Tag / ARM

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Ballpark Tour: Red Sox

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we look at the Boston Red Sox, owners of the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my one game history with Fenway Park.

Stadium Name: Fenway Park

Years in Service: 1912 – Present

Visits: 1

In 1911, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor purchased the land bordered by Brookline Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street and developed it into a larger baseball stadium, which he named after the Fenway neighborhood where it was located.  The first game was played April 20, 1912, as the Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders, who would become the Yankees the following year, 7-6 in 11 innings.

I attended my first (and, so far, only) game at Fenway Park in August of 2017, cashing in my birthday gift from the year before.  The hope was that Angelina would be moving into Boston University around that time, but her gap year put a kibosh on that.  The ballpark was… a little underwhelming.  From the outside, you could barely tell that it was a stadium.  Michael even asked where it was as we were standing outside it.

The game went about as you would expect.  With James Shields on the mound, the White Sox did not put up much of a fight.  We were sitting down the left field line, with a good view of the Green Monster.  The seats, which may or may not date back to the stadium’s opening in 1912, were not really designed for people well over 6 feet tall, so there was a lot of uncomfortable shifting as Danny and my knees were smooshed into the seats in front of us.

I would have added an additional game or two in 2020, as the plan was to take Michael to Boston for his birthday and enjoy the monster seats, but a little global pandemic got in that way of that.  Now that Angelina is done with school and working full time in Boston, there is still an opportunity to increase my number of visits in the years to come.

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FB10: Week 18

A pretty good week, leading to my highest step total since September.  Angelina’s graduation and the following activities got the week off to a good start on Sunday, coming a mere 10 steps shy of 8400 and finishing above goal for the second consecutive day.  Lunch in Boston on Monday, followed by a flight back home left me just 7 steps away from 7600.  A Cubs game Tuesday night helped push me above goal for the fourth, and final, day as I surpassed 7500 steps.  I crashed on Wednesday, as I managed only 2800 steps.  An improvement on Thursday pushed me back up to 3800 steps.  Friday saw another slight increase, going over 3900 steps.  An afternoon ballgame at Guaranteed Rate Field left me with 5400 steps, ending the week on a high note.

Total steps: 39,509

Daily average: 5644.1

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FB10: Week 17

A pretty good week which started and ended strong but dipped in the middle.  Post-graduation gift giving, followed by an exciting White Sox game, got the week off to a good start on Sunday, ending up with 5200 steps.  Things fell off a bit on Monday, coming 35 steps shy of 4300.  Things cratered on Tuesday, as I needed another 19 steps just to reach 3000.  A very slight increase on Wednesday managed to push me back up over 3000 steps.  Another improvement on Thursday left me at 3600 steps.  Friday saw yet another increase, putting me within 17 steps of 4700.  A flight to Boston on Saturday for Angelina’s graduation pushed me up to 7900 steps, ending the week on a high note.

Total steps: 31,808

Daily average: 4544

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Should I Even Worry About A 10,000 Step Club?

My world was very different four years ago, as I was finishing up my fifth year using a Fitbit.  I had just added 45 new 10,000 step days, my third best year to date, and, with upcoming trips to Boston and California already on the docket, things were looking good to add a good number more and add some new tales to this list of my Top 25 step days.  Then, the corona virus happened, the world basically shut down for the next year or so, and I stopped needing to leave the house.  I’ve worked from home since March of 2020, which theoretically gives me plenty of free time to go out for walks, but, in practice, leaves me homebound more often than not.  I managed just two 10,000 step days for the just completed ninth year of Fitbit usage, which is my worst total since I started this whole step tracking thing some thirteen odd years ago, leading to a total of 285 since I started keeping track back in 2011.  With that in mind, here’s the list of my Top 25 step days, which has now stayed static for four years.

1: 4/14/2018 – 27,470 steps

My best single day total is from my April 2017 trip to New York to see Angelina.  The day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Empire State Building.

2: 7/21/2018 – 27,278 steps

My July 2017 trip to Virginia, to hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob with Jeff and Val, fell just short of the top spot.

3: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps

2013’s trip to Disney World, which spent 5 years as my single day best, included excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom, and yes, falling 12 steps short of 25,000 still irks me.

4: 6/3/2019 – 24,665 steps

The first full day of 2019’s summer trip to Washington DC spent most of the day at the Smithsonian Zoo.

