Since this is Jamie’s last year as a student, we figure we’d better take advantage of the school year schedule…after this who knows how much time off he might have in an average year (I shudder as I type this, can’t imagine giving up that extra freedom…its been so good while its lasted!) One of the things we’ve both been wanting to do since we’ve been living in Chicago is to do a trip to the East Coast. Fall Break was last week, so we flew to Boston and had an amazing trip thanks to our friends Bob & Carol.
Seriously, I do not think we could have packed more into our 6 day trip. We started off in Boston…went straight from the plane to the Freedom Trail.
It is crazy to me how the new has been built up right around the old. The very old. Here’s Bob & Carol! We met these two up in Alaska where they volunteer at Camp for a month or so every summer, they’re wonderful people (and amazing tour guides)We saw Paul Revere’s grave in this cemetary – pretty amazing sites in Boston.Mmmm….Goulds. They make their own Maple Syrup and then you eat it on delicious pancakes.
When we were in this area of Vermont I kept thinking of the Gilmore Girls…picture perfect towns left and right.Thanks to a little encouragement from Kim (Bob & Carol’s daughter) we made the trek from Glastonbury to New York City for one day. When the alarm went off at 5am I said to Jamie…”do you think this will be worth it?” He said yes, so we went…left to my own devices I might have kept right on sleeping.
We took a train for 2 hours and got into Grand Central Station. This was what we saw when we walked up the steps. 5am was worth it.We decided that the best way to see all of those major touristy stops (that you must hit when you’ve never been to NYC before) was to get on one of those red busses that tour you around and let you on and off wherever you want. We sat on top and rode through Times Square, it was pretty great. We got off to walk through Chinatown, Little Italy and Greenwich Village and made our way onto the Staten Island Ferry. I just wanted to get a little closer to the Statue of Liberty.From New York City to Newport, Rhode Island – Bob and Carol own a cottage near there and let us stay for a couple of nights. After sleeping for 13 hours (I’m not kidding, and we needed it after walking 16 hours in NYC) we went on a clam chowder search. We ended up at the Black Pearl in Newport – best Chowder I’ve ever had.
Then we spent a couple hours doing this…The Newport mansions are absolutely unreal. I might live in the one behind these bluffs one day…and then these will be my boats, and my lobster pots. (Hey, a girls gotta dream)Our last full day was spent biking around Block Island with Bob and Carol…I read a newspaper article that calls Block Island one of the ‘Last Great Places’ for good reason.These stone fences are all over Rhode Island, and they’re really old. Like everything else. Also, I loooovveeee the house with the blue barn-style doors.Seagulls soaking up the last rays of sun – it was pretty chilly that day.
Really the only thing that I had thought ahead about doing was to visit Cambridge…mainly Harvard Square. When we drove up there was a regatta going on and I saw Harvard go by. And Dartmouth. I felt like I was in a scene from a movie with all those old brick buildings, the fall leaves, people cheering for their Ivy League teams…
We walked through the campus itself a bit – this statue is of John Harvard.
Maybe face-smash was up here at some point?This was an amazing trip – when we got home I couldn’t believe that a whole week had gone by. It was a whirlwind, but somehow also restful and life-giving…we mostly have Bob and Carol to thank for that. I’m definitely smitten with Harvard now, and yes…I would live in either Newport or Manhattan.