Vacation.

Two weeks ago, my sister and I left from good 'ole Washington to my home state of New Jersey to visit my Dad and my other relatives that there. My dad's whole side of the family lives over there and sometimes I wish that they lived closer (or that I lived closer so that I could see them more frequently than once every year). Nonetheless, the time that I spent there was unforgettable and I cherish every minute that I get to spend with my family.

My sis and I on the way to NJ! 

We left from SeaTac around 3pm and the flight (scheduled for a little under five hours) went by so quickly! With the combination of my working on homework, reading my novel for said course, and my Ipod, I was surprised when I heard the captain say "...prepare the cabin for descent." Arriving in NJ at around 11:30pm (eastern time) we had to endure another hour and half of driving to get to my dad's house.

The first few days of our trip were spent relaxing down at the shore, enjoying the sunny days and the warm ocean. The eastern seaboard was in the midst of a horrendous heat wave with temperature in the upper 90's. Combing the high temperatures with the even higher humidity percentages made everyone feel like a roast pig at a luau.

The first day of "family time" came on sunday when we were planning on going over to aunt Lisa's to have a BBQ. On the RSVP list was: the four of us, my aunt Lisa and her kids (DJ and Lauren), my uncle Martin and aunt Debbie and their son Greg (who also brought his girlfriend Melissa), and my aunt Diane and uncle Tony. My grandpa also came to the BBQ and brought his "girlfriend." afternoon and evening was pleasant and filled with laughs, jokes, and great food.

The Treich clan

As with all family gatherings, everyone asks you the typical "How are you doing? what are your future plans? blah blah blah."Coming up to the conclusion of my college career, I was telling everyone that I was planning on attending graduate school (which I still am!).
During this BBQ I had an interesting conversation with my cousin Greg (the first person from the right on the second row). He graduated from RPI this past spring with a degree in Chemistry and is going to grad school for Materials Science in the fall. When I am at home, I don't tend to talk about what I do at school because most of them probably would not understand it, but it was great to talk with Greg because he could relate to practically everything that I had to say. He gave me great advice pertaining to the grad school application process, as well discussing what type of projects he want to work on.

My uncle Martin (Greg's dad) works as a executive at a pharmaceutical company (I think...), so when i told him my interest in pharmaceuticals, he began to tell me about his work (which I didn't mind). One of the interesting things that came up during our conversation was this website called LinkedIn, which is basically a Facebook for businesses. This website allows everyone to create a profile and depending on your "friends" (called connections on the website), allows you to chat and interact with one another. This website is designed so that people can connect with executives from other business for potential employment opportunities. So where does my uncle come into play? Well he said that if I create a profile, upload my resume (and all of the other jazz), he would try his best to get my a connection somewhere! I will definitely take him up on his offer after graduate school.

Fast-forward to wednesday morning where my sis and myself began our epic road trip to Boston! I was the driver for two reasons: one, I love driving and two, my sister hates driving. So naturally, it worked out!

On the road again! 

Our trip to Boston involved several pit stops along the way. Our first stop was New Haven, Connecticut, the home of Yale University. Being a Gilmore Girls fan, my sister was excited about walking the hallowed halls that Lorelai herself walked through (at least that's what we can believe!). The school is right in the heart of New Haven and the university buildings blend right into the local apartments and eateries.

The next stop on our trip northward to Boston was a little town of Springfield, Massachusetts. What is so important about this town? This town houses the Dr. Suess Memorial Park that houses several statues of famous characters from his books including Horton, the Thing's, and of course, the Cat in the Hat. Prior to our trip, we both were doing research about where we should stop and what attractions we wanted to see along the way. While the memorial was interesting and a fun little pit-stop on the way to Boston, the town itself was rather lower class.

Yale Bulldog!

Cat in the Hat

The North Bridge in Concord

The last stop before we arrived in Boston was in Lexington/Concord (appropriately home to the battles of Lexington and Concord). During the Revolutionary War, the British troops marched (on land) from Boston, through the town of Lexington and into the town of Concord. This trail (at least the portion from Lexington to Concord, which is about five miles) remains present to exhibit the same path the British soldiers marched nearly 240 years ago! Their is a national park that stretches the length of the trail and travelers can stop along the way to look at various landmarks (we didn't stop at too many places because a lot of the attractions were not open to the public).

After all of our shenanigans, we finally arrived in Boston and found the way to our hotel (which was an arduous process). After being in the car for five-ish hours on the way up, we did want to drive around Boston to find a place to eat. To solve our hunger problem, we walked across the parking lot to 99's (kind of like a TGIF's feel to it!). I had a delicious cod fillet BLT (minus the T) and my sister had a chicken wrap of some kind (can't remember exactly what). After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and decided to call it a night (after watching Big Brother of course). We decided that we were going to start tomorrow bright and early because we were going to explore the city of Boston and make our way over to Harvard University.

Touring one of America's oldest cities brings a sense of nostalgia to everything. Walking along the Freedom trail, which contains some of Boston's and America's most iconic landmarks, enhances the level of nostalgia 8974938714 fold! Boston is a phenomenal city that combines rich history with contemporary style. The entire "trail" (really just a red line painted on the street" is roughly two and a half miles. We did not walk along the entire length of the trail, but we walked a good portion of it! After we had our fill of history, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and made our way on the "T" to Cambridge, MA.

Harvard Square

Harvard University is one of the best institutions in the world. It has been the college of seven U.S. presidents including JFK and our current president, Barack Obama. In order to acquire the full Harvard experience, we decided to go on a student-led campus tour (something that we did not do at Yale). Our tour guide was named Sara who is a psychology major (I'll have a rant on that in another blog) and minoring in math. She proceeded to tell us that she knows six languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and one other), which blew my mind! Nonetheless, our tour consisted of us two, 14 people from South Korea, one kid from Russia, and another couple (not sure where they were from because they didn't talk). Needless to say, the tour was very informative and I appreciated all of the little tidbits and facts that Sara was able to tell us.

After the tour, we decided to go over to the Museum of Natural History which housed an exhibit about glass flowers. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about the flowers prior to seeing them. After I witnessed the craftsmanship of the flowers, my mind totally changed. There were over 800 species of flowers on display and I can honestly say that I looked at every single one. In addition to the flowers, the exhibit next store housed hundreds of rock, mineral, and elemental samples. Being a chemist, I was looking at the chemical makeup of all of the rocks and tried to imagine the crystalline structure based on the formula (some were easier than others)

Glass flowers and leaves

Say that name five times fast

Giant hunk of Sulfur!

We left Boston on friday morning and started making the drive back to the Millburn, NJ. We had to pick up my dad along the way because he went on a business retreat with his co-workers and we took his car haha. On the way back, we got stuck in traffic and were in the car for two extra hours longer than it needed to be. All and all, our road trip was a great success and I will definitely visit Boston again in the near future!

Sunday morning was an action packed day. My dad decided to rent a pontoon boat and us four, Lisa and her family, and grandpa joined us for an afternoon on the water. The water was AMAZING! It was a perfect temperature and it wasn't too choppy (even with all of the boats and jet-skis in the water).

Overall, our trip was everything that I would hope for! I got to enjoy time with my family, travel to a new place, and just relax where I have so many fond memories. I do miss my family in NJ and I would never trade a second of my time there for anything else. I have frequently been asked the question "Which do you prefer, Washington of New Jersey?" To tell you the truth, both states have certain characteristics that fill me with happiness. So my answer to that question is "I do not prefer one over the other because they are both homes to me."

I know this was a long blog, so I would like to thank everyone who has the time (and patience) to read this!