June 26, 2009

So we headed out last Thursday night for an overnight flight home. First stop La Guardia, then on to Boston, then drive to Maine. We made it to NY with time to spare and enjoyed some Dunkin' Donuts...Tito's favorite. As much as we've been told there are DD's here in Seattle, it's not true (according to their website at least there aren't any on the West Coast at all!) So Tito happily scarfed down an iced latte and donut.




Sunrise on the way to NY



Landed in Boston and got our rental car. I succeeded in pissing off the rental car agent because he was trying to upsell me into a larger car, sell us the insurance, etc. and I eventually had to tell him that I had worked for Enterprise and didn't need his sales pitches and that we would take an economy car and if they didn't have one then they would put us into the next size available for free. He didn't like that. He also didn't like it when I told him their policy (Alamo) of having to pay for all second drivers was "stupid." At Enterprise if a couple is married they count as one and can both drive and anyone after them is an additional fee. Apparently this guy was telling me you had to pay for all additiional drivers, married or not which I thought (and still think) is dumb. Especially since Enterprise owns Alamo and National now. Whatever. We got out of there with a compact car since they had no economy cars and were on our way.



Boston bridge

At this point, I've slept about 3 hours because our seat partner brought her Chihauhau with her who apparently has attachment issues and was whiny, yippy, etc. throughout the whole flight with the most high pitched bark I've ever heard. I would occasionally fall asleep to be woken by a bark, or when she let her dog out onto her lap it would jump out and would be on the floor licking my legs. Also, the owner didn't seem to know the rules of space on a plane and she kept taking up our shared arm rest, and then leaning over into my seat space. It was fine for a bit as I could lie on Tito's shoulder, but when she attempted to "snuggle" up to me in her sleep I sort of elbowed her awake. :) Tito hadn't slept at all. So he was super tired, and I drove (totally breaking our rental agreement) so he could sleep.



Entering Maine!



We stopped at LL Bean on the way up so I could return an indoor/outdoor thermometer my parents had given us a few years ago that stopped working. I exchanged it for a gift card and managed to get a cute rain/spring coat with a hood. Tito also managed to charge his phone since both of ours had died so we could call my parents. We drove home and I found my second wind to go to the bride to be's mom's house to put together napkins for the wedding we were going to on Sunday. Tito crashed and went to bed. I got home at about 9pm and crashed as well.

Woke up early on Saturday and spent all day (9:30am - 4pm) cleaning with little breaks and didn't eat (I was so focused on getting done I didn't want to stop to eat fearing I'd lose my motivation.) We had plans to meet friends at their place 30 minutes away to go to dinner so we headed over there after showering and changing. It was so great to see them (the girls were two of my bridesmaids in my wedding and the last time we'd been home was for Beth's wedding two years ago.)





Went to the Sea Dog, which is Beth's favorite restaurant (they actually had their reception at the Bangor, ME one two years ago.) We attempted to go and see The Hangover, but missed it by 10 minutes, so we went and got drinks and back to Beth and Pete's house to play Trivial Pursuit and Asshole and catch up...


We left at 2am and slept in the next morning until 9am. Wedding was that day, and after the wedding, we headed up to Orono/Bangor area to see our old college haunts. Got into Bangor around 6pm and changed and headed to Orono for dinner at our favorite pizza place - Pat's. So deliscious!


Tito excited for his pizza



Digging in (notice my super curly hair brought on by the humidity!)




After dinner we headed next door to a favorite college bar, the Bear Brew Pub. There were 4 other people there - being a Sunday night and out of classes, the town pretty much dies down and the population decreases by 12,000. We didn't care and enjoyed a drink!





Headed back to the hotel to sleep and slept in until about 9am. Woke up and started coordinating meeting many people throughout the day and then headed up to campus!



Hancock Hall - Tito's old dorm and where we first met and had our first kiss. Awww...



Tutor Program - one of the places Tito worked while an undergrad.

We stopped into my old work and saw my old boss, who is one of our closest friends. We were able to catch up and made plans to stop by her house later to see her daughter and their old AFS student who I also know who was randomly visiting the same weekend.

