With back-to-school activities in full swing, I decided to harken back to days of old by naming this post “what I did over my summer vacation”. Remember when that was typically one of the first assignments given out at the start of the school year?
Vacations are typically thought of as a leave of absence from a regular job or schooling. Not to brag, but by that definition, my life now as a retiree is pretty much an unending vacation. And bonus, it’s not limited to happening only during Summer. A vacation can also be described as leisure travel away from home is which more along the lines of what applies in my case.
No matter how you slice it, time away from home spent exploring places never visited before is great. However, flying from the west coast to the east coast and then back again, can have its ups and downs (ya, pun intended). The nexus for our trip was the wedding of the son of one of The Husband’s cousins. In We Be Trippin’, I shared about The Husband’s connection to NJ/NY. I also shared that we’d established a goal for ourselves several years ago to visit/revisit all of the US states as well at their respective capitals and how we’ve achieved some of that through east coast trips related to family events.
At the time we embarked on this last trip, our count of visited/revisited states and their respective capitals (including Sacramento) stood at 13. We checked off four more on our recent trip and spent time with family we hadn’t seen since December 2019. Plus, we expanded our knowledge of U.S. history a bit, had some delicious meals, and walked to an MLB game. One might say that getting across the parking lots at Dodger Stadium is quite a hike itself, but in Boston, it’s a whole other experience.
The key stopping points on our 13-day itinerary after flying into Newark went like this. For the first few nights, we headed into southeast Pennsylvania with stops in Harrisburg and Hershey as well as a meander through Lancaster County on our way back to Hamilton, New Jersey for the wedding. Post-wedding, we headed north into Hartford in Connecticut and then east towards Rhode Island. We made the drive out to Provincetown on Cape Cod and after a stop in Plymouth, we headed to Salem. Our last stop was Boston. And now, onto some of the highlights.
Time With Family
Besides seeing family at the wedding, we were able to arrange to see some of the younger set who’d soon be heading off to college on our first night. The Husband was particularly keen on being able to spend time with his aunt (mother’s sister) who you see blowing out a birthday candle below. Her daughter and one of her two sons plus four of her six grands were our dinner companions that night. In the photo on the right are her other son and his wife who we got together with the day before the wedding.
The wedding was fabulous. I’ve never seen such a gorgeous venue but then again, I haven’t been to many weddings lately. Everyone had a wonderful time. The morning after, we were able to get a photo with the newlyweds. Standing to the right of the bride and groom are the groom’s parents, The Husband’s cousin and his wife. The groom’s grandfather was The Husband’s uncle (mother’s brother).
Four More State Capitals
I’ve not organized the highlights based on our itinerary but rather, I’ve grouped them by their similarities. For instance, below are the photos of us in front of the four state capital buildings. Stormy skies threaten our missions in both Connecticut and Rhode Island but we managed to dodge the rain. In Boston, we weren’t able to position ourselves in order to get an upshot photo and just got a handheld selfie.
Did you know that both Connecticut and Massachusetts have Old State Buildings? We took selfies in front of them as well.
Sights And Attractions
Besides seeing the capital buildings, we visited seven formal exhibits/museums including the oldest synagogue in the US and took a “hop on, hop off” tour of Boston. The exhibits/museums were The State Museum Of Pennsylvania, The Hershey Story Museum, the Plimoth & Patuxet Museums, the Witch History Museum, The House Of 7 Gables, The Paul Revere House, and Touro Synagogue.
Besides those that require a ticket, there were a whole bunch of other sights we saw during our travels. Like The Plymouth Rock and a replica Mayflower, murals, lighthouses, statues, streetscapes, and of course, shopping.
Food
We had several really great meals and not all of them were documented with photos. The best of the best is shown below. The Husband is much more of a seafood person than I am and he certainly got his fill on this trip. From Lobster Roll in Provincetown to a seafood boat in Plymouth to mussels in Boston, he didn’t let an opportunity to indulge go by. I prefer more standard fare and I’m usually always in the mode for desserts or donuts. Fortunately, we were able to find places that satisfied us both like The Lobster Pot in Provincetown (thank you Roxanne for the recommendation), East Bay Grille – Waterfront, Turner’s Seafood, and Guy Fieri’s Foxwood.
And that’s what I did over my summer vacation. At least the second half of it as we started out the summer with a trip to Washington state to visit our daughter. That trip was featured last month in Down On The Farm. What were the highlights of your summer vacation?
Be well and let’s stay in touch! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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Photos: MMPerez and myself
11 Comments
Sounds like a wonderful summer. Very nice.
Now, that was a summer vacation! You know…I was a teacher, and one of the things I hated most was giving that dreaded assignment of “How I Spent my Summer Vacation”! It was an expectation at our grade level (I’m not sure who decided that), and I hated it. Kids don’t want to write about that. They want to tell you about it! Anyway…your vacation sounds like such fun, especially the wedding! We haven’t been to a wedding in years. I remember going to the House of Seven Gables many, many years ago and being so surprised at how small it was. I’m hoping to take a vacation to New England a little later this fall. We will have to see!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Glad you had a wonderful and happy vacation! <3
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Such an awesome time! So nice that you got to catch up with east coast family after 3 years. It looked as if everyone was having good time at the wedding and the pre and post gatherings surrounding it. And you visited such historic places!
Michelle
https://mybijoulifeonline.com
Aw, Rena, you look like you are really enjoying retirement! I love your travel posts and your State Capitol selfies! Massachusetts is the first one you have shared so far that isn’t white. I don’t know why that detail fascinates me, but it does.
Shelbee
I love travel posts! Exploring new places is fun even with the sometimes lack of sleep and daily hiccups. I love you all’s selfies in front of state capitols.
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You have the best vacation photos, Rena! I love the selfies in front of all the important state buildings! And that one of you eating a donut (?) is wonderful! I can’t really pinpoint the highlight of my summer. The highlight of my summer was visiting Versailles, which was incredible. Just a shame that we were en-route to a funeral though!
Big hugs
Suzy xx
How lovely, what a wonderful post. Many thanks for posting and sharing with us. Jacqui x
Really enjoyed reading about your excursions and that is impressive 13 states! I enjoyed hearing about the historic places and boy did the food look good! I am like your hubby a seafood fanatic!
thanks for sharing!
jess xx
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
This was fun to read- thanks for sharing!
That sounds like such a lovely summer of travel! Fun fact; my grandfather traced our ancestry back to the Mayflower so we’ve taken many trips to Plymouth in my life… some that I definitely didn’t enjoy so much as a kid and now as a mom I drag my kids there!