Boston was a really great city to visit in those first days of our tour. Many people like to say that Montreal and Boston are two cities that really look alike. Indeed, Boston is as nice as Montreal to discover. We both are really passionate with history so we had a great time following the freedom trail that follows the path of independence through the city of Boston. Cobb’s burying ground, Bunker Hill monument and the Boston common are some highlights of this tour that we really enjoyed. Also we had to go eat at Quincy market and complete the meal with a cannoli from Mike’s pastry!
1st of July: Canada day! We met up with Mikael and Catherine, two friends from Montreal, at the Samuel Adams brewery for a visit with beer tasting at the end! After that we jumped by Doyle’s, a restaurant opened in 1882 used in famous movies like 21 and Mystic River.
After the beer and Clam Chowder, off to Fenway Park. It is the oldest ballpark still active in the MLB! They call it: America’s most beloved ballpark. We’d like to thank Mikael and Catherine that offered us the tickets to the game to help us on our tour! Arriving at Fenway, you feel all the history surrounding the place. You can feel the hype of the fans just by walking around the ballpark seeing all the Red Sox shops or by hitting the bleacher bar: a bar where you can see the field through a fence. The bar was full; it was still 0-0 between the USA and Belgium at the world cup. Even the Red Sox where broadcasting the game on the giant screen before the ballgame!
What can we say about Fenway: the green monster, the old wooden seats, the scoreboard on the left field, etc. A ballpark visited by so many baseball fans and so close to Montreal. Old stadiums also have disadvantages: from places in the grand stand, you have columns obstructing the view but it is a part of the game they say!
About the game, the Red Sox played the cubs. Another famous team with fans that travelled a lot to this game to see their team play in Fenway! We had a good pitching duel and the Cubs defense did some outstanding plays including a diving catch at right field in front of us. Tied 1-1 in the 9th, the Red Sox sent in Koji Uehara who couldn’t hold it and the Cubs scored the winning run (2-1) while the Red Sox couldn’t move the bases in the bottom of the 9th.
Red Sox fans had to wait 86 year for their dramatic World Series in 2004. Since then, they won in 2007 and last year in 2013. This team and this stadium will always stay notorious and people from across the country will come to visit even in the tough years. The sox and their fans are really proud of those 3 championships in 10 years and it’s good for the team. We’ve seen so many: 2013 Champions t-shirts. The fans can also relate to great players on and off the field like David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. Love them or not, every baseball fan must travel to this historic ballpark at least once in his life to attend a game and at the end of the 8th inning join the fans and the voice of Neil Diamond to sing Sweet Caroline! 1 down 29 to go we’re off to the Yankee stadium!
PS: for those hardcore Red Sox fan, you can see in the picture above the security guy that you can see on the famous 2013 World Series picture lifting his arms!
Montreal on the road 