The Goodrums

For Thanksgiving 2007, we made a quick trip to Lubbock, Texas to visit Michael's family. Michael's sister Stephanie and her husband, Matt, live in Lubbock. We left Thursday morning and returned Saturday afternoon. Michael's parents also flew in.

So on Thursday, we left two days of snow in Denver to fly into three days of snow in Lubbock. :) But we did have a great time spending time with family aside a cozy fire. We had a great feast on Friday. I picked up some great recipes and we had fun trying out some new board games with family. We watched some pretty-good-for-a-change Aggie football (which was a good thing given that there were four Aggies in the house). Coach Fran promptly resigned and A&M already replaced him. They waste no time. Matt and Steph did a great job painting their house and gave us further inspiration to get after it and paint ours.

Dad Goodrum has the sole picture (a family portrait) from the Thanksgiving get together and we'll have to wait until he sends it to us to post it!

Picture update 12/3
The picture quality isn't great. We'll try to get a picture with better resolution and replace this one. For now, this will do.















From Left: Michael, Jennifer, Matt, Stephanie, Aunt Lanette, Mom G, Dad G

On Saturday, we explored the Freedom Trail - which covers most of the historical spots in Boston - as well as Cambridge (Harvard and MIT). We must have walked a marathon over the course of the holiday weekend!

We started out quite early - catching the 6:30am train out of Franklin. We arrived in Boston just in time to open a favorite breakfast spot - The Paramount. After a hearty breakfast, we started on the Freedom Trail. We beat the traffic with our early start - but we also found that a lot of the historic sites didn't open until 10am or later. So that was kind of disappointing. In spite of that, we had plenty of fun.















Starting the Freedom Trail - complete with the guide book




















Some goober inside Quincy market















Michael making funny faces in front of the Paul Revere House




















Mom & Dad G in front of Paul Revere monument















Inside the pew boxes in the North Church




















The North Church
"1 if by land, 2 if by sea"

Following our Freedom Trail walk, we ate lunch at the Durgin Park pub (continuing to hit all the things on Mom G's "to see in Boston list" :). We found out that the original site of the Boston Tea Party is now part of the "Big Dig." We tried to pay a visit to the current museum and memorial, but it looked pretty closed (I don't recommend walking out on that pier unless you are prepared to take a swim).

Afterwards, we headed into Cambridge. We saw Harvard and MIT (in the dark), before heading back to South Station and catching our train back to Franklin.




















Michael & Dad in front of Harvard dining hall
I'm sure there is a real name for the building. I just know it as the dining hall.

Boy - the making of great memories sure wears you out!

Some pictures from our Friday adventures...















Michael's Mom and Dad on the commuter train leaving Franklin (Boston here we come!)















Michael's office building















In front of Chinatown




















Boston Common















The classic tourist picture in front of Cheers















Michael & Dad at Game On (in the tense moments before the big win - Go Ags!)















Family in front of Fenway















Dinner at Pizzeria Regina

In spite of really yucky weather (freezing cold and pouring rain), we had a great time at the Macy's Parade in New York.

We left Boston by Greyhound Bus on Wednesday afternoon. 6 1/2 hours later we finally made it to NYC (love Thanksgiving weekend traffic!). The drive should be less than 4 hours. We met Michael's parents (who came up to meet us from D.C.) in the NYC bus station and then trekked over to our hotel, which was almost directly below the Empire State Building. After dropping our stuff off, we found a little place for dinner around the corner. We spent the evening walking around - past Macy's and all the decorated department stores, up to Times Square, to Rockefeller Center with the famed (but still unlit) Christmas tree and skating rink, past the Empire State Building and more. About midnight we crashed so we could get up super early to go get a good spot for the parade.















Mom & Dad Goodrum in front of the Snoopy at Macy's

In the morning, we left the hotel around 6:30am. Ouch! We found a great spot to watch the parade (Broadway between 38th and 39th) under some scaffolding which partially shielded us from the rain. We were also standing on a subway grate - which would grace us with a blast of warm air every time a train passed (my toes were icebergs). The parade finally arrived to our spot about 10am. We had fun watching all the balloons and floats - although we were quite glad to see Santa at the end.















Michael and his mom















Jen & Mom G















Michael scoping out the parade (in a sea of people)




















The first balloon - and lots of wet people




















Snoopy!




















Scooby Doo!















The parade that keeps going... and going... and going...




















Pikachu















For the guys...















Another for the guys (Emmitt Smith)















Super Grover




















"Healthy" Mr. Potato Head (see sports bottle in his hand)















Budweiser Clydesdales




















Garfield with his teddy bear















Let Christmas begin...