Headed to lunch to meet my friend Natasha and her son Ryder. I haven't seen her in about 7 years so it was nice to get a chance to catch up. We wanted to go to a different restaurant but everything else was closed for lunch so we ended up back at Pat's. :)


After lunch we headed back to campus, driving by one of my old houses I lived in with my friends Adrienne and Kate.


60 Park Street...first house with A and K. My room is the second floor with the three windows.

Once on campus, we went to the bookstore, got some souveniers (a UMaine cheering shirt for me and little baby beanie with black bears on it for future babies), and then walked around the Union.



At the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences building - thanks for my degree!

After awhile we headed out to see some of Tito's old buildings and his old professors. We ran into a lot of them actually (engineers never take summer breaks!)



On our way off to visit more friends, we stopped at the new (well a couple of years old now) Alumni House to tour it.



The guy working the desk was an alum and also a very enthusiastic one. He belonged to the same honor organization as Tito had (Senior Skulls) and was also current president of "Friends of Maine Cheering". When he heard I was a former UMaine cheerleader he was super excited. :)



In the music room with Rudy Vallee memorbilia....Rudy Vallee wrote our alma mater's song..."Fill the Steins to Dear Old Maine, shout till the rafters roar..." Yes, I know all the words, including the section where we shout "Drink, Drink, Drink!" at hockey games. Tito HAD to know it to be in the Senior Skulls as they would be randomly asked to sing it if they ran into other Skull brothers throughout the first part of joining the group (similar to fraternity gags)...and at our wedding, we had 8 Skull members there and they sang the Stein Song to me...



Reliving old UMaine cheering days...ok, I didn't cheer THAT long ago, but it feels like it!



The ceiling of the rotunda in the Alumni House. The "stars" actually twinkle!



Floor of the rotunda...12 columns representing the first 12 UMaine graduates

After leaving the Alumni House we made the short trip to Page Place, the street where three of my four former flowergirls live...they're neighbors and my old boss lives here too.



With Brynn, Mason and Elise. Elise is almost as tall as I am at 9 years old.

Had a great visit, then headed down the street to my old boss' house.



Me, Molly, Amy, John and Dom (their Swiss former AFS student who was coincidentally visiting.)


Tito, Molly and I...she's such a peanut even at 6! She takes horseback riding lessons and her mom has to buy her clothes on a specialty website. She said that the size that she buys her isn't even modeled by a kid, but by a doll they're so tiny! :)

After visiting and not wanting to leave, we had to because we had dinner plans with some other friends in Bangor. So we rushed over and saw them all which was great. The women are both Spanish teachers at UMaine, and one of the husbands is an anthropology professor there as well. One couple is from Columbia and the other wife is from Peru (her husband is from Maine). So we have known them throughout all of college, they've worked with us in several of our Latino Heritage events we put on throughout college and their son was a ring bearer in our wedding as well. It was a fun filled evening, filled with conversation, mention of babies (as always in Latin culture!) and just good times. It was funny for outsiders listening in I'm sure because we were loud and laughing switching back and forth between English and Spanish the whole time!





We headed back to the hotel and to bed early because we had to leave at 7am the next morning in order to make it down to Boston for our last visit and then to the airport.

We made it and met up with one of Tito's best friends Kamal (best man in our wedding), his wife Ashley and their baby Malik. They'd taught Malik how to say Tito, which came out as "Itooooo!!" so it was cute!



Not the best photo of me but still cute!

We made it to return the rental car, and then to the airport in record time. Had time to sit, relax and have a beer and then take off to our first layover which was in Phoenix. We were asked to voluntarily give up our seats in exchange for $300 vouchers, hotel stay and dinner and we did...but they ended up not needing our seats. Oh well!



Sky blue pink (as my Grandma would call it) in Phoenix


Sunset over the clouds in AZ

Made it home and waited to get our bags for about 45 minutes (4 flights coming in at the same time + all unloading at the same baggage claim + a million and one high schoolers returning from a trip to Mexico complete with facial and tongue piercings, braided hair and fake tattoos = an unhappy Kate.) But we finally got our bags and caught a shuttle bus back to where our car was and got home at about 12:30pm. Cats were SO happy to see us. I had taken Wednesday off and took the day to unpack (but left the suitcases out since I'll be using them again in 8 days!) and do laundry. It was so nice and relaxing.

Now back to reality for another week or so and then off to Houston for the 4th!