Boston Day Five

So, this Red Sox experience started out almost bad, got better, then went to wicked awesome!! Landon got out of his class a little sooner than expected, which was good because we needed to get to Fenway Park early to make sure we got the hugely discounted military-standing room tickets. We decided to ride the metro train to the game and had a heck of a time getting to a station - we drove around Boston's North End at least a dozen times which with traffic and our confused state made us about an hour off schedule. We finally found the metro station we needed to be at, parked the car, and rode the metro to Fenway Park - which is an adventure all by itself! We had to change trains twice and each time we were packed in so tightly and holding on for dear life when the train got started. That first lurch forward really acquainted me with the Bostonians standing next to me!

We finally get to Fenway Park and to the right gate to buy our military tickets. Though the game hadn't started yet, we were quite a bit late for when those tickets are offered and worried that the tickets would be all sold out (that's the almost bad part - scalpers were selling for $50 each outside the park!). Luckily, since it wasn't a hugely popular game (as in against the Yankees), there were tickets left and we attempted to find a seat.

Being standing room tickets, we didn't have guaranteed seat. So we just had to find two seats and if/when the seat owners came along, we'd move to different seats. We tried to sit in areas where we thought people might not have bought tickets for or where they just might not show up. We started off on the 1st base side of the field, farther down by outfield on the lower level. Before we were moved we did get to see JoJo sing the National Anthem and Bill Cosby came to throw the first pitch!

After being kicked out of seats a second time, we found a designated standing room section just in between home and 1st base - a not bad view of the game despite the standing part (we had to hold Grant, too, because we had checked his stroller at the gate).

So here comes the wicked awesome part.

We were standing there for all of five minutes when a lady with an official-looking Red Sox shirt taps me on the shoulder and asks how many are in my party. I reply three (counting Grant) and she asks me to follow her because she could get us good seats. I silently wondered if there was some catch, but we followed because - hey, good seats. These seats were the best!! They were behind home plate about 20 rows up and we had the best view of the game! Our jaws just dropped and I asked what we did to deserve this - she just said "Enjoy the game!" She later told us that they had extra tickets for that good section and she was just walking around looking for someone to fill them that needed them. When she saw us standing there holding Grant, she knew we'd appreciate a seat. How lucky for us - we were in the right place at the right time!

the view from our new, improved seats-though this picture makes it look like we are farther back than we really are

We had a fun time watching the game in our new seats - the Red Sox won easily against Texas (9-0) and my favorite part was singing "Sweet Caroline" after the 7th inning stretch. Getting home was long, but well worth the excitement of that day!