Woohoo! Santa!

After the parade, we piled into the car and drove down and over the Brooklyn Bridge. We ate lunch at a McDonald's in the Bronx (not much open on Thanksgiving day) and drove through pouring rain and wild winds back to Boston - where we had a great Thanksgiving dinner thanks to Whole Foods. Man - after finding out about the Whole Foods pre-cooked, very yummy Thanksgiving Dinners (comes with precooked turkey breast, all sides, dessert, etc.) - I may never cook Thanksgiving dinner again!

So this post is for Kelly, who we were missing this weekend! NYC wasn't going to let us forget her while she's thousands of miles away in Peru.

While in NYC for Thanksgiving, we came across the following:















"Mototaxis!" (sorry for the really blurry camera phone picture... I didn't have the 'real' camera with me)

Okay, so they aren't true mototaxis since they are a true bike and not a dirt bike. But it's the same set up. Click here for the picture of the "real" mototaxi from our Peru trip.

We also found the following sign:















Peru is a cool place...

How fun is that! Wish you could have been here with us!!

Today I found bus tickets to NYC for $15 each! ...and they were even on Greyhound (reputable) as opposed to the cheap, probably somewhat sketchy Chinatown buses. We are going to go to NYC to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We couldn't even drive to New York for $30. Gas alone would cost more than that.

Thanksgiving weekend was busy - but fun!

We started the weekend here in Jackson. On Thursday, we had Thanksgiving lunner... dinch... (lunch/dinner) with some friends that also don't have family nearby. I cooked the turkey. It was the second turkey we have made - and this one turned out much better than the first thanks to a great little meat thermometer Michael's parents gave us last year. The first turkey we made was ridiculously overcooked and dried out. Thankfully, this year's turned out well (especially given that we planned to share it with friends. :)

After the Thanksgiving meal, we went on a walk and in our exploring found (thanks to the help of our friends) a couple new off-roading trails. The Jeep needs some differential work - but as soon as that is complete - we may have found a new spot to play. We will go check it out on our mountain bikes first.

Thursday afternoon, we watched the new version of the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was interesting...

On Friday morning, we got up bright and early (ahem, 4:00 a.m. early) to drive to Dallas. We arrived in Dallas about noon - and in the second quarter of the Texas A&M v. t.u. football game. (We had to listen to the first quarter on AM radio while driving - and the station kept cutting out everytime we went under an underpass). We watched the rest of the game with some of our college friends there in Dallas - Beth & Jeff and Jessica & David (Beth and Jessica are two of my college roommates). A&M kind of ran out of time and steam at the end of the game (final score 29 to 40) - but the game wasn't nearly as bad as we feared it might be. We were pretty impressed with Stephen McGee's (incoming quarterback) rookie performance. At the very least, Texas looked pretty awful against us.

We watched the Colorado/Nebraska game following our game and then went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant (real Mexican food) nearby. We had so much fun hanging out with our friends that we didn't get back to our hotel until almost midnight! What a long - but fun - day!

We briefly said hi to Michael's parents - who had just arrived at the hotel from Lubbock (Michael's sister Stephanie and her husband Matt just moved to Lubbock. The Goodrums - Michael's parents and his sister Jennifer - celebrated Thanksgiving in Lubbock at Matt & Stephanie's new house). Afterwards, we crashed. 20 hour days wear me out!















Silly picture of me and two of my college roomies, Beth and Jessica

On Friday, we slept in a bit (never thought 8:00 a.m. would be considered sleeping in - how times change!). Then the Goodrum clan (Michael's parents, us and his sister Jen) went to IHOP for brunch and on from there to the UTEP v. SMU football game (there at SMU in Dallas). Both of Michael's parent graduated from UTEP and several of his aunts and uncles did too. Most of them came to the game. See pictures below.















Michael and his sister Jennifer
(suffering from a rare and highly contagious skin disease... or else a nice, pink reflective glow from his sunglasses)



















Los padres - Go Miners!

After the game, we went to Irving - to Uncle Ricky & Aunt Ida's apartment - for a Diaz extended family gathering (Michael's mom's side of the family). There were probably 30 people in a little apartment but we had a great time. We did a Christmas gift exchange and played games. It was fun to see everybody again (we haven't seen most people since our wedding). It was another late night - I'm not used to this schedule - but we sure had fun!

On Sunday morning, we got up and drove back to Jackson. Michael's parents drove on to Washington, D.C. - where they will be living and working for the next few months on a temporary job assignment. I'm hoping I will need to go to D.C. for work so I can go visit them.