Summer Vacation 2011

Mechin and I took the best trip. Despite repeatedly forgetting that we were taking it and trying to make plans for Big Bear camping over Labor Day weekend, we were, in fact, already committed to a GREAT vacation.

First, we went to Massachusetts to see my cousin get married and hang out with my family and my Dad's extended family. The wedding was beautiful, Hurricane Irene gave it an element of suspense and we danced late into the night. It was also, as the DJ said, "the sweatiest wedding ever." While not a seemingly attractive quality, it was due to tons of dancing and a ridiculous amount of humidity.

We stayed in Boston for a night and walked around the Common the next day. We ate lunch at Neptune on Monday (YUM!) and walked around the North End. Then we met Hilary for Happy Hour. Mom called and said our flight was delayed. I didn't see it on the website so I asked her to check again and she (mildly huffily) said that it was true. So, we went to Sportello and had an amazing dinner. We then leisurely returned our rental car, went to the bathroom in the airport and...got overhead paged b/c the plane was closing the doors. It turns out that Iceland EXPRESS was delayed, not Icelaindair. Fuck. So we ran to the counter waving my phone with the boarding passes, were allowed on for some bizarre reason and made it onto the plane. From counter to plane seat was 11 minutes. I have a picture where I seriously have crazy eyes from adrenaline.

Then we were in Iceland for two days, one night. We went to the Blue Lagoon, toured Reykjavik, ate lobster stew, went to the top of the Church tower, toured their arts center and stayed at a cute B&B. The next day, we went on a tour of geologic attractions- Gullfoss (amazing), Geiser and the continental drift where the original parliament was located ( I looked it up- Pingvellir). Then we had a hot dog and more lobster stew for dinner, went to the airport and left for Denmark.

Denmark was amazing. The weather was gorgeous, Mechin and my family got along so well and it was such a great balance of family time and sightseeing on our own. We walked around Copenhagen. We went to Elsinore and had the best smorgasbord, followed by a quick(!) stop at the Louisiana. The next day, we went to Roskilde and rowed around on a Viking boat ("It is not picture time!" -stern boat leader). Finally, the last day, we all went to Hven and had such an amazing time cycling and drinking beer around the Swedish Nantucket. I loved it.