Portland (No, the Other One)

Just figured I'd put to bed all of the rumors...yes, I am one hot lobster.

After leaving Boston last Friday, we went north, into the heart of moose country. Or at least they tell me that because as is customary with all of my trips into areas where moose supposedly live, I didn't see a single one. Nevertheless, we took a wonderful long and lazy drive up the coast of Massachusettes (hope I spelled that right), New Hampshire, and Maine, into the sprawling metropolis of Portland (yes, I'm from Chicago, so that's tongue-in-cheek). And aside from the roughly $7 of tolls we had to pay, it was a perfect drive along the New England coastline.

You might ask, "Why were you in Portland?"

Why, to see our sister Kelly skate, and ultimately win a national championship in synchronized skating, of course! We saw great skating, we walked along the waterfront, we ate lobsters, we made fun of peoples' funny accents, we did some fine dining, we walked along the quiet streets of downtown Portland in the rain at night. As with all of the crazy places we've gotten to watch Kelly compete, we loved it.

Do well at Worlds, Kellster. Kick some Finnish arse.

Invading Bean Town

From Chi-town to Bean Town, we hopped onto a plane and headed northeast. And what is there to see in Boston, you might ask?

Goodalls. Four of them in fact.

First, say hello to Anna (the one on the left). She's a voracious eater, champion sleeper, small and cute, and able to make a mess with the best of them. Anna joined this world just a few weeks back and we were glad to make her acquaintance.

This is Noah, he's awesome. He taught us the important skill of how to identify trucks, cars, backhoes, choo choos, and myriad other every day items. He is also very ticklish, laughs a lot, is a messy eater, and is very good at bonking his head on various inanimate objects (tables, walls, the floor, etc.)

These are the proud parents, Simon and Stephanie. They didn't teach us anything about backhoes or choo choos, but they're great people and great hosts. They left our circle of friends in Chicago almost a year ago and we've finally gotten to head east and see their world and their growing family. Actually, I lied about the picture, that's Allison on the left, but I didn't look closely at it at first, and I later realized I somehow don't have a picture with both of them in it at the same time. So it sticks.

While in Boston we saw a furniture store/movie theater/icecream parlor/trapeze school (no I'm not kidding), we saw Haaaavid Yaaaad, the Cambridge waterfront, a glimpse of Fenway, and various important areas that I don't remember the names to anymore. It was a quick, but fun couple of days.

We tip our hats and offer our thanks to the Goodalls for taking us in and for not slipping a bottle of white zinfandel into our bags!

(Yes, I checked before we left)