tchoiniere

8 of us went to the Patriot's Day game on Monday. Tampa Bay Rays @ the Red Sox. We had really good seats and were looking forward to it.
Knowing that Boston was going to be a madhouse with a lot more people around than usual, we decided to take Commuter Rail into Boston, rather than park at Riverside and take the subway or drive in and park near Fenway. There is a Commuter Rail station right adjacent to Boston Beer Works (Yawkey Station). We parked at Worcester Union Station for $9 for the day and it was $10 each way. We downloaded an App on our I-Phones to buy electronic tickets as the ticket machine was down and we did not have a lot of cash on us.
We got into Boston at 8am as there are limited trains thatt stop at Yawkey so make sure that you look at the schedules. Same for outbound - make sure train you are getting on goes out to Worcester and doesn't terminate in Framingham. There is another Commuter Rail Station near by that has more stops (Back Bay Station). This really worked to our benefit getting out in the afternoon.
Since we were so early, we headed straight to Boston Beer Works and had a very early lunch. I had Shark Tips and a few of their beers. Much too early but oh well...Really good food and I enjoy their beers. Place was packed by 9am. We went into Fenway around 10 and enjoyed the game. Seats were right behind the Sox dugout, 4th row of the Grandstands. Our complaint was how many people were going up / down interrupting our view of the game and that there was no longer any atmosphere of people watching the game...More of a social scene which really detracted from the experience.
Sox won 3-2 on a walkoff hit. It was a very well-played and quick game. Once the game ended, we decided to walk over to Copley Square to the finish line of the Marathon but then saw how many people were doing the same thing and turned around. We got a table at Boston Beer Works at the time the 2 bombs went off. We wouldnt have known anything happened other than TV Coverage and Cell phones went down. We tried getting a hold of our parents, etc to let them know we were ok but we couldn't. We stayed there for a while to watch the news and wait for our train (earliest train outbound was at 5:45 after the game ended at 2). We managed to get a couple of phone calls out finally to let people know we were ok and working our way home.
We went to Yawkey Station really unsure if we would find the trains running or not but they were thankfully and we got onto a Worcester bound train. Only issue - all of our phones were dead so we could not show the electronic ticket and had to buy another ticket so we still have an unused outbound ticket to use. But not a big deal.
The bombs hit much too close to home on Monday and my thoughts are with all the victims from Monday. Glad everyone here that was nearby were ok and home safe. Devastating scene and we were very thankful to get out so quick. If we had taken Subway, we may have been stuck there for a long time on Monday afternoon

tchoiniere

Sorry about the lack of spaces. Had typed this elsewhere and the formatting was not carried over.

cw

Thanks. Glad you got home okay and weren't near the explosions.

emalloy

I was wondering if anyone here was caught up in the tragic situation in Boston. Thanks for reporting and so glad you got home safe.

tchoiniere

Getting out was a lot smoother than we were expecting, once everything happened. Credit to MBTA for keeping the Commuter Rail running and on time. Area on Fenway definitely had heightened tensions due to everything but for the most part, everybody was helping each other.

china_cat

I'm glad you posted. I was thinking of you, because I remember saying in the planning thread that after the game, you should walk down to the finish line, then get the train from Back Bay. I figured you would be down in that area right when the explosions happened.

You got a fun game anyways, a real pitchers duel.

on a side note, you've confirmed what I find so annoying about using commuter rail to go to games...they just don't run often enough to do things that aren't at commuting hours. I live less than 5 minutes from one of the stations between Framingham and Worcester, I go to probably a dozen games a season, and I just can't cope with using commuter rail. I'd rather drive in and park. Except on Patriots day!

sf7307

Glad to hear you're all okay.

Ackislander

I am among the many who wondered how the day went for you.

Thank goodness for commuter rail in this case.

So much for having an electronic ticket on your phone.

tchoiniere

Its too bad MBTA won't look at Metro North from CT into NYC as an example of how Commuter Rail is so beneficial to run more frequently.

Monday is obviously not deterring us from anything as we are going to the Nationals @ Mets game on Sunday and are taking Metro North to Grand Central then subway out. Not the optimal way of getting there as it really is easier to drive to Citi Field from here (generally an hour shorter as you don't have to go into Manhattan) but we just don't feel like driving. Have good seats that were free.