Every trip to the USA ends with feedback from the boys: why can we stay longer? So this year I decided to extend the trip to 4 weeks with the thought I could work the first week (and also meet up with my USA counterparts). But this apparently was against BMW rules and so my 3 week vacation became a 4 week vacation. Oh the horror. Chika had business to attend to in Japan, so we needed to make the journey on our own.

Somehow in the planning, I chose to do the outbound via Brussels (maybe was a little cheaper). But in the middle of the transit Teo asked: why didn’t we fly direct? I started asking myself the same question. At least we were able to pickup some good belgian chocolate on the way.

We arrived tired after a long day, but we quickly settled into our routines. Mornings with Pop Pop’s french toast and other breakfast delights, followed by the gym/pool and then some additional outings. We were able to catch up with the bigger clan starting with a day at the Great Adventure amusement park with Uncle Mike and cousin William (the first of many outings thanks to a great deal on season passes with upgrade to Diamond — more about that later). We followed this with a great grill/pool party with Aunt Melanie. The next day we met up with William for some great dim sum (where Will ate more than I could have imagined) and the Franklin Institute.

The timing of our trip allowed me to participate in my friends Brendan and Raquel’s son Benjamin’s Bar Mitzvah in NYC. A fantastic event with their great friends and some fun kibbitzing with local congregants after the service. And of course a great opportunity to catch up with Patrick, Stirling, and an impromptu visit from Allan to enjoy some fun NYC experiences — including an amazing peruvian meal at Artesano which was amazing and a great bike tour through Brooklyn (thanks Patrick!).

I rejoined the crew in Atlantic City and took advantage of the proximity of the bus depot to the best cheese steak in the world at White House Subs. We settled into our beach routine enjoying the beach life — beach, eat, beach, eat, etc. We did manage to mix it up with some fishing activities. While we upgraded our gear from last year, we were not able to catch any dinner.

The rest of the clan joined us down for a long weekend, kicked off by Aunt Melanie’s successful triathalon, followed by lobster fest, belated birthday celebration for Mom and Dad at Chef Vola’s, an epic bikeride with Mike to Strathmere, and of course a visit to Ocean City boardwalk with cousins Jeff and Oliver.

Having conquered the beach, it was now time to head north to visit our friends in New England — Ben, Tonya, Asher, and Arya Mezrich. With an morning break departure, we were able to get to Vermont by lunch time. Undaunted by the weather, we managed to visit their lake front 2 days in a row but also fit in some major table tennis action (I was mainly undefeated, with the exception for 1 loss to Simon who was up writing up a story about Ben.) When the weather finally broke, we went to Storyland for a great day at our second amusement park of the trip followed by a great house party where I ran into an old friend (and Chika’s former work colleague) Soo.

The following day, we needed to adjust the schedule because it was family baseball day for the Mezrich family at Fenway Park in Boston. They were extra kind sharing their extra seat with Kai, who at his very first game was treated to seats in the owners box behind home plate — not sure how I will ever top that. Teo and I in the meantime decided to head into Boston China town for some excellent dim sum at Dynasty. I somehow let Teo take over the ordering, and the next thing we knew we had huge amounts of food arriving — including a brisket with rice roll dish (very tasty, but way too much fat on the brisket).

In the evening, Ben and Tonya took me to the Quinn House, a cool refurbished social club in the redone Algonquin, with our friend Russ. A great time to end the northern part of the trip.

We departed the next day to the Six Flag New England, since our Diamond Pass upgrade got us into every park. Was fun to try some new rides, and we especially liked the Superman rollercoaster. From there we took the long leg of the trip back to Yardley.

While it was supposed to be the winddown part of the trip, I managed to make 2 excursions to Philadelphia. 1st, I just randomly noticed a Facebook post showing a book tour stop of my old friend Adam from my Nokia days. Was super fun to suprise him and catch up (and strangely enough was my introduction to Soo from my earlier post.) Then the boys and I decided to try the Hurricane Water Park at Six Flags topped with a few rollercoasters to wrap up on this trip. And then in another last minute call, I decided to drop back into Philadelphia to catchup with Allan again for a happy hour tour — hitting not just Dirty Franks for some great Yuengling beers and darts but also capping it of with giant slices from Lorenzo’s on South Street. Even better than I remembered.

4 weeks seemed to fly by too fast, but then it was finally time to go. A great time was had by all, perhaps too good — my scale noticed a non-negligible change since I left. But all in good service of family and friend time. Can’t wait until the next one.