London Friday

After work Friday, we walked around Covent Garden a bit and had a great dinner. Pete was hungry and wanted a dinner that was, in his words, "Grrrr." (We had huge burgers at GBK).

It was a nice summer night and we walked over to Trafalgar Square to check out who was on the Fourth Plinth. The Fourth Plinth is an empty platform in the Square and is currently being used for this "living art" project. Over 3 months, 2400 people will each have an hour up there to do whatever they want!

So we saw this old guy who was up there. Basically he seemed to have this bag of shirts. He'd put a shirt on, walk around the Plinth once, then take it off and put another one on. I think the shirts were from different countries. Or something.


Also in Trafalgar Square they were setting up for a live demonstration show thing on Saturday of free running. I had never heard of it, which shocked Pete. (Click the link for more info, it's very cool).

Anyway it was nice to walk around and sit on the steps on this lovely summer evening.

Zia

My brother and his wife are having a baby! Here's my mom putting a picture of the ultrasound on her fridge. Aw.

Zia is "aunt" in Italian. I want to be called Zia Mindy.

Food

We've been back more than 2 weeks, and Pete hasn't stopped talking about all the food we ate when we were home in America. I also got some comments on how that was pretty much what all my vacation blog posts were about. Yeah well welcome to Cacopardo life!
Here's a few more of our food-related pictures, just to make sure you get the idea. (Click on it to see it larger).

Pepe's Pizza

Our last night in Connecticut, Lauren, Pete, Mom, Dad, and I went to the world-famous (YES IT IS) Pepe's Pizza in downtown New Haven.
I made this short video of it. Be sure to listen closely for my dad's English accent impression...




OK so I'm no Scorsese.

3201 miles, Essex to Essex

Until a few weeks ago, Pete has always lived in Essex, just east of London. We thought it would be kind of fun to take him to Essex, CT. (Oddly enough, Gordon College is in Essex County in MA.) Our last full day home, my parents took the day off work and we had a great day together.












I'm sorry but this is just so adorable.






I think this was my dad doing his "English accent" and cracking my mom up.

Kristin and Heather

Two of my best best Gordon friends are also former Resident Directors. I knew I'd see Kristin when we went up there, because she's still local. But I didn't even mention that I was going to be in the States to Heather, who now lives in California for grad school. But who comes bounding into the BBQ to surprise old me, but Heather. Come to find out, she was home in NJ for the summer and actually was going to the North Shore the following week for vacation, but came the week of MY trip TOO, just to see me. She had to go back to NJ in between trips even! It was wonderful to be with them both again (and everyone, of course).

We used to have a going-out-for-breakfast tradition, back when we had jobs with allowed for such frivolities (and caused us to work all hours of the nights and weekends ...) Well the 2nd day of our MA trip, I left Pete at Nicky's house and met the girls for an early breakfast. Awww. Such a great time. I hadn't been with old friends who know me inside-out for so long.

North Shore junk food (the best)

OK, more vacation stuff yet to be recorded in the old blog.

While Pete and I were North of Boston, we went to a few places I really missed and also wanted him to try.

1. Cherry Hill Ice Cream, Beverly MA

My dad's favorite North Shore ice cream. I think it's 2nd best but definitely amazing. I got kahlua chip, he got some kind of boring thing like vanilla and strawberry.


2. Nick's Roast Beef, Beverly MA


Best roast beef sandwich ever (and Pete loved it). Gordon alums still dream about Nick's 15 years later. They do this thing with bumper stickers where you're supposed to take a picture of yourself with the bumper sticker in exotic locations then give them the picture and they put it up inside. The walls are covered in such pictures, from Egypt and China and West Africa and things like, underwater or a wedding party holding them.
Pete's sense of humor often makes me groan, but I thought this was genuinely hilarious.



3. Jordan's Furniture - featuring Richardson's Ice Cream, Reading MA

Strangely enough, this furniture store boasts a huge area with an IMAX, a trapeze school, a Jelly Belly shop with enormous jelly bean sculptures, and my favorite - "liquid fireworks". My pictures can't capture it, but check out the online tour of the Reading store.
Jordan's website

They also have a Richardson's ice cream shop, which is the undisputed champion of ice cream in the Greater Boston area. This, btw, is a small.

(Pete took this picture, that's why it's so good and there's no thumb in it like most of mine).

Pete's First S'mores

(I must admit, I love this video).

YouTube link to this, if that's easier for you.

Visiting Gordon (even though I said I'd never go back)

Well, two years have somehow passed since I left 255 Grapevine Road. It was great to go back and see people and the campus.

I posted pictures on Facebook of a BBQ we had and here is a link to them if you missed them or aren't on Facebook:

BBQ pictures from Facebook!




Here's a couple of Pete on campus. Talk about Collision Of Worlds! I can't believe the universe didn't implode.

My wonderful friend Nicky

Pete and I spent a couple days on the North Shore of Massachusetts visiting the area I lived for 12 years. We stayed overnight with my friend Nicky who was the World's Most Fantastic Hostess Ever.











At Independence Park in Beverly Mass, one of my all-time favorite spots.






I thought it was really cute that Pete loved the muffins so much he had to take pictures of them!