Friday, July 1, 2011

Better Late Than Never

Hello Loyal Blog Readers,

As you all know, about two and a half weeks ago, we set off on our adventure to see all of the sights of the United States of America. With twinkles in our respective eyes and nothing but a few dollars and a few dreams, we set off, thinking that we would meticulously write down our adventures in this blog so our friends and family could vicariously live through us while they worked real person jobs. Unfortunately, things have not gone exactly according to plan, something that has become a bit of a theme for our blog. We're not going to name names, but someone whose name starts with a B and ends with an enjamin Zucker left his computer in Boston, rendering us unable to record all of the events of this past week or so. We are so sorry about this predicament, and we hope it is not too late to apologize. So here it is, the events of a week and some change of road tripping condensed into a few epic paragraphs (unfortunately these are mostly picture-less paragraphs at the moment because they're on Ben's computer, but we will rectify the blandness of this post as soon as possible):

When we left you last, we were perusing around Brooklyn for one last day with our friends from Ravenous. In our last day in New York, Paul, Kate and Tommy had a wonderful day at Prospect Park slanging around the frisbee and watching mediocre Little League baseball while Ben went to a Mets game with his dad (a Mets' win) and Sarah went on a bike ride with her friend Leo Walker.

The next day, we decided we had had enough of boring small town living in the so called Big Apple and booked it up to the bright lights of Williamstown. Our first stop in the Purple Valley was to meet up with Kate's grandpa Red Gordon for a wonderful dinner, after which our very own guide Tommy gave the group a tour of the Williams College grounds. That night, we decided it was probably for the best to not indulge in the bustling nightlife of Willytown on a Sunday night, and, instead, we had a quiet night of engaging conversation with the large but lovable Chance Rueger.

The next day, we waved goodbye to Williams College and said hello to Cape Cod, where we stayed two nights with Nick Reynolds from CC. We spent the large majority of this time on the beach, straying only to see Eph Harry Marino pitch a gem of an inning for the Chatham A's. Whenever we were off the beach and back at Nick's house, we were met with hospitality from Nick's mom Kathy, shown below cheesing with Kate.


Whenever we were hungry or needed some motherly attention, Kathy, or Mothra as she is lovingly called, was always there, and we are extremely grateful for her kindness, even though she hustled us in every card or board game we played. Also, if we were every bored at the house, we played with one of their two hilarious dogs Max and Molly, the second of which loved water more than any dog has ever loved anything ever. If you don't believe me, just watch for yourself: Molly Loves Water.

After two wonderful sunny days in the Cape, we headed off to Boston. It was here that we ran into our first and so far only bought of inclement weather (knock on wood), as it rained for pretty much two days straight. Despite the weather outside, we had a wonderful first night staying with Carl Larue, Max Dudley, and Maxwell Crocker and cooking a feast of epic proportions at their house (it could have fed a small army). The next night, we switched venues to stay with our very own Tyler Paul Ferris, not before seeing the man in action cooking up a storm as the best damn pizza chef the city of Boston has ever seen.



It was bittersweet when we packed up our things and left our good friends in Boston the next day, but we had plans. We had to go conquer Acadia, our first national park of the trip. Unfortunately, in many ways, Acadia bested us, with about half of the squad falling ill with a mystery sickness and overcast weather masking what we can only assume are normally beautiful views from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Nonetheless, we made the best of our situation and had a great time checking out the island and walking around the rocky coast. On our second night camping out, we even cooked up our own Maine lobster. Larry, as he was affectionately known before his untimely passing, was absolutely delicious, making even our resident shellfish hater Ben exclaim "Oy vey!" as he broke kosher for the second time on the trip.



After two soggy nights of camping at Acadia, the group traveled back down to stay at Kate's roommate Sarah Delaney's house in Falmouth. Even though Sarah was actually gone working in Seattle, her parents Anne and Geoff showed us a great time. Between boat rides around Casco Bay, a tour of Portland, a wonderful seafood dinner, and a stay on our own private beach, it is an understatement to say that the entirety of the fearsome fivesome had a phenomenal time with Anne and Geoff, and we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to them for everything they did for us.



After our stay in Falmouth, we made the long drive over to Cape Elizabeth to the house of another CC alum, Rusty Leonard. Following that 30 minute haul, we really needed to relax, and Rusty obliged by taking us out for a great afternoon of kayaking, which was followed by a delicious dinner prepared by the whole Leonard clan.

The next day, we took to the road again and headed out to Camp Netop. We got to camp in the afternoon, just in time to perform a rousing acoustic rendition of the Backstreet Boys' classic "I Want It That Way" during dinner. For the next 24 hours, we all ran around participating in activities like we were campers and having a ton of fun with all of the sports equipment available at our fingertips. All in all, we had an awesome time at camp thanks to all of the campers and staff, especially Steve "Hollywood" Hallowell, who really let us have free reign over the place.



Following Netop, Tommy was dropped off at the Manchester Airport so he could fly out to a family reunion. Without their fearless leader for a week, the now not-as-fantastic foursome continued on to Vermont. Unfortunately, the writer of this post is said fearless leader at said family reunion, so this is where the post ends.

In conclusion, here is the song of the day and a promise that this blog will not stop, no matter how many times we lose our computer: Queen- Don't Stop Me Know

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