Summer 2014 - East Coast Road Trip

To get from Boston to San Francisco we decided to drive cross-country and see friends and family along the way. That was one of the best decisions we made. Reconnecting with people brought so much joy to our trip, and made every stop memorable.

Our first stop was New York. We stayed with Colin's high school friend, Winston, and his wife Corinna. We love them and catching up in person was great. While in New York we wandered through Central park, relaxed in the grass, and had some authentic New York bagels. We also got to see some sigma chis and Brittany. We left New York feeling blessed to have interesting friends who are genuinely nice people, and to have the flexibility to see them!

After New York drove past DC, all the way to South Carolina. We stayed just outside Charleston with my cousin, Cruz, his wife Naomi, and their baby boy Oliver. Cruz's brothers Will and Jonathon also live in the area and we were able to spend time with all of them. Will, Cruz and Jonathon are cousins on my dad's side of the family. The Krafsig boys treated us to some delicious southern food, Cruz played the piano for us, and Naomi charmed us. I did not spend much time with Will, Cruz or Jonathon growing up and it was special to reconnect as adults.

We continued south after South Carolina to Palm Harbor, Florida. Who do we know in Florida? Colin's good friend from Plano, Texas, Timur. Whenever Colin and Timur get together a memory reel of the good ol' days growing up in Plano plays and I love hearing their stories. Colin grew up with a very close knit group of friends and I love seeing the friendships that have carried into adulthood.

Timur was also nice enough to let us park our car in his apartment building while we took a brief detour on our road trip to Brazil for the World Cup! Read all about it in the next blog post.

Naples, Positano, & Rome

After Florence we traveled south on a route that Lonely Planet dubbed the classic "gentleman's tour."

First we stopped in Naples for a day. We walked around the city, and our first impression was that it wasn't as clean or romantic as the northern cities. Then we went home with our CouchSurfing host. He lived about 40 miles outside the city in Caserta, and it was incredible to stay with him and his mom. When you think classic Italian man and mother, they should come to mind. The host was around 40 and lived with his widowed mother to help care for her and the house, but from what we could tell she did most of the nurturing. She made us spaghetti with clams. She talked to us like we were her long lost italian children, and by the time we left we sort of wanted to be.

In Caserta there is a beautifully ornate palace that was constructed in the 18th century for the Bourbon kings of Naples. The grounds were sprawling, the rooms were opulent, and the architecture spared no expense.

We took a train from Caserta down to Positano. Positano is like the lesser known, slightly uglier cousin of Amalfi, but we LOVED it. We stayed with an old sea captain we found on Airbnb. He spoke very little English, but every night he bought home fresh mozzarella that he insisted we eat, and on our last day he brought us clothes from his ex-wife's shop. Positano is a very relaxed town, and we used it as a jumping point to visit Amalfi, do some hiking, and visit Pompei.

Our last stop in Italy was Rome. Rome, Rome Rome. We LOVED. Rome. I thought Rome would be a disappointing, over-hyped tourist city, but I could not be more wrong. It deserves all the hype. We couldn't find an Airbnb host in Rome, but we did find a friend who gave us a tour of the city and talked to us about life as an Italian. My favorite part of Rome was watching the sunsets over the grand architecture.

Summer 2014 - Leaving Boston

A couple of Sundays ago Colin and I walked through the low brush on Mount Diablo. The sky was an expressionist's dream of layered oranges and bright pinks. The sunset cast a romantic rosy glow on the yellow hills. As the sun sank below the horizon we wistfully wished we could stop time. Colin's hand tightened around mine, confident, excited and nervous for all of the changes the next day would bring.

It was the last sunset of our summer. On Monday morning Colin started a new job, and my job hunt went into full swing. The last two months have been a joy, and while we could have gotten use to early retirement, we also felt ready to start keeping track of days again.

Colin finished his Masters of Engineering at MIT at the very end of May, and I had my last day at Micronotes Inc. Colin had a job lined up with Ginger.io in downtown San Francisco starting in August, giving us two months to play. We traveled around the US seeing sites, friends and family, and also managed to catch a couple World Cup games and some beach time in Brazil. .

The next couple of entries will track our summer adventures starting with our trip to Cape Cod and leaving Boston.

Our last few weeks in Boston were crazy busy. Colin was in lab finishing his thesis 12-14 hours/day 6 days a week. His lab friends teased me about spending more time with him than I did, and I was jealous. I was packing us up, selling anything that wouldn't fit into a packing box, and wrapping up at work. Moving cross-country and transitioning out of a 7-person start-up after 4 years is no joke.

We got to spend our last weekend in Boston on the Cape with Colin's wonderful parents. It was a delightful trip. In the mornings Colin and I spent final minutes proofreading his academic labor of love, and in the afternoons we hiked on the seashores and ate delicious crab cakes.

Cape Cod is quintessential New England. Little houses with outdoor showers, crab and lobster joints everywhere, salmon shorts, and white picket fences along the picture perfect shores. We tried to convince Colin's parents to buy a home there, but all the locals' winter memories were still too fresh to make a compelling case.

So many things happened to us in Boston and Cambridge. Too many firsts to list. Independently we became adults in this city with all of the wonders, surprises and occasional disappointments. We have life long friendships that were started here, we had our first date at the Cheesecake Factory in the Prudential Center, and we made it through every winter without losing any fingers or toes to frostbite (a much bigger accomplishment for me than Colin).

We are going to miss the glorious spring days, and the mesmerizing colors of falls. We are going to miss the camera that detects your mood in the MIT halls, and times spent sitting on the Weeks footbridge. We are leaving a piece of our hearts in Boston, but Boston has given us so much more in return. Thank you, Boston, for being our first home together.

Now a couple of throwback pictures from the city we love

Dunster house formal 

Just after Colin proposed

Memorial Day weekend in Boston Commons

Shakespeare in the Commons

Ice skating on frog pond