​Ahh, the benefits of a vacation.  For me, I get more than just the time we’re at the destination.  I love the process of planning the vacation.  I love finding good deals, figuring out the most fun way to spend our days, and, of course, scouting out great places to eat.  Then after the vacation, I love looking back on all the fun memories and scrapbooking from some of the pictures we take.  But I also recognize the indirect benefits from a vacation.  One example is providing an escape.  In early 2019, I was struggling with some personal things, so when Valentine’s Day rolled around, I was on the lookout for a quick getaway for Joel and me.  Spokane was a doable drive (9 hours, but us Montanans are used to it), had the #4 ranked basketball team in the nation, and had that team playing in a game the weekend before Valentine’s Day.  So we made it happen, and it was a great, necessary few day escape.

Every year, I would watch the World Series, and more years than not, they show these older female fans lamenting about how they’ve been fans their whole lives and never seen their team win a World Series.  As a Red Sox fan, we’ve been spoiled this century with an amazing run of championships, but those interviews have stuck in my brain to remind me that you never know when the last World Series you see your team win is going to occur.  With that attitude, I told Joel in 2018 that if the Red Sox made it to the World Series, we needed to do whatever it took to go to a game.  Which at the time was no small feat- I was coaching volleyball, so I had a pretty limited time frame that it would work.  Thankfully, the stars aligned and game 5 fell on a Sunday and in Los Angeles, which was a much easier trek for us from Montana. 
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One problem though- the Red Sox were a juggernaut, and we weren’t even sure that it was going to make it to game 5.  We held off on booking a flight until we knew the game was actually going to happen.  Red Sox won the first two games, and then came game 3.  With conflicting feelings, we watching all 18 innings, and breathed a sigh of guilty joy when the Red Sox ultimately lost despite Nate Eovoldi’s mammoth effort.  Immediately after the loss, we booked our flight to leave early Sunday morning and return not even 24 hours later and tried to wrap our heads around getting to see our favorite team play on the biggest stage!

Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger… sorry.  Had to with this stadium.  Anyways, when the 2018 MLB schedule came out and I saw that the Red Sox would be playing the Nationals in Washington DC on the 4th of July… well, I knew we had to make it happen.  And I’m so glad we did!  Not that I’ve ever regretted going on a trip, but this one was truly special, and the Red Sox-Nationals series was a big part of that.

The Red Sox were in town for a 3-game set as part of the inter-league games.  For those who follow baseball in 2022, you might know that they’re changing the schedule next year so that there will be more inter-league games.  On one hand, I’m excited.  There were some instances where the Red Sox would only play at a stadium once every 6 years, so to get to see the Red Sox play at every stadium, which is my pie in the sky goal, you’d have to be pretty patient.  On the other hand, though, that made it special, which this new schedule will get rid of a bit.  But at least I’ll remember how special this series felt, which adds to the memory!
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And while we had only planned on going to the Red Sox games, we had a few extra days in town and ended up finding an excuse to go to a couple of other games as well!