My oldest daughter danced with her dance studio at Fenway Park this past weekend.  If you have been to a game recently, there are a few streets that are outside the actual park, but you need a ticket to the game to get into.  My daughter and her dance studio performed on one of those streets for a few songs just before the game was to start.  The forecast had called for rain so we were expecting it to happen at any moment.  We arrived early just cause we were not sure about the traffic heading into Boston on a Friday.  THERE WAS NONE….  So, we stop at a pizza place and had some food.  We ate pizza and watched out the window at all the interest characters outside of Fenway park before a game.  The vendors all setting up, the local food cart guys yelling at you in a THICK Boston accent that you should buy their Sausage and Peppa roll because it’s the best in the city.  The hustle of all the people working in Boston trying to scramble out before the rush of people heading to the Red Sox game with a little extra hustle with the impending rain coming.

My oldest daughter and wife left to meet up with the dance studio to get ready for their performance, which left myself and my youngest daughter to get lost in Boston for a half hour or so.  Since she was a little young to go bar hopping with me we settled on a small coffee shop that apparently makes coffee with some type of gold in it as I learned from the price I paid.   After that was done we still had a few minutes so we just walked around a few streets near Fenway Park.  The sun was starting to peak through the clouds, and the smell of the food carts were everywhere.  No one was noticeably drunk, but I promised my daughter she would get to see a few of those people as the game got going.

We found our way to the gate to head into the game, grabbed a spot to see the dance performance and watched all the kids perform.  They did a great job, as they always do.  They performed a few baseball themed numbers and got a great reaction from the crowd.  Obviously, all the parents watched, but lots of others just heading into the game stopped and watched for a minute or two.  It was great to see that.  The studio always does a great job with these little “bucket list” performances.  They have performed at lots of places, lots of great memories for the kids.  It is something that I love that they do.  My wife is a big part of it, scouting events and seeing the next place the kids might be able to go to.  They have done a Disney parade, a Celtics game, and a Broadway trip just to name a few.  They won’t remember that they had to dance on a crappy Boston street, they will remember they danced at Fenway Park.  The older kids, like my daughter, were more interested in hanging out after the performance.  Walking around Fenway, sitting in cool seats, taking a billion selfies.

Anyway, this was both my daughters first Red Sox games.  I know, I know, I’m a bad Dad for them having to wait so many years for this experience.  Neither of them had even heard of the Green Monster before we got to the game.  I’m a big fan of the team, just not a big fan of Fenway, and they have no interest in baseball so I never thought about taking them before this dance opportunity came up.

As we sat in our seats my oldest was fidgeting around so I asked her what her problem was and she said “I thought I would sit with my friends”.  She began texting her friends and finally said she was going to meet up with them.  Then a few innings later she sent me a picture of her new seats, behind home plate.  I was sitting so high up in the bleachers and this girl found a way to sit with her friends in some great seats.

The night ended up being perfect.  The sun won the battle and the rain stayed away. The Red Sox won and I got to explain to the kids what a home run was because we saw three of them.  We stood and cheered, did the wave a few times, sang Sweet Caroline, which is a Boston tradition.  I always have hated seeing that song be sung by the crowd when watching the game at home, but being there and being a part of it was actually pretty cool.

As we walked out of the park to our car I mentioned to my youngest about how I was disappointed that she didn’t get to see any drunk people.  Earlier in the night I had mentioned it and said it will make her laugh.  She remembered one time I took her to a Bruins game and there were four college kids absolutely blasted, swearing and talking gibberish and she loved it.  But, as we got towards our car my youngest mentioned that the last time she went the bathroom a 21 year old girl was smoking a weed thing and asking her how she got her hair to look so pretty in braids and that it was okay because as she said to my 12 year old “I’m just a little drunk”…  So our night was complete….

Driving home, wallet was a little emptier than normal, but there was four people with smiles about a great night at the ballpark.