When most people think of spring break, I’d put money on their first thought being sun, booze and more sun. Well, this year, a few friends and I decided to take your not-so-typical spring break. We roadtripped all over the Northeast to my house in Maine, Tony’s house just outside of Rochester and Andy’s house in Candor (ya, no one else has heard of that either). Oh and Sam and I went to DC – I’ll get to that semi-fiasco later.
DAY 1 and 2 – LET’S GET READY TO TUMBLE! Technically, we were on spring break as of 12:05 p.m. on March 8th, but Andy, Sam and I had to stay in Ithaca and work gymnastics. It sounds worse than it really was – we had tons of fun despite the long hours we logged in Hill Center. Here’s a snapshot of the awards ceremony post-competition.
DAY 3 – MAINE! Off we went to see my family and show off some of what the Pine Tree State has to offer other than pine trees! Our 7am departure felt even earlier thanks to Daylight Savings Time but we made the drive in record time. We also brought fellow-Mainer Caleb along for the ride, which only added to our fun. I took everyone for a drive through Kennebunkport and Walker’s Point as a preview to the following day.
DAY 4 – A DIP IN THE ATLANTIC! Took the bros, as I so fondly refer to them, to Portland Headlight and L.L. Bean for the afternoon. Here we all are in front of the lighthouse…
… and in front of the giant LL Bean boot.
… and me with the fam!
… oh and Andy and Tony in the Atlantic (Tony took a brief dip in the Pacific when we were in Vancouver, so this was a must and much warmer for his sake.)
DAY 5 – ON THE ROAD AGAIN! Sadly had to leave Maine after less-than 48 hours at home but I had bigger fish to fry (or so I thought). It was great to see the fam, grandparents and show my friends where I grew up! This is the lone picture from the day … Andy thought it would be a wise idea to dump his soda out the window on the highway. The car was a bit sticky til its bath at the gas station…
DAY 6 – TO DC AND BACK! I won’t get into much detail here, but I had an internship interview in DC and Sam was scheduled to meet up with a potential employer. Needless to say, it was not what we expected. Oh and it was 80-something degrees. Definitely not used to that, but the weather turned out to be one of the best parts of the day. We did make the best of it and walked around the city sightseeing for a couple hours. Here we are in front of the monument…
The cherry blossoms were in full bloom thanks to the premature super-awesome weather we are having in the Northeast so that made for an extra pretty walk. So ya, 13-plus hours of driving in one day. Oh well, we have a list of quotes, a ton of pictures and blistered feet to show for it.
DAY 7 – OFF TO AVON! As if we didn’t have enough driving the day before, we made the two-hour trip up to Tony’s house in Avon for some quality time with his mom and some country-side living. The drive went by extremely fast thanks to our almost 1,000 miles driven in the days before and before we knew it we were playing with horses practically in Tony’s backyard…
I wasn’t joking. We went on a four-mile walk around his countryside and saw tons of animals, beautiful views and made up for our lack of vitamin D exposure throughout the winter. Watched some basketball got some ice cream, made a bonfire, Andy played guitar for me in the best outfit ever and we called it a day.
DAY 8 – A LITTLE SHOPPING! Left Avon a bit before noon and headed to the outlet malls about an hour away. I bought some crazy leggings, Andy got some sneakers, Tony purchased sneakers and a shirt and Sam exercised self-restraint. Told you they are crazy leggings ...
DAY 9 – ST. PATRICKS DAY! Before we painted the day green, we went up to Andy’s for some gun-shooting and venison-eating. Despite the fact that I’m from Maine, I have only shot a gun once – in Vancouver – and never eaten anything that once resembled Bambi. Well did both of those within a matter of hours. Shot a shotgun and a pistol and rewarded myself with venison marinated in Speedy sauce (it’s a central New York thing). And that was only the morning/afternoon. Here’s Andy’s Dad’s house – ya, he legit lives in a log cabin … AWESOME!
Spent the evening hanging out with some of Andy’s non-Ithaca friends and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
DAY 10 – LAZY SUNDAY! Breakfast at Sunset Grill, caught some sun in the park, lunch in the Commons, trail run and the beginning of what will probably be a Dexter obsession. This is where we spent the afternoon catching rays …
Not so bad, huh?
So ya, Spring Break in a nutshell! Nothing any of us had really planned for until a couple weeks out, but we had a ton of fun! Don’t think I would have liked to spend it any other way.
