Chris and I finally made it back East to visit my Dad. Chris got a new and exciting job 2 weeks previous. With both of us in new jobs I knew we wouldn't make it back in October as we originally planned. I forced Chris into taking a few days off between jobs and we caught a last minute flight to Hartford.
Our flight out was a red eye departing at 11:30 pm in order to maximize vacation time in Mass. It turned out to be manageable, but certainly not ideal. We found ourselves sleeping in the oddest positions at odd times in an attempt to catch some sleep. We arrived at 9:30 am and were picked up by my dad. After the great car switch we were left on our own until Dad and Jacky's workday was over. I spotted a store I wanted to do some serious shopping in, but Chris' sleep deprivation was kicking in so we opted to head to the house for a nap first. A quick two and some hours later and we were back for shopping! We could have slept more, but a girls' got priorities. We spent a solid two hours there, both of us dramatically increasing our wardrobes. The prices were incredible and the clothes just too cute to pass up. Chris pretended to complain about the whole ordeal, but secretly he loved it. Ok, maybe tolerated it. Afterward we met up with the folks in Northampton at Fresh Pasta for dinner. It was McTasty! Mmmm. I love me some sweet potato pasta. After the orgasmic feast (!) we walked Northampton a bit and made it home to crash.
The next day was July 4th, and we had planned to spend it with my Dad as he had the day off. Dad wanted to start it with a nature walk, so off we went for an hour down his rural road to some waterfalls nearby. Chris got his fill of country life and then we set off for our day. We ran into Yankee Candle quickly for gifts, overwhelmed by the strong smell and abundance of middle-aged housewives. And then we went on to Holyoke Mall for lunch at the 99 and more excessive shopping at H&M. It's more a women's store than a men's. Chris was a super trooper and helped with slight suggestions and as a human clothes rack for longer than I expected. Fresh off a shopper's high we went on the tour of the backcountry for Chris. After disappointedly locating a closed Indian motorcycle museum we wound our way around to Belchertown to grab some grinders and an in depth tour of the town. Total tour time: 4 minutes. After a quick stop at Atkins for some local goodies and sweet potatos from Boston Market we were back at the house exhausted. The plan was to take our picnic out and grab a spot for the fireworks. As soon as the sun started to set the rain started and became a torrential storm. We watched it from the window and opted to exchange fireworks for board games. We called it a night around 10 and crashed for the night.
Thursday was our trip to the Big Apple. I opted to accept some advice from my Dad (not often!) and decided to enter the city from upstate New York, as opposed to our usual CT route. The roads were clear, well maintained and there were portions where we didn't pass another car for 45 minutes. Overall it was only 15 minutes longer, but we were saved on the stress of stop and go traffic. Chris even drove us into the city where we switched drivers so I could manage Times Square and find us parking. We started off our day with a trip to the Met. A quick vendor hotdog outside and then off we were. The Met has raised their prices, suggesting $20 a person now. The woman said, "It's $40, is that ok?" And I replied with, "Can I pay $20?" And hooray! I saved money. Great trick. We spent about two and a half hours walking at a fairly brisk pace to give Chris and overview of the museum. He liked the Buddhist and sword stuff. Me, paintings. We grabbed a slice before getting back on the subway on our way to Wall Street. We were hoping to see the traders at the NYSE, but they discontinued the public viewing after 9/11. We walked around the area, found the bull for Chris' picture and wandered down to Ground Zero for a bit. We hopped back on the subway and got off in Chinatown where we found a cute little park to relax in for awhile. After cooling down (much warmer in the city than Mass. we overdressed!) we walked around Chinatown, bought some pasteries and finally ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. The food was excellent and we ate like kings for a decent price. Being the only gringos in the joint I congratulated myself on following the advice, eat where the locals eat. Tasty. We walked through Little Italy and then headed back up to Central Park to swing in the swings and goof off. The night was getting later and the rain was threatening to downpour so we opted to call it a night and head home at around 8:30 - but not before getting Chris a tasty pita you can eata! We were exhausted, but it was a great trip.
