Every year the birthday person gets to pick where they want to go out to dinner.  Sue's birthday is tomorrow but we decided to celebrate tonight.  She picked Lucerne's which is a local fondue & spirits restaurant in Rockford.  It was a TON of fun!!  Mark and I had never been there or to any fondue restaurant.

Before going to the restaurant we gave Sue her gifts here at our house.  I made her a card, we got her the movie Queen, and a gift card to Crimson Ridge.  Then we left for Lucerne's.

The meal started out with Wisconsin cheddar and swiss cheese.  We were given a basketful of bread, grapes, apples, carrots, and celery to dip into the cheese mixture.  When we were done with our appetizer we were given a salad.  We were allowed to choose our entre which ended up with us all getting a combination of either steak, chicken, or shrimp.  You then get to cook your meat along with the many vegetables they give to you in hot oil in the fondue pot.  They also provided 12 or so different sauces to dip everything into. 

The best part was the dessert which consisted of chocolate and caramel fondue with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, angel food cake, pineapple, and cherries to dip into it.

We were all incredibly full after this meal.  I hope you enjoy the PICTURES. 

Happy 5th year Anniversary!!  Here is a picture from their wedding and a picture from when we visited them in Boston in late June/early July.  Congrats guys!!

  

The last blog for our Boston trip is for the Freedom Trail.  We went on the Freedom Trail on the 6th of July and met Jeff and Laura for dinner in the North End. 

We did the guided tour of the USS Constitution which was very interesting.  I would have to say that it was my favorite part of the Freedom Trail.  "Old Ironsides" is not really made of iron, but of live oak. 

We decided we wanted to go to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument which is 294 steps to the tiny area in the top.  After coming back down, both of our legs were noticeably shaking.  I would suggest if you visit to go up just once, but I know since I've done it already, I probably won't do it again. 

Paul Revere's House was neat to go into as well, but you are not allowed to take pictures of the inside.  It had three levels in which the top level was bedrooms and the lower level was more of the main living space which included a separate area for the kitchen.

To see the slideshow click HERE.

Overall, we had an awesome time while in New England/Boston.  If we had to choose right now somewhere else to live we would probably choose Boston.  I think it helped that Laura helped us plan our trip and made sure we saw all of the musts of the area.  Thanks Laura!!!  We really enjoyed staying with Jeff and Laura, but then again every time we are around them we have a great time.  I hope you have enjoyed hearing about our trip and viewing our pictures, even though it's three months after the fact.

The night we arrived in Boston we went candlepin bowling with Jeff and Laura.  The pins are thinner and the ball is smaller than in regular bowling. 

In candlepin bowling you get three balls each round instead of two.  The pins aren't cleared from the floor until you are completely done with your turn.  This way you can knock a pin that is already down and it might hit another pin down.  The ball is smaller and it does not have holes in it.  At first I had trouble holding the ball because it is just slightly bigger than my hand, but I got used to it. 

A strike is still getting all of the pins down with the first ball.  A spare is only counted if it is done with the second ball.  If you get all of the pins down with the third ball, you will still get the 10 points but no additional points from your next throw. 

The pictures aren't the greatest because it was fairly dark inside the bowling alley and I used my camera instead of Mark's.  Click HERE to see the slideshow. 

Three of the nine days we were in the New England area we were in New Hampshire at Franconia Notch State Park.  On Sunday July 1, 2007, Jeff, Laura, Mark, and I packed up the car for our camping and hiking adventure.  Laura was kind enough to rent sleeping bags and mats from the air force base for us.  She also was able to borrow a tent from one of her co-workers. 

It rained most of the time we were there, but we didn't let that stop us.  When we got there we set up our tents then went on the Lonesome Lake Trail, which we were able to walk to from our campsite. 

Even though it was raining, we didn't get terribly wet because of the tree coverage.  The weather was cool, but since we were hiking it felt really nice.

On July 2, we hiked the Flume Gorge, Greely Pond Trail, and the Rocky Gorge to Falls Pond.  Luckily it didn't rain a whole lot during the day.  That night it rained a TON.  The rain put out our fire so we hung out in the car trying to keep warm and dry.  It was still a lot of fun even under the cold, wet circumstances. 

On July 3, we packed up camp and drove to The Basin and Kensman Falls.  Mark and I, if not all four of us, were fairly worn out this day so we made it a short day and drove home.

That evening we went to dinner at Summer Shack.  One of Laura's friends was in town so she joined us.  This is where Mark had his first bowl of clam chowder, I mean clam chowda. :) 

Hiking was a lot different than here in Illinois but it still reminded me of Turkey Run in Indiana.  We walked over a ton of roots as you can see in the picture to the left.  We saw a few waterfalls which I really enjoyed.  Hearing the water running over the rocks is very relaxing. 

My first mountain experience was last year in Alaska.  The mountains there were different than the ones in New Hampshire.  New Hampshire had more visible roots because of all the granite in the ground.  The mosquitos did not bother us at all in New Hampshire, but I think it's because of the cool weather that we had.  I actually enjoyed the hiking in New Hampshire more than I did in Alaska.  Part of that could be because I was more in shape this year. 

To see the slideshow of our Franconia Notch trip click here. 

It's about a year late but here are the pictures from Thanksgiving last year.  We celebrated at Mark's parent's house.  After dinner everyone went outside to play football and ultimate frisbee.  I didn't want to play so I took pictures instead.  Hopefully the weather is similar this year and we can enjoy some of Thanksgiving outside like we did last year.

Click here for the slideshow.

When we walked around Boston on our first full day there we walked through a few parks and Boston Commons.  Mark took some amazing pictures this day.  We pretty much just walked around and enjoyed the city and our time with Jeff and Laura.  We hadn't seen them since we were in Alaska a year before so it was nice catching up.

Click here to see Mark's amazing pictures.

While in Boston visiting Jeff and Laura they took us to a hill near their house.  From the hill we were able to see an awesome view of Boston. 

This is the same place where we started out waiting to watch the fireworks on the Fourth of July.  It was raining a ton that day, so we decided that we would head up to the parking garage that Jeff parks in for work.  We were on the very top and realized that we had an awesome view of the fireworks!  The fireworks were absolutely amazing!  We were so close that when the wind was blowing in our favor we could hear the Boston Pops playing.  I'm guessing that they will go to the parking garage for now on for fireworks. 

Click here for the slideshow of the Boston Skyline.

June 30, 2007 we walked through Harvard Square with Jeff and Laura.  This was about the only place that we saw someone that might be homeless.  There was a woman screaming at people that they couldn't take pictures.  We quickly passed her to avoid any confrontation.  Click here to see all of the pictures. 

While Mark and his dad were working on the basement I decided to go through all of our pictures and make sure they were edited.  It took me awhile but they are all edited and ready to be uploaded to our flickr account.  Uploading takes a very long time since we use full quality.  I figured I would post a blog each time there are new pictures. 

The first ones are from our day trip to Cape Cod with Jeff and Laura.  I'm sure you are thinking that you have already seen our Cape Cod pictures.  Well, you have seen the ones that I took with my camera, but now I have posted the ones taken with Mark's camera.  Click here for the slideshow.

Be sure to keep checking back in the next few days so you can see more pictures.  Some of them are from Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year!!  I didn't realize we had these pictures until I was going through them and realized they were there but unedited.