Friends in New England (and birthday)

I spent the last week of July in Boston, Connecticut, and New York, visiting with some of my wonderful friends. Beth and Robert are two of my favorite people "from" Nashville (I knew them first in college), have just gotten back from a year serving at a mission hospital in Angola and are now in Boston. Sherstin, also one of my dearest friends from Nashville, flew up for the weekend, and Robert, Beth, Sherstin, and I had a wonderful time reconnecting. This was taken on a ferry ride in Boston Harbor.
I spent the week down in Connecticut, visiting with more friends and family. My study buddy from medical school, Mark, is starting a fellowship in NYC, so I toodled around the city with him...
He has heard that there are a lot of bad bugs in NYC, and thought some protection would be in order. :)
We also got to hang out with another medical school classmate, Kevin, and Mark's sister.
Fortunately, it was not all errands in NYC - we got to hit the beach. It was a beautiful, blue sky day. Aren't sun glasses fun?
My birthday was the following weekend on Sunday, so I just had a traveling birthday all weekend long! On Friday evening, his parents took us out for a great dinner in Westport. (If you don't have flowers, the one out of the vase on the table will do.)

Me and his mom - she graciously put up with both of us in the house for 5 weeks while we studied for medical boards after 2nd year of medical school.I got to catch up with my cousin Stacia, who is in New Haven. We hadn't gotten to see each other in ages!Then it was back to Boston on Saturday for dinner at my favorite Ethiopian restaurant, and then up to South Hamilton to spend time with my Aunt Jeanie (Stacia's mom). Finally, on Sunday night, a bunch of my dearest college friends gathered for birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Boston. I hadn't seen some of them in ages and it was just a blast to catch up! All in all, a very fun 32nd birthday!!