![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canadiandiamondSo, I've been home for almost a full week now, and it's about time I made a post about the trip. I'm gonna try to make a nice, long detailed one, breaking it up into sections, but no promises that it'll make any sense or be any good. XD
Part the First: Philadelphia, Take One
I arrived in Philly on a Friday, just after lunch, and omg it was so beautiful out. At home the week before it had been like 4-5 degrees Celsius, which, for here, is pretty nice for mid-March. Getting off the plane, however, and walking into around 20 degrees Celsius weather, holy crap. So very nice! I picked up my rental (a nice Chevy Impala, very comfy) and went to meet the wife at work. The rest of the week was more of the same; I took![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
believeitup to and from work each day, bringing her lunch every day too. This was generally a chance for me to wind down from work and to relax a little, and to spend time with my wife too, of course.
I ended up picking up a copy of the newest Pokémon game in anticipation of PAX East, and some other goodies (FFXIII, some books, some Blu-Rays, etc.) during the first week of my trip. There weren't nearly as many trips to Delaware as there have been on my previous travels, but that's partly because I knew PAX and Boston were coming and I wanted to try and conserve some of the spending until then. I did make a few trips, including one that lead to someone trying to sell me Dead Sea crystal soap or something, haha, washing my hands in the middle of the mall, and some other similar items. I begged off from her, saying I needed to pick up my wife... then popped into FYE to buy some U2 cds for $9.99 each (the whole store had $9.99 for any single cd, quite the sale!), and then went to bring my wife lunch. Mmmm, Chick-fil-A, how I miss thee.
But yes, it was a nice start to the vacation. We got to hang withonlyonechoice a lot, went out for a few meals here and there, and just generally chilled most of the time. I always like that part of my trips, which was most of the last few really (Christmas and last fall), and this time was no exception. :)
Part the Second: Boston bound!
On Thursday, almost a week after my arrival in Philly, we returned the rental car to the airport and took the commuter rail into the city, where we caught a train to Boston, woo! It'd been so long since I'd been back, not since Sara's grad, and I was really looking forward to it. The six hour train ride was really nice, too; it's so much nicer than flying, so much more space, and actual outlets to use, omg. We played our DS's, read, tweeted, and just generally got to sit back and relax for awhile, which was so nice, especially for my wife who had been working the whole time while I was relaxing that first week, oops. ^^;; The food was nice too, omg, the cheeseburgers they sell on the trains are pretty damn tasty for something they just throw in a microwave, totally.
We got to Boston and checked into our hotel room, a very nice and surprisingly big room in the Hilton in Back Bay. It was right across the street from the Sheraton, which is connected to the Hynes Convention Center where the convention was, so we only had to dart across the street to get there each day and then didn't have to brave the elements until we headed back to our hotel room. Even better, the Prudential shopping center was connected to the same buildings so we had access to a food court and a number of little shops, including a Barnes & Noble, and there was a Shaw's right next to that too, great location. We hit the Cheesecake Factory, I think it was, for supper that first night, then Shaw's for supplies, then an early night to wake up bright and early for PAX, omg.
PAX was just... wow. It was way, way better than I thought, not that I thought it was going to be bad, but everything was just so much better than I expected. The keynote speech by Wil Wheaton was just fantastic, and the panels we got to attend were cool. Getting there early let us buy some sweet swag that sold out very quickly, especially the lovely scarf Sara bought - those became uber rare by like noon of the first day, haha. I got a nice hoodie that I love to pieces and pretty much wore every day for the rest of my trip, hehe. I ended up buying a backpack to help carry all the swag we were getting, including free shirts from Turbine that I don't think they gave out to most people until Saturday, we're that cool. :D I think we also saw a little nVidia presentation that day, too, if I recall correctly, that was about the only real underwhelming part of the con, something I thought we'd never get into because it was going to be so awesome, that we got into, and... mreh. I can't recall if we saw anything else that afternoon, I think we missed out on a Girls in Gaming panel that filled up way faster than we'd anticipated, and then we went back to the hotel to rest. Then, later that night we were supposed to see a documentary on D&D and people who played it in real life, but the people who were supposed to bring the movie didn't show. So instead, Gabe from Penny Arcade came out and did an impromptu FAQ on how to DM a D&D game, omg. I even got to ask him a question. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD So damn cool, and it pushed me to want to try my hand at DMing, something I'd been thinking about before but since then have definitely been hyped up about. :) And this was only the first day.
