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Visit from the Hyland Clan

This weekend, my parents, the Donleys, and the Beinkempers ( sans Will) all made the trip to Des Moines. We spent most of the weekend hanging out at our house, but enjoyed a few outings to the East Village, Ledges State Parks, and The Machine Shed.

  • At the Machine Shed
  • The Kids Table
  • Played at Ledges
  • Group Shot
  • Creek Crossing
  • Neighborhood Walk
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Exploring Boston

Today I took the day off work and we explored Boston.

The day started with my favorite parking spot of all time. They had special parking for trucks, up on the curb.
We headed into Boston on the T. You know I love the public transit. I don’t think we have any pictures of the way home, when we got stuck on the train for 45 minutes because of an issue with another train.
We found the Freedom Trail in Boston Common.
Susan and the littles enjoyed some time on the lawn.

We stumbled up on the Wacky Chad show, and I got to help him onto his unicycle.


We stopped for gelato and cannoli in the Italian area – I forget what it is called.

Our last two stops were the Paul Revere House. . .
and the Old North Church, where the lanterns were posted. The Trail continued, but we did not.
Back at the farm we had a lovely dinner with Adrienne and the kids enjoyed the barn swing.
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Egg Adventures

For breakfast this morning, we had eggs fresh from the chicken.
In a separate incident, Elliot was carrying a chicken and it ejected a soft egg, mostly onto his leg. He took it like a pro.
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Sturbridge -> Wright Locke Farm

Today after work we made the 90-minute drive from our stopover in Sturbridge to Wright Locke Farm, just outside of Boston. Susan’s friend, Adrienne, is the farmer there. We are boondocking for a couple of days (and also using the facilities in her house). 

The farm is beautiful, with a few fields, chickens, goats, and many hiking trails. My favorite thing that we got to see is the ice house, where they would store ice for use throughout the year. I remember reading about it in Farmer Boy and it was cool to see an actual ice house. 

Exploring the farm
Visiting the goats
Dinner
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Saturday with the Foley-Murphys

After spending Friday on our own in New York, we spent Saturday with the Foley-Murphys. Susan and Andrea have been friends since second grade and John (Murph) was one of Susan’s first friends in college. They have lived in Brooklyn since graduating from college. 

Breakfast at the Foley-Murphys’
We went to Jacks’ soccer at his school.
Soccer Tennis
Jack & Lucia got along well.
Jack & Lucia
Andrea & John helped us navigate the ferry to get around.
We grabbed lunch at Shake Shack.
We ate it Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Carousel
The whole group
The Lieslands
Our last stop was the 9/11 Memorial
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Friday in New York City

It was a chilly, rainy day today as we began our day heading to the Statue of Liberty.
We headed to the New Jersey state park near our RV park, where we had good views of Manhattan and we could catch the ferry.
We took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.
Our time at the statue was actually the rainiest part of the day.
The Statue of Liberty even photo-bombed our selfie.
After taking the ferry to Manhattan, we took the Subway to. . .
Times Square!
We stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. . .
and dessert.
Rose joined me for a selfie with one of Jeff Ament’s bass guitars.
After lunch we walked to Central Park, where we decided to take a rickshaw ride through the park.
We stopped at some key places for photos.
After that we headed to the Foley-Murphys’ for dinner and to spend the night. We failed to take enough pictures of this. We did enjoy some New York style pizza, an episode of Project Runway, and playing on the air mattress.