We are home from our trip to New Hampshire (and Massachusetts, and Rhode Island...). We have a lot of stories to tell everyone, but I'll keep things brief on this blog.
We arrived in Boston on Tuesday and drove straight up to Manchester, New Hampshire. We had the pleasure of meeting up with Dan's father, Gary, and his partner/friend, Linda, at Billy's Sports bar. We had a great time catching up and decided to meet again later that week.
That night we got to Karen's house late, but she was just happy to see us. We woke up the next morning and Karen had gotten up early to get Dunkin' Donuts for us for breakfast. Dan was pretty excited about the food. I was happy with the gesture.
We had a great lunch at a local spot with both Karen and Gram. We went to visit Aunt Heather, who volunteers at the hospital on Wednesdays (Macaroni day). After that we had ice cream before heading up to Concord.
Gram, Karen, Dan and I all drove up to Concord and the leaves up there were amazing. We went to see Dan's Uncle Don, and his cousins (though we think of them more as nephews), Nate and Matt. They live up near a golf course, off of a driving range (hence the golfers in the photo). We wanted to go out to dinner in a pseudo-celebration of Don's birthday, and after much debate, we decided on Common Man. It was decorated in New England fashion, and was the perfect choice. Unfortunately, Jan (Don's wife, Dan's Aunt) was on the west coast, so she was not able to attend.
The next morning, Dan and Karen went out to a special breakfast all by themselves. They came to pick me up afterwards and we went to go apple picking. We noticed a lot of police in the area, and a lot of vehicles. It turns out that Barack Obama was speaking at the apple orchard!
Very inspirational! At one point he mentioned John McCain and people started to "boo." He said, "Don't boo, just vote." It was raining on us, but I felt lucky anyway. The Portland, Oregon rally drew around 75,000. The Londonderry crowd was only a couple thousand, so it felt very cozy!
Afterwards, we still went to pick apples. I have to say, one that I had at the orchard was the best apple I've ever ate (sorry Washingtonians).
We spent that night at the hospital. Gram fainted and took a little bit of a spill. She fractured 3 ribs, but she faired much better than the grandfather clock she took down on the way. We also had another chance to see Gary and Linda. We are thinking of planning a trip to Vega$ together next year.
We drove down to Cape Cod (Falmouth) the next day (Saturday) for Tim and Amy's wedding. They had GORGEOUS weather and wonderful ceremony on the Atlantic Shore. We had a great time seeing all of our New England friends and enjoyed spending some extra time with them the next day.
Our last night was spent in Rhode Island. Trevor gave up his bed for us (THANKS WINNIE!) even though we hardly had any energy left for him. Part of the problem was the fact that we had to get up at at 3:45 AM to get to the airport (which is 12:45 our time).
Overall, it was a whirlwind trip!