Day Two also meant more lines, this was probably the busiest day of the con, I remember seeing a lot more daily passes for Saturday along with the 3-day passers like us. We got in line early, it was confusing as there were a TON of people wanting to get into the Expo hall and many to see Foxtrot's creator, while the wife and I wanted to go to the Machinima panel. We did, me getting in line and Sara getting us some Dunks, and it was all good. The panel was fun, and we dared to get in line for the Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip panel and omg it was worth the wait and so so so funny. We have tons of pics from this panel and even a little video, which I need to get posted soon, maybe after I type this up. There was a pause for lunch at PF Changs, I believe, which was scrumptious, then a panel on MMO Gamer Behaviour that was interesting. Thenbelieveitup had an amaaaaaaazing experience at the Turbine booth, which was so very cool, while I ended up getting a little ostracized at the D&D booth, haha. I'm over it now but omg I was not impressed at aaaaaaaall while I was there, mreh. MREH. Obviously it's ok now since I bought like $100+ worth of D&D books after, heh, but yeah. I can't recall what we did after that, I think there were some more panels that we went to but I really can't remember at the moment. Huh. *insert pause here while I fetch my con program to see!* No, it looks like we made an early night of it on Saturday!
Sunday, however, we got up early again to see Patience, the LOTRO community manager's panel on, well, managing communities. It was a very fun panel, glad we got to see it, and we got to chat with her and a lot of the other big names at Turbine so much over the weekend, which was awesome. After that we segued directly into the line for getting things signed by Gabe and Tycho, and Sara got her scarf signed while I got my DM book and another for a friend signed, woo! After that we went directly into the line for the closing ceremonies, which was the end of the Omegathon, a series of gaming challenges for 16 teams that boiled down to a series of game challenges - the two pairs had to leap frog each other through Super Mario Brothers (collect 50 coins), Rad Racer (score 1,500 points), Tetris (score 10 lines), and finally Contra (kill the first level boss). It was very exciting, and we had front row standing room (just about 10' away from Wil Wheaton, who was behind a barrier, hehe), it was great. The first team almost won, but then the machines locked up when they got to Contra, so they had to start all over, and the first team choooooooooooked so, so, SO bad on Tetris, haha, and the second team ended up winning it all then, which was a trip to Germany to a con over there, I think. Very cool! It was sad to say goodbye to the con, so much fun, but we will be back for next year and likely will go to PAX Prime sometime, though this year with the house and Sara moving up and all make that unlikely, sadly.
The rest of the time in Boston was so nice, too. The only downside was the nicer hotel we went to for the last few nights saw us get "upgraded" to the Towers level, the 15th (highest) floor, with concierge service and all kinds of bells and whistles - only we got a small, small corner room. Mreh. It was a far cry from the Hilton room, but it came with free internet, unlike the Hilton, and a free breakfast (which we never took advantage of, oops), and we were on the go a lot, so it was ok. We relaxed, seeing the Sabres beat Boston at the Garden, and an amazing, amaaaaaazing Vampire Weekend concert on our last night there, omg. In between we walked about Boston (when it wasn't pouring rain like it did the first two days post-PAX), ran some errands for friends and relatives, and relaxed in our tiny room with room service a few times and lots of DS playing, hehe. It was great and we were sad to leave on Friday.
