First Trip to Fenway

We were fortunate enough to get four tickets (did I mention for free?!?!) to the Red Sox vs. Royals game this past Monday. Since we had the extra ticket (Caroline just learned how to sit, but at Fenway she needs her own seat - sheesh) and couldn't find a baby sitter on that short of notice, we packed ourselves and our friend Shawn up and went to the game. We had a great time. We lasted until the middle of the eighth inning (had to hear "Sweet Caroline") and had relatively smooth sailing, especially considering it was 96 degrees with 80% humidity. The worst thing Caroline tried to do was to grab the food that belonged to the man sitting behind us (all she got was catsup, though). He was really good natured about it. The only really tenuous moment came when Doug Mirabelli his his three run home run to pull the Sox within one. The place got so loud so fast that Caroline got scared and started to cry. Once she realized that people were happy, it didn't take too long for her to come around to her normal self.

We did realize that "Friendly Fenway" isn't so friendly to families. And I'm not even talking about the obnoxious Red Sox fans with foul mouths. There aren't facilities to change diapers in most of the bathrooms. There is a "family" bathroom (with two toilets) for the whole bleacher section and a customer service area behind home plate, but if you're on either side of the grandstands you're pretty much left out to dry. I realize that even these are HUGE improvements over what used to be there, but still. I suppose you notice these things more with a baby. Luckily, I asked one of the EMTs in the the First Aide section where I could go and he guided me into the triage area for fans who are injured (which was air conditioned and had the game on television with sound piped in) and let me change her there and told us we could hang out as long as we wanted. I thought that was great (and certianly didn't mind the 10 minutes in the air conditioning)...

Even if we didn't get home until almost midnight, Caroline slept on the bus and in the car and seems no worse for the wear. Couldn't say the same for the both of us going to work on 5 hours sleep the next day. It will be a long time before we get to go again, but we had a great time.

Mom and Pat had a great time at the game yesterday, too. Great to see you guys!