We’ve had a very eventful summer.  We started off with a bang and left a couple of days after school let out for our baseball extravaganza trip up the East coast.  Since we returned from that fabulous vacation, we’ve spent our weekends at the beach with family, working on our first construction project – a desk!, and our annual family vacation to the ranch.  I also took a few days to spend some time with my mom and enjoyed lounging by the pool at the Omni Hotel in Dallas.  We then made a weekend get-away to San Antonio for a college friend’s wedding where it was great to catch up with some old friends from far away.

I had great plans for this summer to paint our bedroom, clean my carpets, generally just clean out and organize…and unfortunately I didn’t get much of that done.  I cleaned out our closed and donated 3 HUGE bags of old clothes, shoes, & purses to Goodwill; so I feel much better about our closet now.  As soon as our desk is finished, I will get to organize the office and get everything put in it’s place in there…can’t wait for that!

Now that school is just a few days away, I’m focusing on getting some new clothes & shoes and beginning to think about what I want my classes and classroom to look like this year.  Starting school always feels like I’m beginning a marathon and I never feel quite ready…but we always finish strong.

Goodbye summer…hello school year!

Our last stop on our Baseball Dream Vacation was the city of Boston.  We caught an early Saturday morning train out of NYC to Boston and for the longer train trip, we upgraded our seats to Business class, which was super nice…big, comfy leather seats and tons of leg room!  When we arrived in Boston it was raining…and the rain just continued through the duration of our time there.  We were able to walk just a few blocks from the train station to our fabulous historic boutique hotel, the Lenox.  It was gorgeous!

We checked in, dropped off luggage, and walked down the street to get some lunch.  I loved being in these cities where walking is the primary mode of transportation, but when its gross and raining, I would much prefer to be in my car.  Something about walking in the rain just seems abnormal to me, but everyone else appeared to be perfectly accustomed to it…No Thanks!

Even though it was raining, we ventured out into Boston and walked a decent chunk of the Freedom Trail and saw tons of neat, historic places like the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried, the old North Church (which is still used for church services), Paul Revere’s home, the old Massachusetts State House, and Boston’s old City Hall.  The city of Boston is really neat, especially the old parts, with narrow streets and cobblestone paths and old brownstone buildings.

On Sunday, our last full day in Boston, we geared up for game day at Fenway.  Luckily, the rain stayed away for the duration of the game, but the cool, damp, foggy air did not.  I was definitely not impressed with the weather in Boston.  The game was great, our seats were amazing, and the food was pretty dang good.  We still cracked up laughing at the accents of many of the people sitting around us…so funny!

the old North Church

front of the Old North Church

walking into the park!

view from our seats

the field and the Green Monster in the background

We wandered around over by the Ed Sullivan Theater where David Letterman is taped.  We went inside, filled out the forms to see if we could get chosen for that night’s show and left…pretty sure we wouldn’t hear back from them.  An hour later, Matt’s phone rang and we found out we had gotten tickets!  It was really fun – we got to see Kate Hudson, some race car driver (haha), and Sarah McLachlan performed at the end of the show.  We also spent some time in Times Square taking pictures and people watching, wandered through Rockefeller center, we walked down 5th avenue looking in all of the expensive stores, and finally walked into Central Park before heading “home” to the hotel.  Our feet hurt by the end of NY day 1!

us in Times Square

me in Rockefeller Center…behind me (sunken below ground level) is ice rink during winter time

NY day 2 we started with a tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Both were really cool, but I think we enjoyed the tour of the Statue of Liberty the most.  The weather on our second day was pretty gross…it was gray and rainy pretty much all day long…which didn’t bode well for the Mets game we had tickets for that night.  We took the subway out to Citi Field that night and we were packed with our ponchos and rain gear…but as soon as we got off at the Citi Field station, we heard the announcement – the game had been canceled.  Workers there told us it was rescheduled for the next night.  We rescheduled our dinner reservations for Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay’s restaurant) for that night, so we could go to the game the next night and raced back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner.  Mesa Grill was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  I didn’t want to set my expectations too high, but OH MY…it was delicious.  I haven’t eaten that much in a very long time and I LOVED every single thing that I put in my mouth.  If you ever go to NY or Las Vegas, you MUST eat there.

