I have a bunch of friends who live on the east coast, and I’d been thinking for a long time about taking a road trip to visit them. I finally got to do that last week.
Wedding
The main motivation for the trip was the wedding of Danika to Will. Danika is about Adam’s age, and is the daughter of our close college friends from Cyndi’s Russian House Dorm, Vadim and Justyna Teverovsky. During his speech, Vadim was reflecting on the last 33 years or so of his life, all of which included us. We saw Danika when she and Adam were babies, and watched her grow up. We were so proud of her, and also of Vadim and Justyna. It was a real honor and privilege to witness the wedding.
My entire family flew out to VT for the weekend, while I drove.
Niagara Falls
On the way out to VT, I stopped to visit a friend from church, Jennie. She took me to Allentown district of Buffalo, where we had genuine Buffalo Wings, and an area specialty called Poutine: cheese and gravy covered fries:
Afterward, Jennie casually asked, “So, do you want to see a waterfall?” I had totally forgotten that Niagara was close by, so I said “sure”. We get in the car, and she explains that Niagara Falls State Park is open 24/7, so it was only then that I realized she was talking about The Falls. I had never been, so I was excited. I was not disappointed!
Father’s Day
The wedding was on the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend. Due to a fortunate series of unfortunate events, Cyndi scored an upgrade to the AirBnB she originally booked. The result was huge house in the countryside of Danby, VT, overlooking a pond, with lots of room for guests, and also a hot tub! So it became the natural location for collecting our other college friends before and after the wedding: J and son, S; Amy and husband Andy; Tricia and husband John.
Trish and John drove over from Arlington, MA, with about half their liquor cabinet, and Amy brought a game for Friday night. The wedding was Saturday night, so Sunday, we opened up the house for those who were left to celebrate Father’s Day. Traditionally, I love to BBQ, so Amy and Andy shopped the necessary groceries, and I got to grill! Adam then made me a Father’s Day “Dagwood Sandwich Hamburger”
Virgina
From Vermont, I drove down to briefly visit a high school friend, Shannon, who was still setting up her apartment in CT, and then I drove 32 miles to visit another college friend, Alla, in NJ(no pictures this time, but see later below). Then I drove down to visit another high school friend, Patty, and her family, in Virginia. I got to enjoy their pool and deck while Patty was working inside. Their house backs up to a river valley, where we took daily hikes with their dog, Plato. This is a beautiful tree we found blooming near the end of the trail:
New York, Hudson River
Alla had already planned a trip to Europe with friends, and had asked her sister, Raisa, to come watch the pets. I had not seen Raisa in a couple of years, so I drove back up to Alla’s place to visit, and help with the pets. When I visited Alla the week before, I had dinner with Alla and her friend, Kathy, who insisted that, when I came back this weekend, she take us on a boat ride. So we did that.
Kathy has a Bayliner that is quite nice, docked along the NJ side of Hudson River, next to the Tappan-Zee Bridge. I happened to have some previous boating experience, so Kathy let me help with the lines and such, and then invited me to drive! So I drove the boat about 20 miles downstream to NYC, past the George Washington Bridge to the USS Intrepid.
This was a great trip, where I got to visit with my family, and our “family of choice”, and my good friends, and also got to drive some pretty nice VT backroads in my Mustang. Retirement continues to be rated “5/5 stars, highly recommended.”