Welcome to the Red Sox Nation

Our first full day in Boston was spent mostly on Newbury Street. This section of Boston is a lovely street full of old Brownstone houses, and shops of every kind in each one.

There is a mix of luxury fashion and high street brands, plus some great vintage jewellery stores.

While we wanted to explore as much of Boston as we could in the two full days we had, we also wanted to pop into some jewellery stores and try on some engagement rings, to get a feel for what type of ring I'd like.

Our first stop was the Georgetown Cupcake Shop, made famous by the TV show DC Cupcakes. They had the most amazing flavours and they all looked delicious.

In the end we decided on a Peanut Butter and Chocolate cupcake, and a coffee to go. The cupcakes were definitely as delicious as they looked!

Possibly the nicest cupcake I've ever had

Unfortunately we obviously couldn't take any photos of the rings I tried on, but if we'd have the money at the time we possibly would have brought one right there and then! 

The people Small Pleasures Jewellery store were so helpful and so friendly, I tried on about 10 different rings with coloured stones, and they were all amazing.

I didn't really want to buy a ring from the first place we saw, but now I wish I'd just brought one! The cost of engagement rings in the UK is at least twice the price of the ones we saw in America.

After trying on just a few, it's become clear that I'm going to be looking at a coloured stone, perhaps in a vintage style, rather than a diamond ring.

After leaving behind some lovely rings, we stopped and had Burritos for lunch before browsing some of the other shops on Newbury Street.

I'd say we spent a good 3 or 4 hours exploring the different shops, but managed to not buy anything at all!

Running adjacent to Newbury St is Boylston Street, a huge street with landmarks such as the Trinity Church, completed in 1877, and the Boston Public Library.

We continued wandering along the streets, stopping in at stores we liked the look of on the way, and ended up getting hopelessly lost, wandering around for about half an hour with no sense of direction.

Trinity Church

The Tortoise and the Hare

The Old South Church

We eventually came across Boston Common, and sat in the sunshine for a while before it was time to head to Fenway Park for the Red Sox vs Orioles game.

Going to a Red Sox game was our main reason for visiting Boston. Bradley is a huge Red Sox fan, and was super excited to be able to watch a live game.

Since we hadn't found any Red Sox merchandise we liked the day before, we headed into the huge store they have in the park. Bradley picked up a T-shirt, and I got myself a baseball jersey. 

I'll definitely never wear it again, but it was awesome to wear to the game. Almost everyone there was dressed in Red Sox apparel.

Showing off our new shirts

We grabbed some hot dogs, onion rings, fries and a huge drink and headed off to find our seats. There was no way we could go to a Baseball game and not enjoy a bit of everything on offer!

We were sitting in the bleachers, which are some of the cheapest seats, similar to the terraces at Eden Park. It's pretty much where all the loud and fun people sit, and where the songs and Mexican wave usually start from.

Our huge plate of food!

We were surprised at how small Fenway Park was. Watching in on TV and in the movie's, it seems huge, but it's really small. 

The atmosphere was great, and we loved listening to the Boston accents, trying to quietly mimic them without anyone overhearing.

Baseball games can go on for several hours, so you can end up sitting on a hard seat in the cold for a long time.

We stayed for about 8 innings before leaving because we were frozen, luckily the score didn't change at all after that. We ended up being at the game for about 3 hours, which compared to a rugby game is a huge amount of time.

But we got to sing along to Take Me Out to the Ball Game, which was super exciting, and we loved watching the guys carrying huge amounts of Hot Chocolate on their heads, and throwing peanuts and hot dogs into the crowd.

We had an amazing time, and Bradley had another thing to tick off his Bucket List.

In the end the Red Sox lost to the Orioles 4-2, but no one really seemed to care about the score, it was more about the experience and enjoying watching a sport you love with the Red Sox Nation.