A New England Wedding

I think we only have one wedding this year... as last weekend was it! And it was a destination wedding, of sorts, in that we had to travel. To New England in the winter.

I think everyone had heard about the monumental amount of snow they've had in New England this winter - near record setting overall total (with still a possibility of it being surpassed). So we had an idea of what to expect when we got out there... a lot of snow on the ground! And there was, indeed, a lot of snow, which was clear as we landed in Boston.

We headed out on Friday morning, with the through that we could actually have a day of 'vacation' before the wedding on Saturday. Last week, as I was trying to figure out what we should do, in occurred to me... New England is known for their lighthouses! Since we had to drive to the northern border of Massachusetts for the wedding, we might as well keep driving north for a bit and be a tourist. Besides, why not add two more states to my 'visited' list. I honestly had no idea where to start, so I found a guided tour a mapped out some of the lighthouses they had listed. So I knew it's be an interesting drive trying to actually find some of these.

And that turned out to be true. We drove as far north as Portland, ME, and our first couple of stops, while not complete failures, were disappointing. Either we couldn't find the lighthouse at all (bad directions from Google/Siri) or they were too far out to really see. But finally, I picked a sure bet based on reviews - the Portland Head Light. And it was about the most perfect lighthouse you could find. I was a happy girl, finally. And the next one, The Nubble Light House, was probably one of the more iconic light houses you see photos of... even with snow on the rocks around it! We decided to grab a Lobster Roll for lunch - because you always have to have a Lobster Roll, right?? Then we drove around to find a few more before heading to the hotel. It was starting to get dreary and windy... and we were getting hungry for dinner. We chilled out for a bit and freshened up before heading into the downtown area of Amesbury for some dinner. Yelp has become my friend when travelling... it really does help you find some good places you may not find, otherwise. And it, again, helped us find some good pub fare. But by the time we were done eating, we were wiped from our long day of travel.

Saturday morning, we woke up to some snow showers. Lucky New England! But they didn't last too long... they did turn to rain, eventually. So we had some breakfast at the hotel, and then found the only Starbucks in NE Massachusetts. No joke. They are Dunkin Donuts lovers in this part of the country. We used their Wi-Fi for a bit before doing some more exploring - no lighthouses, today - too cold! Instead, we drove out to Lowell to find some makerspaces Eric read about. And a converted factory and created a great reuse - apartments, small (local) shops, and even a small theatre! It was a very cool space. But then it was finally time for the reason we were here... Zeb & Heather's wedding.

The venue was in Groveland, about a 20 minute drive from our hotel. It was still drizzling a bit, but it was letting up. It was indoors, anyway, so it was just a matter of getting there. They had a really sweet (and fun) ceremony, where one of the guys who was responsible for them meeting was the officiant. There weren't too many people there that we knew, as Zeb was one of Eric's younger fraternity brothers... and we were in New England, not Indiana. But we had a good time, with good food and friends. They are a great couple and Eric and I are so happy they found each other.

Sunday morning we slept in after the late night. We decided to skip the hotel breakfast and, instead, find some breakfast as we headed back towards Boston. We found a truly local place (thanks to Yelp, again) and had a really hearty breakfast. We then headed to Somerville to find another makerspace Eric heard about - this one was supposed to be awesome! We were not disappointed at all. It was huge and I think it was everything Eric aspires to have his space be. Eric got quite inspired. We then went to Cambridge to scope out another space, which we couldn't fine, but we did find Harvard. It was kind of cool to see such a historic school - the campus was much more urban/dense than I expected... guess I'm used to Auburn.

But it was finally time to head to the airport and back to Indiana. It turned out to be quite the weekend for us, and just enough time away for both of us. Even if it was cold. We still had a great time.