Our Father's Day Weekend

image courtesy of b*oking website

Our weekend was spent in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  On Friday evening, we left our home in the Capital Region of NY, and drove east for 3.5 hours to check into our hotel room at the above hotel on the south shore. Saturday morning was cloudy with a slight chance of rain in my mother in law's hometown which is only about 10 min from the hotel. We helped her with some things around her home (she turned 90 in March and is doing well physically although the "old age dementia" is beginning to worsen).  After a lunch of pb and jelly sandwiches with a slice of banana bread, I took a walk while she napped and Dave helped his brother with some things. Dave's brother had to get ready for a performance that evening, so Dave and I ordered a veggie pizza and antipasto salad for the 3 of us.  We, along with our sister in law Kathy, had tickets to go see Kathy's husband, Peter (Dave's older brother) in the musical performance of this show.   It was just......ok.  The script wasn't great (although it won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama!).  I do love the painting the musical is based on.  The music was sung well by the talented cast but the score is just not that great. I know alot about shows that have been on Broadway and yet didn't know much about this one!  We all agreed it was....different. Phantom of the Opera it is not!! 😁

the painting by Seurat that the musical is based on

After the show, we headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep.  We woke up rather early on Sunday and took my mother in law to her Unitarian church. Definitely no gospel is preached there but the people are very nice. And it made my mother in law happy that we could take her. Usually Peter is the one to take her. We had some leftover pizza and salad for lunch and then got on the road for a very long drive through Boston and up to the north-central part of New Hampshire to where Dave's younger sister Paula lives with her husband Bobby.  Her daughter Debi (our youngest niece on Dave's side) lives in the apartment next door (it's like a duplex country house) with her baby boy Callen.  He is adorable and is 2 yrs old already!  It was our first time to meet him. 

Paula showed us all around her beautiful property with the gardens she and her husband have been creating. She also made a beautiful Caesar  salad and we enjoyed Caesar Salad wraps on tomato tortillas. It was delicious. 

Paula's daisies near the front porch

a view of the main garden 

After dinner and hugs good bye, we got back in the car to drive east towards the coast and stay in Dover (near UNH where our youngest daughter went to college) and stayed in this place. We had a gorgeous studio suite.  It was heavenly and we were so very tired! We decided, since we didn't have to check out until noon, that we would just sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel dining room and just   do some relaxing and reading and listen to our own church's sermon (available on you tube after Sunday evening). Both of our daughters texted Dave to wish him a Happy Father's Day and they have something planned for him for next Sunday the 22nd as we'll be back home by then. 

 

Homewood Suites by Hilton 
Dover, NH

We did sleep in until about 7:30 and after showering, we headed down to the dining room for  coffe, fruit and scrambled eggs.  We did some Scripture reading on our own and listened to the sermon from our church back home, and then Dave needed to deal with a work issue so I did some reading. We checked out around 11 AM and popped over to this amazing vegan donut place in Portsmouth that our youngest daughter used to go to all the time when she was at UNH. They are the best donuts we've ever had and I wish NYS would get one of these shops.  Once you have a Lovebirds donut you will never go back to Dunkin'. I had the chocolate ganache donut and Dave ordered a chai latte. 

image courtesy of website 

Then...we were finally on our way to Ogunquit, Maine!!  Air BnB had sent me a notification stating we had a message from our host, Denise, and she said we could check in anytime!  So about 40 minutes later, we were pulling into the condo association and dragging all of our luggage and the big cooler into the condo we are renting for the week.   

We were now officially on our anniversary vacation! (our anniversary isn't until June 30th but we have to celebrate early this year due to a work commitment Dave could not get out of). 

We've been having a great time so far and more pics will follow!!

ENJOY your Tuesday evening, everyone!