Final Words from UConn!

Well here it is, our final blog post! It is bittersweet to be writing our final post. It seems like yesterday that we were trying to figure out how to create a blog post to begin with!

We began our last week by doing some prep work for the kid’s camp in Gelfenbien. Ron Swiller had us doing all the dirty work like tidying up the bathrooms and sweeping the floors. We also got the kid’s chef hats, name tags, and aprons ready for their arrival. After we prepped a few things for the camp we worked on our salad project. We began wrapping things up with Carol Cronin so that she can pick up where we leave off after we return home.

On Tuesday we helped out with the first day of UCann Cook Camp 102. We got to have some fun with kids but also got to work on our projects. We spent most of the morning working while the kids were cooking. After we ate the delicious brunch they prepared we went to Beltane Farms! It was great to see Paul Trubey again. He remembered us and gave us huge hugs. We really enjoy seeing him because he is so kind and his happiness is contagious! He taught the kids all about milking the goats and taking care of goats in general. The kids were all very curious how much he was selling his goats for and how hard they were to take care of. We made sure that no one tried to smuggle any goats on the buses before we left! While we were at the farm the kids got to pet the goats and try some cheese. They seemed to really enjoy the trip. I know we did! We even got to see the baby goats that we bottle fed last time we were there. They have gotten so big! We also learned that if you hold a tree branch just right you can lure goats onto Ron's shoulders. 

The  kids we saw our first visit.

Goats love Ron!

Once we got back from the farm we went back to working on the project. We organized the binder to the best of our ability and will now pass it on to Carol Cronin. We hope that our project can be continued after we leave and the salad rotation can be initiated into the dining halls.

Tuesday evening we finally decided to paint the rock. Better late than never! We painted it with a bunch of different blue, green, and pink splotches. We didn’t go into this with any sort of plan so we just made it up as we went along. We had to cover someone’s painting of a Pikachu which took a lot of our paint. We felt kind of bad but it was worth it. We painted “Thanks UConn! – Love, NACUFS Interns.” We then painted our respective states, our friend Anthony helped us so he painted Connecticut. We were very proud of our artwork. People that passed by in their cars always gave us a thumbs up and one guy yelled “thank you!” so we feel as though our rock was a success. We just hope that it dries before someone paints over it again! We also hope everyone got to see our beautiful artwork.

Before

After

On Wednesday we worked the UCann Cook Camp 102 again. We got to work on our project until the kids arrived. We are slowly getting all our projects finished and getting ready to go back home. Once all the kids arrived we walked them to the bakery. They decorated cookies and cupcakes with obscene amounts of frosting. They always have so much fun in the bakery and come back with very colorful clothes! The kids also got to make pizza and rolls again. They got to eat their pizzas for lunch. Louise Locke was nice enough to let Mariel and I work on our Weebly in her office. She is so sweet and we loved talking with her about our summer and hers. We were happy to have worked in her office until the kids were ready to head back to Gelfenbien.

A sugar ball.

After the kids ate their pizzas they had a sugar pulling demonstration from Kristina Breuninger. They really enjoyed the demonstration, especially since she gave them samples. It was really neat what she did. She heated sugar up enough to melt it and then poured it with a spoon over this cylinder rod to create threads. She even made what looked like a twine ball out of the threads. It was really cool and she is extremely talented.

Bakery creations

After Kristina’s demonstration we walked the kids to the Dairy Bar. They got all sugared up and so did we. We enjoyed our ice cream and, sadly, our last trip to the Dairy Bar. The rest of our night was spent packing up the apartment and getting ready for our journeys back to the Midwest!

Abby's favorite, Salted Caramel Crunch and Chocolate.

Thursday was our last day of work. It is crazy that the eight weeks is over already. Our last day was sad but we got to have fun working the final day of the kid’s camp. We started our day off by going to Carla’s Pasta. It is a huge family-owned factory that makes over 200 types of authentic Italian pasta. We got to take a tour through the factory and see how the pasta goes from flour and dough to a bag of pasta in the freezer. The factory was amazingly clean and extremely efficient. They had machines specifically for pushing boxes, wrapping pallets, pinching dough, kneading dough, and even dropping bags into a box. It all seemed to work effortlessly though and the factory was very well run. We found it very interesting that the plant also created their own electricity. They have a fuel cell that runs their whole factory except for about 3 of their giant, spiral freezers. The company takes all the steps necessary to decrease their carbon footprint. They have plans to double the size of their factory soon and plan to install another fuel cell to power the addition.