NY day 3 was devoted to shopping.  Our first stop was B&H Photo…a huge photo, video store that Matt likes to get his camera stuff from.  I’m not all into the camera stuff like he is, but it was a really cool store.  Then we wandered around the enormous 9-story Macy’s.  That place is incredible…there’s just so much stuff in there to look at it’s completely unbelievable.  Entire floors devoted to shoes…can we say heavenly?  We headed back to the hotel for the afternoon just as the rain was starting again and packed our ponchos and rain gear for the Mets game that night.  Luckily though we didn’t need any of it!

view from our seats

us after the game

Times Square at night…INCREDIBLY bright, crowded, loud, oh and there were cops EVERYWHERE.

NY day 4…our last full day in New York.  We went to Ground Zero, but were kinda disappointed…it’s just a giant construction site.  I expected there to be some sort of memorial or something around there.  Next we walked to Wall Street which is so tightly guarded and secured it doesn’t even feel like you’re in the United States anymore.  We also walked across part of the Brooklyn Bridge.  After walking the bridge, we took the elevator up to the 70th floor observation deck of Rockefeller Center and got to see the entire city.  We left Rockefeller Center just in time to go back to the hotel to get ready for the Yankees game that night.  They were playing the Astros…we prepared ourselves for the worst…haha.

the Charging Bull in the Financial District

us on top of the “Rock” – Rockefeller Center – Empire State Building in the background

After the game…our Astros lost

we got off at the wrong subway stop & as we were walking to our hotel…we happened upon this…not a bad mistake.

Phew…I’m tired just thinking about all of the stuff we did in NYC…our next stop – Boston!

]]> http://www.mjmanges.com/?feed=rss2&p=1108 0 http://www.mjmanges.com/?p=1094 http://www.mjmanges.com/?p=1094#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:00:20 +0000 Jenna http://www.mjmanges.com/?p=1094 After the Orioles game in Baltimore, we hopped on a train and traveled to Philadelphia.  I had never been on a train and Matt hadn’t been on one since he was really little, so this was basically a new experience for both of us.  Train travel is SO simple.  There’s no crazy security screening, no removal of shoes, no naked x-ray machines, etc.  You just get your ticket & ID checked and hop on the train.  The seats are bigger and you have at least twice as much leg room as you do on an airplane.  Definitely a much more pleasant way to travel.  Too bad we don’t have passenger trains in Texas.

We arrived in Philly a little late.  It was close 9:00 pm, so we caught a taxi from the train station to our hotel and then ran across the street to grab some supper at a Chili’s.  My worst fear came true when we walked out of the train station…it was cooling off outside…and QUICKLY.  I had not packed clothes for cool weather.  I had 1 long sleeved shirt to keep me warm on the plane/train and p.j. pants…definitely not things that would keep me warm in the New England “summer”.

We started off our first full day in Philly with breakfast at…Dunkin’ Donuts.  I swear…these things were on every freaking corner up there.  Every single city we visited seemed to have them about as close together as we have Starbucks.  It was weird.  After breakfast we hopped on the subway and rode over to the tourist spots…Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the U.S. Mint.  There were TONS of tour groups and school groups at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall…I guess the schools in the Northeast aren’t out for summer yet?  Too bad for them.   The U.S. Mint was pretty cool too…unfortunately there were no photos allowed, but it was neat to see how our coins are made and all of the machinery that’s used.

Independence Hall…it was so cool to think about all the things that took place in this building.

the liberty bell…the little museum we walked through before seeing the bell had tons of interesting facts about the bell that neither of us knew.  Apparently it used to tour the country and it served as a symbol to ending slavery and ending Apartheid in South Africa.  So interesting…

Ok…now for the Phillies game.  We took the Subway out to Citizens Bank Park for the Phillies game against the San Diego Padres.  It was a night game, so I packed my sweatpants so I wouldn’t freeze during the entire game.  I was a little non-impressed when we arrived outside the ballpark in Philly…it’s not much to look at from the outside, but the inside was pretty awesome.  And…they definitely had the best food out of all 5 ballparks we visited.  Matt had a cheesesteak which was pretty good and I had definitely had the best dinner I could ever ask for…French Fries!  But they weren’t just any french fries…they were called CRABFRIES and they were HEAVENLY!  I’m pretty sure they were just crinkle cut fries with crab seasoning on them, but holy moly…they were amazing.

outside the park…not overly impressive

yes…that’s an entire cup of french fries…and it was my dinner.  I love vacation!

