New England Review
New England was fun. Tara has a great big family and I met most of them! Her friends from college were very cool too.
Day1: Great flight to Providence, next was the drive to Hartford, CT. We arrive at the Scofield burial plot an hour late but everybody was so nice. It was a lot of Rich's friends from high school & college.
We drove back towards the airport to pickup Bonnie's car so she could go on to the Cape and we could head to Elizabeth's place. We got there and hung out for an hour or two before we went to bed.
Day2: We all hung out some more before heading to Wellesley. I'm telling you, this is a fun group of really smart people. We arrived at Wellesley and hooked up with Pauline (the last of the bridesmaids for me to meet). Tara has completely outdone me. I don't have any guy friends nearly as attractive as the women Tara will have as bridemaids. Oh well, that sucks for the women! We guys will have a blast with all the eye candy... (not to say that these women are just good looking...they are all very smart and very funny!)
Wellesley was cool. It's a beautiful campus and, of course, the women were all about
The game was CRAZY. US scored at about 8 min - we missed it - a Salvadoran player and their coach were thrown out at about the 25 min mark. There were tussles and a lot of fouling. The crowd was probably 2/3 Salvadoran and a lot of them were getting thrown out too! I saw DeMarcus, Tim Howard, Cobi, Landon so I was happy. My big disappointment was that I didn't get enough photos. I only got one side view of DeMarcus.
Day3: This was the day at the beach. Literally. We went to Tara's Uncle & Aunt's house which is right on the beach and it was a blast of a day. We hung out, we ate. I met all sorts of relatives (3 generations worth). Everybody is a character, but what family isn't filled with characters. I walked on the beach, we watched a guy on a parasail and the kids flew some kites. Finally we put the rest of Rich's ashes to rest in the ocean and sang "One". After, some lobster and tennis we headed back to our seedy travelodge.
Day4: Monday we got up early to eat breakfast with the family. We went to this little restaurant where it seemed like we took over the place, there were close to twenty of us and everybody was laughing and talking. The breakfast was good - nothing to write home about but nothing terrible. From there Tara & I drove to Boston...off to see my cousin, Dorice. Interestingly enough, she was the original focus of the trip but that's not the way it worked out. We hung with Do for a short while and then trotted to Boston. It was a beautiful day and we really wanted to take advantage of it. We went to Harvard Square, Harvard, MIT and Boston Commons, as well as the very interesting and poignant Holocaust monument. We ate and wandered, hooked up with one of Tara's childhood friends and ate again. Made it back to Medford (right next to Tufts campus) in time to watch some tennis - Tara has turned me into a fan.
Day5: Back to the airport but not before Dorice took us on a wild goose chase to find IHOP. Service sucked but breakfast was filling and then it was off to Providence, RI one last time. The airport was no problem, we met Bonnie & the gate and after about 5 minutes in the air we all zonked out.
I want to go back to New England for a more relaxed trip. This just was filled with too much. I want to do Boston history. I want to go to the Green Mountains of VT (one of three states we actually didn't see). I want to who knows what else. Since I am joining this New England based family I know I will be going back. Tara, thanks for the new experiences and acquaintances.
Day1: Great flight to Providence, next was the drive to Hartford, CT. We arrive at the Scofield burial plot an hour late but everybody was so nice. It was a lot of Rich's friends from high school & college.
It made me think about who would be at my funeral. Will I have high school & college classmates? How will they remember me?Cousin Steve was there with his wife and sons (4 of them). After a really nice service by Bonnie we went to a Pizza joint that was actually a little of everything... some pasta, some Greek, some New Orleans. That was fun, I spent most of it talking to Steve's sons...really great kids!
We drove back towards the airport to pickup Bonnie's car so she could go on to the Cape and we could head to Elizabeth's place. We got there and hung out for an hour or two before we went to bed.
Day2: We all hung out some more before heading to Wellesley. I'm telling you, this is a fun group of really smart people. We arrived at Wellesley and hooked up with Pauline (the last of the bridesmaids for me to meet). Tara has completely outdone me. I don't have any guy friends nearly as attractive as the women Tara will have as bridemaids. Oh well, that sucks for the women! We guys will have a blast with all the eye candy... (not to say that these women are just good looking...they are all very smart and very funny!)
Wellesley was cool. It's a beautiful campus and, of course, the women were all about
"I remember when this was this and that was over there and what have they done to the?" "Jai, this is where we and did Tara tell you about the time..."We all parted ways and Tara and I headed to Foxboro for the Men's National Soccer Team vs El Salvador game.
The game was CRAZY. US scored at about 8 min - we missed it - a Salvadoran player and their coach were thrown out at about the 25 min mark. There were tussles and a lot of fouling. The crowd was probably 2/3 Salvadoran and a lot of them were getting thrown out too! I saw DeMarcus, Tim Howard, Cobi, Landon so I was happy. My big disappointment was that I didn't get enough photos. I only got one side view of DeMarcus.
This has been a good Soccer Summer for me. I've seen both National Teams play and two Division 1 level teams (UAG Tecos & LA Galaxy).From there we drove to Cape Cod. It was night so I didn't get to see much. The motel gave Bonnie the wrong key for our room, so we almost walked in on somebody but fortunately Tara is very particular and decided to check-in first which saved us the embarrassment of walking on who knows what... It's a very interesting little motor lodge, very kitschy. The bathroom, for example, had teal toilet with a white toilet seat, a teal sink and a teal tub. Apparently it has an hourly rate kind of history (if you know what I mean).
Day3: This was the day at the beach. Literally. We went to Tara's Uncle & Aunt's house which is right on the beach and it was a blast of a day. We hung out, we ate. I met all sorts of relatives (3 generations worth). Everybody is a character, but what family isn't filled with characters. I walked on the beach, we watched a guy on a parasail and the kids flew some kites. Finally we put the rest of Rich's ashes to rest in the ocean and sang "One". After, some lobster and tennis we headed back to our seedy travelodge.
Day4: Monday we got up early to eat breakfast with the family. We went to this little restaurant where it seemed like we took over the place, there were close to twenty of us and everybody was laughing and talking. The breakfast was good - nothing to write home about but nothing terrible. From there Tara & I drove to Boston...off to see my cousin, Dorice. Interestingly enough, she was the original focus of the trip but that's not the way it worked out. We hung with Do for a short while and then trotted to Boston. It was a beautiful day and we really wanted to take advantage of it. We went to Harvard Square, Harvard, MIT and Boston Commons, as well as the very interesting and poignant Holocaust monument. We ate and wandered, hooked up with one of Tara's childhood friends and ate again. Made it back to Medford (right next to Tufts campus) in time to watch some tennis - Tara has turned me into a fan.
Day5: Back to the airport but not before Dorice took us on a wild goose chase to find IHOP. Service sucked but breakfast was filling and then it was off to Providence, RI one last time. The airport was no problem, we met Bonnie & the gate and after about 5 minutes in the air we all zonked out.
I want to go back to New England for a more relaxed trip. This just was filled with too much. I want to do Boston history. I want to go to the Green Mountains of VT (one of three states we actually didn't see). I want to who knows what else. Since I am joining this New England based family I know I will be going back. Tara, thanks for the new experiences and acquaintances.
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