Fenway Park and the Pebble Beach of The East

After checking StubHub nearly daily for over a month, I finally found five tickets that were decent enough, and reasonably priced enough, for the Boston Red Sox vs. Cleveland game May 10 at Fenway Park. Author Harvey Mackay once wrote, "A dream is a bargain at any price." So I could have spent more and justified it, but as I posted last month, I need to mind our budget.

I had a chance to buy a pair of State Street Pavilion Club tickets for $80 (face value is $170), but knew that my wife and I would likely be going to the game with her friend and her friend's kids. It wasn't easy to find five together that worked out price- and location-wise. Fenway Park is a "bucket list" item for me, but I wasn't going to settle for being 500 feet from home plate just to save a buck or two hundred. So for some $66+ per ticket after fees, we got our seats.

In fact, only four of them are together, and one is directly behind the four. I figure I'll take the one, while my wife catches up with her friend and helps with the kids. So that will be fine. I just won't be able to save their lives when a line drive comes their way while I'm watching every pitch, and they're comparing stories of motherhood.

My wife has interesting friends, in a good way. This particular friend happens to be a fairly recent Mrs. New Hampshire winner. Her husband is bass player for the metal band (or whatever genre you call their style) Godsmack, one of the few bands of their ilk that I quite enjoy.

(I don't think they'll mind my bragging about knowing them; I would guess that they pity me enough to offer their support.)

In fact, the idea was to get together when the band wasn't touring so that he could go, too, and when I reached out to her, she didn't think they'd be touring yet in early May. As it turns out, they are, and had I booked the trip for just a week later, their concerts would have been close enough to the Boston/New England area to meet up with the whole family. But I wasn't confident that I'd be able to find an open week to trade my RCI timeshare, as the Samoset Resort, where we're staying in Rockland, Maine, is pretty popular once spring gets going.

I'm pretty pumped for that part of the trip, too, as another "bucket list" item of mine is to play golf at Pebble Beach. Until I decide to take out a home equity loan to pay Pebble's fees (plus mandatory stay at the Lodge at Pebble Beach), Samoset, a.k.a. "The Pebble Beach of the East," will have to do. The sub-$100 greens fees make me smile, too.