Trip to Maine in March (1)

Although I was just in Maine at then beginning of September last year before starting with my PhD, Morten and I took a quick trip to Maine for a very special occasion, my grandmother was turning 95 in March. Although I considered not telling her that Morten and I would come, I thought the surprise party would be a big enough surprise and adding us into the surprise that day might have been a little too much. Plus its very hard for me to keep a visit to see her a secret.

We had one day in Boston before heading up to the Maine woods and the Brown clan. As I did not yet have my brand-spanking new digital camera that I ordered to my sister's house yet, I have no Boston pics to share. Although if you go back in the archives to the summer last year or the year before you might find something there if you are curious. It was a grey day in Boston but fortunately not rainy. We found a simple B&B to stay at on Commonwealth Ave near Hynes Convention Center T stop. We walked much of the "Freedom Trail" although got a bit tired by the time we followed it over to the North End. We also did a quick trip on the T over to Harvard to stroll around the campus.

Upon arrival in Maine Morten was quickly faced with meeting the WHOLE family. The party for my grandmother was attended by family members even I had not seen in years, cousins and their kids from Connecticut to Canada. He also got a taste of the real countryside US as the party was held at a Nazarene Church and involve touching memory sharing about my grandmother at the front of the church - a type of birthday party gathering that would be very unlikely in Denmark. Here is a pic of me up at the church telling my short story for example.


















This is my grandmother, we call her Mimi, with her cousin Jim's wife Marion from Nova Scotia Canada, we didn't even know they were planning to come for the party!














After the surprise birthday tea party just the family went to a nice restaurant my grandmother likes for dinner, called Sedgeley Place. Its in a town called Greene I think and if you get a chance to go there do it! The food was really great, and super affordable. I think for 30 USD its a 3 course meal plus dessert. Morten's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the giant piece of prime rib that my brother got, thick and covered the WHOLE plate! Gotta love US portion sizes! Here is the birthday gal at dinner...



















And a pic of my parents at dinner. All in all it was a pretty special day, and I am really glad that Morten and I could be there for it :-)