4th of July Weekend
On Saturday morning, we took an early flight from DC to Boston, where we popped in to see Grandpa on our way to the 4th July weekend in Maine with the folks. Luckily we got to Grandpa's in time to watch the World Cup (England vs Portugal). I dread to think the state John would have been in if we did not get in front of a tv for this!
After 2 overtimes and a penalty shoot-out, England lost the match - John was rather gloomy for the rest of the day, as it was so disappointing for him to watch them lose yet again. It's hard for us to support English teams at times (him with this, me with Tim Henman!!). Speaking of Wimbledon, it's been really weird following it from the US for the first time - we miss Sue Barker of the BBC! The American commentators are not as entertaining as Sue and John McEnroe....
We spent the rest of the day around Boston, where we had a lovely room at the Copley Plaza Hotel - they upgraded us to a suite on the 33rd floor which had 2 huge bay windows with spectacular views of the city. We wandered over to the shopping plaza in the evening and meandered around the shops and had dinner.
On Sunday, we took the back roads up to Maine - we were meeting the folks in Portland and taking in a baseball game - the Portland Seadogs are the 'understudy' team for the Boston Red Sox - loads of their guys have gone on to play for Boston, so it's always great watching them, because you never know if one of them may be a Red Sox player next year!
We met the folks and sat down to enjoy the game. The Seadogs (who were playing against Trenton, the New York Yankees' understudy) didn't start out well, but by the 3rd inning, they were tromping the opposing team 11-2. It was so amazing to see them get 7 runs in one inning! Everyone was so sure they'd win.....but somehow Trenton came back and the score became 12-11, with Trenton in the lead! It dragged on for hours once the Seadogs tied, as it went into extra innings. So, it became 12-12 in the 12th inning, then 13-13 in the 13th (we left at the 7th inning stretch!), and FINALLY the Seadogs got a run and beat them 14-13. What torture, over 5 1/2 hours of baseball.....you really had to be a die-hard fan to stay for the whole thing....still, it was a great day out, as usual.
On Monday, John and I went looking at cars - we have been good citizens of the Earth and have gone sans car now for over a year. We not only have preserved our little bit of the environment, but we have really enjoyed alternative means of getting around (bike, walk, train). More people should do it if they can. But, with circumstances changing, now is the time to get a car again. We really loved our Audi when we lived in the UK (I'm a sucker for German cars - I also had a Mercedes which I adored, but they are horrifically expensive here in the US), so we're looking at the Audi A3.
The weather was spectacular on Monday, so we ditched looking at cars and lay out in the sunshine instead. The folks have a huge backyard and it was lovely to just lie there and soak up the rays. Once we tired of that, we hopped in the car, drove 5 minutes to the local pond, and had a dip to cool off. We ended the evening with a yummy meal of fresh Maine lobster...
Tuesday was the 4th of July, and the town where my folks live (and where I grew up) really goes all out to do their part to celebrate. The locals turned up in droves to watch the parade, which was made up of kids on their bikes, the local fire, rescue, and police services, the farming community with their horses and agricultural machinery, you name it, and it was in the Parade!
They had games for the kids on the village green, but the highlight of the festivities had to be the town's famous strawberry shortcake. People queued for an hour just to get a bowl of this wonderful mixture (freshly made scone/biscuit with freshly picked strawberries, all topped with homemade whipped cream) - it was truly heavenly. All proceeds went to the local library, so we had no problem stuffing our face for a good cause!
We headed back down to Boston in the afternoon, as we were leaving for home the following morning. It was a lovely weekend, great to spend it with family and with the community.
After 2 overtimes and a penalty shoot-out, England lost the match - John was rather gloomy for the rest of the day, as it was so disappointing for him to watch them lose yet again. It's hard for us to support English teams at times (him with this, me with Tim Henman!!). Speaking of Wimbledon, it's been really weird following it from the US for the first time - we miss Sue Barker of the BBC! The American commentators are not as entertaining as Sue and John McEnroe....
We spent the rest of the day around Boston, where we had a lovely room at the Copley Plaza Hotel - they upgraded us to a suite on the 33rd floor which had 2 huge bay windows with spectacular views of the city. We wandered over to the shopping plaza in the evening and meandered around the shops and had dinner.
On Sunday, we took the back roads up to Maine - we were meeting the folks in Portland and taking in a baseball game - the Portland Seadogs are the 'understudy' team for the Boston Red Sox - loads of their guys have gone on to play for Boston, so it's always great watching them, because you never know if one of them may be a Red Sox player next year!
We met the folks and sat down to enjoy the game. The Seadogs (who were playing against Trenton, the New York Yankees' understudy) didn't start out well, but by the 3rd inning, they were tromping the opposing team 11-2. It was so amazing to see them get 7 runs in one inning! Everyone was so sure they'd win.....but somehow Trenton came back and the score became 12-11, with Trenton in the lead! It dragged on for hours once the Seadogs tied, as it went into extra innings. So, it became 12-12 in the 12th inning, then 13-13 in the 13th (we left at the 7th inning stretch!), and FINALLY the Seadogs got a run and beat them 14-13. What torture, over 5 1/2 hours of baseball.....you really had to be a die-hard fan to stay for the whole thing....still, it was a great day out, as usual.
On Monday, John and I went looking at cars - we have been good citizens of the Earth and have gone sans car now for over a year. We not only have preserved our little bit of the environment, but we have really enjoyed alternative means of getting around (bike, walk, train). More people should do it if they can. But, with circumstances changing, now is the time to get a car again. We really loved our Audi when we lived in the UK (I'm a sucker for German cars - I also had a Mercedes which I adored, but they are horrifically expensive here in the US), so we're looking at the Audi A3.
The weather was spectacular on Monday, so we ditched looking at cars and lay out in the sunshine instead. The folks have a huge backyard and it was lovely to just lie there and soak up the rays. Once we tired of that, we hopped in the car, drove 5 minutes to the local pond, and had a dip to cool off. We ended the evening with a yummy meal of fresh Maine lobster...
Tuesday was the 4th of July, and the town where my folks live (and where I grew up) really goes all out to do their part to celebrate. The locals turned up in droves to watch the parade, which was made up of kids on their bikes, the local fire, rescue, and police services, the farming community with their horses and agricultural machinery, you name it, and it was in the Parade!
They had games for the kids on the village green, but the highlight of the festivities had to be the town's famous strawberry shortcake. People queued for an hour just to get a bowl of this wonderful mixture (freshly made scone/biscuit with freshly picked strawberries, all topped with homemade whipped cream) - it was truly heavenly. All proceeds went to the local library, so we had no problem stuffing our face for a good cause!We headed back down to Boston in the afternoon, as we were leaving for home the following morning. It was a lovely weekend, great to spend it with family and with the community.
posted by kris pedersen @ 3:43 PM
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