travel – Steve's Blog

A New England Wedding

On Saturday we attended the wedding of my wife’s nephew. The wedding was held at Butternut Farm Golf Course near Stow in Massachusetts .

But of course we had to get there first.

So at 04:45 on Thursday morning we left the house
At 05:15 we took the Coach from Cheltenham to Heathrow
From Terminal 2 we flew to Reykjavík where we changed planes
From Reykjavík we flow to Boston
Then from Boston we took the Concord Trailways bus to Portland
We were collected in Portland by Rick and taken up to Augusta…. arriving about 24 hours after our alarm had gone of.

On Friday we collected our rental.

The rental - we'd booked a car but got a free upgrade — The rental – we’d booked a car but got a free upgrade

Then we drove about 200 miles down to the Golf course for the rehearsal (Rick was one of the grooms-men).
After the rehearsal we drove over to the Embassy Suites in Marlborough and checked in – we were in one of the premiium suites on the the 6th floor.
Then it was over to The Chateau (which despite it’s name is in fact an Italian Restaurant) for the rehearsal dinner.
Then a final trip back to the suite where we collapsed!

So the day itself dawned.. it was sunny but cool (well what do you expect – it is November after all). We had breakfast – it was a help yourself buffet and was quite good, and there was unlimited coffee which was very good – and then went out and dropped Diane off for her hair appointment – we then tried to find the post office and somewhere that sold alcohol (its all rather restricted in Mass), before going back to the suites and getting ready for the wedding.

Then it was over to the Golf course for the wedding – luckily the weather had held as the wedding was being held outside.

Even though the sun was shining it wasn’t the warmest of days and most of the guests kept their coats on. However the wedding party just had to grin and bear it.

By this time the sun was down behind the trees and things were starting to cool off. Luckily the ceremony wasn’t a huge long drawn out affair – just a couple of readings and a nice little speech by the local Justice Of The Peace. But by the end Ashley was looking a little chilled in her wedding dress and she looked very relieved when she could head back into the club house and warm up.

The wedding reception was held upstairs in the club house where there is a very large room and a bar. Matt and Ashley had asked people to request songs to be played so whilst people got settled and relaxed those songs were playing in the background. There was an open bar with some great bar staff who once I’d ordered a couple of beers just knew what I wanted, and a candy bar (each guest had a small Kilner Jar to put candy in) and a impromptu photo booth.

Once food had been served and eaten the dance floor was opened up and after the traditional first dance, grooms mother’s dancw and brides father’s dance the floor was filled with guests dancing.

At 9:15 the courtesy bus turned up and took everyone back to the Embassy Suites where we basically took over the bar until the end of the evening.

The Rain in Maine…

…was mainly on the Interstate.

The weather was pretty lousy when we drove down to Heathrow on Friday night and we took it steady on the M4 but several lunatics in BMW’s steamed past us at speeds that must have been in excess of 90 mph. We stopped at Reading services for a coffee and loo break before heading back out and getting to the hotel at a not unreasonable hour.

Saturday morning the weather wasn’t much better and the hotel hoppa took us to Terminal 5 through some pretty lousy weather and flooded roads. The bus drive nearly drove into the back of a broken down car, and I think he was the only person who hadn’t seen it.

We left Heathrow about 30 minutes late in very heavy wind and rain and the take-off was pretty shaky and the pilot didn’t waste any time in getting above the storm and most of the flight was quite smooth, apart from the annoying kid in the seat behind me who kept kicking and hitting the seat and whose parents didn’t seem to give a toss. I’d like it if when you book airline seats and they ask if you have special dietary requirements if you could also specify that you don’t want to sit next to, directly in front of, or behind, snotty little brats.

The captain told us that the weather in Boston was pretty much the same as in London and he was right, it was muggy and raining and despite us leaving Heathrow late we actually landed a little early. As we were walking away from the plane I noticed that a lot of the stands were empty and that there hardly seemed to be any planes around. The immigration hall was pretty much deserted and we were only standing in line for a couple of minutes. The immigration officer told us that it was “just a lull” but when we got down into baggage claim the place was pretty much deserted with no other carousels running and our luggage came out pretty quickly.

Then the fun began. We’d brought two bottles of alcohol into the country and the immigration officer asked us if we’d got foodstuffs etc. We said no and he scribbled things on our customs form. After we’d collected our luggage and we headed towards custom we were intercepted and the form looked at and the same questions asked and our form marked again. We were told to go over to one side where they asked us the same questions about foodstuffs etc. and then we had to put all our bags through a scanner.

But even with that we were still outside in a record time. It felt odd to be in Boston in daylight as we usually seem to arrive there late in the afternoon. The bus turned up and we got on and soon we were heading North.

The rain, which had been consistent but light turned heavier and heavier and it wasn’t long before the bus was the fastest thing on the road. I’m not sure how the driver could see where we were going but we got to the bus station in Portland about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Our cases were dragged off the bus and one of them was a little damp, which given the weather was hardly surprising.

The rain backed off a little bit but then came on a lot harder just in time for Rick and Jill to turn up to collect us.

The rain got heavier and heavier and the drive north wasn’t much fun and there was a lot of standing water on the road. We’d got wet getting the suitcases into the back of the truck and we’d not actually dried out much by the time we had to get out and unload the cases again. They said that it did just over 2.5 inches of rain but I guess we must have been travelling with the heaviest part of the storm because it felt like a lot more.

Everything was a little wet when we unpacked it but we soon got everything dried off and the weather has been pretty good since then.

Look out Maine…. here we come!

Well not until some time on Saturday but we’re on the taxi-way.

The house is pretty much cleaned up and de-fluffed and the parents will be here later this afternoon to house and cat sit whilst we’re away.

Cameras are just about packed, and I’m sort of half done on my packing, which I suppose I should finish off so that I’ll be ready to drive us down to Heathrow on Friday night. We’ve got a good deal on a hotel room with parking, and its a lot less stressful driving down the night before than getting up at something like 4 am to get down to get the coach from the bus station over to Heathrow when you always end up clock watching and every single slow down turns into a minor panic about getting there on time.

We’re flying with BA from Terminal 5, so it will be interesting to see if its really as impressive as they claimed and as it looks on TV. We’re actually arriving in Boston at a sensible time and we’ll see if my electronic visa paperwork has actually made it through the system: they say you don’t need to keep a copy of the confirmation that its valid or take it with you, but we’re not risking it. Then its just a matter of hopping on the Concord bus service to Portland where we’ll be picked up and taken up to Kathy’s mums.

We’ve not got a lot planned: A weekend in Kennebunkport with friends, Thanksgiving with Kathy’s family, and hopefully just a lot of time relaxing, well relaxing for Kathy, I’m hoping that I just wont be sitting round the house all day, I do enough of that at home.

Of course, I nearly forgot : there’s a wedding to go to as well 😆 Rick and Jill are tying the knot the Thanksgiving weekend. Its been a far from easy year for both of them but things seem to be getting better and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to it and all Jill’s planning will all come together.

Weatherwise : well its Maine so everything from bright sunshine, through rain to frost and snow, so we’ve packed hats and gloves and a mixture of clothes, but I don’t think I’ll bother packing the sunscreen or my shorts… but now I’ve said that 😆

Right, that’s enough for now, I think I probably need to go and finish off the vacuuming!