After our tour we got to do some extreme carbo-loading! They served us lunch that had every kind of pasta from their famous garlic pesto pasta to fried raviolis. We ate so much that we could barely stay awake on the way back to Storrs. We also got to meet Carla herself! She is such a sweet lady who started the business in the 1980s in a small street-side shop. She was very welcoming and generous. Each visitor got a huge box of pasta and pesto as we left! The boxes were almost too big for the kids to carry. Carla’s had fantastic food and was an amazing place to tour. We highly recommend their products.

Pasta, pasta, and more pasta

Once we got back to Gelfenbien we began the Iron Chef challenge. The kids were split into 4 different groups where they had to look at a table of ingredients and decide what to make.

Mariel: "I was in group number 3 with Chef Sterling. Our group decided to make a mushroom risotto with lemon chicken and grilled vegetables. They brainstormed together really nicely and considered several aspects of their dish, like what protein to use and the flavors to complement it. The kids worked on their knife skills and also learned some tricks and tips from Chef Sterling. I also learned a lot just from helping him! Our group also did not receive first place in the competition, but other groups agree that our risotto was pretty good. (It really was!)"

Group 4 doing some brainstorming. 

Abby: “I was in group number 4 with Chef Andre. The kids in my group decided to make a stir-fry! They made it with carrot, chicken, red pepper, corn, scallions, onion, and a ginger-citrus sauce. They said that they were going for a “Southwest meets Asian” type of dish. They served the stir-fry over basmati rice and it was really good! Chef Andre and I only helped them with cutting, grilling, and sautéing. They didn’t receive first place in the competition, due to some biased judging if you ask me. However, I think that they did amazing and I would eat stir-fry made by them any day!”

The plating done by each team for Iron Chef.

After our last day of work we strolled around campus one last time and went to the Co-op and finally took our picture with Jonathon the Husky. This was the last of the intern traditions we had to complete so we are now officially a part of the legacy. It has been an amazing internship and we are extremely thankful for all the experiences we have had and people we have met. We will visit New England again, we know it. Thank you to everyone who has made this internship possible and has shared their knowledge and skills with us. UConn will always hold a place in our hearts as we move on with our schooling and into our careers. We are blessed to have been your interns.

Abby with Jonathon!

Mariel with Jonathon!

With love,

Mariel Camacho-Arriola and Abby Karikas

Week 7 at UConn

Hi everyone, things are winding down for us!

Strawberry Maple Cream Cheese Stuffing

We spent the majority of the week helping Ron Swiller with the UCann Cook 101 Camp in Gelfenbien. On Monday, we helped chefs Gary, Hannah and Matt G. prep for the recipes the kids would be making later that week. We explored the kitchen in search of ingredients for recipes like strawberry cheese cake french toast and apple turnovers. We measured out the ingredients and set them on racks for the chefs to use the next few days.

Tuesday was the first day for the 101 campers! The camp set out to visit the Spring Valley Farm, which is the student farm we've worked with before. Here, the campers learned about the different produce the farm has, picked some peas to be used later in the week, and learned about bees from Julia - the farm manager. The campers even got their own plant to take home! We also got to see a herd of cows cross into another pasture while we were touring the farm.

Matt Sroka says the cows were actually saying "MOOooove!"

Back at Gelfenbien, the kids spent time at stations making various items. We worked with different chefs during the day so we each helped out with something different.

Mariel - "I helped Chef Hannah and Steve Sharkis in the fusion station. Hannah taught the kids how to make omelets and popcorn balls. I was really excited about the omelet part since I've never made an omelet before! My second attempt turned out better than the first one, and I think it may have been because I flipped the omelet up in the air with encouragement from Steve and Abby. Hannah was a great chef to work with and teacher to learn from!"

A camper's popcorn ball - looks tasty!

Abby - "I got to work with chefs Jen and Keith. We made apple turnovers and breakfast hand pies with the kids. I had never worked with puff pastry before so I learned right along with the kids. I had a lot of fun helping the kids cut and fill the pastry. The kids really enjoyed making the turnovers and couldn't wait to eat the finished product. The pastries may not have looked all that appetizing but they were delicious! I had fun learning from Jen and Keith and being able to spend time with the campers."

On Wednesday we walked with the kids to the bakery. They decorated cookies and cupcakes, made bread rolls, and made personal pizzas. The campers made better braids with their bread than we did when we worked at the bakery! Since the campers were in good hands with the bakery staff, we were able to take a break, which involved coffee for one of us (Abby) and a ServSafe test for the other (Mariel). Both of us are now ServSafe certified!