Of course, we almost didn't leave, thanks to our train being canceled and me not receiving a call they claimed they made to me about rescheduling us on an earlier train - btw,believeitup, I did check my voicemail when I got back and there were none; I'd had one from you earlier but they expire after so long, if the train people had left me one it should've been on there but nope! So yes, we almost got stuck there, as there were no more trains on Friday and none scheduled for Saturday, hah. Thanks to my wife's quick dialing skillz, we got a rental car reserved for one-way to Philly, though the company we'd made the reservation with told us when we got there in person they don't do one-way rentals, but thankfully their sister company, just up the road, did. So we walked through that part of the airport, which, so not meant for pedestrians, and got a car finally. I drove us back to Philly and we got in not too much later than we would have if we'd gotten the train, and it saved T a trip to the station to pick us up, hehe.
Part the Third: Philadelphia, Take Two
The last few days in Philly were nice, it was time to relax from our vacation, if that makes sense. Especially given the hectic Friday and all that commotion, it was great to have those days off, especially for Sara who went back to work on Monday, while I had the day off but had to travel. On Saturday we got up at a decent hour and went to see Clash of the Titans, which was aaaaaaaaawful, omg. The popcorn was good, though, in fact too good; I didn't realize we were going to this amazing burger place after, The Five Guys I think it is? So when we got there I was too full to order anything. :/ I guess in hindsight I could've but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it or eat it all. I did get a taste of Sara's burger and it was yummy, and the fries were great, I did eat some of them. The next time I'm down I'm definitely going to save my appetite for it. XD Then we just stayed home Saturday night, watching more Lord of the Rings (the trilogy played all weekend, Fri. Sat. and Sun. night, and we had it on in the background the whole time I think) and hanging out. We played with some D&D ideas, too, I picked up a number of books in Boston - Sara now has the Player's Handbooks 1 & 2, and I've got the DM guide, Monster Manual, Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, Adventurer's Vault, and I already owned the first Player's Handbook, so wow. So much to read! So we worked on that a little and just hung out, I think I went out to Wendy's for food, maybe? Or was that the first week? I know I went out once and got sick from it, ugh, now that I think about it I think that was the first week. A big thumbs down to the Wendy's close to where Sara lives in any event, haha. Oh yeah, that was the first week, because Saturday I went out for pizza at Dominoes, that's right. :) Mmmmm omg so so so good, love what they've done to their recipes, and we had Dominoes in Boston in our hotel room one night too. :D
Sunday we got up early and went out to meet T's folks for a buffet brunch at this really nice place called the Cock and Bull, I think it was. SO MUCH FOOD omg. I had a few fist fulls of bacon, heh, and some yummy chicken and hash browns and a lot of other food I can't recall now. It was fantastic, and after brunch we walked around the little shops and whatnot for awhile, it was such a beautiful day, too. Then we came home, everyone had a nice nap, and Sunday was not unlike Saturday night, with hanging out and watching the end of the LotR trilogy on tv. I think I went to Wawa to get food for us all, mmmm, one last Wawa run. Sara and I tried to get to bed early, as she had work in the morning and I had to get back to NL, and we did manage to do that but watched Sideways on her laptop while in bed, and it was pretty late by the time that was over. It's such a great little movie, though, and I'm glad she finally got to see it. :)
Monday morning, omg, it was so difficult. I dropped Sara off at work and it was probably one of the hardest goodbyes we've had to make, sadly. :/ Which sucked because, well, parting always sucks of course, and I got soap in my eyes in the shower that morning, yes, that's it >.