Friday morning we ran a few errands before heading to my friends Tim and Dawn's house. We drove up to the top of Mt. Sugarloaf (a hill! really!) so Chris could get a good view of the valley in all its very green muggy beauty. And then off we went to the boonies, aka Westfield. Their new house is so awesome! I love the plan and they have so much space. The yard is already landscaped awesome too. And I got to meet and hold baby Sierra. She's pretty darn cute. Dawn made us lunch and we played with the giant bunny briefly. He hurt is back, so no awesome tricks today. Tim came home from work for lunch and after all the chit and chat we went to Northampton for ice cream and browsing. Great ice cream, great browsing, cute Sierra. We parted ways after a bit and then hustled home to take the folks out to dinner. We ate at Bertuccis, super tasty pizza and then walked down the road for ice cream. Two ice creams in one day = awesome. A little more of the chit and the chat and off to bed we were.
For the early 4:10 wakeup! Hooray for first flights out. Dad kept telling me we weren't early enough. Sure enough, we get there and there's lines everywhere! At 5 am! I wasn't having it. I was up early and I wanted to get home dammit. I noticed no one using the check in kiosks, so a quick line cut and we were checked in and on our way. Until we got to security and saw the line wrap around the hallway. It was at least an hour plus wait and we had 30 minutes. I sweetly asked the security woman at the front if I was in the right place, because my flight was leaving in 30 minutes. She waved us through and we were through security in less than 10 minutes. Hooray for me! Sometimes that east coast aggressiveness gets you places. Sorry all you peoples we cut in front of! I was tired! Our flight back was uneventful and seemingly much longer, but we made it without incident. Except for little miss kicky mckick kick behind us for the second leg. That was fun.
I thought it was a great trip. We were both grateful to be back in our own bed, but I loved all the eating and shopping and see peoples. I look forward to going back soon and showing Chris more of New England and getting more sweet potato pasta! Mmmm.
Our flight out was a red eye departing at 11:30 pm in order to maximize vacation time in Mass. It turned out to be manageable, but certainly not ideal. We found ourselves sleeping in the oddest positions at odd times in an attempt to catch some sleep. We arrived at 9:30 am and were picked up by my dad. After the great car switch we were left on our own until Dad and Jacky's workday was over. I spotted a store I wanted to do some serious shopping in, but Chris' sleep deprivation was kicking in so we opted to head to the house for a nap first. A quick two and some hours later and we were back for shopping! We could have slept more, but a girls' got priorities. We spent a solid two hours there, both of us dramatically increasing our wardrobes. The prices were incredible and the clothes just too cute to pass up. Chris pretended to complain about the whole ordeal, but secretly he loved it. Ok, maybe tolerated it. Afterward we met up with the folks in Northampton at Fresh Pasta for dinner. It was McTasty! Mmmm. I love me some sweet potato pasta. After the orgasmic feast (!) we walked Northampton a bit and made it home to crash.
The next day was July 4th, and we had planned to spend it with my Dad as he had the day off. Dad wanted to start it with a nature walk, so off we went for an hour down his rural road to some waterfalls nearby. Chris got his fill of country life and then we set off for our day. We ran into Yankee Candle quickly for gifts, overwhelmed by the strong smell and abundance of middle-aged housewives. And then we went on to Holyoke Mall for lunch at the 99 and more excessive shopping at H&M. It's more a women's store than a men's. Chris was a super trooper and helped with slight suggestions and as a human clothes rack for longer than I expected. Fresh off a shopper's high we went on the tour of the backcountry for Chris. After disappointedly locating a closed Indian motorcycle museum we wound our way around to Belchertown to grab some grinders and an in depth tour of the town. Total tour time: 4 minutes. After a quick stop at Atkins for some local goodies and sweet potatos from Boston Market we were back at the house exhausted. The plan was to take our picnic out and grab a spot for the fireworks. As soon as the sun started to set the rain started and became a torrential storm. We watched it from the window and opted to exchange fireworks for board games. We called it a night around 10 and crashed for the night.
