Back in Boston...

Well, our trip out to Boston ended up taking many modes of transportation.
I started out on a shuttle from Tucson to Phoenix at 7:15a.m. to meet up with Ryan and Cameron who had been out in L.A. working on the new record.
Our plane left Phoenix at noon and was to get us into Boston at 10:40p.m. Well, things didn't go exactly as planned... There was a bad storm in NYC, and our plane circled around it for quite sometime, until we ended up having to get re-directed to Buffalo, NY to re-fuel the plane. By the time we got back in the air, the storm had passed and we were able to land at JFK, however 3 hours later than planned. And therefore, we missed our connection to Boston. After we de-boarded the aircraft, a person from the airline came over to tell the group of 18 people heading to Boston, that we had a.) missed our flight, b.) there were no hotels in NYC for the night b/c of it being July 4th weekend, c.) there were no more flights to Boston tonight, d.) there are no open seats on any of the flights to Boston the next day, and e.) there are no rental cars available in the city, again b/c of it being July 4th weekend. But, then they said they had some "good news"...most of the crowd was already in an uproar over the matter, and then to top it off, the "good news" was that there was a shuttle bus taking us to Boston from NYC. Now, I've taken the Fung Wah bus many times from NYC to Boston, and it's not too bad of a trip, but to have to get on a bus at 2am after already having traveled for 19 hours, is not a fun idea at all to me.
At the start of the trip, the bus drive 'warned' us that he had never driven to Boston before, but he had directions. Well...his directions didn't take us the most exact route, and he did almost miss the exit and stopped in the middle of the freeway to reverse the bus so that he could still take the exit, but we made it to Boston by 7am. We got to Jana and Jill's apts at 7:30a.m., just in time to wake them up before their alarms went off...and then to go to sleep as everyone else went to work.

The main reason for planning this trip to Boston was so that Ryan and Cameron could play at David and Fen's wedding in exchange for David playing piano at our wedding last year! It was a really unique wedding to experience as Fen's family had come over for the week from Hong Kong and David's family from Korea. The rehearsal dinner was at a Chinese restaurant between Central Square and Kendall Square. It was a 9 course meal, many of which were "delicacies" followed by 2 rounds of dessert! During the wedding ceremony, David and Fen wore traditional American wedding attire, but then for the reception, they both wore what would be traditional for their own countries. Both of their families were really sweet, and it seemed as if the families were marrying into one another just as much as David and Fen were marrying into eachother's families.




Sunday morning we got to go to the Vineyard for church, which we were soooo looking forward to doing it!! In fact, we planned our trip so that we'd fly out on a Monday just so that we'd be able to go to 2 services while we were in town.
That afternoon we met up with our friends Ryan and Liz and went for a long walk along Memorial Drive/the Charles River. It was so nice to be in the company of friends who have been in similar stages of life parallel to ours (dating, getting engaged, getting married, etc.) We sat in the grass and continued to talk for a while when, who should walk by, but Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garon pushing their daughter in a stroller! I must admit that I didn't recognize either of them from anything, but it seemed to be a big deal by others in my presence....in fact, a cyclist had turned around and stopped near us and told us that they were coming and that she wanted to stand there just so she could get a second glance. :)
Liz and Ryan were getting ready to participate in a garage sale, however they didn't really have anything of their own to sell, so they (I think moreso Liz) have been going through the trash and finding all sorts of great items and furniture to make a profit on. For those of you living in Boston, you know how good the trash can be around the 1st of the month, so really this is idea is quite brilliant. :)

Monday afternoon Ryan and Cameron headed up to Vermont where they played to a full room at a cafe. I stayed behind and went to the community pool with my "little sisters" and Jana.

It's amazing how much they have grown up over the past 3 years! Instead of wanting to play charades for hours at a time at my apt, they are now a little more interested in talking about their friends and boyfriends. Tiarrah now has a baby sister, Hayden, who is 2 1/2 months old and sooo precious!

Tuesday morning (4th of July), Jana, Jill and I drove to Cape Cod to visit with some of Jill's childhood friends who were staying on a lake there for the weekend. It was a gorgeous day! I miss swimming in lakes soo much...I was even loving the smell of lake water and having my feet touch the mossy weeds!

(Cassie, Jill, Jana, Vivian (Cassie's baby) and me!
That evening we drove back to Boston so that we could see the fireworks over the Charles. Somehow, amongst the crowd of 1/2 a million people, we ran into our friend Orla and Will who are getting married in September! They joined us and we found ourselves a patch of grass to sit on and play cards (the game "spoons", although using waterbottles in place of spoons) before the fireworks began....

Ryan is probably the best person to watch fireworks with! He gets so excited, and throws out genuine "ooohs" and "ahhhs" throughout the show...and thinks that every year it just gets better and better! He's the greatest! :)

We traveled to NYC for a show on Thursday. The drive was easy going without any traffic until we were just outside of NYC, then our pace went from 75mph, down to 4mph for over 2 hours! And, we got honked at by a semi to let us know we had a very low tire that could go flat any minute! Luckily, we made it to a gas station in time to re-fill it with air and it held for the rest of our trip. The show at Rockwood went really well...it was a full house of friends and fans. Afterwards we went out for tapas with a group of Ryan's friends from high school.

That night we stayed at my friend Paul's condo in Jersey City, and had a great view of the city from his dining room...

The show on Friday night at Club Passim was really really good....one of the best in my opinion! Lots of friends from work and church came which made it kind of like a little reunion.
On Sunday after church Ryan and Cameron had a show to play for a sweet sixteen birthday/ block party. I wish our neighborhood had block parties! It was such a great day for it and everyone was super laid back and nice. Afterwards, the neighbor kids all wanted to take guitar lessons from "the Maestro"! :)

It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back in September for Orla and Will's wedding! We wish we could have seen EVERYONE we know in Boston....we look forward to seeing those we couldn't see on this trip next time!