>, and also because she had her first day back to work with a new boss and had to go through all that. I should've left Sunday, maybe, and then I'd have had Monday off to recuperate and she'd have had Sunday to deal with me going, but hindsight's 20/20 I guess. Anyway, we parted, and I went to Borders for some shopping therapy, heh, resulting in a zombie book purchase (another one for the shelf atm, hah), a last Chick-fil-A run, and then off to the airport to return the car and fly back to NL. The flights were all on time and great, the only downside was my two checked bags (only had one going down but I bought so much I turned my carry on from the trip down into a checked bag and used the backpack from PAX as my new carry on) went to Montreal, oops. That was likely because I flew from Philly -> Toronto -> Ottawa -> St. John's, which was a discount price (same going down there) and there was like only 40m between Ottawa -> St. John's; I literally got off the plane, used the washroom quickly, then went to find my gate and they were boarding then, haha. So yes, me and several others on those flights didn't get our bags loaded off of Ottawa to St. John's in time, so they went to Montreal first, arriving later that night / the next morning and they got couriered out to me on Tuesday, in good condition thankfully. I say that because a friend of mine had me pick up a fancy camera lens in Boston, it cost over $1,000 US, omg, and if that had broke, well, damn. It didn't though, phew. That reminds me, I need to call him this week to tell him I'll be by with it and to have my money ready. XD
So, that's the trip in a nutshell. It really was a fantastic time, and it was the longest time we've had together with neither of us working in, well, ever, maybe; during her grad there was so much going on then it didn't seem like free time, kinda, and it was longer than the time we had off for the wedding, which was also nice but, well, was very busy with things to do too XD. I'm still sad that it's over, even if I've been back for nearly a week. I keep doing that same old thing I always do, looking back, like how exactly one week ago I was sitting in the girls' apartment, probably reading a book or getting ready to hit the Wawa for supper, things like that. And tomorrow morning I'll probably be thinking of what I was doing last Monday morning, which, yeah, that will be a little sad, but I'll try not to. Work has been crazy, crazy busy so that probably won't be a problem anyway, heh.
I need to plan my next trip down, or I'd like to, since I love having a countdown and a fixed date in mind, but with the house closing at the end of the month and so much of our funds being tied up in that I really can't, not yet, anyway. I may pick a date that I'd like to go back and get a countdown for that, just on a possibility so I can have a date in mind, so maybe I'll do that. We'll see, but for now I should go and post the pictures before it gets too, too late, it's already going for 9:30pm, oops. Hope everyone had a great weekend and that I didn't miss too, too much while I was gone, I did try to read up on LJ during my trip but I didn't get to spend as much time here as normal, especially during the Boston portion of the trip. :)
Part the First: Philadelphia, Take One
I arrived in Philly on a Friday, just after lunch, and omg it was so beautiful out. At home the week before it had been like 4-5 degrees Celsius, which, for here, is pretty nice for mid-March. Getting off the plane, however, and walking into around 20 degrees Celsius weather, holy crap. So very nice! I picked up my rental (a nice Chevy Impala, very comfy) and went to meet the wife at work. The rest of the week was more of the same; I took
believeitup to and from work each day, bringing her lunch every day too. This was generally a chance for me to wind down from work and to relax a little, and to spend time with my wife too, of course.I ended up picking up a copy of the newest Pokémon game in anticipation of PAX East, and some other goodies (FFXIII, some books, some Blu-Rays, etc.) during the first week of my trip. There weren't nearly as many trips to Delaware as there have been on my previous travels, but that's partly because I knew PAX and Boston were coming and I wanted to try and conserve some of the spending until then. I did make a few trips, including one that lead to someone trying to sell me Dead Sea crystal soap or something, haha, washing my hands in the middle of the mall, and some other similar items. I begged off from her, saying I needed to pick up my wife... then popped into FYE to buy some U2 cds for $9.99 each (the whole store had $9.99 for any single cd, quite the sale!), and then went to bring my wife lunch. Mmmm, Chick-fil-A, how I miss thee.
But yes, it was a nice start to the vacation. We got to hang with
onlyonechoice a lot, went out for a few meals here and there, and just generally chilled most of the time. I always like that part of my trips, which was most of the last few really (Christmas and last fall), and this time was no exception. :)Part the Second: Boston bound!
