Sinéad and I had the opportunity to again go to the New England Revolution - Day on the Pitch at Gillette Stadium. We were concerned about clouds and crowds, but were very fortunate on both fronts. There was some traffic backups on rt. 128, but that's just par for the course when encountering that multi-lane segment of lost faith in humanity.
We were watching our departure window slowly slip away… Sinéad and I had picked up Deacon Arnold with plenty of time to arrive to Providence, but the Boston area’s ever worsening (and politically ignored) traffic crisis had flooded over to I-495 much earlier than we all had anticipated. We made it to the southern edge of Marlborough about the time our GPS said we should have originally arrived at T.F. Green.
Sinéad and I found a great deal on Groupon for an adventure we had been waiting a long time to go enjoy. We quickly discussed the finding and determined we needed to try to fit it in to our schedule before our next big adventure (hoping there will be updates to share for that as well). Our adventure brought us to Lost River Gorge & Boulder Caves.
Sinéad and woke up *excessively* early to meet up with our friends Kris and Erin for an uncommon adventure. The adventure was a sunrise launch of hot air balloons for the Suncook Valley Rotary Hot Air Balloon Rally in Pittsfield, NH.
(Part 1) Sinéad and I had been discussing going to Ireland for the past couple years. I had always wanted to see the country and Sinéad had been wanting me to be able to meet her family. Our planning converged with her parents' planning, and before we knew it we were off to see the Emerald Isle.
Sinéad and I were so impressed with our summer trip on the Conway Scenic Railroad that we immediately decided we needed to return for the fall foliage. Unfortunately, we did not realize just how popular the autumn rides actually were. Regardless, there was still economy seating available for an October weekend; so Sinéad took inventory of those who wanted to join us, and we grabbed what seats we could. We also took note that reservations needed to be made as soon as availability was made public for any chance to get 1st class or premium seating (which we soon discovered is well worth the extra cost for anyone over 4.5’ tall).