Baseball, Boston

People who have or were kids that know the book "Make Way for Ducklings" need to go to the Boston Commons and see the duck boats (not the tours) and the duckling statues. Fanueil Hall (see entry) is good for food, shopping, and is close to many sites, such as the Long Wharf with the aquarium and Harbor tours. This is a good way to see the city's downtown skyline. Anyone with even a minor interest in baseball HAS to see Fenway Park.

Quick Tips:

Try to visit outside the snowy season. There are some neat things during the winter (skating at the Public Garden, First Night), but the city often does a poor job managing snow conditions. The strange street plan make ploughing tough and the Green T trolley lines can get bogged down on the streets as well. Plus the outdoors feeling of the city is much nicer when the trees are in bloom.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walk, walk, walk. The Freedom Trail is a walking tour that goes from the State Building to Bunker Hill. Just follow the painted red line on the sidewalks (although sometimes it's easy to lose the trail). Besides that, it's still a good walking city, although the T subway system is often convenient. The Green Line runs frequently, but be careful you're on the right line if you're leaving downtown or the Back Bay.

During my years in Boston, this was my favorite place to eat hands down. Cheap, good Tex-Mex/Cajun food. The lines tend to be long (no reservations accepted) and the place is pretty noisy, but the food is good.

My favorite plate is actually an apetizer--quesedllia with avocado. Huge slices of avocado cooked right in the tortilla and cheese. The fajitas here are very good too.

WARNING: As much as I love the place, a friend of mine hated it. Not so much for the food, but he said the palce was a health inspector's paradise. He happened to work above the place, so he may have had a good perspective of things. That doesn't keep me from eating here though when I have the chance.

When the first Legal Seafoods first started popping up, they were situated in the Boston/New England area. As I think about Legal, I can easily remember four loacations in the Boston area: Logan Airoprt, the Park Plaza area, and two in the Copley Place/Prudential Center mall complex.

Legal has good seafood at rather decent prices. They change their menu slightly every few months. My personal fave my last few times at Legal was the salmon burger: salmon ground up and seasoned and served on a bun like a normal burger. They seem to take pride in their clam chowder at Legal, and it's a good buy as a starter.

Most of the Legals have a somewhat rustic, fisherman's look to them--buoys, pictures of boats, and stuffed fish adorn the walls. The Legal in the Colpley mall (above the movie theater) is more of a trendy-looking bar, and I remember the prices being higher here. The menu in the bar is also different. The other Legal in the Prudential section of the mall is better in my mind, and fits into the chain's atmosphere.

Boston is a big seafood town. Legal is a convenient, affordable way to experience seafood in Beantown.

I lived in Boston for six years. A displaced Yankee fan in the heart of enemy territory. That never stopped me from going to Fenway or from having a good time there. Even when the Yanks were in town, I've never had any trouble at the park.

Fenway is the only park I'd suggest getting a higher seat instead of getting up close. That's partially because an upper deck box is a novelty. I don't think there are even 500 seats in the upper deck (not including luxury boxes or the likes). I am dying to sit in the new seats over the Green Monster. The roof boxes though offer a great view looking down on everything.

Unlike Yankee or Shea Stadiums, Fenway has real seats in the bleachers. The cheap NY seats are benches. I guess that's necessary as a large chunk of all seating is in the bleachers. Being both the oldest and smallest park in the Majors means that the prices are among the highest in the league. The size of the place made the designers stuff as much as they could into the small area. Therefore all the grandstand seats are pretty cramped.

The size though also means many seats are right on the action. However there are many obstructed view seats. These tickets go for cheap, and you can often find a place to move to once you're inside.

The park is home to some of baseball's most famous quirks. The Green Monster, the Pesky Pole, the centerfield triangle and the Citgo sign. There's talk of either renovating or replicating Fenway, but it is in every plan to keep these beloved landmarks in the new design. There's always a buzz around the place, as with all parks with good fans.

The Sox make due with what room they have. There are enough concessions inside and decent food. The Bostonian staple Legal Seafood chowder is now in the park, and Papa Gino's Pizza as well. Regular ballpark food is also available.

There's not much parking in the immediate area. The "T" subway stops nearby in Kenmore Square (Kenmore and Lansdowne Street behind the Green Monster are heavy-traffic nightlife areas) and the commuter rail stops nearby. Kenmore is also a mass transit bus hub. The moral of the story is mass transit is the way to go ('course when I was living in Boston, I was just two blocks away :D).