On Thursday, almost a week after my arrival in Philly, we returned the rental car to the airport and took the commuter rail into the city, where we caught a train to Boston, woo! It'd been so long since I'd been back, not since Sara's grad, and I was really looking forward to it. The six hour train ride was really nice, too; it's so much nicer than flying, so much more space, and actual outlets to use, omg. We played our DS's, read, tweeted, and just generally got to sit back and relax for awhile, which was so nice, especially for my wife who had been working the whole time while I was relaxing that first week, oops. ^^;; The food was nice too, omg, the cheeseburgers they sell on the trains are pretty damn tasty for something they just throw in a microwave, totally.
We got to Boston and checked into our hotel room, a very nice and surprisingly big room in the Hilton in Back Bay. It was right across the street from the Sheraton, which is connected to the Hynes Convention Center where the convention was, so we only had to dart across the street to get there each day and then didn't have to brave the elements until we headed back to our hotel room. Even better, the Prudential shopping center was connected to the same buildings so we had access to a food court and a number of little shops, including a Barnes & Noble, and there was a Shaw's right next to that too, great location. We hit the Cheesecake Factory, I think it was, for supper that first night, then Shaw's for supplies, then an early night to wake up bright and early for PAX, omg.
PAX was just... wow. It was way, way better than I thought, not that I thought it was going to be bad, but everything was just so much better than I expected. The keynote speech by Wil Wheaton was just fantastic, and the panels we got to attend were cool. Getting there early let us buy some sweet swag that sold out very quickly, especially the lovely scarf Sara bought - those became uber rare by like noon of the first day, haha. I got a nice hoodie that I love to pieces and pretty much wore every day for the rest of my trip, hehe. I ended up buying a backpack to help carry all the swag we were getting, including free shirts from Turbine that I don't think they gave out to most people until Saturday, we're that cool. :D I think we also saw a little nVidia presentation that day, too, if I recall correctly, that was about the only real underwhelming part of the con, something I thought we'd never get into because it was going to be so awesome, that we got into, and... mreh. I can't recall if we saw anything else that afternoon, I think we missed out on a Girls in Gaming panel that filled up way faster than we'd anticipated, and then we went back to the hotel to rest. Then, later that night we were supposed to see a documentary on D&D and people who played it in real life, but the people who were supposed to bring the movie didn't show. So instead, Gabe from Penny Arcade came out and did an impromptu FAQ on how to DM a D&D game, omg. I even got to ask him a question. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD So damn cool, and it pushed me to want to try my hand at DMing, something I'd been thinking about before but since then have definitely been hyped up about. :) And this was only the first day.
Day Two also meant more lines, this was probably the busiest day of the con, I remember seeing a lot more daily passes for Saturday along with the 3-day passers like us. We got in line early, it was confusing as there were a TON of people wanting to get into the Expo hall and many to see Foxtrot's creator, while the wife and I wanted to go to the Machinima panel. We did, me getting in line and Sara getting us some Dunks, and it was all good. The panel was fun, and we dared to get in line for the Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip panel and omg it was worth the wait and so so so funny. We have tons of pics from this panel and even a little video, which I need to get posted soon, maybe after I type this up. There was a pause for lunch at PF Changs, I believe, which was scrumptious, then a panel on MMO Gamer Behaviour that was interesting. Then
believeitup had an amaaaaaaazing experience at the Turbine booth, which was so very cool, while I ended up getting a little ostracized at the D&D booth, haha. I'm over it now but omg I was not impressed at aaaaaaaall while I was there, mreh. MREH. Obviously it's ok now since I bought like $100+ worth of D&D books after, heh, but yeah. I can't recall what we did after that, I think there were some more panels that we went to but I really can't remember at the moment. Huh. *insert pause here while I fetch my con program to see!* No, it looks like we made an early night of it on Saturday!Sunday, however, we got up early again to see Patience, the LOTRO community manager's panel on, well, managing communities. It was a very fun panel, glad we got to see it, and we got to chat with her and a lot of the other big names at Turbine so much over the weekend, which was awesome. After that we segued directly into the line for getting things signed by Gabe and Tycho, and Sara got her scarf signed while I got my DM book and another for a friend signed, woo! After that we went directly into the line for the closing ceremonies, which was the end of the Omegathon, a series of gaming challenges for 16 teams that boiled down to a series of game challenges - the two pairs had to leap frog each other through Super Mario Brothers (collect 50 coins), Rad Racer (score 1,500 points), Tetris (score 10 lines), and finally Contra (kill the first level boss). It was very exciting, and we had front row standing room (just about 10' away from Wil Wheaton, who was behind a barrier, hehe), it was great. The first team almost won, but then the machines locked up when they got to Contra, so they had to start all over, and the first team choooooooooooked so, so, SO bad on Tetris, haha, and the second team ended up winning it all then, which was a trip to Germany to a con over there, I think. Very cool! It was sad to say goodbye to the con, so much fun, but we will be back for next year and likely will go to PAX Prime sometime, though this year with the house and Sara moving up and all make that unlikely, sadly.
