Boston Part 2 Recap

July 9-10

This is a two person message so make sure you pay attention to who is writing so you don't get confused.  First off, I (Collin), would like to say that Fenway was absolutely unbelievable.  As Josh and Nathan warned me, it was hard for me to concentrate on the game because I was in awe the entire game.  When I walked into the stadium, I felt like I was in a video game, I could not believe I was at Fenway.  As you can tell from Josh’s post, and in the words of Nate Daddy, we had a “magical” time.  The next day was definitely a rarity for us, because we did not have to travel to a new city, or unpack.  We actually got to stay in the same place for once.  That being said, we took a much-needed day off (yes, everyone, I realize that going on a baseball tour is not exactly hard work, but it is tiring!) We used the morning for sleep, which was clutch.  Then, we headed out to explore Boston.  When I say explore, that’s truly what we did.  We picked a direction and started walking blindly around the city.  Luckily, we ran into a lady who was really nice and we told her we wanted to get something to eat and she directed us to Faneuil Hall.  We walked down to the “T” (subway) and rode it down to Market Square. 

            

This place was sweet. It was so cool because it was in the middle of downtown Boston, but it felt like a small town.  There were multiple bars and restaurant type places along with street performers (I’ll get to that later). When we got there we were starving, and we almost ate at Dick’s grill, but it was a great call that we didn’t.  Because not two seconds later, we decided to check out what was inside one of these “market” buildings we were walking around.  I stepped into Quincy Market and couldn’t believe it. It was sensory overload.  There were tons of people walking around through a hallway of probably 60 different vendors.  They lined the sides and had everything from Chinese food to seafood to macaroni and cheese, candy, bagels, ice cream, and on and on.  It took us forever to see what we wanted to eat but Josh and I settled on Mac n Cheese that had peppers and sausage put in it.  This was the best Mac and Cheese I have ever had (sorry Luby’s).  Josh also got some chicken wings and rice (we were really hungry).  Nate ended up with fish and chips and some local Boston clam chowder, which was fantastic. 

            

After we had had our fill at the market, we decided just to walk around the cool town of Boston and see what we could see.  We started walking around towards the harbor, which was beautiful and saw these bikes called “hubways”.  They were just normal bicycles, but you could rent them for a whole day for 30 minute intervals for $5.  The coolest part was that you could ride them around and drop them off at different parts of the city.  We decided to go for it, which proved to be one of our favorite parts of the trip.  We rode down the harbor to the edge of the water, then followed the water around and rode all up and down through the middle of Boston.  We saw a new park that they had just built and explored the nooks and crannies INSERT Josh (yes Collin used nooks and crannies here. I, Josh, take Zero affiliation with that statement) one of the oldest cities in the US. ) While riding through one of the parks we came across a group of men doing a street dance performance. They not only danced but were really funny two. The show was really cool, so we watched for about 20 minutes. When we were getting ready to leave I noticed a pretty girl sitting on a bench by herself and of course a gentleman can't allow that, so I decided it would be a good idea to introduce myself. We talked for a few minutes and she agreed to hangout with me the next day and show me some of the city although she was new herself. Back to Collin.

            

Once we were done exploring the city, we headed to a bowling alley right next to Fenway for a Team Fox BTHOP charity event Josh put together with the New England Aggie Club.  They were a fun bunch! The bowling alley gave us free bowling and appetizers for our event, which was really awesome, and on top of that, the bowling alley was the nicest one I have ever seen. We had 8 people bowling and naturally we played boys against girls (what are we, 12? Eighth Grade Dance style). Anyways, it happened.  The first game the men got absolutely demolished, because Shannon and Vicki bowl a lot and were actually very good.  The second game was much better for the guys, I think we had a total of 6 or 7 strikes, and each strike was followed with a hearty “MEN! MEN! MEN!” chant.  We played a rubber match and squeaked by the ladies once again.  All in all, we had a blast at the bowling alley and raised $170 for our cause!

            

