Fenway Park

Sunday April 14th our travels brought us to Fenway Park in Boston, MA. Since we both grew up here we have both been to Fenway plenty of times, but a trip to Fenway Park is always exciting. Bostonians love their sports teams, especially the Red Sox. The ballpark reached its 100 year mark last year so there is a lot of history within its walls.

 If you are a baseball fan, no matter of what team, a trip to Fenway must be on your bucket list. In fact I would recommend everyone and anyone visit the park and experience the atmosphere of a game there. There have been updates to the park over the years, but most of it has remained unchanged. One of the newer additions to the park are the seats on top of the famous Green Monster( the 37' left field wall). Watching a game from these seats is absolutely on my bucket list. Learn a little more about the history of the ballpark here: http://www.fenwayticketking.com/fenway_history.html

I will caution you, if you are looking for an inexpensive activity for your family, this isn't going to be it. Tickets, parking, and concessions are all fairly pricey and add up quickly. We arrived in the city later than planned and we were unable to find street parking so we had to pay the hefty $35 to park in a lot near the park. There were some deals at the concession stand this month like two hot dogs for the price of one and $5 beers.

I bought our tickets as a gift for Jay and decided to splurge on Pavillion Street Club Seats. These seats are located in the upper level of the park. The price of the ticket also includes access to the Pavillion Street Club, which is an indoor bar/lounge area. We didn't visit this area, but it is a nice option to have for games where the weather may be too cold or too hot. The restroom and concession lines are somewhat shorter because the volume of people in this upper level is less than the lower level. These seats also include waiters and waitresses that will take your order and deliver your food or drink to you if you choose. The service is available through the 7th inning and you can pay cash or run a tab. Another small bonus is that the seats themselves have a small amount of padding. They definitely were a little more comfortable than the average stadium seats.

Overall I was extremely happy with our trip to Fenway. Admittedly, my opinion is biased. I have never had a bad experience visiting Fenway. It can be pricey, but a day at the ballpark is something almost everyone can appreciate and enjoy.

In closing I just want to take a minute to say my thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. I want to extend a big thank you to the police and first responders who worked so hard to save lives and keep our city safe.

~Meaghan Follow @TravelsofSC

Concord New Hampshire

 This weekends trip took us to the capitol city of Concord NH, and the Museum of New Hampshire History. Not unlike many of our other trips we started later in the afternoon on Saturday. What should have been about a 2 hour and 15 minute drive ended up taking more like 2 hours and 45 minutes due to my brain being in auto pilot mode. But like I've said many time before, it doesn't matter how fast you get there because sometimes the "getting there" is the adventure.

  We pulled into downtown Concord just before 8:00pm and headed right to the hotel to check in. On the list of places to stay in the Concord area, only one can top the list. The Centennial Hotel, billed by trip-advisor.com as the 4th highest ranked hotel in all of NH, it was my top choice for this trip. After searching around on a bunch of travel websites I decided to book the room directly through www.thecentennialhotel.com . This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I was not only able to select the exact room I wanted, but also add-on a few extra things to make the stay that much better. I chose a queen turret suite, which featured a circular sitting room with wall mounted flat screen tv (from the outside the room looks like a gun turret in an old castle), a private deck, an office with a desk, a large bedroom, and bathroom. When we got into the room we were greeted with a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, 2 large bottles of locally brewed beer, and a bowl of assorted nuts. Even though these items were all add-ons, they are absolutely worth every penny, especially if you are planning a romantic weekend getaway. 

  Don't let the the classic victorian exterior fool you into thinking that the interior is old and outdated. Everything from floor to ceiling is modern with an urban-contemporary feel. From the boutique furniture, pillow top queen bed, flat screen tvs, and artwork taken from the pages of Vogue Magazine.
 After relaxing for a while and enjoying our champagne and strawberries, we decided to order room service. Fortunately for us The Centennial Hotel is also home to Granite Restaurant and Bar which is located just off of the hotel lobby. Once we called in our order it took no longer then 20 minutes for the food to arrive. We started off our meal with the beef and potato pierogi. Meaghan had the half size Granite cesar salad and half size potato crusted haddock. I had the grilled fillet mignon with bacon mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. I wont get into how much all of that cost, but you can imagine that it wasn't cheap. Either way it was a great meal and it allowed us to just kick back, relax, and not have to worry about finding a place to eat.
 

