Although we live in AZ now a big part of our hearts still remains on the East Coast. Amanda and the kids spent the whole month of July visiting her family and I joined them for the last week. While I was extremely bored at home (9 visits to the movie theater, 5 DBack games, and 5 rounds of golf notwithstanding) the rest of the family had a blast in DC and New Jersey.
Below is just a sampling of all the fun we had during our last week there.
Bryan and Roxanne got married at the Washington, DC Temple the morning I arrived. The day was partly cloudy with a nice cool breeze (j/k - DC in the summertime is no picnic - 186% humidity is not comfortable.) The DC Temple is awesome - for those of you who aren't LDS I highly suggest you get baptized just so you can attend weddings there. I have two friends who'd like to speak with you if you're interested ;)
We then roadtripped up to Point Pleasant Beach, NJ for a BBQ/Openhouse with the entire Toskovich clan at Oma's Beach House. The weather didn't exactly cooperate, but it was great seeing everyone. Henrik got to meet his great-grandmother - Stadababa. I'm not sure I feel comfortable with someone with a 'stache like CJ's being that close to my kid.
We spent plenty of time just hanging out at the beach. The rest of the week the weather was great. Point Pleasant is a little slice of heaven. I know what those of you who haven't been to the Jersey Shore are thinking - New Jersey and Heaven do not belong in the same sentence. I'm here to tell you they do - and in a big way. You've got the beach, the boardwalk, amusement rides, funnel cakes, zeppolies (google it and eat), swimming pool, Jersey Mikes, Hoffman's Ice Cream, Breakfast by the Shore, etc. (wow, did I mention enough food?) This is by far one of my favorite places on earth. And for some reason Lincoln and Noelle got addicted to fake tattoos while we were there. Amanda got addicted to vampire novels.
Yes, I'm bringing back the over-the-eyeglasses-sunglasses. So convenient and fashionable its astounding. Don't tell me they were never "in", that is just plain foolishness.
Can you say beach diva?
Henrik feasted on a steady diet of sand while at the beach.
Look, Lincoln found a crab and Noelle found an implant (er, whoops, I mean jellyfish).
The ladies were nice enough to let the guys breakaway for a day for a great guy-0-rama. It started of with me and Tyler making a pilgramage to Bethpage, New York - sight of the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Open and the countries best municipal golf facility. We didn't get to play the "black" course but were still treated to some great golf. Bethpage has five (5) 18-hole golf courses - we played the "blue" course which was plenty tough for us. We even got paired up with two locals who were a lot of fun to play with. Tyler and I made the wise decision to walk the course with pull-carts. After a 5 1/2 round we redefined the word "rotch".
After golf we met up with Kevin, Matt, Papa T and Lincoln at Yankee stadium. Although I am not a Yankee fan, there is something magical about Yankee Stadium - it will be sad to see it torn down after the end of the season. You've got to respect a place that can draw 55,000+ on a Tuesday night. Yankee Dogs, A-Rod's homerun, the Yankee "Roll Call", a drunk guy falling onto the backstop net = great night of baseball (and the Oriole's won).
This is what its all about, people.
Back in DC Amanda and I went to a Nationals game at Nationals Park. A great stadium all around, a big improvement over the old RFK. Although its a very modern venue (HD scoreboard is awesome) it has a lot of classic baseball cues. It was a neat experience visiting Yankee Stadium (which is in its last year of operation) and Nationals Park (brand new) in the same week.
And so the summer vacation comes to an end. This is what a month worth of "vacationing" looks like as it travels back to AZ...