With Kenmore and Lansdowne so close to the park, there's a lot of entertainment to choose from after games. Bars, clubs and restaurants abound. Who's on First, below the huge Twin Enterprises souvenir store (which offers great prices on out-of-style ballcaps during the off season) seems to be a favorite. My personal favorites though are Jillian's bar and billiards and the now-defunct Mama Kin's. The latter was owned by Aerosmith and had some good music acts on occasion. I don't know what's in the space now, but I would hope it still hosts live music.

The Fanueil Hall area will satisfy everyone in your family. Restaurants, shopping, activites for the kids, and historical sites all highlight the area.

Many will say that Boston is a walking town to begin with. That's true, but with that said, there's still a lot crammed into the area around Fanueil Hall. The marketplace is situated in three old warehouse buildings (think of small versions of the warehouse at Camden Yards) and offers various shops from mall staples such as Discovery Channel, Banana Republic and Sam Goody's to small art galleries. The center building is almost solely a food court, offering things from seafood to bagels to pizza to chinese to pastries. The outer walkways (new glass extentions to the historic old stone warehouse) of the center building is lined with carts selling toys and chatzkahs.

The market area also has a number of sit-down eateries and bars for nightlife. The Rack is an upscale billiards hall and bar, The Comedy Connection, Froggies and Pizzeria Uno's all add to the night life. The best of these places though is Durgin Park, a restaurant that's been there pretty much forever and has the reputation to boot.

Between the buildings there are often many street entertainers around. Magicians, musicians, and Ben Franklin (why he's here and not in Philly, I can't tell you) are those that can be found most often.

Just a short walk under and past I-93 is the New England Aquarium. Of the aquariums I've been to around the world, this is my favorite. The large layout with a penguin pool at the bottom and a large circular reef/shark tank in the middle offers a lot to see. The aquarium (as the other boatlines that line the Long Wharf) offers seasonal whale watching trips. Sightseeing cruises around the harbor and to some of the islands are fun and are available from the wharf opposite the aquarium.

During the end of the 1990s, The New England Patriots played in Foxboro Stadium while always keeping their eyes on something better. Foxboro was an uncomfortable dump, with most of the seating on metal benches with no backs. A number of plans were discussed, from building a new stadium in Foxboro to a stadium in South Boston, to moving the team down to Hartford, Connecticut. In the end, it was the former plan that won out.

When Gillette opened in May, 2002, it was called CMGI Field. CMGI went under and it became Gillette Stadium. The first two events in Gillette were soccer games, including a double-header with the U.S. facing the Dutch Men’s National Team. I was at both of these events.

You can tell this isn't the old Foxboro immediately. As you approached that stadium from Boston, you saw the seating sections and a two-story warehouse-looking structure that served as club seating and offices. One of the first things you see as you approach Gillette is "The Lighthouse," a metal skeletal representation of the traditional lighthouses that are famous along the New England coastline. Supposedly the lighthouse shoots a beam into the sky. The exteriors of the sidelines show off the large glass promenades with Patriot scenes visible on the inside wall.

On the inside, Gillette Stadium is just as attractive. Situated below the Lighthouse you see the lower walkway is an arched bridge and by field level, there are sculpted rocks, again made to look like a New England coastal scene.

For watching an actual sporting event, this place is much better. The benches are a thing of the past. Where old Foxboro had minimal scoreboard and information facilities, Gillette has two large information/video boards; one in each end zone. They also have on the lip of the first tier an information strip which rolls scores, calls for cheers, and advertisements.

The facilities and walkways are better here too. There used to be one concourse with stairs leading up and down to the seating areas. Now the various levels have their own, wide walkways (although for these first soccer games, the upper levels were still closed off).

Where Foxboro housed few permanent vending facilities, the new stadium has counters all over the place. The cuisine styles are numerous, from local cuisine (i.e. seafood) to pizza to McDonalds. In the past, the Patriots/Revolution "Pro Shop" was its own seperate building that was inaccessable if you were in the stadium watching the game. Now it's built into the stadium itself, in the same corner as the Lighthouse, and is easy to visit during halftime. There are other merchandise counters throughout the park as well.

