More memories made

My nephew got married on July 31st in Connecticut, so we built our vacation into the road trip for the wedding and added a week in Boston. We had a great time – here are some of the memories!

On Thursday, we drove to Wallingford CT and checked into our hotel (our daughter & her husband also stayed in this hotel). Then we all spent Friday together at Hammonasset Beach. While David & Tony were in the water, there was a (really drunk) guy nearby who was (at first, maybe seriously, then afterward, probably not) telling everyone that Larry Bird and Russell Wilson were at Hammonasset Beach! He was going to throw a football to Tony, then ask to have a picture with them! When the guys came up out of the water, we told them this story and they laughed. Then David called the guy over and asked if he wanted to have a picture taken with them! He did, and it was pretty funny!

When we were done at the beach, we went back to our hotel and got all prettied-up for the wedding. Here are a few of my favorites from the wedding:

Saturday we had two breakfasts (we wanted to spend time with everyone, but time constraints kept us from all being together at the same time). It was a fun, laid back time, followed by heritage photo sorting by me and my brother, who is the family genealogist. Then we drove to Cambridge, moved into our Studio apartment for the week, and got (highly overpriced) groceries from a little neighborhood grocery.

Sunday, David ran last 9.5 miles of Boston Marathon route (he was curious about it, and since he is running a marathon in the fall, he thought it would be fun to “finish” Boston).

Then we went to Fenway for a ballgame (where we had neither beer nor hot dogs, bummer!).

After the game, we wanted to go to dinner – but the place was PACKED! So David found a table that had lots of extra room and asked if we could join them! We had a really fun dinner with Victoria & Addison @ Boston Beer Works!

Monday, we spent most of the day in and around Harvard, and went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (see pretty Geode below – they have the coolest Mineral Room!). My friend’s father designed a fountain at Harvard University, but the water was turned off, so we just thought it was for the kids to sit on between classes! Monday night, we went to a movie (Mission Impossible – go see it – it’s pretty fun!).

On Tuesday David ran, then we went to the Skywalk Observatory (near the top of the Prudential Center)

Then off to MOFA (Museum of Fine Art). We could have spent several days at MOFA, but did sort of a quick breeze through, saw the parts we were particularly interested in, then headed over to the Isabella Gardner Museum (which is, we found out, closed on Tuesdays. Don’t know how I missed that in the info we had, but I did!). The sky was turning black and it looked like severe rain was on the way, so we went back to the Pru so we could be inside – which was fortunate, because there was a rain/hail storm! For dinner, we had lobster rolls at Luke’s Lobster – absolutely totally YUMMY (as is evidenced by the fact that I couldn’t wait to start eating it, so the photo shows it with a bite or two gone!). I highly recommend Luke’s Lobster (and was very happy to find out that there is one in Georgetown! Can you say Road Trip?).

Wednesday – David ran, then we went on a Charles Riverboat Tour, which was very informative. Our guide was very good!

Then off to the Freedom Trail – Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church. LOTS of walking. Wish I had a FitBit so I could have kept track of just how many steps I walked!

We had lunch at Al Dente (really good meatball sub), then went to the NE Aquarium (I thought we would run out of time, but it’s smaller than other Aquariums I’ve been to, so it was just about right). After that, we hung out at Boston Common for a while and relaxed, then had our best dinner of the week at Antonio’s, near Mass General.

Thursday, we made a last minute schedule change and went to the JFK Presidential Library & Museum. We were so glad we did, and both of us really enjoyed this more than any of the other museums we had gone to. We were headed from there to the Sam Adams Brewery tour, so we had lunch at Chilicates, which was around the corner from the brewery. The owner, Socrates, stopped by and talked with us after we ate. It was a great place for lunch, and if you are ever in Boston, you should stop by! Next up was the Sam Adams Brewery tour (totally interesting, fun and refreshing!).

Then dinner at The Park Restaurant in Cambridge (which we would NOT recommend – the food was incredibly salty and neither of us finished our meal).

Friday – David ran, then we drove to Rockport. We had lunch at Blue Lobster Grill (my second delicious lobster roll!), then walked around looking at the shops, listened to singer in the park, and had dinner at My Place (very delicious) & watched the sun set from our table.

On Saturday, our vacation was over, so David ran, then we packed up our stuff, loaded the car & drove to Woodbridge NJ (which is about half-way home) and stayed at the Renaissance Hotel. It was a HUGE room, really nicely done, with a comfortable bed and giant bathtub. We ate dinner at a Ruby Tuesday’s around the corner and relaxed.

Sunday morning, David went for a run and ran by a cemetery that he said looked familiar. So, after we packed up the car again, we went back to the cemetery and he went into the office to see if it really was the cemetery where he & I had attended some family funerals. Turned out it was (he apparently has a great memory for cemeteries) and we found the graves of David’s grandparents, his Aunt & Uncle and another Uncle, and took pictures to send to his Dad. So, that was an interesting end to a vacation!

Lots of fun, lots of walking, lots of new memories! See ya later, Boston!