October 3, 2007 by PT Rothschild.

GET READY FOR A NICE DAY AS ROCKERS FOGHAT PLAY OLD TEMECULA THEATRE


Folks inside two ’scenes’ are ready to rock as local band NICE DAY opens for veteran rockers FOGHAT in celebration of the Old Town Temecula Theatre. Keep it here for all the details. Also coming soon, the definitive reply to the Quarry Question. Watch for the upcoming ‘Chewing Up Rocks and Spitting Out Gravel’

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October 3, 2007 by PT Rothschild.

(My friend Kurt takes a road trip back east every year to see some friends, take in the sights, and catch a few games of baseball. This is another installment of his 2007 trip.)

MONDAY – JULY 30^th

BOSTON SIGHTSEEING:


We decided to get our feet wet near Boston Harbor by first attending the New England Aquarium, Central Wharf. We took a short subway ride (called the “T”) and arrived by the 9AM opening. We checked out the interesting Jelly “Fish” exhibit first, and then watched a 3-D IMAX Theater movie on The Deep Sea, which was really cool. Back to the Aquarium, we saw the remaining exhibits including the Penguin Pool and the 23-foot tall tank (sharks, turtles, fish), and were finished by noon or so. After that we walked over to the Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall area for lunch, watched a segment of street entertainment, and thought it might be interesting to check out this “Sports Museum of New England at the Fleet Center” that I had identified on the internet prior to our trip. At first we had a bit of trouble finding the place, but we finally walked to it. Turns out we were going to take a tour of THE BOSTON GARDEN, where the Celtics and hockey Bruins play their games (it didn’t make any mention of that name on the website). Enjoyed the tour behind the scenes under the arena and walked out onto the ice / parquet floor area, although neither was set up (just a concrete floor). It takes the grounds crew about 2.5 hours to set up the traditional parquet floor for basketball games. After the tour, we walked through the museum area that featured history and displays of (of course) the Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Marathon, film clips showing various highlights and a few low-lights in Boston sports history, and exhibits on other sports figures and events related to Boston. Started tour at 2PM, and we were out of building by about 5PM.

We continued our first day on foot in search of a bar, not for an alcoholic beverage specifically, but to find the site of the opening scene for the TV sitcom Cheers. We saw and recognized the outer railing of the bar and steps down into the bar, but once inside it looked nothing like the TV setting. We can say we were there, at least. Cheers is just across the street from the Boston Common (park area) and the start of the Freedom Trail (follow the red line, literally, through town to see many of the historical sites of Boston). We did our own self-guided tour as Craig read from the AAA tour guide; we had taken the formal tour with a park ranger on our prior visit in 2002. We made it to Paul Revere’s house and called it quits for the day. Went back to Quincy Market and ate at the Durgan Park restaurant and then briefly watched street entertainment again. Took the ‘T’ and motel shuttle back to comforts of our Dorchester motel room by about 10:30PM, and we were toast after a long, relatively hot day.

TUESDAY – JULY 31st

BOSTON SIGHTSEEING

We were up and going early enough to get the most out of the day. Took the ‘T’ back to The Boston Garden, and then we walked across bridge following the “red line” of the Freedom Trail to the USS Constitution and Museum. We checked out the museum (open 9AM) for a while prior to getting in line for tour of the USS Constitution sailing ship (10AM). We had to go through “airport” type security for whatever reasons. The ship was “undefeated” in its military career, and still sails around the harbor (annually, or less frequently if I remember correctly). After the tour, we finished looking through the museum that provided an historical perspective of the US naval sailing fleets. We took the ferry across the harbor back to Central Wharf and walked back to Quincy Market for lunch. Since we had time before the baseball game that night, we took the ‘T’ to Cambridge for a visit to the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Museum for a view of artificial intelligence exhibits and robot technology, gestural sculptures (if I had to explain, mechanical kinetic contraptions that perform incredible yet insignificant tasks on the surface; guess you’d have to see it for yourself), amazing hologram designs and artwork (holography), photographic technological advancements, history of MIT scientists and engineers and college student competitions, and other displays on science and technology, architecture and design (about 2.5 hours).

Then we left museum at about 4:30PM and rode ‘T’ to Fenway Park, arriving early for the Red Sox vs. Baltimore baseball game at 7PM. Didn’t have tickets in advance for sold out game, so walked around the stadium and checked for tickets. Professional ticket scalpers were out in full force; going rate just to get inside was about $150 (one “deal” was for $125 per ticket, $27 face value). Too steep for us, but we found out that overflow tickets were being sold at the box office; line was a football field long, and rumor was that tickets wouldn’t be available until 20 minutes after the opening pitch, if any tickets were still available after 100 yards of fans had already gone through the line. Strike Two! Craig and Kurt agree – abandon original plan. Strike three and we were outta there, back to motel, and watched last 6 innings on TV.

Editorial Comment: This was a bit disappointing, but we’d been there before (and will likely never try again after the experience). After the fact, we figured there were many reasons that tickets were not readily available: Red Sox had been out of town for 2 weeks, and were back in town only for a 3-game series, and were then back on the road. Also, Cal Ripken and Baltimore fans had been to Cooperstown for the induction ceremony on Sunday, and many probably made the trip to Boston to support their Orioles and visit Fenway Park. The overriding reason was probably that Red Sox fans now know that the “Curse of the Bambino” (Babe Ruth jinx) has been lifted after winning the 2004 World Series.

It was nice to have stayed in one place for three nights in a row.

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