Thursday was our trip to the Big Apple. I opted to accept some advice from my Dad (not often!) and decided to enter the city from upstate New York, as opposed to our usual CT route. The roads were clear, well maintained and there were portions where we didn't pass another car for 45 minutes. Overall it was only 15 minutes longer, but we were saved on the stress of stop and go traffic. Chris even drove us into the city where we switched drivers so I could manage Times Square and find us parking. We started off our day with a trip to the Met. A quick vendor hotdog outside and then off we were. The Met has raised their prices, suggesting $20 a person now. The woman said, "It's $40, is that ok?" And I replied with, "Can I pay $20?" And hooray! I saved money. Great trick. We spent about two and a half hours walking at a fairly brisk pace to give Chris and overview of the museum. He liked the Buddhist and sword stuff. Me, paintings. We grabbed a slice before getting back on the subway on our way to Wall Street. We were hoping to see the traders at the NYSE, but they discontinued the public viewing after 9/11. We walked around the area, found the bull for Chris' picture and wandered down to Ground Zero for a bit. We hopped back on the subway and got off in Chinatown where we found a cute little park to relax in for awhile. After cooling down (much warmer in the city than Mass. we overdressed!) we walked around Chinatown, bought some pasteries and finally ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. The food was excellent and we ate like kings for a decent price. Being the only gringos in the joint I congratulated myself on following the advice, eat where the locals eat. Tasty. We walked through Little Italy and then headed back up to Central Park to swing in the swings and goof off. The night was getting later and the rain was threatening to downpour so we opted to call it a night and head home at around 8:30 - but not before getting Chris a tasty pita you can eata! We were exhausted, but it was a great trip.
Friday morning we ran a few errands before heading to my friends Tim and Dawn's house. We drove up to the top of Mt. Sugarloaf (a hill! really!) so Chris could get a good view of the valley in all its very green muggy beauty. And then off we went to the boonies, aka Westfield. Their new house is so awesome! I love the plan and they have so much space. The yard is already landscaped awesome too. And I got to meet and hold baby Sierra. She's pretty darn cute. Dawn made us lunch and we played with the giant bunny briefly. He hurt is back, so no awesome tricks today. Tim came home from work for lunch and after all the chit and chat we went to Northampton for ice cream and browsing. Great ice cream, great browsing, cute Sierra. We parted ways after a bit and then hustled home to take the folks out to dinner. We ate at Bertuccis, super tasty pizza and then walked down the road for ice cream. Two ice creams in one day = awesome. A little more of the chit and the chat and off to bed we were.
For the early 4:10 wakeup! Hooray for first flights out. Dad kept telling me we weren't early enough. Sure enough, we get there and there's lines everywhere! At 5 am! I wasn't having it. I was up early and I wanted to get home dammit. I noticed no one using the check in kiosks, so a quick line cut and we were checked in and on our way. Until we got to security and saw the line wrap around the hallway. It was at least an hour plus wait and we had 30 minutes. I sweetly asked the security woman at the front if I was in the right place, because my flight was leaving in 30 minutes. She waved us through and we were through security in less than 10 minutes. Hooray for me! Sometimes that east coast aggressiveness gets you places. Sorry all you peoples we cut in front of! I was tired! Our flight back was uneventful and seemingly much longer, but we made it without incident. Except for little miss kicky mckick kick behind us for the second leg. That was fun.
I thought it was a great trip. We were both grateful to be back in our own bed, but I loved all the eating and shopping and see peoples. I look forward to going back soon and showing Chris more of New England and getting more sweet potato pasta! Mmmm.
No comments:
Post a Comment