Steve had to go to Vermont to the Joseph Smith Birthplace for work, so I was able to tag along! We were in Vermont for the week, and then spent the weekend in Boston on vacation!
30 MEMORIES OF NEW ENGLAND...
1. The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory tour
2. Free Samples at Ben & Jerry's
3. Eating at "Waterbury Wings" in Waterbury, VT and having one of the best Turkey sandwiches ever! I think the waitress probably thought we were really wierd for not ordering any beer. I looked around the restaurant and we were the only people not drinking besides the one under aged kid there with his parents.
4. Getting lost on a morning jog (there are so many trees and rolling hills) and ending up running for over an hour.
5. Sleeping in!
6. Being lazy in the hotel room--watching TV, working on the computer
7. No kids!
8. Spending time with my cute hubby, Steve.
9. Enjoying the beautiful green trees everywhere
10. Steve heard the maid at the hotel saying something about how one of those "wierdo" Mormons left her a Book of Mormon for a tip once.
11. Trying the "Mystery Ice Cream Cone" in the little town of White River Junction where we stayed. When I told the guy working there that I wanted the "mystery cone", he was so excited and said, "I love those!" The person scooping the ice cream chooses 3 flavors for you. I ended up with chocolate chip, peppermint, and cotton candy.
12. Finding out that Lori is having another little girl!
13. Finding out what a Quart size of french fries really looks like. I'm pretty sure we could have been satisfied with the "pint" size! I also enjoyed the sign in front of this place we ate outside of Sharon, Vermont and the way they spelled, "zucceni".
14. Seeing the longest wooden bridge in the United States and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world, the Cornish Windsor Bridge in New Hampshire.
15. Touring the Joseph Smith birthplace monument in Sharon, Vermont. The senior missionary gave us a tour and drove us around in a golf cart to see some points of interest, then Steve took me on a hike that took about an hour to get to the top of the hills and you could see the monument from above peeking through all the beautiful, tall, green trees.
16. Seeing the Joseph & Hyrum tree. It is two trees that have actually grown together!
17. Lexington, Massachusetts
18. Making our way driving and riding the subway through Boston and never really getting lost!
19. Dinner at a "Bistro". When we got to our hotel we needed to find somewhere to eat dinner. We walked down to the lobby and Steve asked a man working at the hotel where we could find somewhere to eat. In his Philippino accent (I really couldn't understand a word he was saying) he told Steve and I that he would take us somewhere. It all happened so fast and before we knew it we were riding in a van and the nice Philippino man from the hotel was dropping us off somewhere close to Fenway Park and telling us to ride the subway back because it would absolutely be way too far to walk. I just hoped Steve had a clue of what he was saying, because I didn't know where we were, and I didn't know how to get back to the hotel. We first went and walked next to Fenway Park and then we started to walk down the street looking for a place to eat. Ok, so I didn't realize that a "Bistro" meant a restaurant that is known for serving wine. When our options got down to McDonalds or this little Bistro, I suggested we try not to eat EVERY day at McDonalds, and try the Bistro. It had a lunch menu in the window (it was an early dinner) that was reasonably priced. Steve agreed and as soon as we walked in and the hostess greeted us in French and we were surrounded by wine bottles we knew we were in trouble. Our waiter didn't even bring us a lunch menu, I had to ask for it. I'm sure he was thinking we were the biggest cheap skates ever when all we ordered to drink was water from a wine restaurant, and then I ordered the cheapest item off the lunch menu. My $5.95 ham & cheese melt (they had some really fancy name for it) with fries and salad was really good and filled me up, but I wish I would've had my camera when the waiter brought out Steve's order of Salmon legs (just a piece of Salmon that's cut in half) that was $23 and it was a piece of salmon with ONE very small slice of a potato and some garnish. It was actually really good salmon, but I'd say a bit overpriced--okay, A LOT overpriced. Steve had to stop at McDonalds to get a coke on the way back. We got on the subway/train and rode all of about 4 city blocks, when we got off and walked the rest of the way back to the hotel. I'm not sure why the man from the hotel insisted that it would be way too far to walk, because it really wasn't that far--probably only a 20-30 minute walk.
