I always say nothing beats getting to take Awesome Girlfriend Megan back up home to Boston and see my amazing family. Before Awesome Girlfriend Megan, I always bragged about being the luckiest guy ever because of my amazing family and friends. Then Awesome Girlfriend Megan somehow miraculously entered into the picture just over 4 years ago and things became even better. Our journey started in Vernon Friday night, and then took us to Mansfield, Massachusetts by Friday night 10:30pm.
Immediately this was a minor point of disagreement. When I drive from Jersey to Boston, I prefer to just wake up grossly early in the morning, and make the trek up. Awesome Girlfriend Megan respectfully disagrees. Meg preferred that we drive up there after a long hard day of work (I'm not slanting this towards my side of the argument at all am I?) We were on the road just after 6pm, and we made it safely back to The Allan Tavern just before 10:30pm. The roads were fine in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Ironically, the traffic was far far worse in Massachusetts after 9pm. I still have no idea why. Everyone was out. It wasn't for Cape Cod traffic, it wasn't the sprawl of everyone going to Western Mass in the opposite direction. Just a few cops were out pulling people over and everyone seemed to come to a screeching halt to watch as they drove by, but other than that we just couldn't figure it out. Ah well.
By the time we arrived in Mansfield, Massachusetts my parents and sister were psyched. Awesome Girlfriend Megan and I were thrilled to join them for an ice cold beer at The Allan Tavern. Home sweet home!
While slanting / positioning my side of the argument for not driving late at night when I'm tired and very cranky, I do need to give photo credit to Awesome Girlfriend Megan. During the drive through New York, we had a rain storm on us. We always have joked for many years that I seem to have a black cloud following me. In this case Friday afternoon it definitely seemed to be completely true.
While it was Hella-Raining on us, Meg and I could see nothing but blue skies to our left and right. We keep driving through the rain storm laughing. Then the minute we made it through the rain storm, Meg took one of the better rainbow pictures I have seen in quite some time. Meg nailed the absolutely gorgeous rainbow picture, a double rainbow on top of that! I cannot tell a lie, I definitely drove much slower on 17 to give Meg a better chance of getting a gorgeous rainbow picture. There wasn't anyone behind us anyway so it's not like I was holding up traffic or anything like that. Overall, Friday night success!
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Saturday we had one of the loosest schedules I have ever had. For years my family and Meg have busted on me because I tend to overschedule us. I try to make every weekend as Epic, efficient and action packed as possible. This weekend, because she hasn't been home to see my family in 4 months, Meg wanted to just relax with my family at The Allan Tavern. There's truly nothing better.
Saturday morning I asked Meg if I could take her to nearby Gillette Stadium. The past 6.5 years, I just always have to swing by and check out the stadium and surrounding Patriot Place Mall. Meg and I were happy to do a selfie in front of Gillette Stadium like I always do. Talk about clutch timing, Meg just got me a Patriots mask woohoo. We probably looked like Yahoos in front of Gillette Stadium, me with my Patriots mask and Meg with her Dallas Cowboys mask, but we didn't care. We had fun laughing along the way.
Then as we were getting ready to leave The Patriot Place Mall, Meg and I saw a very sad sight. Tom Brady jerseys on CLEARANCE SALE. Talk about something you always hoped to never see. If you're a sports fan, you know when players change teams their gear becomes far less desirable therefore much much cheaper. To see TOM BRADY JERSEYS ON CLEARANCE, was a painful part of this process for sure. That's why we did a fun picture in front of the "Where there's a Bill, there's a way," tee shirts, then me crying in front of the Tom Brady jerseys on clearance sale.
Other than some crying episodes, Meg and I had a great time at Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place Mall.
Saturday afternoon, we were able to join Padre, Madre and Zannie at Bog Iron Brewing in Norton, Massachusetts. Padre's favorite local brewery, we always joke that he's like a mayor there seeing all of his regular buddies. They did a great job with their new outdoor area and their newly renovated indoor area taproom too. I highly recommend checking it out if you in the area.
Yes, in Massachusetts they still have indoor dining!!! They don't have it based on a percentage occupancy, they have it based simply on whether or not you can have your tables six feet apart. It was wonderful to get to go to dinner with my family Saturday night! We had a great time with Padre, Madre, Zannie, JDawg, Matt, Aunty Donna and Uncle Leisure Paul. We had an absolute blast, so many laughs along the way.
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Sunday Meg and I were able to give flowers to Madre, Zannie and Grammy. Meg and I were so happy to have an ice cold beer with Grammy and Uncle Dan under the grapevine. Believe it or not, it was probably ten degrees cooler in the shade under the grapevine. We had a great time seeing them and catching up.
Sunday afternoon can be summed up by just saying a long drive. It's so funny, for 6.5 years I've drive up to see my parents every 4-5 weeks and I'm so used to the drive. With me only being able to go home twice in the last 4 months, I'm definitely rusty. This morning it's like I have jet lag. Well worth it though!
Overall, Meg and I had a wonderful weekend back home visiting my family. I hope you had a terrific weekend too. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures every week. Time to start planning next weekend!