HLS Graduation

Thursday we "Ubered" over to Cambridge to meet up with JJ, Jackie and Brian and Kip's friends Tyson Phillips and Alastair McKee for Kip's big day. We had breakfast at Moe's with Kip's roommate Bill and his parents then walked over to the Harvard Law School graduation. We watched with great joy and pride as Kip received his diploma. It was a very low-key celebration of such a great accomplishment. We gave Kip the same briefcase I received after my graduation from the BYU law school, embossed with both his and my initials. After graduation we met up at Joe's Grill on the wharf for dinner with the group plus Kip's girlfriend Emily.

On Friday we planned on a group outing to Martha's Vineyard, but due to traffic Kathy and I missed the ferry. The kids biked on the island while Kathy and I drove through New Hampshire to the outlet mall in Kittery Maine. We did some needed shopping and had a delightful lunch at Robert's Maine Grill at the outlet mall. We all got together for dinner at Legal Seafood. 

On Saturday we had lunch at the North End, got canolis from Mike's and flew home. What a pleasure to watch the celebration of both Haley's and Kip's long hours and hard work.

Between graduation ceremonies

On Sunday after a morning at leisure, Kathy and I attended church in Poughkeepsie NY then drove along the Hudson River. We stopped at the FDR presidential library in Hyde Park and took the elevator up to the Walkway Over The Hudson.

On Monday we drove to NYC and had lunch with Dave and Julie Colton who took time from their representation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the United Nations to take us to lunch followed by a walk across Central Park and a tour of the Old Masters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the way out we stopped by the African Art collection at the Met where I compared our collection with theirs finding ours to be comparable. We checked into the Renaissance Hotel on Times Square, had dinner at Cielo, and saw an off-Broadway production of The Fantastiks which we enjoyed.

On Tuesday, after breakfast overlooking Times Square, we drove out of Manhattan into Connecticut, then took a ferry across Long Island Sound to Long Island. We drove through the Hamptons to Montauk, then ate dinner in Sag Harbor at Page 63, then took the ferries onto and off of Shelter Island and stayed at the Harborfront hotel in Greenport NY.

Wednesday morning we took the ferry back to CT, enjoyed Mystic eating lunch at the Engine Room and toured Newport Rhode Island, shopping and driving along Ocean Drive. We then drove up to Boston and checked into the Long Wharf Marriott.

May 2016: To the East Coast for Graduations

On Thursday, May 19, 2016, Kathy and I flew to NYC JFK where we rented a car and stayed at the Fairfield Inn at JFK.

On Friday we drove up to West Point to celebrate our niece Haley Winters' graduation from West Point, the United States Military Academy, and her commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the Army of the United States of America. First we met up with family: Haley, Kathy's sisters Carla (Haley's mother) and Tracy, Tracy's husband Shelton, and Haley's siblings Issac, Alexis and Sierra. We went to Eisenhower Hall where Haley was awarded the outstanding senior female track athlete. After the ceremony, Kathy and I went to Beacon NY to the Airbnb cottage we were renting and then met up with Carla, Tracy and Shelton for dinner at Brother's Trattoria in Beacon.

On Saturday we went over to the stadium to see the graduation, then picked up food from American Burrito and all went over to the track stadium for the commissioning ceremony. Haley received her commission from her brother Issac, whose graduation we attended last year. All of us then met in Fishkill NY for dinner at the Red Line Diner, where we had a similar meal last year!