So, we drove out to MA to come to Katie and Pat's wedding and decided to make a vacation out of it. We took an extra week off of work so that we could spend time with Lisa's parents and her friends. We drove the Mazda, trying to keep the miles on that car since we will probably be replacing that one before too long. We stopped at Grandpa and Grandma Slighter's place on the way out and spent the night with them. It was a lot of fun seeing them and it was nice to see them more than just the 1x we usually see them at Thanksgiving. When we got to MA, I headed out with Dad to help him move a guy out of his house that Mom was selling. We had a lot of cleaning to do and managed to get it done fairly quickly. The four of us played 9 holes of golf the following day and we all had a great time. That was Lisa's first round in years and my first for the year. Dad and I played two days later and walked 18 holes and boy was it long and hot! Meanwhile Lisa had all sorts of things to do related to the wedding. She had nails to get done and parties to attend. She went to a bachelorette party and I went to the bachelor party. The girls had a Luau party and we boys went to F1 Racing where we raced go-karts. It was a lot of fun and we had to suit up in full racing gear (coveralls, neck restraints, helmets, etc.). We had 4 races and then played pool. Afterwards we crashed the girls party and then called it a night. The following day was the wedding rehearsal and it went fairly smoothly. I did my best to harass Katie and make them practice the "kiss" multiple times! We headed to a great pizza place for dinner and had 50+ people packed into a small room. I did my best impression of a waiter and managed to actually confuse some of the guests as I helped deliver pizzas to everyone so that nobody had to get up from their seat (which would've been impressive). The following day Lisa took off to get her hair done and get all ready for the wedding. The wedding itself was quite nice and the reception was awesome. They used the same DJ that Lisa and I used and we absolutely loved him, so that was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from the wedding.
We headed up to the cottage in NH with her family the following day (Saturday) and played another round of golf! Have I mentioned that I like playing golf, but never manage to find time or people to play with, so this was a really nice treat. We relaxed and played games at the cottage as usual, which is exactly what we all wanted. After the weekend we headed back to the parent's house so we could get packed up and head home to GR.
Since this was over the July 4th weekend, Lisa and I had made arrangements to spend the night (July 3rd) in Niagara Falls since we had never done that before. We got a great deal on a hotel room and ate dinner on the top floor of the Skylon Tower. It was really neat being that high up and being able to have a view that overlooked the falls. After dinner we headed up to the next level to be on the "Look Out" level that was outside and gave a really neat view of the falls. We walked around the Niagara area and watched as 2 fireworks displays were done, one on the American side and one over the falls from the Canadian side. We retired shortly after 12 so that we could get a good night sleep and finish up the rest of drive on the 4th as we had to get back for work on the 5th. We took some pictures of our trip which you can find here.
Overall we had a blast on this trip, being able to see family and friends is always nice, especially when you don't get to see them all the time. We also enjoyed making a vacation out of it rather than just hustling out there for the wedding and then getting back.
