A Wedding & an Anniversary Trip

 I fell off the blogging wagon awhile back, not that anyone noticed. But we've done some traveling again so I'm back! LOL 

Last Friday Richard & I flew to Boston. Uneventful travel, for a change. We booked a Toyota rental car, but they upgraded us to a '23 Ford Edge. Meanwhile my brother drove my parents up from their house and dropped them off at a 2-bedroom hotel suite that we shared in Burlington. 

After some walking around in the mall, we finally found the crepe place we were looking for and brought take-out back for our evening meal. 

The paninis and crepes did not disappoint. 

The main purpose of the trip was a wedding, but that wasn't until Saturday afternoon. So I bought us tickets for a tour of the Orchard House in the morning. It was a [happy] accident that I discovered Louisa May Alcott lived in Concord Massachusetts and wrote the book Little Women at the Orchard House. Of course, mom & I had to see it when we were so close. 

We were not allowed to take any photos inside the house, but it was well worth the ticket price. We learned new information about the Alcott family. The house is full of their original belongings and artwork by Louisa's sister. Fun Fact: Louisa's father built her a desk in her bedroom where she sat to write her books, which was quite progressive for the time -a desk for a female was unheard of! 10 out of 10 recommend the tour if you are ever in the Concord area. 

Thanks to Google Maps, we discovered the Alcott family is buried nearby. In fact the cemetery has what is called "Author's Ridge". The words author and cemetery in the same sentence puts mom in her element!

Within close proximity is the Alcott family...

...Ralph Waldo Emerson & family... 

...Henry David Thoreau & family...

...and Nathaniel Hawthorne & family. 

Wow, Concord was really cranking out the authors in the 1800s! These families were neighbors and friends. Fun Fact: visitors leave pens & pencils on the graves instead of flowers. 

I was less familiar with Walden's Pond, but mom knew of it. We still had a little spare time and it was only a couple miles away so we found that, too. We were in luck- the parking was free that day. Thoreau sat by this pond to mediate and write about nature. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

He lived in a cabin that he built (on the property of Emerson) near the pond for 2 years. 

Next on the agenda was a family wedding. An honor to be a guest. What can I say,  I never get tired of going to weddings. 😍

The reception venue was The Vault. It was beautiful, but unfortunately the acoustics were not conducive to understanding the MC. 

Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Martin! 

On Sunday we attended our home church services remotely. We had a kitchen in our suite and mom provided lunch. We took mom & dad to visit a fan of mom's books. It was a privilege to chauffer my parents around, helping make this trip possible for them.  

Another one of my brothers drove mom & dad home Monday morning. Meanwhile we lounged around at the hotel until we had to check out at 11. We had booked a condo at the beach in New Hampshire for several days, to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary. But check in time there was not till 3pm, so we took the scenic route to get there. 

Some things we saw along the way... the Pink House in Newbury 

Local legend calls it a spite house, a divorced man's way of getting the final say against his ex-wife by building the house on a salt marsh, but there is no evidence to actually support this. 

The Plum Island lighthouse (because what is a beach vacation without looking up a lighthouse) 😁

And on an impulse, we stopped at a cute little shop we spotted on the island and supported a local small business    https://www.plumislandsoap.com/

We crossed over into NH and stopped at Hampton Beach state park. 

We walked out onto the jetty but it was so chilly & windy that we didn't attempt going the whole way to the end.  

We checked our email and were happy to find a message from the condo owner that it was cleaned and ready for early check in. Good timing because we were plum out of ways to "kill" time. 

The condo was front row, on the beach/boardwalk, 3rd floor, with amazing views of the Atlantic ocean. 

We never ate at a 99 restaurant before so we gave it a try. 

Sunrise was gorgeous at Hampton Beach! 

(Yes, I really did get up early enough to see it. From the comfort of our private balcony, in pj's of course. I have my limits.)

Not a large selection of dining choices, the majority were closed for the winter. But we walked to Coffee Break Cafe the first morning for breakfast... their scones were 👌

Not your typical beach vacation! It was cold & very windy. (Locals said it had been 80* the week before.) 🤷 But the beach is my happy place, regardless of the temperature. I love all things beach-y. 

We walked on the beach -in coats- at low tide long enough to find a couple sand dollars -including a black one- and blue mussel shells to add to my extensive shell collection. Then we hustled back inside to curl up in fuzzy blankets, reading books and crocheting. Just to be clear, yours truly was the only one crocheting. 😄

The sunsets weren't too shabby either. 

The 2nd morning we walked to Flamingo Coffee Bar 

...and tried a coffee flight for the first time. Also a 👍

We had to check out of the condo by 11 on Wednesday, so we took the scenic route back down towards Boston. We had excess time again, so we tried to stop at a cool-looking stone tower however the park's driveway had a sign "closed due to fire" (not that any fire was visible nor smell of smoke in the air...) so that was a bust. Instead we stopped at Saugus Iron Works. It was closed, but it appeared to be an interesting tour in season.  

Uneventful flights home Wednesday evening. Arianna picked us up at the airport and we got home at 10:45pm. We had an enjoyable getaway and are still happy to be married to each other all these years later. 💕 Here's to the next 33 years! 🥂