20. Walking next to Fenway Park the night of a Red Sox game. We had looked on the internet to get tickets before we left on our trip, but the only seats left were over $100. We opted not to go, but I think it would've been a lot of fun. Fenway Park is right in the middle of the city. It's the oldest baseball stadium in the country. It was so cool and different because the edge of the stadium is just right on the street. All the concessions are on the street, so you can walk through before the game down the street and hear everyone trying to sell/buy tickets.
21. Going for a night run in Boston. We didn't really know what to do the first night in Boston because we were there a day earlier than we had planned on because Steve finished his work at the Joseph Smith Memorial a day early. Now that we knew where our hotel was in relationship to Fenway Park we decided to go for a jog. Our hotel was on one side of the Charles River and Fenway Park almost directly on the other. The bridges to get across were down or up the river, though. It was cool seeing the skyline of all the tall buildings at night. We decided to go run next to Fenway Park during the game. It sounded like such a fun game. We were standing right next to the stadium on the street. I was looking one direction up at the stadium, and Steve was looking the opposite direction at a bunch of tv's covering the game inside a sports bar. All of the sudden while I'm looking up at the stadium I saw a baseball in the air for just a second or two. Steve had seen the same thing on the tv and we both turned to each other and said, "Did you see that?" It ended up hitting the top of the green monster and it was a home run! Steve couldn't believe that I actually saw the ball and he was standing right there watching it on tv! It was like that scene out of "Oceans 11" when they're demolishing the casino and they show the guy watching it on his television and in the background you can see the actual thing happening...if he just would've turned around!
22. The Freedom Trail--We took a walking tour of the Freedom Trail in Boston and learned a lot of history about Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill and more!
23. Eating a CANNOLI for the first time. We went to Mike's Pastries in Little Italy and tried a cannoli, which is a fried pastry filled with this really rich, sweet, whipped filling. I didn't really love it, actually--it was just way too sweet. We also ate dinner in Little Italy. I didn't know it was possible to make one serving of lasagna that big. It was seriously like the size of 1/2 a Stouffer's! Really good food!!!
24. Shopping in Boston--We went to Filene's Basement, H&M, DSW, and more. Filene's Basement is a famous discount department store. They're famous for having a once a year discount wedding dress sale--ever seen the "Friends" episode where they're fighting over wedding dresses? We spent a while inside H&M trying to wait out the rain storm.
25. I've never felt sore from walking around a city until this trip. Saturday after walking the Freedom Trail, shopping, going through Little Italy and basically walking through Boston all over the place a couple of times from 10 am-9:30 pm with a break for dinner and a cannoli, Steve and I were VERY sore the next day. I really like Boston. It's kind of similar to New York, but with a lot more historical places, cleaner, and the people are really nice.
25. We spent several hours at Plymouth Plantation learning about the Pilgrims, Native American Wampanoag people, and the Mayflower.
26. The Boston Temple was really beautiful. It's right off the side of a freeway, but in a very nice neighborhood surrounded by trees.
Todd brought along his Dutch Oven skills and we made dinner: chicken w/bacon, potatoes w/bacon, and cobbler. YUMMY--I can feel my arteries clogging right now!
25. We spent several hours at Plymouth Plantation learning about the Pilgrims, Native American Wampanoag people, and the Mayflower.
26. The Boston Temple was really beautiful. It's right off the side of a freeway, but in a very nice neighborhood surrounded by trees.
28. We saw the "GARDEN" basketball arena where the Boston Celtics play. My dad would be proud that we saw the professional basketball team's arena in the area we were visiting. It seems like growing up we always went to sporting arenas on vacations.
29. We took lots of pictures, but I have to admit if my kids would've been there we probably would've ended up with 10 times as many!