Boston
We went to Boston the first week of August. The planning for this was unique as the first step was securing tickets to watch these young men perform in one of three cities. See, the closest city to us in which they are performing is Chicago, but the timing of those shows did not work for our schedule. Boston (well, Foxborough) won out, and that was a good thing because there’s very a lot of things to see in the area!
We made our home base Salem for the first few nights. At least three of our group were excited for the witchy, ghosty experience. Two of our group could take it or leave it, but that didn’t matter because Salem was also filled with history (they had their quatercentenary parade [!] on the day we arrived) and good eats. We were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed being in Salem. It was more of a destination and less of an “interesting place to homebase” than we expected.
One of those days we took the train in to Boston. We walked The Freedom Trail and saw lots of history things. We also took a break at the Treehouse Brewing beer garden near Faneuil Hall. They had a lot of more highly-regarded options, but it was a hot day and the Komorebi was perfect for the moment. We also did a quick “campus tour” at Harvard before training back to Salem.
Patrick and Shawn swung by for a half of a day in Salem and it was lovely to see them. I’d share a picture, but I don’t know if they’re weird about that. 🤗
Four of us drove out to Halibut State Park to get a bit of ocean time. It was a nice place for a quick bit of fresh air.
Then we moved locations to near Gillette Stadium1 in Foxborough to attend two nights of BTS concerts. I wouldn't say that I'm a proper fan of BTS, but my three daughters are mega-fans. They put on quite a show. In addition to the music there was a giant stage, giant screens, fifty dancers, and light sticks programmed down to the seat. And the entertainment was heightened by the incredible band-fan dynamic. One of our daughters made a setlist playlist named “the best 5 hours of my life”, so that speaks for itself.
On our last day we took a quick trip down to Providence, Rhode Island, since it was only fifteen miles or so from our hotel. We visited the John Brown House, walked around Brown University a bit (“campus tour!”), had another great meal, and saw a quick few blocks of Federal Hill.
On our final night this big baseball fan got to experience something pretty cool: Fenway Park. It was awesome to see and a great atmosphere for a game.
And now it’s Saturday a week later and we have a water puddle under our refrigerator.
🎶 Back to life, back to reality 🎶
