Journey to New Jersey

Last Saturday, John and I were invited to a friend's birthday party in New Jersey, about an hour's drive from Manhattan.  We decided to make a day of it!  We met up with another couple from church, rented a zipcar, drove out to New Jersey, went apple picking, attended the birthday party, and topped the day off with a trip to the grocery store (yay for "cheap" groceries in New Jersey!).

It was a perfect, sunny fall day.  The scenery was gorgeous.  I can't tell you how strange it was for us to be on a rolling country road, just an hour away from our apartment!

We took our time wandering the rows of the apple orchard.  There were so many different apple varieties: Jonamac, Jonagold, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Cameo, Gala, Yellow Delicious, Winesap...  I think we picked a few of each type!

At one point, John stopped to do a little "research" on his phone.

John and I had a competition to see who could find the biggest apple.  John won, but only because he's taller and can reach where no one else can.

The orchard had a little outdoor market, where we bought acorn squash and fresh apple cider.

Our harvest!

After our apple picking adventure, we continued down the road to our friends' house.  We had a lovely afternoon/evening with our friends.  We had about 8 different types of barbecued meat for dinner!  I wish I would have taken more photos at the party, but I only snagged this one of our little friend.

Our Vacation- Belated Post!

In mid May John and I took a cruise vacation to Bermuda and the Bahamas. The cruise conveniently departed from New Jersey! We took a cab out to Jersey, hopped on our boat, and sailed away to paradise. It was great to not have to mess with airport traffic.

This was our home for 9 days.

The ship was massive, boasting multiple swimming pools, a put put golf course, rock climbing wall, basketball court, and even an ice skating rink.

After arriving on board, John and I enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the ship's "sidewalk cafe."

This became one of our favorite ways to spend our early evenings on the boat.

Both of us thoroughly enjoyed breakfast each morning. There was no shortage of juice, fresh fruit, yogurt, and (John's favorite) pancakes.

After two relaxing days at sea, we arrived in Bermuda.

Our first day in Bermuda, we explored King's Wharf, the port where our ship docked.

We didn't stay ashore too long, but headed back to the ship to enjoy some peace and quiet. All of the other passengers had left the boat to explore, so we practically had the place to ourselves.

One of the best parts about our cruise was the self-serve soft-serve machine. John and I enjoyed getting a little ice cream treat in the afternoons. I particularly enjoyed watching the wide-eyed little kids who piled their cones a little too high.

Our second day in Bermuda, we ventured out to a local beach.
After a 40 minute, incredibly frightening bus ride, we arrived at this beautiful beach.
It was simply stunning.
After an afternoon of sun, we headed back to the boat.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed a wide variety of activities on the boat.

We went ice skating.
John studied for the CFA. I watched and tried not to distract him.

We played ping pong. I must say, we were a fairly even match. However, the game was made much more difficult due to the strong winds.

Two days after our departure from Bermuda, we arrived in the Bahamas. We spent an entire day at Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.

Atlantis is an incredibly large resort. Perhaps you have seen this nearly vertical water slide advertised on TV.

John rode down the slide TWICE! It was terrifying to watch. I secretly wanted to try, but I didn't think the baby would appreciate it very much.

John and I spent the entire day relaxing and riding (very tame) water slides. Our favorite ride was a lazy river ride where you sit in inner tubes. The entire river took more than 40 minutes to go through. The river had different sections where you had to navigate rapids, small waterfalls, and even tidal waves! The lazy river even had a conveyor belt that transported you (while sitting in your tub) up 10 stories to water slides.

One of our favorite things in Atlantis was the Shark Tank. It's hard to see in the photo below, but there are tubes that run through the shark tank. There are two water slides that take you through the shark tank (protected, of course, by a very thick layer of plastic).

After an exhausting day of playing in the sun, John treated us to some candy treats.
Here's a photo of our tiny cabin. After living in a NY apartment, the cabin didn't really seem all that small.

Boston

Yesterday John and I went to Boston. John had a business meeting, and I decided to tag along. We hopped on the Bolt Bus at 7am. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a four hour ride turned into a six hour ride, due to traffic and rainy weather. It wasn't too bad, because we both had our laptops and were able to be quite productive.

We arrived in Boston at 1pm. John ran off to his business meeting, and I had time to take all of two photographs.

It was pouring down rain. But that didn't stop me from taking a very short walk through Boston's Downtown Crossing area. I liked Boston- it felt like a pretty laid back, very old city. It was refreshing to see some different scenery.

When John returned from his meeting, we took the subway out to Harvard Business School. John met up with a friend from New York who is in the business program there. It was a very short visit, but I was able to see a little of the business school.

We then scurried back to the bus station and caught a 4:30pm bus home. What a day!

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend we took a little trip to visit John's aunt, uncle, and cousins in New Hampshire. We had a wonderful time of rest, fellowship, and fun.

Our journey began early Friday morning with a four hour bus ride to Boston. The bus was fantastic! It had power outlets and free wi-fi! I watched the scenery and John watched the stock market on his laptop. The best part about it all was that the bus ride only cost $15!


Once we arrived in Boston, we hopped on a second bus to Dover, New Hampshire. Again, we had free wi-fi and power outlets for just $15! John's uncle picked us up in Dover and drove us to Wolfeboro, near Lake Winnepesaukee, the same lake featured in the film What About Bob.

After arriving at John's uncle's house. We did a little sailing.

Just kidding. That's what Bob did. We didn't sail, but we did go for a boat ride.

It was a beautiful afternoon. The water was like glass.


This is Mitt Romney's summer home. He was having a party of some sort.
As we ventured farther out on the lake, the water got very choppy.
As the boat bobbed in the waves, we got soaked!
I took refuge under a towel.

The water level is unusually high right now. In order to get back to the boat slip, we had to go under this bridge.
We all had to duck, because there wasn't very much clearance.
We arrived back safe and sound, but thoroughly wet. We spent the rest of the evening eating dinner and playing card games with John's aunt, uncle, and cousins.

The next morning, we took a hike after breakfast. This is John and one of his cousins.

We hiked to the edge of this cliff! It was a little scary, but the view was incredible.
This just takes my breath away. Living in New York, I don't get to see sights like this very often!
John found a hiking stick...which doubles as a weapon. It's rumored that bobcats roam the area.
John kept me safe from the bobcats.
On our way back down, John's cousins and I stopped to pick blueberries.
The blueberries were quite small and very sweet. Delicious!
Later that afternoon, we stopped by the town Hospital Fair. It was kind of like a flea market. Proceeds benefit the renovation of the town hospital.
We took another boat ride before dinner.
Afterwards, we walked through town.

On Saturday evening, we celebrated the birthday of John's cousin, Linda. We had a barbecue and ate blueberry cobbler.

Sunday morning, we attended the chapel service of a nearby Christian camp. Then, John's uncle drove us back to New York. It was a quick, but lovely trip. We were so blessed by the very generous hospitality of John's relatives.