USA Holiday 2, September 26 (Foxborough)

Off to Foxboro to see the Patriots, there's only one train so you want to make sure you don't miss it. The train is this massive old style coach thing, kind of like a much bigger version of a V-Line. The train was going along fine for about half an hour, then we just came to a stop. There was a broadcast saying we'd be about 15 minutes late (despite no signs of congestion or other problem) then we started going in reverse. Seems this must be the normal method, because after going backwards very slowly for about 10 minutes we finally arrived. More accurately, the train stopped and everybody just got off and started walking along the train tracks - I don't know why they can build a massive stadium but not provide adequate public transportation. After walking up the very flat ramps - meaning you have to do about 10 loops to get to the top level, we had to walk all the way around to the opposite corner of the stadium and made it with about half an hour before the game was due to start.

State of the art stadium with state of the art train platform.

Gilette Stadium.

The view from the top deck.

The view from my seat.

The game was pretty good, the Patriots defense was pretty poor in the first half, and Buffalo played alright, so it was always close. The Patriots got a comfortable margin in the second half and held on for the win. The only train back to Boston leaves half an hour after the game, so we had to run back for that, meaning I did not get to visit the team store and load up on merchandise, which was quite sad.

It's Tom Brady !

It's BenJarvus Green-Ellis - that's just one person.

Went to dinner at Eagles Deli which is on one of the Man vs. Food episodes. They have all kinds of massive burger combos, I think the largest is a 5 pound burger with 5 pounds of fries on the side. Took the Red/Green Line trams out to the Back Bay / West Boston area to get there, which seems like a really nice area - I believe it was reclaimed or partial swamp land that was developed some time after the downtown area. Anyway, there was this light on the tram that kept lighting up for the next stop, and I must have spent at least 10 minutes working out how it worked. Turns out they have these really obscure yellow plastic strips on the wall, which don't look like anything at all, and you just press them.

Not far off was the Paradise Rock Club where by luck Mates Of State were playing. There was maybe a little over 100 people in total there, which was surprisingly few but also pretty cool. Unfortunately they played some songs from their upcoming/unreleased album but the rest were great.

Mates Of State - the two at the front.

Kori.

Kori again.