Our Trip: Rhode Island

One of our best days was our travel day through Rhode Island. We visited both Roger Williams park and the Cliff Walk. We used the tripod and remote release to take photos.

These pictures are all from Roger Williams Park:

These next ones are from the cliff walk. The walk is only 3.5 miles but it takes 2.5 hours, and we didn't have that much time. So I only walked about 2 miles of it. Rick walked a bit less.

Rugged beauty, but I bet it would be desolate in the winter.

From here we drove to Laguardia to return our rental car (which we rented at Newark) and couldn't find the rental return. It was dark and rainy, and it turns out that the airport return isn't at the airport at all!! So we were late returning the car. 

And where we returned it was not near public transportation, so we took a shuttle to the airport where we bought unlimited metro cards. Then we caught the Q 70 Laguardia transfer bus to Roosevelt/Jackson to connect with the F train, the only one that goes to Queensbridge. Of course the train from that stop was under construction so we had to take it all the way down to 57/Rockefeller and catch the Queensbound F train back. (this will all make sense to you if you've been to NYC). 

We'd dropped our luggage at our hotel before returning the car, so since we had to get off at Rockefeller to catch the Queensbound F train and didn't have our luggage with us, I thought it would be fun to get out and live a little!!!!! It was NYC after all. Rick was a bit disgruntled at first because he just wanted to go to the hotel and relax. But really guys, that close to Times Square and not hang out a bit??? LOL. Not happening.

And what a contrast from the above photo to Times Square at midnight!!!! I'll post about the NYC part of our trip next time.

Our Trip: Boston

Boston was fun, but we would have done it differently if we'd known more about it. We paid for the on/off trolley tour. I'd researched ahead which stops we wanted to get off at. I lost that list, but we knew we wanted to get off at Cheers Bar and the Public Park. One of my life goals (bucket list) was to see the bronze ducks from Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings in the park. 

We first got off at a free museum, and I was able to purchase the book there. So I had the book for the pictures.  Our second stop was Cheers, and then the park was right across the street.

We shared this, we didn't each have one.

The ducks!

There was lots more we wanted to see, but the tour ended at 5:00! We should have just stayed at the park and explored it more, but we jumped back on the bus. This driver was frustrated with the traffic and didn't do a very good job of telling us what we were seeing. Besides which, we were on the top, and the wind was really (!!) cold. Over the weekend I'd developed severe inflammation in two teeth, had an emergency dental visit Monday since we were flying out Tuesday. I was given some heavy duty antibiotics and pain meds. As a result I slept off and on during the flights, the drive and even the end of the Boston tour. I wish we'd had time to see things like the Old North Church, The Boston Harbor where the tea party took place and such, but we spent too much time on a tour bus stuck in traffic.

It was a good day, but frustrating at the same time because I didn't really get a feel for Boston. The next morning we left for Rhode Island.

Our Trip: Connecticut

Rick and I are on an early 30th anniversary trip. Our anniversary is really July 2.

Here is day one:

The first thing that happened was that we missed our first flight, so we went standby two and a half hours later. This put us into Newark late, so we ended up in rush hour traffic out of NJ and well into Connecticut. We took a break for some food in Riverside, CT.

We got  pizza at Pomodoro too.

Then we stopped at New Haven, CT at the wharf.

I brought along my tripod so we could get pictures together.

After Connecticut, we stopped in Rhode Island, but only at Walmart, and then went on to our hotel in Sharon, MA.

Newest Sponsored Child

Tonight Jasmine and I were Compassion Volunteers at an Anita Renfroe event at a nearby church. Our job was to give out information about children waiting for sponsors.

Jasmine and I both sponsor children through Compassion International. Actually, I have two through Compassion and one through World Vision. So I didn't really plan to sign up to sponsor a 4th child. But I realized they have older children now. Instead of a sponsorship ending when a child turns 18, it ends when they complete school.

I kept looking at the photos of three different young men. I can't say I felt any great conviction to sponsor one, but decided it would be cool to give an older child a chance. So I chose one of the boy's cards and filled it out to be his sponsor.

Afterward I realized it was the first time I hadn't chosen by birth date. My World Vision child has the same birthday as a child we wanted to adopt from Haiti but were unable to. Then after the twins came home, I started sponsoring two children whose birthdates are within ten days of theirs. In years past I sponsored children the ages our children were at the time.

I knew all three of the young men photos I had been looking at were born in 1999, but I never looked at the date. So I pulled my newly sponsored child's picture back out of my bag and looked at the birthday. TODAY is his 19th birthday!! How cool is that? It's too bad he won't know for several weeks that he has a sponsor. I wish he could know today and perhaps consider it a special birthday gift.

Shellie Tomlinson, Jasmine and I with my photo of Reynaldi Waworuntu in East Indonesia.

Winter is 1!!

I posted many of these pictures in my last post, but since there hasn't been anything to post about, I decided to give her a post of her own.

Winter turned one on April 21, but we couldn't celebrate with them that day, so we had our own celebration the next evening.

Sadie Rose welcomed the birthday girl with kisses!

I bought beach chairs for both girls.

We had chicken nuggets and fries. She was waiting patiently.

Unca Ty Ty (as River calls him) needed a fry

Unca Ty Ty bought Winter a V Tech Lights and Sound steering wheel

Aunt Jazzy bought Winter a reversible stuffed animal

Grandma Sims and Aunt Lou bought an electronic book and the outfit Winter is wearing

Aunt Kayla and Uncle Kaleb gave her a shape sorter

We also got her a ball activity toy

Unca Ty Ty helped blow out the candle.

We bought her this outfit.

Happy birthday Winter!