It's my one year anniversary of blogging! Sorry I haven't been better at updating my blog but it has been fun writing it. If you feel it neccessary to send gifts then I will be forced to accept them.
Happy first day of Kentikah everyone.
Shalom
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Welcome Home
After a very long day of traveling yesterday we finally made it home. We woke up in Maine and went back through Lexington to see if Ron and Mary Jean's camera battery charger was at the hotel there (it wasn't). Then it was on to Rhode Island. We had just enough time to maybe see a bit of downtown and grab some lunch. Providence was a very confusing city. We made our way to the outskirts of downtown and Kent parked the car in a spot we both knew was still a ways from the city center but others thought we should park so we did. We walked about 5 blocks and luckily found a pretty good restaurant. We ate up and headed out the the car rental return. That damn GPS, sometimes it comes in so handy but others it can lead you so wrong! We turned about 2 buildings before the right spot and ended up way lost. We pulled over and figured out where we were and got back on course. We finally got to the airport and of course my suitcase gets picked to get searched. We got there really early so we wandered the airport killing time. We finally got to Detroit and something was wrong with our plane so the moved us to another terminal and we were about an hour behind schedule. We finally made it home about 10:30 and made the long drive back to the valley by 12:30. Which of course was 2:30 eastern time. So I had been up from 7:00am to 2:30am. I was dead on my feet. I fell asleep in about 2 seconds. I was exhausted from my vacation and now I need a vacation from my vacation.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
And Even More Vacation
Day 7
Well today I got to "sleep in". We didn't set a time to get up but Kent has readjusted to eastern time pretty quickly and he got up again at 6:50. I couldn't get out of bed until at least 7:30 though. We went out for breakfast and I got awesome blueberry pancakes. I guess Maine is famous for blueberries and Massachusetts is famous for cranberries. We headed north today to see a bit more of Maine. We went to the oldest lighthouse in Maine which was pretty. The coastline of Maine is seriously rocky I don't know how anyone could be a sailor in this area. Then, being so qualified at finding alcohol in most any state (except the one we live in), found a vodka 
distillery. We took a short tour on how vodka was made. They set us down the road to a really nice restaurant to get Mary Jean the lobster she had been wanting all trip. We looked like serious tourists when we started snapping photos of the lobster there in the restaurant. I actually tried it too. I
really didn't understand what all of the fuss was about, it was a bit rubbery to me. We then hit the road again to go down this little finger of land that came south off of the state. It was an awesome drive, there were points on the the road where you could see the ocean on both sides of the road. Ron had absolutely no faith in my navagation skills but I got us right down to the very tip of land. It was cool.
Well today I got to "sleep in". We didn't set a time to get up but Kent has readjusted to eastern time pretty quickly and he got up again at 6:50. I couldn't get out of bed until at least 7:30 though. We went out for breakfast and I got awesome blueberry pancakes. I guess Maine is famous for blueberries and Massachusetts is famous for cranberries. We headed north today to see a bit more of Maine. We went to the oldest lighthouse in Maine which was pretty. The coastline of Maine is seriously rocky I don't know how anyone could be a sailor in this area. Then, being so qualified at finding alcohol in most any state (except the one we live in), found a vodka 
distillery. We took a short tour on how vodka was made. They set us down the road to a really nice restaurant to get Mary Jean the lobster she had been wanting all trip. We looked like serious tourists when we started snapping photos of the lobster there in the restaurant. I actually tried it too. I
really didn't understand what all of the fuss was about, it was a bit rubbery to me. We then hit the road again to go down this little finger of land that came south off of the state. It was an awesome drive, there were points on the the road where you could see the ocean on both sides of the road. Ron had absolutely no faith in my navagation skills but I got us right down to the very tip of land. It was cool.Monday, October 13, 2008
Still Vacationing
Day 5
Sunday, the day of rest, and we sort of did. We decided to just stay in Ogunquit mainly today and just relax. We sort of slept in and just got ready as we felt like it. We took a walk down town and then walked down to the beach. We had picked up a pamphlet about an outlet mall about 14 miles from here and we decided to go check it out. It was huge! It had three stop lights running through it. I spent waaaaaay too much money but I got some good stuff. They had a Lindt Chocolate outlet! I was in heaven. I love Lindt Lindor truffles they are my absolute favorite and they had big bins of seconds that were $6.50 for a pound. I found out that a pound of Lindor's is a lot of chocolate. They also had red chili flavored chocolate that I bought for Kent. Kent and Ron gave up on the outlets pretty quickly and went off to find some boat store. It was really nice to not have to run around for one day.
