Younger siblings rule, older siblings drool...

....on the other hand, older siblings provide nice accommodations and good company, we have to admit.

Once we got back from Europe, we started what will have become about 5 months of quality time spent with family. In other words, we bummed around various guest rooms around the country. And first up as hosts were our siblings. 

September and October - Manchester, NH - with Julia Fletcher (sister)

We developed quite a nice weekly routine while we stayed with Julia. 

The YMCA network in New Hampshire is incredible. We probably visited five different locations in the area each with unique features like pools, rock climbing walls, pickleball/tennis ball courts, running tracks, etc. Adam joined the YMCA chess club which gathered on Tuesday nights. He met nice people and then went to observe a chess tournament as well. He thinks it would be fun to enter a tournament some day.

Clare joined a "Barre" exercise studio and met a lot of nice stay at home moms who workout together as their social life. She loves this idea for her future life. 

Adam spent a lot of time working through a beginners Spanish textbook at the library and Clare spent time experimenting more with cooking. She got a pretty bad burn on her neck from flipping potato pancakes in really hot splattering oil.

 

Wednesdays were reserved for "The Goat" restaurant, which offers 10 cent wings and line dancing.

On Sundays, we attended the relatively new ACNA church plant called Incarnation Anglican. We made some good friends there who invited us to dinner and made our stay feel more like a home.

We tried candlepin bowling, which is really common in the northeast. Smaller ball and straight pins.

Since the "free state project" is huge in New Hampshire, we met a lot of libertarians through social events while there. We even picked up a couple "goldbacks," the currency that they are trying to circulate up there in the 'free state'.

In the evenings, we enjoyed playing games (especially bunny kingdom) with Julia and hanging out with the puppies, Sammy and Tater.

Since it was fall in New England, we took the opportunity to drive the famous Kancamagus highway to see all the beautiful fall colors. And, we hiked around beautiful New Hampshire towns like Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Concord during this gorgeous time of year.

 

For Halloween, we gave out candy at a trunk-or-treat, got a tour of a local graveyard by a historian who is in Julia's run club, and we also visited Salem, MA for a day. Everything was witch themed in Salem. It was fun to see. But, since we don't love the spooky season, it wasn't our favorite experience.

While in Manchester, we took the opportunity to explore New England. We visited Boston, MA where we walked the "freedom trail", saw the USS Constitution, and went up a monument at Bunker Hill.

We visited Portland, ME for a day where we took a ferry to an island, rented bikes to circumnavigate it, had lobster rolls and some beer. 

We visited Burlington, VT. It was very cold but we still enjoyed walking around Dartmouth campus on the way and Lake Champlain once there. We toured the Ben and Jerry's factory, the large Cabot Cheese store, and saw the largest filing cabinet in the world (super random). We also enjoyed trying "heady topper," supposedly once of the best beers in the world, but we thought it was just an ok IPA.

November - Acworth, GA - with Jacob Berlinski, Lauren, Judah, and Violet (brother, sister-in-law, nephew, niece)

Although everyone in the household came down with some sort of cold while we were there (kids tend to be germ factories), we had some of the absolute best times with the everyone in Georgia. Jake and Lauren cook amazing meals! We had Puerto Rican beans, pasta with vodka sauce, stuffed shells, chicken and mushrooms, the best cheesecake and chocolate pie you've ever had in your life, etc. We eat super well at this household! 

We spent time watching funny shows like bartender competitions and playing games like code names, skip bo, and castle panic with Jake and Lauren after the kids went to bed.

During the days, we treasured spending time with Judah and Violet. We helped Judah put together a LOT of legos, we had dance parties, and we played outside. We also did holiday themed activities like making gingerbread houses and walking around the botanic gardens light show.

We are so amazed with how Jake and Lauren parent. We can't imagine (though we hope one day to have the opportunity to know better) what it's like to be so busy with the little ones all day every day. 

One day, we got to have an "aunt and uncle day" to give the parents a day off. We took the kids to a puppet show in Atlanta, to Chick-fil-a for lunch, to the park in the afternoon, and to get ice cream after that.

Finally, we had the best Thanksgiving with the Berlinskis! Adam and I started the day off with the annual turkey trot race. Then, we could go on and on about how it was the best tasting thanksgiving meal we'd ever had. And, the company with everyone in the house was just electric! We hope to have many more thanksgivings like that in the future.

 

Road tripping and seeing friends

On the way to our sibling stays, we passed through various areas to sightsee and visit with friends. 

We tried our hand at camping in Grayson Highlands State Park. It was fun but very cold and hard to get the fire started. It was also rather difficult to get a great night's sleep.

We spent a day in Charlottesville, VA and watched a polo match at the winery.

We spent a day in Philadelphia, PA touring Clare's college campus, eating philly cheesestakes, and seeing two of Clare's college friends, Cynthia and Nate.

Adam and Clare flew to Long Beach, CA for the weekend of Krista and Danny's wedding. It was so much fun for Clare to be part of the wedding and to see so many old friends. The wedding was like out of a fairy tale on the water by palm trees.

Clare flew to Lake Tahoe for the 100 day celebration of baby Dara (Kim and Isaac's daughter). And on the flight back she got to see Grandma and Grandpa B during her layover in Denver! In the meantime, Adam visited Road Island and New Jersey stopping at various famous spots.

We spent a few days in Washington, DC visiting Clare's old stomping grounds. Hiking up the Billy goat trail on the Maryland side of Great Falls was really fun.

 

We spent a couple days in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus Ohio area visiting with family. Clare has many aunts, uncles, cousins, first cousins once removed, and a 91 year old grandpa who live in this area. Thank you especially to Mary who let us stay at her lovely house! Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures while there with the family. So, here's a one year old picture with a similar cast of characters.

Finally, we spent a few days in Ann Arbor, MI with Clare's close college friend Emily Hsiao and the Hsiao family. Good friend Tanya also came to visit at the same time. We got to experience the amazing Hsiao family cooking and hospitality. We also went to a University of Michigan football game, which was such a highlight!

 

After all that traveling and staying with siblings, the next stop for December and January was: the parents. (next post coming soon)