Shipping Up to Boston

Every June, Jeff goes to his hometown in SE Massachusetts for a little golf tournament his childhood best friend puts on.  This year, I decided to tag along and make a train-cation out of it.  I haven't been back there since we got married 6 years ago so I was due!

We headed out on a 3-hours-delayed redeye last Wednesday night and landed in Boston Thursday morning.  After getting through the airport, baggage claim, rental car, and driving all the way down to Rehoboth (Massachuetts but near Providence, Rhode Island), the first order of business was to camp out in my mother-in-law's driveway and build my bike!  I headed out for an easy shakedown cruise on the backroads of Rehoboth while it drizzled lightly.

My entire hour looked more or less like this!  Quiet GREEN forest roads.

We got settled at the hotel and Jeff sat down for an afternoon of conference calls, while I went over to his old high school to do my track workout.  It was windy and pouring rain for most of my run but it felt special to be out there where my husband had lived his days of athletic glory :)

That night began the whirlwind of visits and overeating that characterized this trip.  We met Jeff's family for dinner and then his childhood best friend for "second dinner" and drinks.  There they are doing Jager shots.

I wanted to stay on track with workouts on this trip, so I did as much advance scouting as possible to find places to go.  The one that stymied me was the swim…pools listed on SwimmersGuide that appeared to not have lap swim anymore, or didn't allow visitors, or whatever.  But (!) I did find a rec center over in North Providence, RI that looked like it had potential.  I'm so NOT used to indoor pools so it was weird but I got my Friday swim done after sleeping till 9:30am to recover from the redeye flight.

While Jeff worked at the hotel again, I went off for a recovery ride - I had seen a flyer in the hotel for the East Bay Bike Path, which turned out to be a gorgeous paved path from East Providence on down the bay.  It was a blast!

That's downtown Providence in the distance here.

Friday night, we trekked up to Framingham, MA to watch Jeff's brother's band play.  Due to my infrequent trips to MA (this being only my 3rd one ever), I'd never managed to meet this particular sibling.  So, I just didn't tell him I was coming (we are Facebook friends) and surprised him.  The band is FABULOUS (great 80s/90s cover band) and I hope anyone in MA or RI goes to see The Freeze Pops first chance you get.

Oh yeah, more Jager shots.

Saturday was my long ride - the weather was hot and sunny - no complaints!  I had mapped out a big loop all over the small backroads and it worked out perfectly for 32 miles of riding through Rehoboth, Attleboro, Seekonk, and Swansea.  I saw old historic cemeteries, stone walls, lots of forest roads, and the reservoir that Jeff grew up playing hockey on.

After the ride…well, I spent the rest of the day eating.  A lot.  One social function to see friends after another…

Finally we met Jeff's father and brother for breakfast on Father's Day, then did a little "sightseeing" around town (it's not that big of a town) before returning to the airport.  In the continued theme of eating, I had a lobster roll on the way to the airport.

Little historic spot in Rehoboth

 And we climbed all the way to the top!

And thus concluded our crazy busy trip to MA.  When we landed in San Jose, I left straight from the airport to pick Stanley up from my friend who had been watching him - I got back at ~11:30pm and went straight to bed.  Thankfully for jetlag, I was still in the pool for masters at 5:30 the next morning!