Day 6
Today we were going to the White Mountains in New Hampshire which were about 2 1/2 hours away so we decided we needed to wake up early. Ron wanted to leave by 7:00 and me, not being a morning person, said 7:30 just to try to give me a tiny bit of extra sleep. Kent woke me up at 6:50 (I'm supposed to be on vacation right?!) and then he got in the shower. After him being in there for 20 minutes I went and 
kicked him out so I might actually get to have a shower before we left. I hurried, not even doing my hair, and was ready by about 7:35. As previously stated, I am not a morning person, so at this point I was already ticked off that I had had to get up so early and Kent had taken so long in the shower so when Kent opened the door to go to breakfast and Mary Jean was standing there and said they hadn't even showered, I said "ok, now I'm really ticked". We didn't end up leaving until close to 8:30. The drive to the White Mountains was beautiful. The leaves are very vibrant right now. We stopped at two covered bridges 
and a little road side stand where we bought pure maple syrup. We took a gondola ride to the top of some mountain and look out over the mountains and at Mt. Washington (the tallest point in the northwest). Then we drove back. It was a long time in the car but very pretty.
Sunday, the day of rest, and we sort of did. We decided to just stay in Ogunquit mainly today and just relax. We sort of slept in and just got ready as we felt like it. We took a walk down town and then walked down to the beach. We had picked up a pamphlet about an outlet mall about 14 miles from here and we decided to go check it out. It was huge! It had three stop lights running through it. I spent waaaaaay too much money but I got some good stuff. They had a Lindt Chocolate outlet! I was in heaven. I love Lindt Lindor truffles they are my absolute favorite and they had big bins of seconds that were $6.50 for a pound. I found out that a pound of Lindor's is a lot of chocolate. They also had red chili flavored chocolate that I bought for Kent. Kent and Ron gave up on the outlets pretty quickly and went off to find some boat store. It was really nice to not have to run around for one day.
Day 6
Today we were going to the White Mountains in New Hampshire which were about 2 1/2 hours away so we decided we needed to wake up early. Ron wanted to leave by 7:00 and me, not being a morning person, said 7:30 just to try to give me a tiny bit of extra sleep. Kent woke me up at 6:50 (I'm supposed to be on vacation right?!) and then he got in the shower. After him being in there for 20 minutes I went and 
kicked him out so I might actually get to have a shower before we left. I hurried, not even doing my hair, and was ready by about 7:35. As previously stated, I am not a morning person, so at this point I was already ticked off that I had had to get up so early and Kent had taken so long in the shower so when Kent opened the door to go to breakfast and Mary Jean was standing there and said they hadn't even showered, I said "ok, now I'm really ticked". We didn't end up leaving until close to 8:30. The drive to the White Mountains was beautiful. The leaves are very vibrant right now. We stopped at two covered bridges 
and a little road side stand where we bought pure maple syrup. We took a gondola ride to the top of some mountain and look out over the mountains and at Mt. Washington (the tallest point in the northwest). Then we drove back. It was a long time in the car but very pretty.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
More Vacation
Day 3
We headed south today and started out at Plymouth Rock. Mary Jean was very disappointed to find that it is really just a big boulder. The portico it is house under is much more to look at than the actual rock. We walked over to the Mayflower II but we didn't go inside. Ron and Mary Jean wanted to go to Plimouth Plantation (nope I didn't spell it wrong that's how it's spelled) which is a living history plantation where everyone lives like it's 1620. Kent and I weren't very interested in seeing that so we dropped them off and managed to find the one winery in the area. It was a cranberry winery and they had cranberry fields all around it. The cranberries there had not been harvested yet even though it is harvest season. I took a picture but you couldn't see the berries very well. We tried to find some of the bogs being flooded so we could watch the harvest but we didn't see any. We saw big fields of cranberries though. After we picked up Ron and Mary Jean we stopped for lunch the headed down to Cape Cod. It was an absolutely beautiful day for driving down the beach. It was 70 degrees out and just so nice! We just spent most of the day wandering around the Cape then headed back to the hotel.