Pokemon GO at the Dairy Bar

After the bakery, the campers played culinary games with Ron before Cheryl Lebeau came to visit. She gave a presentation on food safety, discussing temperatures and cross-contamination. She brought some dye and proved that the 5-second rule is not a thing. Amy Dunham also came and talked to the kids about healthy, balanced diets. Ironically, we visited the Dairy Bar earlier that day and everyone at the camp enjoyed ice cream! We really enjoyed our time working with everyone at the camp, especially teasing Ron and bonding over Pokemon GO with Chef Gary.

Abby's a bookworm now!

The Old Man and the Sea

 We worked with catering on Thursday for the Confratute banquet. Confratute is a conference for Gifted & Talented teachers from all around the nation. Before the event started, we met with Helen from the sales department of catering and Megan Morley, who is one of the catering coordinators at UConn. Helen taught us about how catering orders are processed and Megan talked to us about their clientele and operations. For the banquet, we manned stations and were kept busy the whole night replenishing food and clearing tables. The catering team was really creative with their stations, from an Edgar Allan Poe station to a To Kill a Mockingbird station. It was a fun night!

On Friday we spent the day with Steve Sharkis at McMahon, Burton, and South dining hall. We went with him to take some inventory at Burton and we saw just how much the football players like juice and yogurt. He walked through add-ons with us and we were actually able to email some add-ons to the bakery and dining services ourselves. We ended our shift at South, where we shadowed Steve as he took care of business. He's a great manager and all of his workers enjoy working with him!

One of Connecticut's K-9 teams

Our weekend was filled with milkshakes, German Shepherds, sand, produce, puppets, inflatable art and crispy cheese. On Friday we went to Aero Diner in North Windham where we indulged on chocolate chip pancakes and milkshakes. On Saturday, we went to the 25th annual Connecticut K-9 Olympics, where we cheered as K-9 teams went through various obstacle courses. It was a sight to see!

After the olympics, we drove to Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island for a final splash in the Atlantic Ocean before our internship ends and we head back to the Midwest. The traffic was worth it (it was the middle of the day and a weekend so we expected it) as we had a great time jumping over waves and basking in the warm sun. We're very happy that we got successful tans and nobody was sunburnt! After some beach time, we went to Foxwoods - but not to gamble. We actually got lost and it took longer than we thought it would, but now we can always tell people about our long journey at Foxwoods - all for a Panera.

What "not counting calories" looks like.

On Saturday we went to the Coventry farmers market where we had delicious smoothies for breakfast. It's really a huge farmers market with a lot to offer. We even learned about Nathan Hale, the first spy during the American Revolutionary War. We then headed over to the Benton where we walked through their exhibits and paused to study their inflatable art. Afterwards, we headed to the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. They had a light exhibit there that fascinated us! From the recommendation of Chef Gary, we went to Shady Glen in Manchester for dinner where we enjoyed burgers with crispy cheese (it's really delicious!) and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. All in all, it was another great week in Connecticut!

An elephant inflatable at the Benton

A large robot inflatable at the Benton

Some marionettes at the Ballard Museum of Puppetry

More to come soon,

Mariel and Abby

Week 6 in Connecticut!

Hello!!

This week started off slow since we were coming back from a vacation mindset! Once we got some sleep after driving our visitors to the airport on Monday, we found our way to North dining hall. We got to work with Assistant Managers Chris Delmastro and Mike Viens. Mike walked us through how he does the ordering. We got to do the dairy inventory and put that into the order in FoodPro. We got to see how the ordering is never set in stone for upcoming weeks because it is all dependent on the inventory taken before each order day.  It was neat to do since we have seen how orders are submitted but never how they were created. We then observed as Chris did closing procedures. These days in the office also help us to get a lot of work done on our salad project!

On Tuesday, we got to work in the Food for Thought truck! We worked with chef Omayra Quiles. She was a lot of fun and showed us the tips and tricks of running the food truck. We began by prepping all the food up in the USM catering kitchen. We cut up tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles and then filled containers with condiments like relish, onion, and different kinds of mayos.  Since it was lobster Tuesday, we portioned out some lobster for the lobster rolls. We then made two trips down to the basement to load up the truck. The truck had been repaired over the weekend so it was completely empty so we had to set it up and load it with food. This took some time but we got it done and opened a little after 9:30am. We had a few people here and there but it never really picked up until about noon. This gave us time to go get some lunch and participate in the Summer Activities’ ice cream pales. They were delicious!

