new england state of mind

so last weekend i was in new england to visit stacia. there's a lot of adventure here so be prepared for the blog of your life.

i flew into boston and we spent the day in the city. i hadn't been to boston since i was a teenager and i had forgotten how awesome it is.

first thing, we went on a duck tour. the duck is a wwII amphibious vehicle so in layman's terms, it goes in water AND on land. amazing! AND they were built by women.



you know what else is awesome about the duck tour?



he let me drive while we were in the charles river.
i'm way less of a liability on the water.



views of the river and charles town bridge



stacia and i on the duck tour.

once back on dry land, stacia and i hit the streets to get a closer look at some of the sights we saw on the tour.



this building is quite awesome. on the balcony in the front is where they would come out and read the declaration of independence. and in front of this building is where the boston massacre occurred.

MASSACRE !!!! great word. really only five people died. but i guess back in the day that was like 1/5 of the population.

we then went to say hello to some friendly faces.



that's sam adams. he makes beer.
ok fine, he makes beer AND he apparently played an integral role in the rebellion against great britain AND was a signer of the declaration of independence AND did a bunch of other good stuff.

we kept walking, a little unsure of where to go and wishing for a little guidance. and then we happened upon:



the statue of paul revere and out of the corner of my eye i caught a glimpse of something.



you may or may not be able to see the figure in the photo above. it is, in fact, the ghost of paul revere. he whisked right by me and whispered "go that way" pointing behind him. now, i'm not sure how many people around me could actually see this patriot ghost but he did have a group of people following him and he kept turning around and spouting out various facts about the area to the group. oh yeah, he also had a name tag. very strange indeed.

i digress.

the ghost of paul revere led us here:



this is the old north church. it was here in 1775 that paul placed the lantern to warn that the british were marching into lexington and concord.

and for those of you that don't remember your history so well. it's also the place where ben and patrick gates tricked ian howe into going so he wouldn't find the treasure! (anyone get it? nicole??)

we also stopped by this little pub




this is the green dragon. it served as headquarters during the american revolution (see the little dude holding the flag)

and across the street from that is a holocaust memorial



it's actually very cool. it's just a bunch of glass panes with numbers etched into them. it's the numbers they gave all the residents of the concentration camps. they divided the panes by camp. if you look closely or open the picture you'll see all the numbers in the background.

boston was very cool but we soon left for portland, maine.



maine is very beautiful. it's exactly how i pictured it in my mind.



stacia lives right on the water and it's just harbors with fishing boats and recreation boats and even ..



tugboats!!

we did a lot of sight seeing and i got to see a bunch of awesomeness. i recommend going to maine for a vacation. there is tons to do and it's just beautiful.



we took a boat over to peak's island and enjoyed our day



on saturday we hung up our sightseeing shoes to pay tribute to stacia's little sister kasi.

she's getting married in two week's so we had a special "bride day" for her

she was so thrilled that we made her wear a veil all day.



we went to old orchard beach (it's kind of like myrtle beach with the amusement park and carnival food and games and stuff)



we had kasi do all sorts of fun things like gettin her palm read and getting a fake tattoo. that's stacia and kasi's mom in the background giving her best shocked face.

also, when a bunch of girls go out with a bride apparently the men folk love it.



i spent the whole day with stacia and some of the women in her family. we had a great time. it's nice to see that craziness doesn't just run in my family.

what? it's true.

i also got to spend time with the davies men folk.

well, one of them



that's rick.

he loves me.



or maybe just my hand. yeah, he drew a heart on my hand with our initials in it.

on sunday the sightseeing continued.

kasi, stace and i drove up north to boothbay harbor. ok, so kasi drove, stacia talked to her and i slept in the backseat. man, i love sleeping in cars. it's a problem, i know.



it was beautiful there. and it was also the site for my entire reason for going to maine.



that was my lunch. yes, i ate them. they were delicious. and many thanks to stacia for taking the reigns and cracking those suckers open so i could eat them.

on monday we hit a few more hot spots as we made our way back to boston so i could catch my flight.

we went to portland headlight



it's beautiful.



and so are we!

and then we drove to kennebunkport



this is an awesome place. very fancy. lots of expensive houses on the water. it's also where the walker/bush's have a place. you know, as in george walker bush.



it's basically a little peninsula jutting off into the water. here's half. this i believe is guest quarters and slave er i mean servant quarters.



and this is the main house.

and this is their view





and that's just a little taste of new england.

many thanks to stacia and her family for putting up with me and showing me a fantastic time!
i will definitely be going back!