Before heading to Fenway to see the Red Sox, we first had to drive up the East Coast from Baltimore. On Thursday, May 11 we had the pleasure of driving up I-95 all the way to Rhode Island. We had the fun of crossing the GW Bridge in New York and the bumper car like experience of going through the Cross-Bronx Expressway. But we made it to Westport, MA (just across the RI border) just fine.
We chose to go to Rhode Island (Newport specifically) because I had only been once before in the 70's and Melinda had never been. If you don't know, Newport used to be the playground of all the robber barons in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and there are huge mansions they built on the coast. We chose to visit one called the Breakers which was built by the Vanderbilt family. Yes, the same family that built the Biltmore in Asheville. The Breakers is even more ornate than the Biltmore (bet you didn't think that was possible). We spent a couple of hours touring the house and the grounds. The picture to the right is the back of house and faces the Atlantic across the broad lawn shown.
After the Breakers, we hiked along the Cliff Walk which runs behind a number of mansions, including the Breakers. The scenery was fantastic (our iPhones don't do it justice), the weather was great, and it wasn't nearly as dangerous as it sounds.
Once we finished the Cliff Walk, we decided to just drive around Newport (which is technically the southern end of Aquidneck Island). In addition to the other 19th century mansions near the Breakers, we found there are quite a number of new mansions along the coast - most of which have been built in the last 40 years or so. These were beautiful and had wonderful views of the water. Melinda looked up some of the ones she liked the best on Zillow - you'd be surprised what $11 million will get you in Newport :-).
The Red Sox game on Saturday, May 13 was not until 4:10, so we used the morning to do some more touristy things before heading to the game. First, we drove to the Cape Code Canal Visitor center in Sandwich, MA. Frankly, I wasn't aware there was a Cape Code Canal until we began researching this trip. The visitor center was fun and informative. Next, we drove 20 minutes up the road to Plymouth. There we saw Plymouth Rock (not super impressive) and a replica of the Mayflower (impressive in how small it was). Then we headed into the Boston traffic to get to Fenway. Melinda has rated the Boston traffic as worst we've faced - so far.
Now, back to baseball. Fenway was everything it is cracked up to be. Of course, it didn't hurt that we had a perfect day (79 at game time). We walked through the entire stadium - which is a chore since there are so many levels that don't connect. These were the first seats I bought so we could be sure to get in (it was a sellout with 35,000+). We had good seats with good sight lines but I chose the first row of the grandstand which meant lots of people walking in front of us in a very narrow space. This place was built for watching baseball, not the comfort of a modern crowd.
As for the game, it cruised along until the 9th inning with Boston holding a 3-1 lead. Chris Sale pitched well for 8 innings for Boston and the Cardinals only had 3 hits going into the 9th. In the top of the 9th, Kenly Jansen came on for the Sox and ended up blowing the save and losing the game. He gave up 3 runs on just one hit. He walked three and there was an error on what could have been a game ending double play. Add to that, two pitch clock violations on Jansen while pitching to Wilson Contreras - the top of the 9th had everything going on and Red Sox fans losing their minds. As Melinda keeps reminding me, that's why you never leave a game early.
Next stop - Cooperstown.
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