Autumn in New England

Megan and I had a discipline once that every year, around our aniversary, we would take a long weekend to ourselves. It was an opportunity to intentionally connect and to assess our family, our marriage, and our life together. Life circumstances have prevented this for much of the last few years but we took this opportunity to enjoy New England together.

We flew into Providence, Rhode Island. Both of us were hungry so we found this little cafe. Not fancy but quaint for sure.

We made our way down to see the sights. This is the state capital.

Out to eat and then to our HomeAway rental.

This morning we took the train to Boston to see the sights there.

Cheers! No the origional but still.

One of the hi-lites of our trip was a tour of Fenway Park. It was cool to get and inside tour of such a historic park. It was amazing and amazingly small.

Visitors locker room. The home locker room is off limits because many of the players keep things there all year.

The press box

Who knew there was a farm on the roof at the ball park. Now we know and so do you.

The new grass is going down for next season.

The next morning we got up and Joe went to this donut shop that we read about online. It is poorly run in many ways but everyone seemed to be fine with it. Later we found that the donuts are worth the wait.

These are them and they really were worth the wait. I got more than we could actually eat because I had so much time invested into the wait I felt that I had to get at least half a dozen. They were some of the best donuts I ever had.

We spent out day in Newport, Rhode Island. We began with a tour.

Our tour guide was great.

Our tour included a tour of our choice of mansions. We chose The Breakers which belonged to one of  the Vanderbilt boys. We found that as many of these fortunes waned that these houses cost more in property taxes and upkeep than they were worth to the origional owners. Many of them sold for $200,000 and less and some were simply given away. This one now belongs to the historic society as do five or six others.

We had dinner in Newport.

We ran to the lighthouse just in time for Sunset

In this moment I was reminded, as I often am, why I married the beautiful woman. She is the best thing on this earth to me and has made my life more than it could have ever been without her. I love her with all of my heart and both love those three little girls that we left back at home and are now anxious to see again. I am thankful to God that he allowed me to this love and this happiness. I love you Megan Davis.

Next we went home after a day stuck in various airports - typical air travel stories these days but we are finally home and with our family.

The Old Country

One weekend in October we decided to spend in Williamsburg. We have spent many weekends in this place and it never fails to give the smell, feel, and taste of the Old Country. Even Busch Gardens was previously named the Old Country.

In line for the Loch Ness Monster - The oldest origional ride in the Old Country

Since Anheuser Busch was purchased by a company from Belgium theyno longer owns Busch Gardens. As a result the official Budwieser Clydesdale's are no longer housed at Busch Gardens. New Clydesdale's now occupy the stable. They do not have the markings of the Budweiser Clydesdales as these markings do not occur naturally. The are the real scottish work hourses.

Not a Clydesdale but a horse skeleton for halloween.

The next day we spent around Williamsburg and Jamestown.

Don't get many picutres of this lady on this blog because she is camera shy but rest assured she is the one who pushes us all to share experiences that shape our lives.

Need one of these at home.

We learned how they kept the pork fresh on the long journey from Europe on a boat just like this one. They kept them in their origional packaging - They kept them alive for the journey and then released them on a small island where they were fed on occasion and other than that they made it on there own until one day someone would come and get them on the island that is named pig island until this day.

The Crew

The Church

The Cook

The Blacksmith

It was a great adventure and we learned a lot from the Old Country.