trip to fenway with c’s grandmother

So this past weekend C. and I went on this little road trip through New England to take her 86-year-old grandmother to the Red Sox game. As I mentioned before, her grandmother is a huge BoSox fan who has watched every game but one for the past two years. It has been something to, in her words, fill the void in her life after her husband passed away six years ago. But she hadn’t been to a game in decades.

We started off on Friday by taking the Metro-North train to Fairfield, Conn. and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Hertz shop there. The idea was to beat both the traffic and high price of car rentals in Manhattan. But they tempted us (or, well, me) with a shiny red Mustang convertible for $25/day more. So I decided to go with that instead. Well, it came out to be what it would have cost to rent a Hyundai in NYC. Beating the traffic didn’t really work either, we hit gabs of it in Connecticut and on the Mass Pike, where a fatal accident had slowed things down.

But eventually we made it up to Newburyport, Mass., where I went to high school, and I was able to show C. around. A cute little seaside town. Saturday morning we made it up to Kennybunkport, Maine, and had lobster rolls with C.’s grandmother. She was v. v. excited about the game! Earlier some relatives had called her, singing “take me out to the ballpark.” The trip was like this big family adventure, even for those people not coming.

On the way to Boston we had the roof up so it wouldn’t blow around and disturb C’s grandmother, but apparently hadn’t secured it properly, as it came open on the highway and everything started to go flying. I snatched C’s grandmother’s jacket in midair, just before it exited the car. Excitement!

Eventually we did make it to Fenway on time. C’s grandmother isn’t frail, exactly, but she is 86, and needed someone to hold her hand as we walked through the crowded ballpark. I did that as we found our seats while C. waited for her slightly tardy sis and cousin. Everyone was very courteous and made room for us. Then finally C. returned with relatives in hand and a Red Sox shirt for grams … and it was time for the game! It wasn’t a dramatic game; the Sox won pretty easily behind the solid pitching of rookie Kason Gabbard, but it was a great time sitting in the seats and soaking in the sun. C’s relatives were also calling during the game to talk and see how it went. I think it will be a trip C’s Grams will be talking about it for a long time to come.

Saturday night we stayed with the Mofo, C. and him got to meet, (thanks muchly for putting us up on v. short notice after other plans fell through!!!). On the way back we got to stop in Fairhaven, Mass. (another town I grew up in) for a visit with my godmother. Then it was back to the highway for more traffic and to return to NYC. (But even traffic isn’t so bad when it’s sunny and you have a convertible). The Fairfield plan almost backfired when we nearly missed the 8:25pm train and would have had to wait until 9:44 p.m. to catch a new one. We could see the train approaching as we caught a cab to the station from the car-rental company. However we made a mad dash for the train — C. and I collided at one point — and managed to make it. A nice weekend trip.