Greetings from Cape Cod!
Day 4
Today was our last day in Lexington and our last night in this super cushy bed. We had decided to leave the most local attractions until the last day. We started at the Minuteman National Park. I took this picture of the leaves there. The leaves are just starting to change and they are beautiful. We watched a short presentation on the beginning of the Revolutionary War which was actually quite interesting then we moved on into Concord to see all the sights of the literary greats. We started at Nathaniel Hawthorne's home and we took a tour which was a little on the boring side. Then we went on to the Old North Bridge.
From there we took Ron and Mary Jean back to Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's home and where she wrote Little Women. As I've said before, I'm cheap. Kent and I didn't want to pay the $9 for each of us to get in to the house so we let them go and we searched out a place to buy a sandwich for lunch. After lunch we went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetary and the "Author's Ridge" where Thoreau, Alcott, Emerson and others are buried. 
We headed on to Walden Pond but I think everyone else in the entire state had decided it was a great day to go to Walden Pond so we just took a good look and drove on by. I didn't even get a picture. We started to go north to Maine. We had to stop at both the New Hampshire and Maine welcome centers which seemed to be only about 10 miles apart. Ron and Mary Jean were so engrossed with all of the literature from New Hampshire that the missed most of the sights going into Maine. In fact they didn't even know we were in Maine and couldn't figure out why we were stopping again so soon. We found our hotel, ate dinner, and decided to head down to the beach. It was dark but the moon was very close to full so it was beautiful. We got a little cold and Kent apparently didn't want to have to snuggle up anymore so we headed back to the hotel (which is nowhere near is swanky as the last place).Thursday, October 9, 2008
We're On Vacation
Day 1
We woke up well before the sun. Our flight left Salt Lake at 7:25 which meant we had to leave the Valley at 4:30! I got everything ready the night before and figured we could wake up at 4:00 and be on our way. I should have discussed this with Kent. His alarm went off at 3:25.
We hit the road and as we were driving south we started talking about the new Legacy Parkway. As we got closer Ron kept telling Kent to get off on the new road. We dang near missed the exit but Kent got off just in time. Mary Jean turned to Ron and said "Is this a better road?" to which he responded, "No, it's a crappy road!" and he was totally serious. So there we were driving on this windy path to the airport.
Both of our flights took off and landed on time which was nice. We arrived very tired. Luckily our baggage arrived too. We rented a car and drove north to Lexington. Our hotel was very nice. We had a very tastey dinner. We're off to a good start.
Day 2
We were suppposed to meet in the lobby for breakfast at 7:30. Kent and I woke up at 7:15. We hurried and got ready and got downstairs to find Ron and Mary Jean had also woken up late. I guess that's a sign that the beds were really nice. They were, I don't think I have ever slept better in a hotel. We headed to the T station to catch the train into Boston. Amy, you would be very impressed with my subway skills! Even 7 years later I was still a pro.
We started on the Freedom Trail and I soon learned it was going to be a long walk. Ron needed to read us a narative of each spot on the trail. We trudged along through each spot brushing up on our history. They used to have the coolest headstones. Kent wants one with the skull and crossbones and he would like it to say John Hancock, not his name.
We decided to eat cheap for dinner and Kent put in fast food into the GPS and it proceeded to head us towards McDonalds. Well the GPS was about 100ft behind on the instructions so by the time it would tell us to turn be had already passed the road. It was completely comical getting us to McDonalds. We finally stumbled upon one and none of us had any idea where we were. Thank goodess for that GPS or we would never had made it back to our hotel. Turns out if we had turned left out of our hotel instead of right we would have been just feet from a McDonalds.
