New England trip! Lots of photos!

I just got back from a week in New England. My friend Scott and I visited our friend Vera. I've known Vera since kindergarten and we've known Scott since junior high. In high school we became a besties trio. After high school, Vera moved out of state (for college and then for work) and every so often Scott and I take a trip to visit her (which was much easier when she lived in Indiana, and then Cincinnati).

Now she lives in Boston. We were there from Wednesday - Tuesday and tried to pack in as much of New England as we could ... photo time!!

The day we got there, we took a drive to Marblehead and had lunch/dinner at The Barnacle, right on the harbor.



While in Marblehead, we spent a lot of time sitting here, staring at the ocean.



On Thursday, Vera had to work. I went for a 5.25 mile run around Boston. Ran to (and over) the Charles River, past M.I.T., back over the river, through Beacon Hill, wound up by the Cheers sign, went through the Public Garden and back to her place. Such a pretty town.



That evening we met up with two of my cousins who live in Boston (one is a sophomore at BU, the other lives here with his wife and two daughters). Sadly, I forgot to take a picture! It was really great to see my cousins though. I have such awesome relatives.

On Friday, we went to Newport, RI. Had lunch by the water:



Then toured two of the Newport Mansions. First was The Breakers, summer home of the Vanderbilts.



Next was The Elms, summer home of some other rich family. The house was smaller but had awesome grounds with gardens and fountains:



On Saturday, Vera and I ran the Applefest Half Marathon in Hollis, NH. We finished in 2:22:38, which is a personal record for me!! But probably a personal worst for Vera. She runs ultramarathons. The course was hilly, and it rained on us. I was soooo happy to take off my socks as soon as we got to the car.



After the race (and showers), we went out for dinner at a delicious and hip Mexican restaurant. It was so hip that the menus were on iPads. I'm not kidding. Each of us had our own iPad to view the menu. Anyway, this was the view from our table:



The food was so good and despite the smallish-seeming portions, I literally stuffed myself. I was quite uncomfortable afterwards. I think there was some moaning and rubbing my belly as we walked down to the street to find this uber-trendy bar Scott wanted to check out. (We found it, there was a line, we were all full and tired so we got a cab and went home. DO WE KNOW HOW TO PARTY OR WHAT?)

On Sunday, we went apple picking:



Then we decided to drive to Maine. It was wet. The sea was angry.



After we got home, we made apple crisp:



On Monday, we drove down to Cape Cod



It was really pretty, and reminded me a lot of the west coast of Michigan.

On the way out of Cape Cod, we stopped for dinner at The Bee-Hive Tavern, which was adorable.



We talked to some locals and our waitress was super friendly.



I took a bazillion more pictures (421 total on my actual camera, even more on my Droid) and edited them down to 206 photos on Flickr.

And now it's back to the real world. Work tomorrow.