It may be coincidence that the new park opened around the same time the Revs and Pats made it to their respective championship games. Now that both teams are competitive though, it is nice to be able to watch the two teams in a state-of-the-art new facility.

When I was young, I remember going to the Wisconsin Dells and seeing these giant boat-looking trucks. I didn't get to ride one of the Dell Ducks that trip (I finally went through the Dells by duck in 2002), but the Ducks stuck in my mind.

So what does Wisconsin have to do with Boston? Well, in this case, ducks! Over the last ten years or so have been touring around Boston and up and down the Charles River.

The tours depart from the back entrance of the Pru Center, by the Huntington Avenue entrance to the mall. Tickets are sold in the mall itself, near the Levi's store. The land part of the tour takes you past many of the sites that trolley tours would. Some sites are Quincy Market, the Commons and Public Garden, and the Museum of Science. Once you pass the museum though, you go where no trolley has gone before.

It is here that the Duck goes down a ramp and into the river. It's a short ride up and down the Charles River along the Esplanade. Some of the drivers will let passengers steer the vehicle at this point, if they wish. There's nothing to hit, so there's little to worry about.

Just as the drivers have different opinions on letting passengers drive, they all have extremely different personalities. They all seem to have their own characters. Some dress as yacht captains, others in military fatigues, and still others as jungle explorers. The drivers are half the fun of the tours. They are humorous, and try to rouse up audience participation. For instance, since they are duck drivers, they try to get the passengers to quack on command, or when quacked at by people on the sidewalks.

The rides and drivers are entertaining. The idea is novel and the water part of the tour takes you where only a handful of the numerous Boston boat tours go (most go from the Long Wharf out east into the harbor, not west down the Charles). On the downside, these are military surplus vehicles and weren't made for comfort. The seats aren't too bad, but they are smelly diesel guzzlers. I also remember a report on WHDH-TV once pointing out that the drivers will often put entertainment ahead of fact. In a comparison between the duck tours and the enduring trolley tours, they found some duck drivers giving misinformation about major Boston area sites. Another major difference between the ducks and the trolleys is that you can get on and off the trolleys at any designated sites. Duck tours are non-stop and last about 90 minutes or so.

The Ducks are unique and offer a tour that no other tour company in Boston can. They are a fun way to kill an hour or so. If you're looking to learn stuff about Boston, or want to get to know Boston on a more intimate level though, it might be better to find a trolley stop.

The New England Aquarium is located right near Boston's Quincy Market. It's a quick walk under I-93 and even The Common and Public Garden are within long walking distance.

The Aquarium is a large cement structure on one of the downtown wharfs, although a few exhibits are on boats or barges berthed along the dock.

Inside, the penguins are one of the highlights inside the main aquarium building. When you walk through the lobby, the main floor is looking down on a large penguin pool, covering the whole floor of the building. Spectators can watch the birds climbing on the rocks and swimming with surprising grace across the pool. During the day, these birds get fed, and visitors are invited to watch.

The penguins may be one of the best parts of the aquarium, but there is much more to see. The building is large and spacious (but dark), and there are walkways close to the walls ramping up to the top of the building. There are displays along most of the walls as you walk up. Along the side you enter on, running the long length of the building, there are skeletons of various sea creatures, giving visitors an idea of the size of some of the aquatic life forms we have. On the two narrow sides are your typical fish tanks. These sides serve as the landings as though you are walking up a large staircase. On one such landing is small pool where people are invited to touch the animals on display.

Connected to one of the sets of landings is a large cylinder tank. There is a ramp around this tank, and people can walk up or down around it instead of the other walkways. This tank is a large reef habitat, which also houses numerous species of sharks. Many times you can observe aquarium employees diving in scuba suits into the pool in order to feed or check up on the inhabitants of the reef.

During the summer months and in the proper seasons, the aquarium offers whale watch tours aboard the Voyager hydrofoil. This whale watch seems to have better whale-finding technology than the others offered such tours offered in Boston. This is because it's not just a sightseeing endeavor for the aquarium, but these trips also allow the marine biologists do research on the whales.

This is one of my favorite aquariums in the world. Many of the others I have been to feel rundown or small. I don't feel that way about the New England Aquarium. Not only is this building large, but the space within is used pretty well. There is a section that focuses on conservation and the clean-up of the Bay, which this place does better than most of its peers. This is another touch that makes this place better in my eyes.