The rest of the time in Boston was so nice, too. The only downside was the nicer hotel we went to for the last few nights saw us get "upgraded" to the Towers level, the 15th (highest) floor, with concierge service and all kinds of bells and whistles - only we got a small, small corner room. Mreh. It was a far cry from the Hilton room, but it came with free internet, unlike the Hilton, and a free breakfast (which we never took advantage of, oops), and we were on the go a lot, so it was ok. We relaxed, seeing the Sabres beat Boston at the Garden, and an amazing, amaaaaaazing Vampire Weekend concert on our last night there, omg. In between we walked about Boston (when it wasn't pouring rain like it did the first two days post-PAX), ran some errands for friends and relatives, and relaxed in our tiny room with room service a few times and lots of DS playing, hehe. It was great and we were sad to leave on Friday.
Of course, we almost didn't leave, thanks to our train being canceled and me not receiving a call they claimed they made to me about rescheduling us on an earlier train - btw,
believeitup, I did check my voicemail when I got back and there were none; I'd had one from you earlier but they expire after so long, if the train people had left me one it should've been on there but nope! So yes, we almost got stuck there, as there were no more trains on Friday and none scheduled for Saturday, hah. Thanks to my wife's quick dialing skillz, we got a rental car reserved for one-way to Philly, though the company we'd made the reservation with told us when we got there in person they don't do one-way rentals, but thankfully their sister company, just up the road, did. So we walked through that part of the airport, which, so not meant for pedestrians, and got a car finally. I drove us back to Philly and we got in not too much later than we would have if we'd gotten the train, and it saved T a trip to the station to pick us up, hehe.Part the Third: Philadelphia, Take Two
The last few days in Philly were nice, it was time to relax from our vacation, if that makes sense. Especially given the hectic Friday and all that commotion, it was great to have those days off, especially for Sara who went back to work on Monday, while I had the day off but had to travel. On Saturday we got up at a decent hour and went to see Clash of the Titans, which was aaaaaaaaawful, omg. The popcorn was good, though, in fact too good; I didn't realize we were going to this amazing burger place after, The Five Guys I think it is? So when we got there I was too full to order anything. :/ I guess in hindsight I could've but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it or eat it all. I did get a taste of Sara's burger and it was yummy, and the fries were great, I did eat some of them. The next time I'm down I'm definitely going to save my appetite for it. XD Then we just stayed home Saturday night, watching more Lord of the Rings (the trilogy played all weekend, Fri. Sat. and Sun. night, and we had it on in the background the whole time I think) and hanging out. We played with some D&D ideas, too, I picked up a number of books in Boston - Sara now has the Player's Handbooks 1 & 2, and I've got the DM guide, Monster Manual, Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, Adventurer's Vault, and I already owned the first Player's Handbook, so wow. So much to read! So we worked on that a little and just hung out, I think I went out to Wendy's for food, maybe? Or was that the first week? I know I went out once and got sick from it, ugh, now that I think about it I think that was the first week. A big thumbs down to the Wendy's close to where Sara lives in any event, haha. Oh yeah, that was the first week, because Saturday I went out for pizza at Dominoes, that's right. :) Mmmmm omg so so so good, love what they've done to their recipes, and we had Dominoes in Boston in our hotel room one night too. :D
