounding the corner Tom sent me a text asking where I was because the tour was starting. What the heck? The tour was supposed to start at Noon.

I couldn’t believe the size of this tour group. If I thought the groups we saw on the Freedom Trail were big yesterday, this one didn’t even compare. I bet it was twice as big! At the start of the tour I was feeling irritated by it, but by the end it was ok. We went into the visitor’s locker room and it was super unimpressive. I mean I know it’s the oldest park in Major League Baseball, but it really is bare bones. After we had streamed through the locker room they took us up and sat in the lower grandstand. This is where the tour guide gave us most of the information we needed on the park. From there we went and sat in the seats on the green monster and then walked up to the upper grandstand and walked around to right field. We basically got to see many different vantage points of the field which was nice. We also went through the press box. I have been on the Miller Park tour in Milwaukee and thought that tour was better. Maybe I’m just biased.

After the tour we went to a restaurant called Cask ‘n Flagon (https://casknflagon.com/). Tom had a chicken sandwich and I had the pulled pork. Both were very good, but it was the blandest coleslaw I have ever had in my life. Like there was no flavor what-so-ever. It was like eating raw cabbage (yet I think I ate almost all of it). We walked out of their feeling stuffed, but content.

We took the T back to our hotel where we make a quick bathroom break and then walked back to the U.S.S. Constitution. We got there with a half hour to get on the ship and look around before they closed at 4:00. I think the most interesting thing I learned about the ship was that Active Duty Navy personnel are assigned to the ship for 2-3 year tours. We talked to one member that this was his first duty assignment! I can’t imagine that being a first duty assignment. The next duty assignment is probably a real wake-up call. We looked around the Visitor’s Center for a little bit and then walked back to our hotel to grab our luggage and order a Lyft to take us to the airport.

We got checked-in and through security in no time and found we had a couple of hours to kill. What a great time for me to catch up on the blog since I hadn’t written yesterday’s entry yet. I even had time to write this entry since our flight was delayed for 40 minutes due to weather. I’m going to make the post before we board and hope I don’t need to edit it later with any crazy stories of travel home.

Overall this has been a great vacation/adventure. We covered a lot of ground, ate a lot of food, tried a bunch of new beer, hiked a bunch of miles, found some geocaches, visited family, and made a bunch of great memories. Like with most vacations the time went by fast, but yet it feels like we’ve been gone for a month.

Stats of the Day:

Fenway Park Tour Cost w/Military Discount: $17/person
Caches Found: 2 Virtual Caches
Steps Walked as of 6:40pm EST: 14,957