Surviving Irene

Last summer you might remember that there was a big group of people from Rockville, CT that came to the preschool and spent a whole week completely rehauling the place.  New ceiling/lights, new paint, new carpet, new toilets.... the whole works.  They were an awesome group and my roommate at the time and I decided that going to visit them was completely necessary.  So, finally, a year later, we had the dates all picked out and we were excited and ready to go!  Then the news said there was going to be a hurricane hit CT when we were planning to be there.  There were a couple people who questioned if we should still go but there was never really any other option for us.  We were going.  So, last Friday, I drove out to her house in IN.  She was at work and was going to get home around 1:00 in the morning.  The original plan was to leave Saturday about 6 AM but long story short, we ended up leaving her house about 1:30 AM instead.  I had slept for an hour at her house and we decided to keep taking turns sleeping in the car rather than wait until 6 to leave.  Between the two of us there was about 5 1/2 hours of sleeping.  Including the hour I had earlier at her house.  But we made it in great time so I guess it was worth it.  Saturday night the hurricane hit and while there was a lot of branches and several trees down, the damage wasn't terrible.  Nobody had power though.  700,000 people out of 1 million in CT lost power.  But that was really the extent of it all.  Saturday night and Sunday were spent catching up with our friends from last summer.  I didn't get any pictures those two days but it was great seeing them all again.  Then Monday, the storm had passed, the weather was beautiful, and we headed up to spend the day in Boston. 

We had never been there before and it was so fun!!!  We weren't expecting such strong Brooklyn-like accents there so after our first encounter with a Boston native, we (okay mostly Cass) had a great time trying to copy them.  We decided to take this trolley that had 9 different stops throughout the city.  We could get off and on at whatever stops we wanted to all day long.

That's us on the trolley.  We saw a lot of cool things.  Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church where they hung the two lanterns.  You know.... one if by land, two if by sea?  I found myself repeating "Up you patriots!  Arise you minutemen!  The British are coming!  The British are coming!"  I think it probably sounded better when Paul said it.

We went inside the church where I discovered you could go up into the tower where the lanterns were hung.  With my new found interest in the Revolutionary War, I thought that would be the coolest thing ever.  So I asked the girl working there and she said the last group of the day had just left at 4:30.  It was 4:39.  I was sorely dissapointed. 

This place we ate at for lunch, the Quincy Market, had just about any kind of food you were in the mood for, a bunch of little shops, and street performers.  None of which we were overly impressed with.  And, you just never know who you might see while walking along the streets of Boston.  A Revolutionary War soldier perhaps?

We had been invited to spend Tuesday at the beach with a family we knew from last summer.  And much to my delight, the beach we were going to was in Rhode Island.  Ever since reading a book that was set in RI, I've wanted to go there.  The book just made it sound so nice and quaint.  It did not dissapoint.  We spent the day lounging, getting to know our friends better, skim boarding (not me), and finding all sorts of beach creatures.  And since the hurricane had just come through there were some pretty decent size waves for crashing in the ocean.  It was a great day:)

Once we got home from the beach we decided to go ahead and leave that night.  Which meant saying goodbye to our awesome hostesseseseses.  Seriously, these people are great.  We hated to leave them. 

We drove about 4 hours and stopped at a dumpy Knights Inn for some solid sleep this time.  We were wiped out from the beach and decided driving through the night probably wasn't the best idea this time around.  We got back to Cassie's about 5:30 so I decided to go to church with her and spend the night.  After supper, she all of a sudden dissapeared from the table.  I didn't think a whole lot of it because she's always doing something random.  But when she came back, she was holding a cake lit with candles and decorated with Snow White and the 7 dwarfs that she had found in a drawer.  We decided those little figurines had to be from the 80's.  Her mom just happened to have a cake for supper and since my birthday is Saturday, this was the result.  Complete with a party hat:)

I finally got home today around 2:30.  I have had one great summer but it is GOOD to be home and not think about leaving again soon.