Once the excitement of getting our ice cream wore off the pace picked up at the food truck. We kept up pretty well! John Smith, area manager, only had to stop by a few times! By the end of the day we could make just about everything. We did pulled pork, the trio grilled cheese, the “eggcellent” sandwich, the mojito chicken sandwich, and the turkey sandwich. We also learned how to fry up some French fries and use a lot of equipment that we had never used before. We really enjoyed working in the food truck and were thankful that it wasn’t too awfully hot! After we closed up around 2:30pm, we headed back to USM to unload the truck. We brought out all the food that they didn’t need for Wednesday and left the rest in the truck. Once we got upstairs we cleaned all the dishes and put away all the leftover food. We had a lot of fun working in the food truck and spending time with Omayra and John. We were also pretty proud that we only managed to set one thing on fire in such close quarters!

On Wednesday we had a work day in South dining hall. It was a great opportunity to catch up on our projects. We did as much as we could on our salad rotation and then began our Weebly page. We are creating the website for future interns so they know what to expect when they come to UConn. We will be sure to warn them about Ron Swiller.

On Thursday, we worked at the Dairy Bar and watched as their Oreo ice cream was being made! Before we went out onto the production floor we talked with Bill S., the manager of the creamery. He told us all the ins and outs of how they create the ice cream and how he came into the job position he has. After we talked with him and went over some logistics we went out onto the production floor. We looked at the equipment and watched the student workers make the ice cream. We first looked at the large holding tank with heavy cream and mix that they made into vanilla ice cream. After we looked at the holding tank, Bill showed us their larger tanks that would pasteurize and homogenize the milk. These tanks were quite large and could make about 400 gallons of ice cream! We then watched as the vanilla mixture from before passed through a machine that cooled it and spit it out as a thick, almost ice cream, consistency. This is when the Oreos were crushed into the ice cream and it was packaged into 3-gallon, half-gallon, and pint sized containers. The ice cream was then put into the freezer to get to the perfect consistency for serving. Bill was kind enough to let us try the ice cream in multiple different stages of production and it was delicious from beginning to end. Bill also told us about the mixture they use in their ice cream. Their ice cream is geared towards families and children. They purposefully make their ice cream so that it takes longer to melt. This makes it more efficient for children because then they can eat more of their ice cream cone and less runs down their arm! It is also extremely helpful to parents because it results in cleaner children for the ride home. Bill then took us up into the store and had us try various different kinds of ice cream. We were happily stuffed with ice cream by the time we left!

After we learned about making ice cream we went to Gelfenbien to help package kosher meals. We got there and everything was prepared and ready to be packaged. Bruce Hessing, assistant manager, and chefs Bruce Haney and Mike taught us how to package up the meals and we got them done in no time. They prepared about 200 meals that were delivered around campus to the dining halls. Since Gelfenbien is closed in the summer they must deliver kosher meals to the dining halls for students who need them. After we packaged up the meals we got to sit and talk with Bruce Hessing while Bruce Haney and Mike did all the hard work of delivering the meals. Bruce Hessing also showed us how to tell if a package of food is kosher or not. We never knew there were so many kosher symbols for food packages! Bruce taught us that there are many different Jewish organizations that can give the kosher certification. He also described why some are more trustworthy than others. We learned a lot about kosher food production and hope to cook in the kosher kitchen before our time here ends.

On Friday we started our day out in South Dining Hall. We worked on our projects and had to opportunity to catch up on all of our work. After lunch we went back to the commissary to work with Ron to make some progress on our salad rotation. He was very helpful with the recipes and he taught us how to shoot rubber bands. Surprisingly, we got a lot of work done with Ron today and we are very thankful for his help!

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to head out to the Cape. Since we left early we didn’t hit any traffic and got to Hyannis by 10am. We couldn’t check into our hostel yet so we checked out the surrounding town. We got some coffee and late breakfast from a café by the harbor. After we ate we checked out the John F. Kennedy Museum. There were tons of pictures from his life on the Cape and his presidency. We never realized how often he was on the Cape and that he handled many presidential affairs there! We also didn’t realize that his entire family eventually had a home in Hyannis! We stayed at the museum until our whale watching cruise boarded. We went to Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises and they were great. We saw lots of whales and even calves! We got close enough for some really good pictures! Whale watching was an overall success since we got good pictures and didn’t get sea sick. We took motion sickness pills before leaving just to be safe since our Midwest stomachs aren’t accustomed to the sea. After we got back from the trip we checked into the hostel and went uptown. We shopped around and got some Cape Cod gear as well as some pizza for dinner. We were pretty tired so we headed back to the hostel to shower and relax. We met lots of new people from lots of places. The girls in our room were from Germany and Chicago. We also met a guy from Germany and another guy from Canada. We like staying at the hostels because we’ve met so many people and everyone is always friendly!