5: 8/8/2019 – 23,866 steps

Late in the summer of 2019, I spent two weeks in San Francisco for a work trip.   On my last full day, I went out after work, walking to Pier 39 and then back the other direction to Oracle Park to see the Giants take on the Phillies.  My totals would have been even higher, but I was dead tired and took an Uber back to the hotel after the game.

6: 3/18/2018 – 23,780 steps

My first day in Las Vegas for the 2017 IBM Think conference, the day’s totals include gallivanting around town, including a late night trip up to Caesar’s Palace from the MGM Grand to see Absinthe.

7: 10/24/2018 – 23,362 steps

My October 2018 trip to Boston to see Angelina for our birthday gives us our next entry.  While she was in class, I took tours of Fenway Park and Harvard, before meeting up with her for a late lunch and then heading to the airport for the trip home.

8: 3/22/2016 – 22,493 steps

My one-time second highest day took place during the ill-fated trip to Disney World in March of 2016.  The day’s excursion started at Hollywood Studios before heading over to Epcot Center with Jeff and Val.

9: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps

Still my highest total at home in the state of Illinois, the next entry comes thanks to the 2013 BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race.

10: 12/29/2018 – 20,374 steps

We wrap up the top 10 with 2018’s trip to California and the trip to Disneyland to see Danny perform with the Lincoln-Way Marching Band.

11: 8/5/2017 – 20,218 steps

The next entry came in August of 2017 on the first day of my trip to Boston with Danny and Michael.  After landing in town, we traipsed to the Science Museum, a breakfast joint, our hotel, and, finally, Fenway Park.

12: 7/14/2017 – 20,208 steps

Down to #12 is my 2017 trip to Disney World, a one day journey with Angelina to celebrate her high school graduation. Continue reading →

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2023: The Year In Travel

As we ring in the new year, it’s time to take a look back at the trips out of Illinois that I took last year.  Things got off to a fast start, as I traveled down to Orlando on New Year’s Day to see Purdue take on LSU in the Citrus Bowl.  While the game did not go well at all, it was a good change of pace to get out of the cold weather.  I stayed the entire week, working remotely to kick off 2023 and enjoying the hotel pool.

My next trip out of state came in early February, when I picked up Danny and headed down to Bloomington, Indiana to see the #1 ranked Boilermakers take on their hated rivals.  Once again, things did not go well for the boys in gold and black, which led to a long drive back to West Lafayette.  The next day, the two schools did battle again, with the women taking the court at Mackey Arena, but the outcome was not any better.

A few weeks later, I returned to the Lafayette area to watch Danny’s band concert.  After lunch with him, his friends, and their parents, we headed over to the Long Center for the Performing Arts to take in his performance.  Thankfully, his section was first, so we were able to take our leave early and head back home.

I stayed home for a few months, until Danny finally cashed in his high school graduation trip, and, in mid-June, we headed west to Seattle.  We arrived on Friday morning and headed to Pike Place market for lunch before attending the White Sox and Mariners tilt that night at T-Mobile Park.  The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the ballpark for another exciting game.  After an hour-plus wait for an Uber after the game, we rested a bit at the hotel before heading back out to see the Space Needle and enjoy a nice dinner.  On Sunday, we celebrated Father’s Day by flying home.

The start of college football season brought with it three consecutive weekend trips to West Lafayette to close out September.  The first saw Purdue do battle against Syracuse, falling 35-20.  I headed back down the following Thursday night thanks to a rare Friday night tilt.  After working remotely from the hotel, I headed over to campus where Purdue tried valiantly to end its losing streak against Wisconsin, but it was not to be.  The next morning, I met Danny for breakfast before heading home.  The following Saturday, I returned once more to see Purdue earn its first home victory of the year, defeating Illinois handedly.

In late October, I took my somewhat-annual quick trip to Boston to celebrate birthdays with Angelina.  I arrived on Saturday, headed over to her apartment in the afternoon, and then we went out to dinner in the North End.  The next morning, I was on a plane headed back home.

My final three trips of the year were all, once again, back to West Lafayette.  Purdue faced off against Minnesota two days before Danny’s birthday, so we had a post-victory dinner at his house.  Two weeks later, we headed down the day after Thanksgiving to prepare for his senior day against IU.  As part of the festivities, he got to conduct the band during the pre-game show and then hit the drum with the rest of the seniors during halftime.  The day concluded with a trip to the Olive Garden for a celebratory dinner.  My final trip of the year came just days before Christmas, when Danny and I headed to Mackey Arena to see the men’s basketball team hold court against Jacksonville.