Track 9

I suppose you could call today a normal people day. Erica, Hannah, Emily, and I got up and drove to this restaurant called the Track 9 Diner. It was this old place with a nostalgic, diner feel. Coffee was the first item on the list, of course.

The girls got stuffed french toast and I got this egg and spinach omelette thing. It was awesome! The waitress could not fathom why we would want to come to Connecticut for a vacation. She thought this place was pretty boring. We like it. Ha.

After breakfast, Erica and I took Emily and Hannah to the airport. We took them to the wrong one first and re-routed to the correct one. When we dropped them off, Erica and I took my car to get its oil changed and have it checked out. I'm sure the mechanic people popped the hood, saw it, and said, "What idiots." Haha. I'm not sure how low on oil we were... but I know it was at an unhealthy level.

While waiting, we played Mad Libs. So much fun! Connecticut was in the middle of a heat wave, so Erica and I were dripping sweat by the time we left that auto place. They just had the doors open... no air conditioning. How odd.

On our way back to Karen and Paul's, we went to this grocery store called Aldi. They had the most amazing prices for groceries! What would normally have been a twenty dollar grocery trip only cost us seven! Whoa.

They did, however, have a very odd grocery cart system. In the parking lot, a man was returning a cart. He saw that we needed one and offered his. We were very grateful and I reached out my hand to grab the cart. He immediately pulled the precious object back toward himself like I was about to steal his first child or something. Erica and I looked at him confused and he asked us where our token was. I believe at that point we kind of stared at him with complete blankness. He seemed much too in a hurry to explain to us the drill and preceded to return his cart. Turns out, these carts require you to stick a quarter in them while in use and this man would not risk giving up his quarter for anything or anybody. We found it to be an unnecessary system and used our arms as a personal cart.

After Aldi, Erica and I went on a mad hunt for Alice and Wonderland (finding none) and drove back to Karen and Paul's. They had made us this beautiful pasta dish that was so good! We were loving it at their house. :)

The movie of the night ended up being Fletch.

Paul made this awesome popcorn with parmesan, olive oil, and salt in it. Mmm.

And that was a normal day with normal people. Minus the cart guy.

Mystic continued...

When everyone woke up, we decided to go get coffee before our trip to Mystic. I acquired a healthy addiction to coffee this summer... kind of like my healthy addiction to Bruce Springsteen. Right.

The road trip to Mystic was fun. Great scenery and fun music. The beauty of America never got old for me. My eyes were overwhelmed with it all. I will never forget the feeling of taking in more beauty than I could stand. It made me excited about how I'll feel when I lay eyes on God. Whoa.

When we got to Mystic, we did what every tourist must do there: ate at Mystic Pizza. Julia Roberts wasn't there and the place had been fixed up since she'd left... but the place was hoppin' and there was great pizza.

After pizza, we all wanted to shop around the small town. Emily and I went into a bookstore (bad idea for both of us) and we walked out with books that we probably... okay, didn't need. I snuck into a records store and found a Bruce Springsteen record I didn't have. Yes! Asbury Park. Perfect gift for a sister I have....

It was a nice, relaxing day and when we were done shopping, we drove back to Hartford, Connecticut. A movie sounded like a good idea, so we scouted out a movie theater and watched Killers.

It was funnyesque. The price for movies there was ridiculous. It was painful to pay for that movie. The ticket girl could tell by the disgusted looks on our faces that we thought the prices were a little more than high, so she gave us the tickets at the student price. Thanks ticket lady!

Later that night, we went to Subway and then... to bed. Haha. It was a fun day. I enjoyed the time we spent. We played Mad Libs and MASH in the car. Talk about nostalgic.

Mystic!

I don't know if it was sleeping on a hard wood floor or if I had the most wonderful sleep in my life, but I woke up very early this morning. The girls were still asleep, so I thought it would be the perfect time to spend with God and learn more about Him. It was absolutely beautiful at the campsite. Right in front of our cabin was a huge lake that still had the morning fog hanging over it. Everything was so still.

I carefully stepped onto this big rock that was surrounded by the shallow water near shore. Since it was early, I couldn't think of a better thing to do than listen to some Adventures in Odyssey. You know, start the morning off right. While listening, I discovered something frightening! I... have an illness.

This series is obviously for children, but I consider myself a large child anyways, so I could relate with Isaac the Procrastinator. This episode of Adventures in Odyssey tied in with a sermon from Tommy Nelson that I heard a few months back about potential. He said that we need to use the talents God has given us to the best of our ability, so when we die, our life was not just one giant potential. This message has been a center of thoughts for me daily now. Procrastination is such a huge problem for me that I have to fight it every step of the way.

I moved from the rock island over to this big boulder on shore. That's where that photo was taken from the video. I read from the Bible and wrote in my journal. It was so nice spending time with God there! As I sat there, the sun spread it's light over the water. The fog began to dissipate and my little scene of the world came alive. I couldn't believe I was so privileged to watch this happen.

Story to be continued...

Burlingame Park

Today, Erica and I took our time getting ready. I worked on the travel blog and was frustrated with HTML. Guh.

We ate at Panera Bread for a little taste of home. Haha. It was delicious!

After food time, we then went to pick up Emily and Hannah from the train station. One of the first plans for their stay in Connecticut was to... get out of Connecticut! :) Erica and I found a campground called Burlingame Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island! I had never been to Rhode Island so I was very excited to see all that was out there.

I can't remember how long it took us to get there (maybe a little under three hours). By the time we reached Burlingame, we were extremely hungry. We drove by to look at our cabin and then drove off to find a restaurant.

Not too far from Burlingame, there was an old restaurant called the Wilcox Tavern. We decided to check it out. The inside was eclectic in style. A lot of old treasures mixed with some new ones. The waitress was friendly and encouraged us to go all out... which we did. Haha. I got a buffalo chicken wrap, that for some reason, was one of the best foods I've ever eaten. I must have been hungrier than I thought. It was so good! Mmm. Erica, Emily, Hannah, and I split this amazing dessert and had coffee to seal off the night. :)

When we got back that night, we spread out sleeping bags along the floor of the cabin and all laid across them. The floor was so comfortable! Not! Haha. But, I was so happy we had a roof over our heads and a room that smelled like fresh wood (I love that smell!).

While laying on our backs, on the floor, we began to flail our arms in the air which turned into an arm dance frenzy! We cranked up some music and followed each other's lead. It was an amazing time filled with laughter and joy. :)