Boston, Massachusetts

For almost all the years that we have lived in Corpus Christi, we have watched the Boston Pops concert on the 4th of July.  We've always said that we'd like to go in person if we ever had the chance.  The timing just happened to work out that we would be close, so we decided to go.   Everyone we talked to tried to talk us out of it, but we knew what we were in for and went anyway.  We found a campground about 60 miles west of Boston and drove the car in the day before to check things out and see what we would need to do.  We drove in to the Alewife Subway Station, leaving the campground at 5 a.m.    We got found a convenient place to park in the garage there and caught the subway just after 6 a.m.  By 6:40 we were following a bit of a crowd to the Esplanade.  Three lines had already queued up, so we found the end of one and quickly met our neighbors.  We had nearly two hours to get acquainted. 

Security was very tight.  The plan was to allow 9,000 people into the oval area near the Hatch Shell where the concert is held.  Wrist bands were issued allowing exit and re-entry.  All of the vendors were set up outside the oval area, selling tee shirts, soda, water, ice cream and all kinds of food.  Once the 9,000 wrist bands were gone, no one else would be admitted to the area.  The estimate of the crowd size was 600,000.  Every spare piece of grass every where was covered with blankets and chairs and people.  Did I mention that it was hot!  The smart ones brought umbrellas (we did!) and water and food and suntan lotion (we did!).  I also brought a book that I read from start to finish.  The concert itself didn't start until 8:30 p.m., so we had a long time to hang out.  We devoured the sandwiches we brought as well as all the soda and water and bought lots more.  

We ended up less than half way back from the stage, so we could see pretty well.  Two big screens were set up high enough for those at the back to see.  LeAnn Rimes, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Indra Thomas, a soprano, were the featured performers.  Of course, Keith Lockhart was wonderful.  We were sorry to hear afterwards that the 1812 Overture, their signature piece for the 4th, was not televised on the segment that was shown on National TV.