The next day was a unique day as well, because we got to hang out in Boston again.  I woke up early and ate breakfast while Josh and Nate slept in a little bit.  We really needed to do laundry… our dirty clothes were piling up and personally I had no clean socks left, which is a big problem.  While Josh and Nathan went to the laundry mat to do everyone’s laundry (thanks bros), I took most of the day to travel to a nearby town in Massachusetts.  This town was Marblehead, Mass and is the birthplace of the American Navy.  While I do like visiting old towns and I am interested in history, this was not the main reason for my trip.  Those of you who know me know that I had a very special mentor to me when I was a Junior and Senior at A&M.  His name is Bill “Doc” Anthony, and has become a close friend of mine.  Doc is 91 living in College Station and was born in Marblehead.  Ever since I met Doc and began to help take care of him, I’ve heard hundreds of stories about this place.  Everyone who knows Doc knows that he really loves a few key things in life: his friends, Texas A&M, the stock market, good whiskey, and Marblehead.  When I told him about the trip I was taking, he told me I had to go to Marblehead, being only 18 miles away from it in Boston.  I felt obliged to go but I truly wanted to visit the place because of its history in the American Revolution and its history in Doc’s life.  Doc Anthony hasn’t been back to his hometown in probably 10 years or so, so you can imagine how excited he was when I got a chance to visit.  I headed up the highway to the old coastal town.  When I arrived in Marblehead, I first stopped at Abbott Hall, which is an old meeting place that houses some really cool history and is one of Doc’s favorite places.  Inside of it is the Spirit of ’76 – a very famous patriotic painting that was painted in 1876, 100 years after we gained our independence as a country.  After talking to some folks who knew some of Doc’s friends and explaining to them who I was and what I was doing in Marblehead, I headed to the old burial ground – a historic graveyard overlooking a small pond right off of the harbor.  Ironically, this was one of my favorite places that I visited during the trip.  Inside of this place are tombs of soldiers that fought in the American Revolution, along with residents from Marblehead dating back to the late 1700s… talk about nostalgia.  Perhaps the most awe-inspiring thing I saw there was the “Anthony Monument”, which was where some of Doc’s relatives are buried.  It was truly an awesome experience getting to see where his family lay and tombstones from the 1800s.  After the graveyard, I headed down to Marblehead Harbor on Front street to the house where Doc grew up.  It is this beautiful house a street off of the water.  This was a very cool thing to see, as I had heard countless stories from Doc about his house, where it was, what he did as a kid, the boatyard he always played around in and on and on.  The whole trip was a very special experience for me.  For most people, it would just be a little town on the coast of Massachusetts, but for me it meant much more because of how much Doc means to me.  I could sit here all day and write about how much I loved the town, but suffice it to say I want to have a house there one day.  It is the perfect small town.

Insert Josh: as Collin went to Marblehead (sad we couldn't go with him and see all the cool stuff) Nate and I stayed back for like Collin said we were all running really low on clothing. We gathered up all our laundry and headed to a laundry mat. We walked a bit (half a mile with all our laundry!) and found a shady small laundry  mat although lets be honest how many non shady small laundry mats are there. We go in and we realized we left the detergent in the car that was on the way to another town....sucks to suck. We also needed a lot more quarters than we had. Basically, we were rookies at the laundry mat in big city Boston. I definitely appreciate my washer and dryer so much more now. While Nate Daddy guarded our stuff, I headed out to find detergent and quarters. Hit up a CVS and found a bank for all my supplies and then headed back. We loaded up her laundry finally and decided to grab some lunch at a Subway across the street.....bad choice. This Subway was terrible. You should have seen how they made our sandwiches it was like a toddler throwing Legos. They slapped together our food and drenched Nathans with so much sauce he couldnt finish his sandwich. We were happy to get out of there. We headed back to switch our clothes over to the dryers. Finally after two hours we finally finished our laundry and headed back to the hotel to wait for Collin. Boston morning two definitely owned us. Back to Collin.

After I got back and reunited with the bros, we headed around the city again on our trusty rent bikes, went back to Market Square and this is where Josh went to meet up with Boston Girl named Harley and Nate and I ate awesome food, and then walked around downtown Boston.  

Insert Josh: guess I need to tell my part. While Nate and Collin were off practicing their performance art skills, I met up with Harley to hangout for a bit. We walked to a Starbucks and I let her order the drinks cause I have never drank coffee or bought anything from Starbucks. The drink was actually pretty good (nice call Harley). We headed down to the Boston Harbor and sat down on a bench and just people watched. This we had in common as one of our favorite pass times. I love watching people's interactions especially in a foreign city. I learned she is in the Coast Guard and just got stationed in Boston a week prior. We talked and watched people for a couple of hours. I had a lot of fun meeting her but unfortunately she couldn't hangout with us the rest of the night cause she had a curfew on the base she is stationed at. We said our goodbyes and I headed to meet up with Collin and Nate. 

Back to Collin again: While Josh was wooing a nice young lady; Nate and I had a bro date around the city.  After we ate awesome food and walked around Market Square, we became part of a street performance.  So this dude was doing these cool things including unicycling around and cool tricks, and then he asked for volunteers.  I got one of those feelings you get when you know you’re going to get picked for something.  Sure enough, the bro comes up and asks if I would help.  I oblige, and Nathan started cracking up.  The best part was that he needed like eight volunteers and Nathan got picked a few minutes later (karma. tight).  Anyways, so we were a part of this guys show and our job was to hold this rope that he made out of 1000 feet of toilet paper that was twisted up and held between two pulleys.  He then proceeded to walk on this rope (while Nate and I and a few other guys held it) and juggled swords. It was pretty ridiculous; he was really good! So after the street show and after we met up with Josh, we decided to go around town.

