Kurian Road Trip, Part 2
We are BACK!!! All in all, it was some road trip. Was it worth all that driving for the convenience of having our own car?? I don’t really think so. But, at least we enjoyed some mini-vacations to break up all the driving.

So, where did I leave off...

Monday, July 6th: We drove to Nanuet and spent the night at Jamilla’s house. Kids had a great time. While Jamilla and I hung out (with Jacob), the dads took the remaining kids to watch a movie, which they thoroughly enjoyed.


June babies - Alisha & Arya - 7 years old! 

Tuesday: Next destination – Boston, Mass. On the way we stopped by to visit Jenna & Hannah (who is almost 15 months old). 

It was my first time being in their neck of the woods, since we usually meet up in New York. We had lunch at a Thai place and visited the West Hartford library (which has a FANTASTIC childrens’ section btw; you can even check out toys!!). From there it took 2 hours to get to Boston; it should have taken less time but there was traffic. It’s easy to forget about rush hour when you’re in vacation mode!

Tuesday night & Wednesday night: We stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Boston. I don’t think I would have stayed there if we didn’t have our own set of wheels; access to mass transit was not close by (nor in the best of neighborhoods either, I don’t think). Space-wise, the hotel was great! Once again Sanjay’s points came in handy; he had enough Hilton Hhonors points for one free night so we only had to pay for the 2nd night. Hotel room was spacious enough for us not to have to share our bed with either Alisha or Jacob. Alisha and Jacob stayed in their own room; Alisha slept on the pull-out couch and Jacob slept in his Pack ‘n’ Play. It was really the ideal traveling scenario!

Here’s a summary of the sights we saw in Boston: Boston University, Boston Common, Fanueil Hall, Harvard Square.

Here's Alisha at the Boston Common Frog Pond.

The weather was actually pretty decent, so it was nice to walk around and enjoy the better-than-Florida-in-the-summer weather. Alisha's favorite things were the swan ride, the frog pond and (of course) the playground. On Wednesday night we got together with some of Sanjay’s friends from “back in the day” at Fire & Ice, a Mongolian BBQ-style restaurant. All you can eat dinner for $17 in Boston, not bad at all!

Thursday: We drove back to Commack, NY. It was quite a drive and we were stuck in some traffic along the way. Fortunately we weren’t in a hurry to get back, so we didn’t have to stress out about it.

Friday: Aside from packing for our return trip, our day was pretty open, which was nice. My parents went to the church retreat so we said our goodbyes when they left in the afternoon. We then met up with Sandy’s family for dinner at an Indian/Thai/Chinese restaurant. Guess what we all got – Thai! Food was good although the boys (Ethan and Jacob) were a little on the high maintenance side. I suppose we are getting to that age where it’s going to be difficult to go out with a toddler. I don’t remember Alisha ever being like that. Then again, Alisha was like the perfect baby. Or maybe she wasn’t and I’ve just blocked out all the not-so-perfect memories?

Saturday: We drove to Staten Island for Sanjay’s annual family reunion. If you remember, we flew up last November for the first reunion. Fortunately the “committee” agreed that summer would be a better time for family members to get together. So, what goes on during a family reunion?? Well, there was a lot of picture-taking, speeches, and various discussions about the future. When it came to voting for the 2010 reunion, it was pretty tight between Florida and Philly but ultimately Philly won. I have no problem with that because it means the Florida chapter of the family tree (which is basically us and Sanjay’s parents) gets to put off dealing with all the headaches of planning a reunion. We might get our chance in 2011 or 2012 though, but maybe the midwest family members will want their turn before we do. Hey, I’ve never been to Chicago, might be fun!

After the reunion we drove to NJ and spent the night at Joel & Namita’s house. Alisha & Joshua were so cute together.

The bookworms :) 

Joshua was especially sweet; he followed Alisha around the house and hung onto her every word. As for Jacob and Lily, we attempted the “Ultimate Bully” rematch and Jacob took the trophy. What can I say, Lily might look tough but she’s still a girl (and there’s nothing wrong with that!). Jacob may be small but the boy’s got SPEED! I don’t know how he makes every kid cry, maybe because he’s so loud and in-your-face??

Sunday: We went to church in Philly. Got there a little late but who’s complaining?? After service we went to Sanjay’s cousins’ house for lunch. We hadn’t been to their house since we got married (back in 2001) so I guess you could say we were overdue for a visit. By the time we’d all changed into our traveling clothes and stuffed ourselves with food, it was about 4 o’clock. Man, it was SLOW DRIVING down the interstate. I mean REALLY SLOW. So slow that the traffic caused a 2+ hour delay in getting to our destination. It was depressing watching the GPS add more minutes to our arrival time as we moved along at 20 mph. Ideally we wanted to get to Savannah but we barely made it into North Carolina before stopping in Rocky Mount for the night. We got rooms at the Best Western. Exterior corridor rooms but we literally needed a cheap place to lay our heads for like 7-8 hours, that was it. So, why be choosy?

1st note to self: NEVER DO INTERSTATE DRIVING IN THE NORTHEAST ON A SUNDAY! Either leave on Saturday or wait until Monday. It’s just not worth the aggravation.

To add insult to injury, Sanjay got a speeding ticket in Maryland! Everyone was speeding, but the cop waited until we passed him to pull us over. Why? Because he wanted to make sure he pulled over someone with an out-of-state license plate; it’s less likely the driver will show up in traffic court to plead his case. Cost of the ticket: $160. Add that to the gas we spent and the hotel stays and at the end of the day, flying instead of driving up north might have been the better deal. At least my in-laws saved $ because they drove back with us. If they hadn’t stayed with us, we might have left on Saturday (after the reunion) and made our return drive over 2 nights instead of one. Doing the drive to New York with just one overnight stop is just too much, especially with kids.

2nd note to self: Until all passengers are elementary school age, take 2 nights to drive up/down the Interstate between FL & NY!

Monday, July 13: Left the hotel at 7:30am, spent most of the day in the car. It was a L O N G day. Fortunately my in-laws didn’t mind me sitting in front during our travels. They sat on either side of Jacob (in the middle row) and Alisha enjoyed having (what we call) the “way back” to herself. If Jacob started crying, we’d put in a DVD, otherwise we tried to avoid it; since Jacob refused to wear the headset, we all had to listen to the audio on the DVD. I love the Cedarmont Kids, but how many times can you listen to their songs on a 20 hour drive?????

After dropping off my in-laws in Tampa, we finally arrived in Fort Myers at around 10pm. After 2 weeks of being on the road, being home felt FANTASTIC!!!! I just appreciate my home sweet home even more when I haven’t been there!