Travelogue Part I and Stitching Progress

WARNING: This post is picture heavy. If you only want to see stitching scroll down to the end of this post. Also, if you are a Yankee fan, you may want to scroll down to the end too.

Been home from our trip to Boston, Cooperstown and New York City a week, but it has taken that long to recover from the whirlwind of stuff before we went and then the trip was constant go, go, go. I have also decided to split the trip report up into at least 2 or 3 posts. This one got a little picture heavy anyway. This will be the Boston leg of the trip. Our tour group consisted of 66 people from various parts of Kansas, mostly the Topeka area. Fifty of us went to the Kansas City Airport on a motor coach on Monday the 11th.. The others went either early or on different flights. Everything seemed to be going fine, but right after we got to the airport they went downhill fast. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:25PM, but by 1, we found out it was being delayed to 2:55PM, then 4:15PM, then 6:15PM do to weather issues (rain) in Boston. After the last announced delay of 2 more hours, most everyone disappeared to do something to waste time. I slayed behind to try to get in a few stitches. It was not hardly 10 minutes later that they announced they were beginning boarding the flight to Boston. There was some fast and furious calls to people that had left the gate area. Most had to go back through security. We left KC about 5 or so. Touched down in Boston at 8:45PM. We were scheduled to have dinner at Cheers (or whatever it is called) at 8. The tour director had been in contact with them and they were very nice to accommodate us whenever we arrived in Boston. Here is a familiar sign.

After a very nice late dinner, we spent a little time in the bar. Morris said he could make that bar a habit. He really like the looks of it. I guess he thought that he and Norm could hang out together.

On Tuesday morning when I woke up, my back was a mess. Sent Morris out for ibuprofen and I started taking them right away because I sure wanted to be able to go to Fenway Park for our tour and the game. Usually I have such things in my purse, but I had repacked things to have a smaller purse.

With me nursing my back, that left Morris to do some touring basically on his own. We both like to see other state capitol buildings since he works for the state and I am retired from the state. Here are some pictures he took of the Massachusetts State Capitol.

Massachusetts State Capitol Building

Massachusetts State Senate Chambers
(They meet in the round)

Massachusetts State House of Representatives Chamber

Now comes the part that Yankee fans will not want to see. In mid-afternoon we were taken to Fenway Park for a tour and later a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers.

One Entrance to Fenway Park



World Championship 2007 Pennant outside Fenway

Behind home plate on the tour.
Texas Rangers on field
Green Monster in the background

View from the top of Green Monster

Part of the Tour Group sitting on top of the Green Monster

View looking straight down from the Green Monster

View from the Right Field Bleachers where we sat.

As many of you know, the Red Sox are sold out for the year most of the time. Our tour director had to get our tickets through a broker and had to pay on the average of $100 per ticket. Knowing that this might be the only time I ever got in Fenway Park, I just too the ticket and enjoyed the game. And enjoy the game we did. The final score was 19-17 Red Sox. It was not without drama. Red Sox scored 10 runs in the lst inning, but Texas came back and went ahead late in the game, but the Red Sox got a home run and went on to win. David Ortiz had a double and home run in the lst for 6 RBIs.

View of the Green Monster from our Bleacher Seats

As I was planning what to put in this post, I had thoughts of more pictures, but when I started uploading them into blogger, I cut back on the number of pictures. It was going to make this way to long. I did not get too see much of Boston myself other than in the dark when we got there and from our hotel window when I was nursing my back. I was really disappointed that I did not get to take in more of the city. Hopefully there will be another time to do that. The morning after the game we boarded a motor coach for Cooperstown, New York and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Details of that part of the trip to come in another post. My plans were to get some stitching done on the bus, but that did not happen very much. Too much going on around me and as we got closer to Cooperstown, winding roads. My iPod came in handy for that part of the trip.

During the week before we left, I had another birthday lunch with one of my friends, also a stitcher. She gave this beautiful quilted wall hanging that she had made. I had seen a similar one that her mother had started before she passed away. Sandi had finished it and hand quilted it. I fell in love with it. So she made this for me and had someone machine quilt it. The machine quilting is so pretty. It is hard to see it in this picture. Should have taken a photo of the back to be able to see it better. I am so in love with this piece. I have the perfect place to hang it. Have to rearrange some things on wall and put in a couple more nails, but it will be on the wall soon.

Although I did not get much stitching done on our trip, I have been getting quite a bit of stitching done this past week. Sometime the week before we left, I started working on a new design for The Sunflower Seed. It is another rather large piece and is going to take a while to complete. Right now I am about 1/4 done with it. No photos until it is released. Speaking of released designs, one of the small designs that i worked on recently was released this week. I had planned to include a photo, but something happened to it and now I have to go download it again. Try to do a quick post showing it in a day or two.

Here are photo updates for "In My Father's House" and "Precious Baby". There is more grass and the red house is bigger on My Father's House and the green striped book and the rattle at the bottom of it are almost done. Started a white blanket over to the right side. It is hard to see. Also have started 2 of the 4 Christmas presents that I plan to do. No photos of them until after Christmas.

In My Father's House

Precious Baby

I returned to 194 e-mail and 85 posts to my Google Reader. You almost feel like you are drowning when you have that much to read. Between that, laundry, watching the Olympics and the normal day to day things going on, it has been a struggle getting getting caught up on things. Saturday is the beginning of college football and I will be going to the Kansas State home games. We have 2 weeks in a row with home games and then we have 2 weeks off. Actually, I am looking forward to see what kind of team they can field this year.

The dog has been waiting on me to leave the computer ever since I started this post. She has gotten fed up and went and laid down on the couch without me and let out a big sigh. Poor baby. I guess I better go sit down and stitch so she can lay beside me.

Hope I did not bore you too much with all my Fenway Park and Boston stuff Next installment will be posted in a few days. Until then, keep on stitching!!!!!