Boston Adventure Weekend

This past weekend we helped Anja, Duff and Leif move to Boston - which was more or less an adventure (depending on one's perspective) and involved a lot of helpers.  First Duff's family visited them in Pittsburgh - to participate in Duff's thesis defense, and then to help pack the moving van.  Duff's dad and brother had to fly back to Mississippi, but his mother, Melinda,  stayed on and helped move them all the way to Boston.  Zach and Rachel drove from Ohio to Pittsburgh,  stacking the remaining belongings onto their pick-up truck and also taking a load of things to their grandparent's garage in Mt. Lebanon (turned out the moving van Anja and Duff had rented was not quite big enough).

Everyone then drove to the "Long Shot Farm", for a night of rest.  Rachel, Toben and Fiona stayed at the farm to help Jeff pick blackberries, but Zach, Lars and Tina drove along to Boston.  So we had the moving van with Melinda and Duff, Anja's car with Tina, Anja and Leif, and Tina's truck with Zach and Lars.  We drove together, until Zach missed an exit and took the New York City route, while we went the scenic route through northern PA into New York State. 

We stopped at a hotel about one hour west of Boston for the night and then arrived at their new apartment on Saturday morning. Somehow, unpacking a moving van is always significantly faster than packing  and we unloaded the van in less than 2 hours!  The rest of the weekend was spent trying to help unpack boxes and arrange furniture.  Sadly, when we all left, there was still an awful lot of unpacking to do for Anja and Duff. 

unpacking the kitchen

Anja & Leif in living room

But their apartment is very nice, in an older building, with 10 ft high ceilings and pretty much space - considering this is Boston -  and just 2 miles from MIT.  Plus it had a very nice sized walk-in pantry and a plastered ceiling in the kitchen - and a lovely dining room with the built in china cabinet!

We returned today - which happened to be Zach's birthday.  Toben probably enjoyed the ice cream cake the most!