New England Barfuss Family Vacation

Last week Sam and I had the awesome opportunity to go with family to my brother Jacob's mission. The Manchester, NH mission, which included parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It included great family time, beautiful country, great historic sights and wonderful people. Yes, Justin is still in pilot training and could therefore not join us. :( We sure missed him.

Our trip went like this:

Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - flew into Manchester, NH that night about 9:45pm picked up our Yukon XL and found a hotel to spend the night




Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - Toured the city of Boston - it wasn't part of Jake's mission, besides the temple, but how could we pass up the chance to go to Boston. So much of our country's beginning history is there. We took a trolley tour that included the following:

USS Constitution - One of the 6 original frigates of the US Navy
Holocaust Memorial
Old North Church
Paul Revere Mall
A cruise of the Boston Harbor
Boston Massacre site
Boston Tea Party site

And we ended the night at a very expensive Italian restaurant, by accident. I had crab, muscles, and scallops in a soup with Grandpa Jess. I signed off of seafood for the rest of the trip.







We drove to Portsmouth to stay the night.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013
We drove to Augusta Maine, toured the State Capital building and saw one of the original Book of Mormon's printed in 1830 in the archives of the public library. Wow! That was cool.
Stopped by Jake's old apartment and walked on the bridge Jake had taken pictures and sent to us during his mission.






We drove back to Portsmouth to spend the night.

Thursday, June 6, 2013
We traveled to Kittery, Maine. Here we stopped at an old US Fort, the Trading Post, and put our feet in the very cold ocean. That morning while I stayed at the hotel to ensure Sam had a morning nap the rest of the gang went and saw one of the first submarines - Albacore -







 Friday, June 7, 2013
We saw gorgeous country and several of Jake's apartments ending up in Tunbridge, Vermont at the Dunkle's house. We stayed here for Saturday and Sunday night. They were great hosts. Brother Dunkle never ran out of stories to tell and Michael was a good sport about feeding all of us. We visited the Joseph Smith Memorial on Saturday and went to church on Sunday with a linger longer afterwards and then a pie and ice cream social at the Dunkle's. We learned about the Vermont Maple Syrup process plus a lot more.
 Sam loved this little toy and the Dunkles!
 Monday, June 10, 2013
We travelled to Maine again and stopped by the beach. Sam had a great time! It was a little warmer this time.



 We then stopped by the Lund's on a Navy Base. They gave us a tour of their 6000ft+ house that was built in the 1800s and then we headed over to a family's house for FHE. They invite the Missionaries and anyone else over to their house for FHE every Monday. They started this when Jake was in the area. What awesome families! Brother Lund gave the lesson and had Jake eat fire, crazy stuff.



 
 Tuesday, June 11, 2013
We traveled to Boston and caught a session in the temple. Grandma Barfuss watched Sam outside so I could go but Gwen swapped her off and she was able to do initiatory and join us in the celestial room. It was beautiful! The temple is always a wonderful place to be, it doesn't matter which one, and it's even better when you're with family.

 We then snagged a big lunch at Friendly's - a restaurant we became quite fond of. Sam loved the balloon and straw they supplied him, very kid friendly. We hung onto the balloon until I popped it on the airplane. :)
We caught our plane around 5 pm and headed home - well we parted at our connection flight in Atlanta. It's always a little sad to say bye to family, but Sam and I did miss Justin we were happy to be going home too.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Barfuss for a great vacation, and Jake for serving a mission so we could have an awesome excuse to go -- he did a great job planning.


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