Citizens Bank Park…view from the outfield

view from our seats

the hot dog cannon

the Liberty Bell in the outfield

us after the Phillies game

Great game, great park, great food, and the home team won!  We loved our time at Citizens Bank Park…but we were not impressed with Philadelphia.  If you have family there or are from there, I’m sorry, but Philly is gross and dirty and the bums are EVERYWHERE.  Some of the old historical buildings were impressive, but that’s about it…we were glad to leave and get on with our trip.  Next stop…New York City!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the ballpark to get some night pictures of the entrance all lit up since the game we were going to was the next afternoon.  We got some great shots and then headed in to the hotel for the night.  We slept late the next morning, walked to a nearby donut shop for breakfast, and then went back to the hotel to check out of our room.  We checked our bags with the bellhop since we wouldn’t be leaving Baltimore until after the baseball game and then we wandered across the street for the game.

the Sports Legend Museum at the entrance to Camden Yards

the entrance to Camden Yards

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a really cool ballpark.  It is a very simple & classic park, but yet has a very new and modern feel to it.  The game was great.  The Red Sox were in town for the weekend series and there were a ton of Boston fans there for the game.  This was actually the very first game Matt and I had ever seen in the rain.  Since we have an indoor stadium here in Houston, rain is never something we have to worry about with baseball games.  They continued to play in the rain, and when it got bad enough, we just pulled out our ponchos and continued to enjoy some baseball!  Luckily, we were able to see the home team pull out a win!

the view from our seats

the outfield

us after the game!

We flew to Baltimore last Saturday and traveled by train between each of the cities before flying home from Boston today.  We splurged on great seats at the parks and some nice hotels in a couple of the cities and really had a fantastic week away.  It was a great way to relax after finishing a hectic school year and a very busy several months of Matt working 60+ hours per week.

Of course while we were in each of these cities, we did more than just baseball.  There’s so much history and so much to see in all of these places, that our days were full of sightseeing and our nights full of baseball games…what could be better?

Pictures from each city and ballpark coming soon (we took over 1,000 pictures)!!

congratulations guys!

This past weekend seemed just as busy.  Saturday morning we were lazy…Matt mowed the yard, I graded papers and then we went to Jeff and Alison’s annual crawfish boil.  Man, oh,  man…those crawfish were tasty this year…and so was everything else I stuffed myself with over the course of the afternoon/evening!

Sunday was Mother’s day and my birthday celebration with my family in Beaumont, so we picked up Jeff and Ben Sunday morning and made our way to Beaumont for the festivities.  We had a tasty lunch of fajitas and 3 different desserts…birthday cake, ice cream with fresh fruit, and banana pudding.  Nobody went hungry, that’s for sure!  All the mom’s seemed to have a wonderful day and my family gave me lots of good stuff for my birthday!

Now…I am officially counting down the number of school days left!  We only have 16 days left including final exam days, which are all half days…I’m SO ready for this year to be over.  This has been a really trying year with my kids and I need a break!  I’m ready to relax and go on vacation and spend some time by the pool.  We are also very excited to welcome a new cousin into our always growing family, my cousin is due to have her baby ANY DAY NOW…and I couldn’t be more excited to meet sweet Miss Adley Ann.  We are so ready to meet her…come on already!

the bridesmaids…such a lovely group of ladies…& cousins!

the backs of our dresses were so fun!

we had so much together!

I love this picture…we were freezing though!

Sisters…so happy for her & so proud of the beautiful woman she has become!

the whole wedding party…a pretty good lookin group!

the bride’s cake…my mom & Beth did such a great job!

the groom’s cake…another amazing piece of work by mom & Beth

programs…

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