6/22/10 6am: Up and around for final packing. Off to Boston Logan at 9:30 and a sad goodbye to Kate and Eleanor. We breeze through security and spend 20 minutes in the Admiral’s Club. Board at 11 and depart on time. Lunch is served and the boys are watching a TV show on their iPods.
6/22/10 2pm: We land Miami a bit early and head to the Admiral’s Club near gate D30. We kill 1+ hours here, the Argentina vs. Greece fixture is on every TV and they boys discover the free cookies, computer room and kids’ lounge. We head to the gate for our Denver flight, but the inbound was late so we have an extra 30 minutes to wait. Flight to Denver is goes without a hitch; they actually serve a meal that Pete will eat.
6/22/10 7pm: We arrive DEN and pick up our Hertz Car. All are amused by the Wild Mustang sculpture at airport entrance. The red glowing eyes are spooky.
6:22/10 8pm: We drive past Coors Field where the Red Sox are trying to overcome a 1-0 deficit.
After we checked in, we took a swim and had room service. Lots of Red Sox fans in the hotel. Kate and Eleanor landed safely in Paris and gave us a ring on their way from the airport.
6/23/10: After a quick breakfast in the concierge lounge, we cheered USA’s last minute goal vs. Algeria to advance into the next round. Next, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and saw some really cool nature and science stuff. We head to Casa Bonita for lunch. Pure ghetto.
6/23/10 4:30pm We take a cab over to Coors Field and are through the gate at 4:45; two hours before the first pitch but the full Sox batting practice ahead of us. We set up in extreme left field and within five minutes a ball dribbles up to the wall. Clay Buchholz walks over and tosses the ball to Charlie. A good start, indeed. The game itself is an up-and-down affair. The Sox fall behind 0-4, only to come back and take a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the 9th, where Papelbon blows the save and gives up two home runs. Rockies win in a walk off. Beautiful night for a baseball game, horrible outcome for Boston.
6/24/10 9:00am, Longs Peak: After a late start, we head out to Rocky Mountain National Park to give the boys a look at the mountain that meant so much to my Dad, and then, in turn, to Steve and I when we were kids. We drove through Boulder and then up Colorado Highway 7, into the foothills to the base of Longs Peak. We arrived at the trail head at 11 and set out up the path for Chasm Lake. The climb was fairly strenuous, with 2,300 feet of elevation gain (9,400 to 11,700) over the 7.5 mile round trip. We saw lots of great scenery, especially once we climbed above timberline into the alpine tundra. The day was spectacularly clear; with no clouds and low humidity, the vistas stretched for hundreds of miles. Passing two descending pro-climbers, we learned that our intended destination was would entail a treacherous, ice-covered technical climb; in reality, our sneakers/running shoes were no match for the terrain, so we turned back at 2pm. By 3:30, we were back at our car.
6/24/10 5pm: After a slow drive through rush hour traffic on I-25, we dash back to the hotel for a change into our “game gear” and a short taxi ride to Coors Field. For game 2 we are seated in the left field pavilion in the 4th row. There are lots of emboldened Rockies fans bearing brooms (symbolic of a potential three-game “sweep” of the Sox), however, as it would turn out, Boston would salvage the series with a tense, back-and-forth war of attrition. Highlights included six lead changes, three home runs by Pedroia and Pabelbon blowing the save in the 9th for the second night in a row, only to earn a win in the 10th. Peter stuck up an ongoing conversation with four very cool local fans that proved to be one of the most entertaining moments of the trip to date. Jamie, we need your email address!
Pedroia hits THREE home runs and we were there!
