Summer Break Part 2

We apologise for our long hiatus but we finally managed to select some photos to give you a snapshot of the rest of our break. We will keep this brief because we understand that you are really here for pictures of Tess. So from the beautiful New York we travelled to Boston and stayed in the hotel where they invented the Boston Cream Pie. And it was very delicious too. Actually, it was the oldest hotel in Boston where JFK proposed to Jackie and also where Dickens liked to rest his head. We walked Boston's Freedom trail and spent a day in Harvard. We enjoyed Boston Harbour and cheered on the Celtics even though they didn't beat LA.
From Boston we spent a week in Maine on the coast, both in Portland and Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor rests at the foot of Arcadia National Park, which is very pretty. Tess enjoyed the little beach (Sandy Beach) and was determined to get into the water. It was a stinking hot day but Jason told me that the water was icy.
We drove through New England to Burlington in Vermont. The countryside was gorgeous. We would love to see it in Autumn. We particularly loved to see the difference in homes in each state. All of them beautiful. We even sneaked into a few open houses to get a better look. Our Vermont shot shows us enjoying ice creams at the Ben and Jerry factory.
Then it was on to Canada (or pretend France as we like to call it). Montreal and Quebec city were so completely European after our time here. We took way too many photos of skylines and the architecture in both cities. Tess's face when she was spoken to in French was priceless. She'd look from the speaker and back to us, completely puzzled.
So Toronto felt a little humdrum after France. But we were there to see Niagara Falls and she didn't disappoint. Tess had to wear a little poncho for our Maid of the Mist ferry trip and she hated it as much as she hated getting wet. Jason and I loved the falls but the town itself was tacky. A shame.
We had a very long day's journey down to New Orleans where we had a new understanding of humidity. We toured the French quarter with an old historian, he was loud and dressed in white linen. Aptly Southern. We rode a ferry on the Mississippi and ate grits and red beans and rice. None of which we need eat again. We enjoyed the accent of the locals with their "what can I get y'all for breakfast?"
And that was the end of our trip! Five weeks and a baby who seemed to become a toddler somewhere on route. She loved cruising the streets in her stroller and was so excited to see any animal passing by. She slept soundly in every hotel room and tolerated planes, buses, trains and cars. What an angel.
Our last photos are of Tess' first birthday with a doting Nan and Pop. Jason's parents spent a week with us here in Denver and then we all travelled to Houston to see Rhonda's brother, Ross and family. Tess loved being surrounded by family and it was great to have her see her grandparents again.
She's not walking yet and we think it's a way off, judging by her wobbly steps when we walk her. She is talking more and finally called me mum the other day.
Bye for now. We'll publish another post soon because we have been on trips since Houston.
AM, J and T x




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