Day 27: Katonah, NY to Nashua, NH

We woke up - in separate rooms - around 9:15am and joined together with the rest of the Fried-Tanzer for a luxurious breakfast buffet. As soon as we finished eating, we started preparing lunch. We retrieved a few more items from the basement and Arielle repacked into a larger suitcase to take with her. Tanzer relatives Rachel, Sharon, and Marty, better known as Pop-Pop, arrived, and it was especially sweet to see Pop-Pop, whose own beloved wife, best known as Grandma to the Fried-Tanzer children, passed away nine years ago, console Grampye on the loss of his wife and just how hard it can be to keep going after such a close relationship and so many years of marriage. We proceeded outside for lunch and enjoyed a delicious meal of chicken and leaves, a cold chicken, spinach, and berry dish named years ago by Abe, roasted chicken, various cabbage salads, roasted vegetables, sweet potato pie with marshmallows, and more! We sang a belated happy birthday to Donald over a brownie cake.

At this point, it was time for us to leave, but we were very happy to have been able to make this quick detour on our east coast trip. We started driving further east and made it to just over the border in Connecticut, at which point Arielle said she was too tired to keep driving. Abe took over and Arielle enjoyed her first nap of the trip through the entire state of Connecticut. Arielle woke up just in time to take a picture of the Massachusetts state sign. Instead of taking us all the way towards the Boston area and then north to New Hampshire, our directions sent us off the Mass Pike in Worcester and through areas like Leominster and Lancaster to slowly cross the border into New Hampshire via back roads. We arrived in Hollis, NH at the home of the bride’s family around 6:45pm. We said hello to Elly, the bride, and Kevin, the groom, met both of their mothers, and socialized with Nancy and Kallie, two NYU friends of Abe’s who were both bridesmaids in the wedding. Arielle sampled some Austrian desserts (Elly’s mom is from there and has many relatives who came in to celebrate) and we were able to have some tasty mac and cheese. We were also very intrigued by the mosquito repellent wipes we saw on the tables outside under the tent that would come in handy a few days later on our trip (keep reading to find out when!).

After watching a slideshow of old photographs of Elly and Kevin, we drove to Nancy’s parents’ home, where we would be spending the next two nights. Our night went later than expected when we were introduced to an intense expansion version of Ticket to Ride, which we played with Nancy and her parents, Pam and Ron, though not with Kallie, since she doesn’t like games. Ron trounced everyone, but we enjoyed the game. We tried to introduce Pam and Ron to One Night Ultimate Werewolf, but quickly learned that though they love games, this one was not for them. Satisfied with our earlier game, we went to sleep.

Approximate number of miles covered: 188