Day Three: A taste of the northeast.

Today I drove from my hotel room in PA to the Boston temple...and then to another hotel room in NJ. If you don't know geography very well, go ahead and look it up on Google maps. That's right, I drove all that today--to attend the temple.

I feel at this point, now that my insanity has been established (and will continue to be, as this blog grows) to explain that when I got my very first (limited use) temple recommend, I set a goal to visit all the temples in the world. There are 134 operating temples currently, with 10 under construction and another 13 announced. This number will only grow, so if you're following along, this project will keep me busy for the rest of my life. At least I won't be bored, right?

The Boston temple was my 41st temple. I'm trying! My rules are simple: I have to do work inside the temple for me to be able to count going (standing outside is not enough.) I take pictures, and collect a temple schedule at each one I visit. I have them all on a wall in my bedroom. To be honest, sometimes when I need a reprieve, I'll sit and look at the ones I have left and plans trip to go there. Also: no matter how many I've gone to, or how long I've been doing this (five years at the current time,) I still get excited each and every time I see one. It's a feeling of familiarity and elation and awe that never seems to lessen...and I hope it never does.

The temple was incredibly beautiful, not that I expected anything less than that. I actually thought to myself, "I wouldn't mind getting married here." Yes, it's that pretty.

As I was driving back to NJ, a friend of mine convinced me to stop in Hartford for dinner. Brian took me out to seafood and I had the "true Connecticut experience" of lobster bisque and stuffed shrimp. (He still insists that the true experience of seafood is in Boston, but coming from a girl in a land-locked state, I'll take everything I can get.) Since we both love to talk, I didn't leave until after 11...which leads me to now, and no sleep. I think, however, if I had to do it again, I'd do almost the same thing.