After getting home and collapsing Saturday night - and to think I'd been mulling over the Edwin McCain/Jeffrey Gaines concert at the Paradise that night - we got up early Sunday morning to my parents pulling in the driveway to take us to day 2, phase 1. Now, originally, the plan had been for them to stay somewhere in the Boston area to facilitate them driving us all over creation (this was a surprise, remember, so they couldn't exactly tell us where to go), so they had made reservations in downtown Boston. Well, why stay in town when you can drive two hours home after a ridiculous day of covering God's green earth (or at least, greater Boston)? Yes, my parents opted to drive 100+ miles back home to Maine, arriving at some ungodly hour of the night, only to get up the next morning and drive down here. But it was for me, so of course, it was all worth it.
Day 2 phase 1 was breakfast at our friend Sinclair's in Cambridge. She has a little house off of Mass Ave in Cambridge, which hides a compact but absolutely spectacular garden in the backyard. Turns out my parents had some breakfast food in the trunk - some ridiculously decadent french toast - and when added to a coffee cake and a generous helping of fresh fruit, it was all I could do to...go back for seconds. Burp. We also had a few friends of the family there as well, and since the birthday celebration would not be extending to a third day, gifts were exchanged right then and there. Brother #1 gave me the entire second season of Sledge Hammer! (yes, the exclamation point is necessary, and if you remember the show - which lasted all of two seasons - you'll remember why), while Brother #2 gifted me the third season of Seinfeld. Said family friends gave me a copy of Johnny Damon's Idiot (which, two weeks after the fact, Mrs. Dave has both started AND finished, and I have barely cracked open).
On to phase 2. Back when the rentals were planning this weekend, they had asked for suggestions for activities. At the time the only one I could come up with was Blue Man Group - which Mrs. Dave and I had gone to see last fall but left midway through - but a month or so ago it suddenly occurred to me that as the Red Sox would be in Chicago, they would not be at Fenway, and thus Fenway would be at our disposal for a tour. And despite the many years of living in the Boston area - 13 before we moved to Maine, and 7 more since graduation - we had never seen the innards of Fenway (at least, not the air-conditioned innards). As it turns out, they'd had the same idea, and we made it into the city just in time for a 12:30 tour of the 93-year-old ballpark. Our tour guides led us up into the press boxes, into the .406 Club, out onto the left-field Monster seats (cementing our desire to some day sit up there) and back down to the left-field grandstand. Tours also occasionally include a walk on the warning track in left field, but they had just put down a life-threatening amount of fertilizer on the field, and we were informed that the fumes alone could kill a fully-grown walrus at 50 yards, so we had to steer clear. Fortunately, we'd already gotten to step onto the warning track - behind home plate, no less - when we got to Fenway early one night last summer for what turned out to be "Fan Appreciation Night". We'd forgotten our camera and couldn't get pictures as a result, but it gave me goosebumps stepping out onto the red gravelly dirt next to the visitors' dugout. But this time my mother had brought the camera, and after a few snapshots, we were ushered back out to Landsdowne Street and went on our way.
Last stop on the family birthday odyssey turned out to be the only thing I'd requested from the very beginning - the aforementioned Blue Man Group showing. Like I said, we'd had to leave early the last time, and as a result we missed a good bit of the show. I didn't realize quite how much we had missed, but for those of you who haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil it other than to say that my brother ended up being chosen for an audience participation piece (not the one mentioned in the previous link; there's another one) and that the hugely entertaining finale actually explains the paper-roll bandannas everyone wears during the show. From there it was a quick drive north and back home, hugs all around, and one last "I can't believe I have a child that's so OLD" joke before everyone was on their way. And then it was just 24 hours until I finally reached the end of my 30th year.
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