Life across the pond: American Adventure Part 1: The Surprise and Red Sox Nation

Well here we are, after a year of planning and sneaking around Andrew and I are finally in the US. We arrived a week and a half ago late at night after traveling for 20+ hours.

Our firt meal in the US was Mexican food sitting in the San Fran airport:

Saturday morning we got up early to go to Nana and Papa’s for a tasty breakfast that included some of my favourites, bagels and American bacon, yum. After breakfast Andrew stayed with Mom and Dad and Nana and Papa to spend the day relaxing at the cottage while I drove up to Vermont to pull off the ultimate surprise.

This adventure started last year when one of my best friends, Michelle Codding, told me she was getting married and asked if I could be in the bridal party. I sadly had to tell her that it just wasn’t going to be possible since we were already planning on being home for Christmas that same year and we couldn’t afford two trips to the US in one year.

After I told her the bad news Andrew and I talked and he said that we would find a way to make it work, and so the plotting began. I decided that since I had already told her no this might be the perfect time to pull off an amazing surprise. It was with the help of Justin, Michelle’s now husband, her mom Gail and her sister Caitlin that I ended up on Gail’s doorstep last Saturday ringing the doorbell waiting to see Michelle.

We were a bit concerned that Michelle would have figured it out but her reaction to seeing me standing on the front porch made us realize she had absolutely no idea. It was amazing to see her so surprised and happy, she even agreed that I could still be in her wedding, which is good because I had the dress and everything.

Once we were done crying Michelle and I were given a few hours to catch up before some of the other girls arrived to get ready for Michelle’s bachelorette party. Everyone was glad to see me, and glad that we no longer had to watch what we said to Michelle.

For Michelle’s bachelorette party we started with a nice family style Chinese dinner at a place called Single Pebble in Burlington.

Caitlin and Stephanie dressed Michelle up with a tutu, sash and hair piece

After dinner we stopped by a bar on Church Street to drop off her little sister Natalie with her parents before going on to dance all night to 80s hits at a place called Metronome. We had a great time and there were some amazing moves shown off on the dance floor.

Me, Caitlin and Stephanie

Sunday morning, when Michelle and I finally managed to stop talking to each other, I headed back to the cottage for a family bbq with Mom and Dad, Nana and Papa, Grampy, my cousins Brian and Kris, their mom Deb and her boyfriend Ernie and Kris’ dad Willis. Quite a group and the first of two family gatherings.

Monday we played pretty low-key since it was an overcast day with a bit of rain. Tuesday Andrew and I drove down to Boston where we wandered the city for a bit before meeting Mom and Dad at An Tua Nua for dinner. After dinner we slowly made our way over to Fenway to our freaking amazing seats about 7 rows behind home plate. If Andrew wasn’t a Red Sox fan before he certainly was by the time we left that night. We had beer delivered, jumped up and down to get home runs out of the field and did the wave. It was a great game and the perfect way to spend a warm summer evening.

Since we weren’t in any hurry on Wednesday we wandered the city a bit more before driving back to the cottage. We only stayed there for a few hours before driving back to Boston to collect Jess and PJ from the airport around 1am. Luckily they had slept on the plane so PJ was happy to drive back to the cottage.