We woke up well before the sun. Our flight left Salt Lake at 7:25 which meant we had to leave the Valley at 4:30! I got everything ready the night before and figured we could wake up at 4:00 and be on our way. I should have discussed this with Kent. His alarm went off at 3:25.
We hit the road and as we were driving south we started talking about the new Legacy Parkway. As we got closer Ron kept telling Kent to get off on the new road. We dang near missed the exit but Kent got off just in time. Mary Jean turned to Ron and said "Is this a better road?" to which he responded, "No, it's a crappy road!" and he was totally serious. So there we were driving on this windy path to the airport.
Both of our flights took off and landed on time which was nice. We arrived very tired. Luckily our baggage arrived too. We rented a car and drove north to Lexington. Our hotel was very nice. We had a very tastey dinner. We're off to a good start.
Day 2
We were suppposed to meet in the lobby for breakfast at 7:30. Kent and I woke up at 7:15. We hurried and got ready and got downstairs to find Ron and Mary Jean had also woken up late. I guess that's a sign that the beds were really nice. They were, I don't think I have ever slept better in a hotel. We headed to the T station to catch the train into Boston. Amy, you would be very impressed with my subway skills! Even 7 years later I was still a pro.
We started on the Freedom Trail and I soon learned it was going to be a long walk. Ron needed to read us a narative of each spot on the trail. We trudged along through each spot brushing up on our history. They used to have the coolest headstones. Kent wants one with the skull and crossbones and he would like it to say John Hancock, not his name.We ate lunch in the North End, I was a little disappointed that we didn't get Italian (the North End is the Little Italy of Boston) but it was good and especially nice to sit down. We at lunch fairly close to Paul Revere's house and I took this picture of it. 
We moved on to the burial grounds and Ron was very disappointed to learn that somehow he had completely missed Paul Revere's house. Luckily he was able to run back and see it. The last time I did the Freedom Trail we stopped at Copps Hill burial grounds and I'm sure glad we did because this time we did the whole thing and were completely pooped by the end. We got to the USS Constitution and could barely go on to Bunker Hill. Kent and I were really hoping for a taxi. About the time we got to Bunker Hill, our last stop, Mary Jean looked down and saw the red line beneath our feet. She said "Is this red line the Freedon Trail?" she didn't notice that we had been following it all day. She just thought we were really good at directons.
We moved on to the burial grounds and Ron was very disappointed to learn that somehow he had completely missed Paul Revere's house. Luckily he was able to run back and see it. The last time I did the Freedom Trail we stopped at Copps Hill burial grounds and I'm sure glad we did because this time we did the whole thing and were completely pooped by the end. We got to the USS Constitution and could barely go on to Bunker Hill. Kent and I were really hoping for a taxi. About the time we got to Bunker Hill, our last stop, Mary Jean looked down and saw the red line beneath our feet. She said "Is this red line the Freedon Trail?" she didn't notice that we had been following it all day. She just thought we were really good at directons.
We decided to eat cheap for dinner and Kent put in fast food into the GPS and it proceeded to head us towards McDonalds. Well the GPS was about 100ft behind on the instructions so by the time it would tell us to turn be had already passed the road. It was completely comical getting us to McDonalds. We finally stumbled upon one and none of us had any idea where we were. Thank goodess for that GPS or we would never had made it back to our hotel. Turns out if we had turned left out of our hotel instead of right we would have been just feet from a McDonalds.Not drinking carbonation has taken a serious back seat on this vacation.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Here Comes the Bride
My good friend Erin is getting married sometime (Erin have you decided when yet?) and this weekend she, Muriel and I went out dress shopping. She was so nervous about trying on dresses! When she tried on the first dress she was actually shaking! We kept bringing her dress after dress to try on. They were all so beautiful. Muriel and I were jealous, we want to get married again. When I got married I actually had two wedding dresses (well 3 if you count the one I wore to dinner) and I wanted another one to add to the collection. So here is Erin in her 27 dresses, ok, maybe a few less than that. If you have a favorite please feel free to leave a comment and that might help her narrow down the choices.
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