Happy 19th! Hej från Sverige (Hi from Sweden), April 19, 2007

Picture: Klas, Åsa and Vendela

We finished sightseeing (click here for photos) in Boston on April 18, visiting Fenway Park, Newbury Street, and Beacon Hill. We took a late flight out that evening to Stockholm, our first destination in Europe.

Happy 19th!...We landed in Stockholm on April 19, which marks when we started dating 12 years ago. So this date is special for several reasons as we also met our niece, Vendela (the beautiful baby in the picture). We relaxed with Pelle (Klas's brother) and Åsa in the afternoon and then headed over to Karin's (Klas's sister) place for Swedish meatballs.

It's nice to be here and be able to spend time with Klas's family the next few weeks. We will head to Linköping (2 hours drive southwest of Stockholm) this weekend to see the rest of the Brunskog family.

Final U.S. Destination is Boston, Massachusetts, April 14-18

Photo: In front of Paul Revere's house

Now we're in Boston, continuing to visit important sites in U.S. history. So far we've walked the Heritage Trail and visited the Harvard and MIT campuses. It feels a little strange as we approach our last days in the U.S. before we begin our travels in Europe. Tomorrow we're driving to Hartford, Connecticut, to sell our car at CarMax. Then we'll continue to tour Boston before we leave on Wednesday.

This will be our last posting before we're in Sweden. Stay tuned...

Pit Stops in Philadelphia and New York, April 12-14

On our drive up to the Bronx, New York, to visit Stephanie and Ciaran, we made a quick stop (i.e. about one hour) in Philadelphia to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. We had wanted to do a history audio tour in Philadelphia and stop in to say hello to some people we know but arrived too late.

After several days of a lot of walking in Washington, it was nice to relax at Stephanie and Ciaran's place. We caught up on some necessities (i.e. laundry), walked around the New York Botanical Garden (which is in the Bronx if you have a chance to go), and ate yummy dinners (sushi, Thai, and some strong mojitos).

On Saturday morning, we headed up to Boston with Stephanie, who stayed in Boston until Sunday afternoon.

Click here for photos from Philadelphia and New York.

Sightseeing Begins in Washington, DC, April 8-12

Photo: In front of The Capitol

We drove about 7.5 hours from North Carolina to Washington, DC, where we checked into a bed and breakfast called Intown Uptown Inn, run by Sandy. If you go to Washington, we highly recommend that you stay there.

This was the real beginning of our sightseeing, visiting new cities on our own. Through our sightseeing in Washington, we've already learned some things about how we like to travel and what we like to see, such as limiting the number of museums that we visit in one day, visiting museums in the morning when we're not worn out, and making sure we have lots of snacks because we can't time everything perfectly and Klas has picky eating habits :-).

We took advantage of the free museums and tours -- lots of history lessons. Our favorite sites/tours were The Capitol, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Arlington Cemetery.

Click here for more photos of our sightseeing in Washington, DC.

Hiked in Morganton, North Carolina, April 4-8

Many of you have heard us talk about "The Ohrts," the family who adopted us while we went to college and lived in Chicago. Chuck and Jerelen, parents of my college roommate Amy, now live in Morganton, North Carolina. So we drove 18 hours from Houston to Morganton over two days to see their new place and catch-up. Their daughter, Laura, flew down from Chicago and their son, Dan, came home from college for the Easter weekend.

We went on their boat on Lake James, hiked through South Mountain State Park, walked at Wiseman's View Overlook and Linville Falls to see Linville Gorge, and played the card game "Golf" (Jerelen kicked all of our butts).

It was a fun time. And we're going to have the opportunity to take them on a tour of Stockholm in September when they stop there for one day during a cruise. Click here for more pictures of our time with the Ohrts in North Carolina.

Relaxed in Houston, March 7 - April 3

We stayed with my sister, Kylie, brother-in-law, Jon, and their dog, Aura, in Houston for almost one month. We had quality family time while also relaxing after a hectic couple of months of preparation. Many days consisted of Kylie and I (Melissa) attempting a French lesson on the computer (we need a lot of help), a morning walk/run with Kylie and Aura, afternoon activity or even a little nap (life's tough), cook for dinner (Kylie was the master chef, Melissa was the sous chef), and sometimes we were lucky with dessert made by Jon (he's quite the baker).

Another treat in Houston was that we were able to meet up with Shaheen Ladhani and his girlfriend, Kim. Klas played tennis with Shaheen for a year when Shaheen went to UTM.

Basically, we felt completely at home staying with Kylie, Jon and Aura - we owe them a big thank you. Not surprisingly, saying good-bye stunk so April 3 was not one of the best days in our lives (sob, sob). We're looking forward to meeting up with Kylie and Jon in Paris in July.

Click here for close-up photos from Houston.