My in-laws live in Akron, OH. We see them every year, when they visit the Cape for 2 weeks in September. And it's not a quick hello or a dinner here and there, it's every minute not at work or sleeping.
So, it's not like we don't see them. But they are in their 80s! They flew out to Boston this past weekend to meet up with their Colorado friends, and we could not let them be just a couple hours away and not go see them.
We planned and booked an overnight and made the trip.
Hub's dad turned 85 on Sunday and he had booked a tour of Fenway Park for Saturday. He had already done it, but thought it was super cool and wanted us all to experience it.
It was rainy all day. Mostly just that misty sort of rain that requires a light raincoat, but you can't tell it's raining until you spot the drops on your clothes.
The tour started outdoors, then inside under the seats, then outside to the seating, then in, then out....hoods on, hoods off...it was exhausting.
Then the rain really started as we were headed up to the Green Monster bleacher seats.
Each stop along the way was paired with some very long story about some guy from a hundred years ago and how the management of this park differed from some other park and 'do you know who so-and-so is?' and 'can you imagine what happened when so-and-so did such-and-such!?'
I know nothing about baseball...don't care about baseball or baseball history...and my back was aching from walking on this concrete for over an hour already.
side note: I work a very physical, labor intensive job 5 days a week on a concrete floor. I believe it was the stopping and STANDING on concrete while listening to pointless baseball stories that did me in.
It was music to my ears when the guide said, 'Now we'll go up to the press box.' At that point the rain was coming down a little harder and I thought how nice it would be to take a seat in a nice cushy seat for a minute.
Here Jim points out to some useless ladder and tells another story about something that happened before paved streets.
(Are you getting bored yet?)
Hubby's mother kept turning to a) make sure we were all still together (I guess she thought I might actually bolt?) and b) to ask 'isn't this cool!?' (um, not really). I humored her and tried to seem less uninterested than I truly was.
We head back out into the rain to see 'the red seat', which commemorates the longest home run hit by any player in MLB...by Ted Williams, in 1946.
It makes for a good photo, though.
It was the last bit of guided history before we headed to the basement museum.
You know what was in the basement, besides a lot of old ass baseballs and trophies?
Cushy seats for reclining.
This was not my cup of tea and it really did seem to go on forever, but the old folks really enjoyed it.
On to a beer and a bit of food, then they wanted to go to the Museum of Fine Arts! More wandering!?
We no sooner got into the exhibits when the fire alarm went off and we were sent back out into the rain.
Ultimately, we got back in pretty quickly and spent the next hour inside...where Hubs and I grabbed a cup of coffee then found a quiet corner to hide in.
He did take me to see this though, which was super cool!
...and this...
For now all major plans and house projects are (mostly) done, so I can move onto my main project: the Barracuda.