Sunday was pretty rainy (all weekend for that matter), so we never got to experience the beaches in Hyannis. Instead, we decided to sleep in and explore more of the town that was closed the night before. We also went on a duck tour! We had seen them in multiple other sea ports but had yet to go on one. It was pretty funny and we enjoyed the tour. (“I thought this was about actual ducks and was disappointed when we saw none. Still not over that. But I liked the tour of the town!” –Mariel). It began on Main St. in Hyannis and then went straight into the harbor! We decided that we liked Hyannis but we would love to go back and experience the Cape in some brighter, warmer weather!

Until next week,

Abby and Mariel!

Week 5 at UConn

Hi everyone, our time at UConn is almost over!

On Monday we took a tour of Omar Coffee in Newington, CT. This is the local coffee roaster that provides UConn with coffee. They make blends like UConn Bold, French Vanilla and A Cup of Joe, and we can say from personal experience that these are all pretty delicious. We went behind the scenes and saw where Omar Coffee develops, roasts, packages, and distributes their coffee. They showed us some of their imported coffee beans from places like Mexico, Vietnam, Brazil, and El Salvador! We also learned about green coffee, which are coffee beans that have not yet been roasted. Along with seeing Omar’s roasting equipment, we saw their machinery used to package K-Cups and infuse beans with different flavors, like hazelnut. Omar Coffee offers other products and services, like espresso, brew equipment and equipment service. Their equipment service team is very dedicated to ensuring their equipment is working and repaired in a timely fashion. Many thanks to Shannon Cercone and Greg for showing us around Omar Coffee!

Equipment used to infuse beans with flavor

Coffee beans imported from around the world

Green coffee beans

 

After our tour of Omar Coffee, we went down to Foxwoods Resort Casino. Mark Genereux, Assistant Executive Chef, gave us a grand tour of the food production side of this huge casino. Foxwoods is the largest resort casino in the US, and we were able to get a glimpse of that as we walked all around the resort. We saw numerous kitchens, including banquet kitchens and some of the kitchens of the casino’s restaurants. We also stopped by the resort’s bakery, where a pastry chef treated us with some tasty desserts. We were able to learn about how Foxwoods maximizes production while minimizing labor costs. They certainly utilize all of their resources! During our tour, we were also able to meet Marian Raczkowski and Maryam Hosseini, who work in the Food Safety and Sanitation department of Foxwoods. We learned about the many different tasks a Food Safety and Sanitation Inspector can have at Foxwoods, from inspecting the resort’s pool to its tattoo parlor. They may or may not get a tan down by the pool in their free time.

A chocolate raspberry delicacy

Carol's pastry!

Abby, Executive Chef Mark G., Mariel

#FunAtFox

 On Tuesday we worked with Ron Swiller. We helped him make recipes like eggplant with oyster sauce and spam musubi. Spam musubi was a lot tastier than we thought it would be! He also taught us how to saute and properly place food in oil ("You might want to step back if I'm working with oil around you!" -Mariel). We also learned tricks to working with sticky rice. After recipe testing, he showed us how to input recipes into FoodPro and check inventory. Also, we snapped a picture of a deer really close to us outside of McMahon later that day!

Eggplant with oyster sauce

Spam musubi

On Wednesday, we met with Amy Dunham again to do some more dietary analysis. The longer we work with Amy the more and more we learn about Food Processor and how she monitors her patients on such a large campus. We enjoy learning from Amy and hope to work with her again in the future.

We participated in a UCuisine Photo Shoot on Thursday. We were happy to be there, seeing familiar faces like Chef Angel. A wooden table was set up nearby the Benton with products from the farmer's market and we posed around it with UConn's dining services staff. We are excited to see the cover when the issue comes out!