We visited a few bars that night, including a Chinese bar that had the weirdest karaoke singer ever. EVER! So first when we go in they have cheap drinks… that’s how they lure you into the place.  The first few guys were bad, but hey, it’s karaoke, it happens.  Then Steve got up there (what’s with weird people named Steve on this trip?).  Anyways, Steve was actually a pretty good singer.  The problem was his actions.  He stood there with a full beer, pouring his heart out into the Mic.  Literally jumping up and down, closing his eyes, passionately swaying – the whole bit.  He was getting INTO IT.  Ridiculous.  Needless to say we pounded our beer and got out of there and went to a place we thought was better. Boy were we wrong… So Josh was hungry and wanted some pizza and Nathan and I could use another drink.  We get to this pizza place and went and sat at the bar (mistake) while the most depressed girl in the world took our drink orders.  Normally, I would feel sorry for these types of people, but you could just tell that this girl enjoyed being miserable.  We started talking about how we were from Texas and she said she liked Texas (the only positive thing she said) but she hated Dallas because she went to this 3 day raving dance party and she’s not a party girl.  Then she talked about how her favorite town is a little ghost town in Arizona “because it only has like 4 people in it”. Seriously, everything that we said she was like “oh, I don’t like that” or “no, I hate that place”.  She hated Boston. She hated her job.  Figure it out girl, be happy.  Anyways, we made Josh scarf down his pizza faster and then got the hell out of there.  We headed down to a few other places, including this cool Irish pub then called it a night. We hopped on the T train and crashed at the hotel. So long, Boston.  It’s been real.

Josh was a lot more excited to do laundry than I was.....

Not my idea of fun in Boston

Folding and organizing the laundry

One block in Boston has some amazing churches

Hey Josh, I think this is the library...

Awesome church

Fountain near the churches

Boston skyline

War Memorial

Quincy Market. So hard to pick out a thing to eat. It all looked good

Seafood macaroni and some New England clam chowder

Faneuil Hall area near the Boston Harbor and Quincy Market

Little did we know we were about to be part of this guy's show

I was laughing when Collin got chosen to participate. And then I was chosen.... No picture of me though

Yachts in the harbor

While Josh was with Harley, Collin and I were having a little fun

At least I chose the treasure. Collin got stuck with the damn parrot

View from the harbor

Got to use the night view option on the camera

Random ass macaroni noodle in the middle of the path

This house has major significance but do not know it off the top of my head

Faneuil Hall during the day

So many quality food options

At least one of us got this each day

Josh's meal day one (Wings and some supreme macaroni)

Straight up chillin

Skittles

Had to get a picture with the Boston legend, Red Auerbach

Such good cookies

Yachts and boats

The boat on the right is named "Shipfaced"

The beginning of our rental bike adventure. Best idea of the trip

I look so happy....

Tight looking bridge

TD Garden in the background (home of the Celtics)

A park in the middle of the city

Each had to get an individual bro pic at the park (Collin)

Josh

Nate Daddy

Street show we saw

Guys were legit break dancers

Bowling alley we got to to a Team Fox event at with the New England Aggie Club

Most legit bowling alley ever

New England Aggie Club

Thanks to Vicki and company for helping us out

Collin picture.... HAHA just messing with you bro

Clam chowder. A must eat in Boston

Home of Jeremy Lin. And a bunch of other smart people

America!

The karaoke bar we went into. Not our best choice 

Steve rocking it on the mic

From Collin: Doc Anthony's hometown

Abbott Hall: the famous town hall

Me in front of Abbott Hall

Home to the Spirit of '76: a famous patriotic painting

Eldridge Gerry, the namesake of Gerrymandering and one of Doc's relatives

The deed to Marblehead

The Spirit of '76.  Floor to ceiling, it's massive

The USS Constitution aka "Old Ironsides". A ship that never lost a battle

Where the town meets

The Old North Church

View of the harbor

Cool self pic bro. 

Old Burial Hill: home to American Revolution soldiers

Gravestones

A man who died in 1776. Wow. 

Red's Pond

Doc Anthony's Family Monument

Definitely a humbling yet amazing sight to see for me

His great grandparents I believe

born in 1829...

On the side of the Anthony monument

Doc's house growing up

Right down the road from Doc's house: Marblehead Harbor

Beautiful views

98 Front Street

Built in 1802 by Goodwin

Another shot of Doc's 20+ room house they had before the market crashed in '29