Here we go again!

We are off on the last leg of our trip, finally!  It's been nice to be back in the States and see family, but living out of a suitcase for the past 6 weeks is taking it's toll!  We can't wait to get home, for Stu to retire and start building our dream home in TN! 

Rained out...

Well, we had big plans today...do a walking tour, check out the USS Constitution, wander through the North End (Little Italy)...  But this is what we found downtown.  Lots and lots of rain...

The walking tour was cancelled so we did get to walk through Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.  Both have shops and every type of food you could ever want! 

A statue of Samuel Adams in front of Faneuil Hall.

So we are back at the hotel, resting up for the trip tomorrow.  It shouldn't be as bad as on the way over here, we are connecting through Paris.  Probably the only way I'll ever get Stu to France...  Although with the new security measures, who knows!  We'll be home on the 29th.

Cheers!

We left New Hampshire this morning, but not before hitting up Bob's Clam Shack in Kittery, Maine...

How's this for a lunch!  Clam Chowda, fish and chips and fried clams!!  I'm sure we'll be sorry later...

With is snowing pretty good, we headed South to Boston and checked into the Doubletree, warm cookies and all!

After getting settled we took off for a bite to eat at Cheers.

Norm!!

Tomorrow we are doing a tour downtown, should be good!

Merry Christmas!

Stu and I made it to Maine and spent Christmas Eve and Day with my folks, my brother Frank and his wife Kay at their place in Berwick, Me.

This is Molly

We must have all been really good this year!!

Molly gets to open presents too!

And what a present!!  She got a new squeaky toy!

Dad got a new "Welcome" sign to bring to South Carolina.

Frank got a wooden fish that my Dad made, with "Stanczyc" painted on it to hang outside their new house.

Molly, Kay, Frank, Liz, Walt, Theresa and Stu

Everyone stuffed, happy and very sleepy after dinner!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!

Last few days in the PNW tour...

We spent our last few days in the Pacific Northwest dodging rain bullets and visiting family.

Stu and his sister Nancy.

This is how Matt and Laurie's tree started out...

Ty did a great job picking out the tree, it just needed a little tweaking...

We did get a little sightseeing in...  We took the ferry from Edmonds, which is North of Seattle over to Kingston, which is on the Kitsap pennisula.

We were on our way to see the "Troll House", this guy has a great imagination!

He has trolls holding up each corner of the barn.

This is the house he built.

These fenceposts line his road.

Very cool!

The gate to his property, reminds me of a fence we saw in Barcelona by Gaudi.

We had lunch at a local icon...The Cloverleaf...A great pizza joint!  It was really good, altough still second rate compared to an Italian pizza, but still very good!

Deeeeelish!

Happy Grandpa and an awake Logan.

They should really make these for adults, I know I'd get one!!!

Mom, Dad, Gradpa and Logan.

Three generations of Allen men...Matt, Logan, Stu and Tyler

Those of you that know me, know this is possibly the first picture ever of me with a baby...  But not the last, he's a cutie!

We leave bright and really early tomorrow morning for Boston then to Maine for Christmas with my family! 

Rain, rain, go away!

It started off with pretty snow yesterday morning, but then turned to rain...ick!  We did get out and about to check out the area, but as you can imagine it wasn't all it was cracked up to be with the weather.  So when we'd had enough we stopped for a late lunch...

A Reuben and a sampler tray of their best beers...the local pubs always have great names and labels!

More shopping today...the weather looks a little more agreeable...we'll see!!

Seventh Mountain Resort

The weather report said that it was going to snow for a week...This is the best it could do, not so much.

We when out briefly yesterday morning, but quickly discovered that our windshield wiper fluid thingy wasn't working, we had fluid, it just wouldn't spray.  And with the roads being wet...not good.  With any luck we'll get it fixed on Monday.  So, we're hanging out at the resort today...

This is the main building.

They have an ice skating rink, we haven't felt the need yet...  It's been a long time since either one of us had skates on!!

A nice little fire pit next to the rink.

Big beautiful pines everywhere.

Finally!

Finally a picture with his eyes open!  Well, hello there!

Bend (Oregon) or bust!!

When we left the hotel this morning the gas light came on, when I punched in the nearest gas station into our TomTom (GPS), it said the closest one was 62 miles away!!  EEeeeeek!  Let me tell you it was the longest 62 miles, ever!  For the last 30 miles we slowed down to 45 miles an hour and coasted down hill whenever possible...but, if you can believe it, we made it....whew!  We got out of the car and did high fives with the gas station crew!  How can there not be a gas station on a "major" road for 62 miles!!!  But the scenery was beautiful...

Like Stu said...miles and miles of miles and miles...

When we got to our savior of a gas station, the guy recommended going to the Black Bear Diner...so off we went!  It was a cute little place with some great ideas for the house.

We were so happy we made it to the gas station, we were giddy!

We thought we were hungry, but wow, whoever eats all of this food should get an award!  We didn't get an award today!

There were cute little carved bears all over.

Another great idea for our house!

We checked in to the Seventh Mountain Resort and so far it's really nice.  Self contained, they have restaurants and a bar, a small grocery store and an ice rink...  enough to keep us out of trouble for a week.  Let the campout start...

Now this is what I envisioned Washington and Oregon to look like!  This is the view from our balcony.

We saw the weather report and it's a good thing we have lots of vino and food...bring on the snow!