tales from norwich: June 2009

East Bay Bike Ridin'

Recently, the city has reopened the nearby Fox Point entry to the East Bay bike path - a 16 mile trail between East Providence and Bristol, RI. Tony and I decided to check it out on a nice summer evening after work. Here we are (notice the new helmets):

Memorial Day = New York Tour!

Tony and I headed to my native land this Memorial Day - primarily, for the wedding of my Haver-friend Sarah Hanck, and secondly for mini visits with both our buddies Jeremy and Tanveer and my family out on the island. So you can imagine this was a fun filled 3 day weekend!

We headed down friday evening, had a wonderful home cooked Indian meal at Jeremy and Tanveer's ( who graciously hosted us for the NYC portion of our tour); then Tony, Tanveer and I went on a roller blading tour of the west side of Manhattan - poor Jeremy had to work : ( We bladed down Riverside Park from 73th Street all the way to Battery Park - it was great! Then we stopped for a nice lunch in the village before heading up to Central Park. By then it was time to get ready for the big Brooklyn bash. We headed down to Frank's Spuntino in Brooklyn for a beautiful outdoor wedding reception for Sarah and Brian. It was wonderful to see them both and catch up with some Haverford buddies.

Then, after a nice Sunday breakfast with J+T we jumped in the car and headed to "The Island". This is where we found my parents and brother knee deep in kitchen renovation. (My brother recently finished making a complete set of kitchen cabinets for my parents - they are BEAUTIFUL - and he is helping with the demolition and installation.) Stay tuned for pics from the completed room. Then we had a nice birthday dinner (for Tony) at my grandparents' house Sunday night complete with birthday cake. Here are a few pics from this whirlwind trip.

Me and Tanveer sitting in a sculpture in Riverside Park on our rollerblading trek.

Riverside Park

Takin' a break to look at the view.

Battery Park.

Flowers in Battery Park

Central Park

The Central Park Wizard: Blackwolf the Dragonmaster (don't ask)

More Performers: Pink Angel and Thoth ( REALLY, don't ask)

Remote control boat pond with the Upper East Side in the background.

Tony and I at the top of the Central Park Castle.
The Great Lawn is in the background.

Waiting in line for the Port Jeff Ferry.

Our chariot to Bridgeport arrives!

Port Jefferson Harbor.

Letterboxing in Lincoln Woods

We were lucky enough to have Mary and John down for Mother's Day weekend. So what better gift for our little Mother, but a letterboxing adventure! (For those of you who don't know, Mary is a HUGE letterboxing fanatic). We also took this opportunity to explore a part of Rhode Island we had not yet seen: Lincoln Woods, a RI State Park right outside of Providence. It's literally a 15 minute ride from our house, but you couldn't feel further from the city. Check out the pics.

Mary and I pose for a photo at the start of our hike.

There is a large pond in the center of the park.
It was very pretty - though the gnats were is full bloom. Ack!

Some interesting moss...

Can you spot the 2 letterboxers in this picture....

April Weekend Away: Portland, ME

So this posting is little belated - but better late than never! So Tony had a week off in April - but since Lizzie had to work, we were restricted to a weekend trip. Destination: Portland, ME. Though many may think the western Portland (OR) is more 'en vogue' - we were really pleased at how cool it's eastern sister was. We pampered ourselves with a "fancy" hotel (no hostels here!), ate some great meals (The Farmer's Table), and visited with a long lost RPCV buddy of Tony's (Justin Weiss).... oh, and on the way back to RI we did succumb to the outlets - it's just to good to pass up!