The Long Weekend ... here at last...has come and gone...

The Gang in front of the Marble House-Newport, Rhode Island

At Last.... The unofficial kickoff of summer has come and gone. We haven't been good about updating the blog. Sorry folks. Last week we had out of town guests and had a great long weekend. Our friends Tami, Eric and Moriah came from California & Ohio. Below is a recap:

Thursday morning I picked Tami up from the airport at 8 am. It was a beautiful day in the the 80's. We went back to the condo and Tami slept for awhile because her flight was a red eye and she was exhausted. We headed to an outdoor shopping center near my house and had lunch @ Panara. Tami helped me pick out a few small Anniversary presents for Kyle. Then we did a tour down "Memory Lane" and I showed Tami around the town I grew up in and the various homes I lived in during my childhood. I took her down Jerusalem Road in Cohasset, MA, which I think is one of the nicest streets in the U.S. We stopped to see my mom who I had not seen in over two weeks b/c she was away in Eastern Europe. I brought her flowers for mothers day b/c she wasn't home. Then we headed to the train station to get Kyle. He had to work :( That night for dinner we went to Sweet Lemons, which is one of our favorite restaurants (THAI).

Friday, we headed to Salem , MA and walked/wheeled around the pretty town. We went to the Witch History museum and the Pirate museum. Both were very interesting. We headed home around 3:30 to make dinner b4 heading into Boston for a ghost tour. The tour was more historical in nature than ghostly. We started on the Boston Common and walked to where an old large oak once stood. The oak tree was used for hangings. Well we heard of one story about a woman that was hung for being a witch. Then we walked over to the Omni-Parker house. We went in the building to the Foyer where we heard a story of Harvey Parker and his hauntings of the hotel. We also were able to go to the 2nd fl of the hotel where we heard more stories of Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tour proceeded over to a cemetery next to the Kings Chapel and then up to the State House. It continued down Beacon street and back to the common with several more stories. After the ghost tour Tami, Kyle and myself went over to Fanieul hall and Quincy Market and had an ice cream. We then called it a night and took the subway back home from South Station.

Saturday: We awoke had some English muffins for breakfast and took it easy that morning. We picked up Moriah and Eric in the afternoon and came back to the condo and chatted for a while. That evening we drove over to Scituate and had dinner at a restaurant on the water. After dinner we came back and played a couple of games, Cranium and Taboo...It was fun!

Sunday: We all awoke a little later than we had planned had a breakfast. Then left around 10:30-10:45 ish for Newport, RI. We made it down there around noon. We purchased tickets for the Breakers and one other mansion at the visitors center. We drove down Thames Street and around Newport to the first mansion we decided to visit, The Marble House. The tour, self paced on tape, at Marble house was much longer than expected. We decided to have some granola bars instead of going for lunch because it was now around 2:30 and we would have to be inside the Breakers by 5pm or we would have missed our visit. We visited The Breakers next. This was a guided tour and took about 30 minutes. After finishing up our tour we had dinner at an Italian restaurant, Sardellas. We had dinner outside. We were all cold during dinner because the temp had dropped and we were all dressed in shorts and short sleeve shirts. After dinner we drove back down town and shopped for sweatshirts. We also walked and looked at a bunch of shops. We finally stopped by a Starbucks for a cup of coffee and hot chocolate and drove home afterwards.

Monday

On Monday we again had a late start. We all decided we would go into Boston/ Cambridge for the day. We drove through Cambridge and parked and walked a part of the Freedom trail. The guys left around 6pm for the Redsox/Indians game. The girls went home and purchased 3 different types of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream. The ate and talked while the guys watched the game. The girls picked the guys up around 11pm at the subway stop.

A fun time was had by all. I think we all are very tired from the busy weekend. We have been on the go and did see and do a lot for a very short time. It was sad to see our friends go but we hope to do a vacation with everyone next year!