There was no way I was missing this parade! When I lived in Atlanta in 1998 and 1999 and the Red Sox made the playoffs, I vowed to fly home as soon as they won. Now I'm back living in Massachusetts, and every year I tell my boss and co-workers I'm saving my floating holidays for the ticker-tape parade (which is usually received by sympathetic "poor Kristen's deluding herself again" looks). But this year, I finally had the chance to go, and it was on a Saturday, so I didn't even need to take the day off.

The parade would be a "rolling rally" with the players on Boston's amphibious tourist transports, the Duck Boats. They were scheduled to leave Fenway Park at 10 am, travel down Boylston Street, past City Hall, and then into the Charles River, where they'd float down to the Mass. Ave. bridge and back.

The first Green Line train was scheduled to leave Riverside at 4:55 am, so I set the alarm for an ungodly hour that shouldn't even exist unless you're still awake from the night before, and got to Riverside at 4:45. There was a train already pulling away as I got there, stuffed to the point where no one else could fit. As I waited on the platform for the next train, it was 5 am, cold, and still dark out. But everyone was grinning ear-to-ear, and of course chanting, "Let's go Red Sox!"

I decided to get off at Copley and stake out a spot there. When I got up to the street, there was a group of guys in sleeping bags who had camped out on the street overnight. Another group had stayed in a hotel, and were setting up their folding chairs. I grabbed a good spot on the sidewalk. At 6:00, workers came and set up the barriers along both sides of the street. The street was still open to traffic, but the only vehicles were delivery trucks for the restaurants, and cabs. The area was starting to fill in, and many of the people who drove past rolled down their windows and honked and waved. We cheered everyone who went by; even the garbage truck got a nice ovation!

At 7:30 it started to rain. It was just a drizzle, but enough to make me completely chilled. By 8:00, the crowd was two or three deep on each side of the road, and I had a good "front row" spot, up against the railing. There were two guys near me who had flown in from Seattle for the occasion. When the CVS down the street opened, they bought some posterboard and made a "We came 3000 miles to see the Red Sox" sign. A group of girls had a professionally-printed sign shaped like a gravestone that said "R.I.P. Curse of the Bambino - 1918-2004 - You will not be missed" on one side and "We love Gabe Kapler" on the other side. The cops went around taking photos for anyone who asked. We amused ourselves with more "Let's go Red Sox" chants, and attempts to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", "Sweet Caroline", and "We Are the Champions".