  Sunday morning after check out, we headed over to The Common Man Restaurant for their Sunday morning brunch buffet. The buffet featured all of the usual suspects from the breakfast menu, as well as some lunch items and deserts. Nothing stood out as exceptional whether it was the food, the decor, or the service. Just an average restaurant filled with average food, and what I can only assume was mostly local regulars. The highlight of my morning was listening to the other patrons conversations and quietly laughing to myself. I like to consider myself a semi-professional people watcher, so being close enough to be able to hear what everyone was saying made the game that much better.

  We headed back downtown and found Pitchfork Records. This is a great record store right in the middle of the downtown shopping area. They had a good selection of new and used CDs, records, DVDs and cassette tapes. I could have easily spent all day in this store, but after picking out 3 CDs to listen to on the ride home and 5 records to add to our collections, I figured we had enough. 

  Our next point of interest was just around the block to The Museum of New Hampshire History. This is a fun place to visit on a weekend, and it only cost $11 for admission for both of us. When we got inside we found ourselves alone which was great because we were able to goof around freely. The museum was full of artifacts, artwork, and even a children's area all based on NH and it's past. Check it out if you get the chance, and if you're lucky you will have the place to yourself like we did.

  The last thing we did before heading home was to walk around the downtown shopping area. I must caution anyone who may be visiting Concord on a Sunday, because most of the businesses on North Main Street are closed. It is still worth walking around checking everything out and learning the city, but keep in mind that Sunday may not be the best day to do so. After popping our heads into the few places that were open we decided to head back home before it go too late. Overall I had fun on this trip, and as always I loved the adventure of visiting a new place.

On a scale of 5 stars, here are my rankings for our Concord NH trip

The Centennial Hotel - 4 1/2 stars
www.thecentennialhotel.com
Granite Restaurant and Bar - 4 stars
www.graniterestaurant.com
The Comman Man Restaurant - 2 1/2 stars
www.thecman.com
Pitchfork records - 4 stars
Museum of New Hampshire History - 3 stars
www.nhhistory.org/museum
Concord NH (downtown area/ N. Main street) 2 stars

Jay

Follow @TravelsofSC

Road to Nowhere

 Yesterday was a beautiful day in central Mass. One of the first signs that this long cold winter may finally be over. I had spring fever and wanted to do absolutely anything that involved being outdoors. A friend of mine had posted some photos on Facebook the day before of a waterfall, so I thought that would be a fun adventure. I looked up a listing of waterfalls online and found one with a good rating that wasn't terribly far away. So we drove off in search of Royalston Falls.

 There is no exact address for the falls so I was reading directions off of the website instead of using a GPS. The closer we got the more confusing the directions got to us, as we are not familiar with the area. I decided to try using my gps in hopes that it would at least get us heading in the right direction.

 We drove down several long and winding back roads through the country side. Most of the homes we passed were small farms. I guess when you live that far from civilization you need to be somewhat self sustainable. One farm in particular really stands out in my mind. There were goats and sheep grazing in pens that were visible from the road. Lying in the middle of the field was a beautiful dog, a Great Pyranees. Being a dog groomer, I love all dogs, however, I find this breed to be particularly striking. They are loveable and gentle giants. The scene instantly reminded me of one of my favorite cartoons with Sam the large white sheepdog and a wolf named Ralph. If we could have stopped and spent the afternoon playing with the dog that would have been a perfect day for me.

 I may have been enjoying the cartoon playing in my brain and the imaginary play date I was having with that dog, but it soon became clear my gps was taking us in the wrong direction. I suppose I shouldn't blame the GPS, it's more likely that I just always manage to use it wrong. Jay did his best to look up directions and backtrack and find the falls. After a lot of driving around that ended with a trek down a dirt road which eventually turned out to be impassable, it became clear we had been defeated. Tails tucked between our legs we turned back. I'm sure when or if we decide to try finding it again it will be right there in front of us, but it just wasn't going to happen this day.

 Driving around for hours had us feeling worn down and hungry. A quick check on our phones found us The Gardner Ale House near by. I thought it was a cute place. The menu was mainly traditional pub style food. The cheeseburger I had was nothing spectacular, however the potato skins we ordered for an appetizer were clearly homemade and very good in comparison to the microwaved version you get in chain restaurants. We both ordered a Chair City Pale Ale. After all, we were in "The Chair City" and I always like to try a new beer. I would certainly stop in again if we were ever in the area. I'd like to go back later at night. I find it hard to appreciate the pub atmosphere during the day.

So we didn't find what we set out in search of, but it is the searching that is half of the fun right? We will be back Royalston Falls and we will find you!

-Meaghan

Follow @TravelsofSC