Photos from Vacation -- FINALLY

Well, I thought I should probably upload some pictures from our trip to New England before it's total ancient history! Back in August during John's time off work the two of us went down to Rhode Island for a few nights. Clara and Yawsha stayed with Mom and Carl and had so much fun I don't think either of them even wanted to come home with us the day we got back. Anyway, it was such a nice break for us. I felt like a bad mom the whole time we were away. I guess I thought I would miss Clara more. I did miss her, but I also enjoyed the break from toting around a diaper bag, changing diapers, feeding her, and working around her schedule. It was so nice to just go and do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted...eat a late supper...whatever. It was great. Of course, knowing us, we tried to cram too much in to such a short time, and we were pretty pooped getting home. We're just always so eager to see as much as we possibly can when we go to a new place. We stayed a few miles outside of Providence and spent a day touring that city. We also spent an afternoon in Boston.

On Sunday we were reminded of what a small world it is. We decided to worship at a new church plant in downtown Providence that was meeting in a hotel there. When we arrived we met the pastor, and I remarked to John how he looked a little familiar. Later when his wife came in, she spoke to us during the greeting time and said she thought we had met before. Turns out we had spent a week with them in Atlanta when we were down there for our US/C-2 orientation with the North American Mission Board right after we were married. They served in campus ministry while John did. It was kind of neat that they are still serving in the same place they did then and so are we. What a small world! It was nice to see them again.

Anyway, here are some pics from the trip:





















Taken on our walk through the old downtown section of Providence...this street kind of reminded me of Great George St. in Charlottetown.





















This is the first ever Baptist church in America. Providence has an interesting history as it was founded as a safe haven for religious non-conformists. And, yes, that would include baptists in the eyes of their Puritan neighbours in Massachusetts.
















Here's John overlooking downtown Providence. That's the state capitol building in the background.
















That afternoon we took a drive down to Newport, Rhode Island. What a place that was. The houses were incredible. Around the early 1900's it became a hotspot for the rich and famous to build summer cottages...if you could call them that. These mansions are like castles, encircled by high fences and gates. You can barely see some of them from the road. You can tour a lot of them, but it's pretty pricey so we didn't take the time to. The opulence was almost sickening.































That night back in Providence we took in an event called Water Fire. You should have seen the people there. It was amazing. There are a couple of rivers that converge in downtown Providence, and there's a series of venetian footbridges that go over the canals. It's really quite beautiful. Anyway, during this Water Fire event there are hundreds of bonfires lit on the water. Everyone fell silent as the fires were lit. It was amazing. They block off some of the streets downtown and there's street vendors and outdoor concerts. We walked around for a couple of hours, enjoying the music and the crackling of the fires. It was really neat!



















































Here's a few pictures from our day in Boston:















This is a really old cemetery where some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried.































The balcony of this building was where the Declaration of Independence was read publicly for the first time in Massachusetts.


And in case you're wondering what Clara was up to while we were gone...
















This was taken on a trip to the Old Home Week exhibition with Grammy and Grampy MacKay. She also took in the Gold Cup and Saucer Parade.