The Powell Family: September 2013

Back in 2010, before Sam and I even knew we would be friends let alone eternal companions, we found ourselves watching a BYU football game together with the same group of friends. I noticed that Sam had his laptop out and figured he was doing homework or something. Upon further ~~inspection~~ snooping however, I saw that he was actually watching the US Open tennis tournament that was going on at the time. This is when I fell in love. Actually it was NOT that easy, but it did catch my attention! Ever since then we have talked about how cool it would be to go to a Grand Slam, and since getting married, we have made it a financial goal to be able to do so.

There were a lot of reasons for us to decide this WASN'T the year to do it. For example, having a two month old baby, spending most of our savings, and being in the midst moving to a different state. Not to mention, Wimbledon was a disaster and half of the top players either injured themselves or lost in the first few rounds!

There were also a lot reasons for us to decide this WAS the year to do it. For example, Tom and Sarita (Sam's brother and his wife) live in Boston, Sam's job didn't actually begin until September 11th and when would we ever be able to make this trip without taking time off from work? (answer: NEVER), and finally traveling with a two month old is probably easier than traveling with two kids under two (not an announcement) or three kids or four kids (or arranging to get a babysitter for an extended period of time).

Well folks, we did it! And that's what this post is really about- our awesome vacation to Boston and New York! (Told mostly through pictures because this prelude is longer than it was supposed to be but I keep reading it trying to cut it down and it all seems important plus I'm kinda proud of it).

Here are a list of our vacation shenanigans, in sequential order for the most part.

1. We flew on an airplane to Boston, and were picked up by Tom and Sarita. Special shout-out to them for picking us up, giving us a place to stay, driving us around everywhere, being tour guides, and being overall great hosts. Oh and by the way, Clara was an angel on the airplane both there and back. Thank goodness!

2. We went to a Boston Red Sox game, and they won!

3. Tom and Sarita babysat for us so we could go to the Boston temple. That was very nice. Thanks so much! We tried multiple times to do a timer picture with us and the temple in it... this is the best we could get.

4. We went to Concord

5. We walked along the Freedom Trail and saw many cool sites such as: The Boston Common, The Old State House, Granary burying grounds (James Otis, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams buried here), site of the Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's House, and Old North Church just to name a few.

Our tour guide

Counterclockwise: James Otis, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams

6. After seeing all the sites, we wandered around the North End (Little Italy) and found a nice Italian restaurant to eat at. It was fancy and delicious! Then we got gelato.

7. We took a bunch of cute pictures of Clara.

8. We had a BBQ, ate delicious shishkabobs, and dipped our feet in the pool at Tom and Sarita's apartment complex.

9. We drove to New York with Tom and Sarita! That first night we rode the train around and stopped at Grand Central Station, wandered around town for a bit, then went to the US Open! That first night we saw Rafael Nadal (so cool!) vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber and the Bryan brothers play doubles.

10. Tom and Sarita drove home that night. The next we spent all day at the US Open, just soaking it all in! We watched five or so different matches. People we saw that day include Djokovic, Azarenka, Ivanovic, Leyton Hewitt, Berdych, and Wawrinka. We also saw some mens and womens doubles matches on the outer courts up pretty close! Being at the US Open was probably the highlight of our entire trip. The atmosphere was so much fun and the tennis was just amazing! Those of you who don't care for tennis might not realize how cool this was for us. Seriously, it is like paradise for tennis lovers!

11. We ate some really good falafel and some really good Polish food in honor of our respective experiences abroad.

12. We wandered around downtown Brooklyn (at night) (both scary and fun) in search of Grimaldi's pizza. I must say it was sooo worth it. That was the best pizza I've ever had. I don't know if it was because I was starving, but it was very satisfying.