Just a glimpse of all the aisles at Sysco

After posing for the camera, we took a trip to the Sysco facilities in Rocky Hill, CT. Sysco is the world’s largest broadline food distributor, with facilities in the United States and Canada. They provide UConn with a lot of supplies, both of the food and non-food variety. The Sysco in CT provides products to several establishments in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. Scott, VP of Operations, gave us a tour of the warehouse. He was very knowledgeable about his work and answered all of our questions about their operations. He shared information ranging from safety precautions to receiving procedures. He showed us their expansive area for dry storage with aisles and aisles of products. He also showed us their refrigerators and he was kind enough to pass over the freezers for our tour. We also met with Scott from marketing and finance, who spoke to us about their redistribution center and their involvement with local companies. Thank you to Shane at Sysco for setting up this tour!

After our Sysco tour, we started our 3-day weekend. We more or less went to the same cities this weekend, but we split off as we had friends visiting this weekend so our adventures are different!

Neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY

Mariel – My best friend Katherine from Minnesota visited me this weekend! On Friday, we met her family in NY and from there we drove to Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey. As the driver for our road trip to NJ, I was nervous about driving in New York and New Jersey, and I still am! I'm not sure I would want to drive in either state ever again, but I’d be content to visit both places again as a passenger. Next time I visit NJ, I'll be prepared for all of their tolls!

Jenkinson's Boardwalk, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ

When we first arrived at the Jersey Shore, the weather on the beach was muggy and icky. It looked like it was going to rain, but we stuck around and thankfully the weather cleared up quite nicely! We spent the entire day at Jenkinson’s Boardwalk, where we splashed around in the high-tide beach, shopped, ate, and went on rides. It was a day and night filled with lots of laughter!

A view of Downtown Salem at night

On Saturday, we went to Boston where we spent the afternoon in the Boston Public Garden. We went on a swan boat ride in the Public Garden Lagoon, where we passed by ducks and two beautiful swans. We also tried an arepa from a street vendor and watermelon flavored lemonade. After walking around for a little bit, we ventured out to Salem, MA to go on a walking tour of the site where the Salem Witch Trials occurred. A local tour guide showed us various key locations, like the cemetery where many of the accused and accusers have headstones. The events of 1692 was a sobering history lesson of the consequences of corruption. Salem is also known for other things, like being the birthplace of the National Guard. We ended the night back in Boston, enjoying a late dinner in Chinatown at an Asian fusion cafe.

Katherine and Mariel at BPG

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. You could easily spend the entire day at this museum, with the three floors of exhibits full of information. We learned about dinosaurs, mammals, meteorites, and many other things. It is hands-down my most favorite museum I have ever visited.

We then went to the Lighthouse Point Park, where we lounged and waded in the water. After the beach, we were in the mood for seafood by the shore, so we went to Beachhead Restaurant in East Haven where we both enjoyed amazing lobster rolls and saw fireworks. We definitely recommend Beachhead!

A mural at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Abby – This weekend my boyfriend Chris came out to visit! We went to New York City on Thursday and stayed all day on Friday. We got to see a lot of the city in a small amount of time. On Thursday night, we started with Times Square, which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but just as busy as I thought. Then we went to Grand Central Station, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building. We finished the night by going to the 86^th floor of the Empire State Building. It is quite the view at night when the city is alive and bright. On Friday we woke up somewhat early and went to Central Park. This was my favorite part of NYC. We saw the Bethesda Fountain and many local artists and performers. We then moved on to some window shopping on 5^th Avenue and the Statue of Liberty. Our last stop in NYC was the One World Trade Center. The memorial and the observation deck are extraordinary. From the observation deck you can see every part of NYC and even some surrounding states!

Abby and Chris at Central Park

Bunker Hill Monument in Boston

On Saturday we went to Boston. I have to say that I liked Boston more than NYC. Nothing against NYC but Boston was a lot quieter and much cleaner. We walked the Freedom Trail which took us through a lot of the city. We saw many historical sites including The North Church, Paul Revere’s home, Bunker Hill, and the U.S.S. Constitution. We also got to see some funny street performers and some fireworks over the Boston Harbor. I also got to ride in the subway for the first time!

Chris eating lobster at Abbott's!

On Sunday we went to Abbott’s where Chris got his long awaited lobster. I decided to avoid the bib so I got some crab cakes and stole a few bites off Chris’s plate.  After our fresh seafood we spent the day relaxing in Mystic. We did some shopping and some boat watching. We decided to try Mystic Pizza and definitely ate too much. I plan to rent the movie to see what all the fame is about!

Until next time!

Abby and Mariel