Sunday we got up early and went out to meet T's folks for a buffet brunch at this really nice place called the Cock and Bull, I think it was. SO MUCH FOOD omg. I had a few fist fulls of bacon, heh, and some yummy chicken and hash browns and a lot of other food I can't recall now. It was fantastic, and after brunch we walked around the little shops and whatnot for awhile, it was such a beautiful day, too. Then we came home, everyone had a nice nap, and Sunday was not unlike Saturday night, with hanging out and watching the end of the LotR trilogy on tv. I think I went to Wawa to get food for us all, mmmm, one last Wawa run. Sara and I tried to get to bed early, as she had work in the morning and I had to get back to NL, and we did manage to do that but watched Sideways on her laptop while in bed, and it was pretty late by the time that was over. It's such a great little movie, though, and I'm glad she finally got to see it. :)
Monday morning, omg, it was so difficult. I dropped Sara off at work and it was probably one of the hardest goodbyes we've had to make, sadly. :/ Which sucked because, well, parting always sucks of course, and I got soap in my eyes in the shower that morning, yes, that's it >.>, and also because she had her first day back to work with a new boss and had to go through all that. I should've left Sunday, maybe, and then I'd have had Monday off to recuperate and she'd have had Sunday to deal with me going, but hindsight's 20/20 I guess. Anyway, we parted, and I went to Borders for some shopping therapy, heh, resulting in a zombie book purchase (another one for the shelf atm, hah), a last Chick-fil-A run, and then off to the airport to return the car and fly back to NL. The flights were all on time and great, the only downside was my two checked bags (only had one going down but I bought so much I turned my carry on from the trip down into a checked bag and used the backpack from PAX as my new carry on) went to Montreal, oops. That was likely because I flew from Philly -> Toronto -> Ottawa -> St. John's, which was a discount price (same going down there) and there was like only 40m between Ottawa -> St. John's; I literally got off the plane, used the washroom quickly, then went to find my gate and they were boarding then, haha. So yes, me and several others on those flights didn't get our bags loaded off of Ottawa to St. John's in time, so they went to Montreal first, arriving later that night / the next morning and they got couriered out to me on Tuesday, in good condition thankfully. I say that because a friend of mine had me pick up a fancy camera lens in Boston, it cost over $1,000 US, omg, and if that had broke, well, damn. It didn't though, phew. That reminds me, I need to call him this week to tell him I'll be by with it and to have my money ready. XD
So, that's the trip in a nutshell. It really was a fantastic time, and it was the longest time we've had together with neither of us working in, well, ever, maybe; during her grad there was so much going on then it didn't seem like free time, kinda, and it was longer than the time we had off for the wedding, which was also nice but, well, was very busy with things to do too XD. I'm still sad that it's over, even if I've been back for nearly a week. I keep doing that same old thing I always do, looking back, like how exactly one week ago I was sitting in the girls' apartment, probably reading a book or getting ready to hit the Wawa for supper, things like that. And tomorrow morning I'll probably be thinking of what I was doing last Monday morning, which, yeah, that will be a little sad, but I'll try not to. Work has been crazy, crazy busy so that probably won't be a problem anyway, heh.
I need to plan my next trip down, or I'd like to, since I love having a countdown and a fixed date in mind, but with the house closing at the end of the month and so much of our funds being tied up in that I really can't, not yet, anyway. I may pick a date that I'd like to go back and get a countdown for that, just on a possibility so I can have a date in mind, so maybe I'll do that. We'll see, but for now I should go and post the pictures before it gets too, too late, it's already going for 9:30pm, oops. Hope everyone had a great weekend and that I didn't miss too, too much while I was gone, I did try to read up on LJ during my trip but I didn't get to spend as much time here as normal, especially during the Boston portion of the trip. :)
