Enjoying Summer

As usual, on nice days (when I'm off of work) we like to get out and try to go somewhere new. One afternoon we went to Castle Island/Pleasure Bay in South Boston for an afternoon walk. It was quite windy with a little rain, but otherwise a beautiful day.

Hurricane Irene ruined my Cape Cod birthday plans last year, so we decided to use our hotel credit this summer. We drove down to the Cape and wandered around Chatham for the afternoon. One of our favorite things to do is walk around little unique town shops. After exploring Chatham, we drove to our hotel in West Dennis, MA. It was so nice to just relax and enjoy being near the beach. We saw our first East Coast sunset! Then we watched some of the Olympics (which we were pretty into this summer) and then went to dinner at The Ocean House. The food was amazing - Brian, naturally, got lobster and I got a steak. We slept in and then read a little out on our little cottage porch, then checked out and headed to the other side of the Cape to explore and shop. We headed home in the late afternoon and had a nice phone chat with Angie to catch up while driving home.

Our Cape Cod Cottage at the Lighthouse Inn

 Dinner at the Ocean House

The young crowd at work requested a night off work so that we could all go out for dinner. We sat on a rooftop in downtown Boston on a lovely summer evening. My co-workers in this picture are (from Left to Right) Merideth, Jill, Kristen, (me), Lauren and Rosalind. We had a great time, even though we still talked a lot about work  haha.
 
Dinner at a friends house for his birthday. The Kelly's on the left and the Jones' in the middle. These two ladies will be throwing me a little baby shower here in Boston in a couple weeks. :)

Brian and I went to a farm one afternoon to pick our own vegetables. We picked green beans, corn, tomatoes, and apples. We used all the veggies for our next two dinners - they were all yummy!! It's super fun to go farming and we plan to do lots more of it!

After coming home from the farm, we stopped by the little summer festival that our apartment complex was having. They had a BBQ, games and activities for the kids, tons of bounce-houses, and a little petting zoo. We didn't stay long - just enough to check it out...and get some free water haha.

That's a little of what we have been up to on my days off! :)

Earth Fest 2012

Last year my mother-in-law and I were wandering around town and stumbled upon the Boston Earth Fest, sponsored by a local radio station and Whole Foods. There was free stuff everywhere, so I was in heaven! I, of course, couldn't miss it this year, so Brian and I headed to the Hatchshell on a hot day in May for some free food, household samples and a concert. The Whole Foods tent always has great stuff - this year they were handing out reusable grocery bags, chapstick, cookies, crackers and more. Plus then there were all the other vendors - we made all the samples our lunch for the day. :) Then we stood and enjoyed the entire hour of music by the Spin Doctors, which was a ton of fun. It was a beautiful day by the river and a fun afternoon in Boston.

From there, we drove directly to Chelmsford, MA to meet Amanda & Josh for dinner & a fiddle concert. Amanda has been taking lessons and this was her fiddle teacher performing a benefit concert for Haiti relief. It was a blast! Her teacher, Hanneke Cassel, is really good and has several CDs - she is quite well-known! Check out her site for a little glimpse into what we got to enjoy that night: http://www.hannekecassel.com/

November

Some catching up for November:

• We visited the Pompeii Exhibit at the Museum of Science. It was pretty neat. In case you want to know more about it: Mt. Vesuvius volcano erupted near Pompeii, Italy in 79 A.D., covering the whole town in layers of ash and debris. The city of Pompeii was lost and forgotten for 17 centuries; the ash also preserved much of the city "as if in a time capsule", which is what was on display in the exhibit, including body casts of the victims.

• We went on The Spirit of Boston Harbor Dinner Cruise, courtesy of Chris and Cate. They had tickets to go for their anniversary, but weren't feeling well, so they gave us their tickets. It was a 3 hr dinner cruise around the harbor, which was really nice - we found ourselves talking a lot about our time here in Boston and what a beautiful city it is. :) The waiter thought it was our anniversary, so we played along and celebrated.

• Fall went by too quickly! Now that I am working 40 hrs a week, I didn't have many opportunities to go out and take pics of the foliage. However, I did manage to snap a few shots - I truly love the 4 seasons!!
  

Summertime!

At the Harpoon Brewery

WOW! I just realized I haven't posted anything in almost 2 months!! It's definitely time for some updates:

VISITORS - 2 of our groomsmen, Ed & Eddie, visited us for a week in August. Unfortunately I had to work almost every day, but Brian was able to go out exploring and touring with them. On my day off, we drove down to Newport, RI to see the Newport Mansions there, which were quite amazing. Here is a little slide show of their visit:

Then, the weekend after the guys left, our good friend Joe stopped by to visit. He was on his way to Bermuda for work, so he stopped here for the night and met us for dinner. We went to the North End for some amazing Italian food. :)

OUT & ABOUT: We went to the Harpoon Brewery with some friends a few weekends ago. That was my first brewery experience (Brian has been to the Sam Adams brewery twice now) - neither of us are big beer people, but it was still fun to sample and learn about/see the process. My favorite was probably the raspberry beer or cider, but they also had pumpkin and several other beers.

After the brewery we went to watch a cliff diving competition that was being held in the harbor. They were jumping off of a high building (the Institute of Contemporary Art) and landing in the harbor. It was very impressive! Here are a few pics from that event:

WORK - things are going very well at the VA and it is looking like they are going to be hiring us all (new grads) on full time! That's wonderful!! I have been working independently for about 2 months now and it has been such a wonderful, challenging experience. I am still working my per diem mental health jobs whenever possible, but that isn't too often. I usually work 5 8-hour (evening) shifts a week at the VA, which keeps me busy enough.

SCHOOL - Brian took German this summer - he has to learn how to read German and French (the latter will be next summer's course). He is anxiously awaiting for the semester to start after Labor day...such a good student. I love that he loves school/learning so much. :)

Lately

Last month my step-mom's aunt and uncle (Jim & Fran) were visiting Cape Cod, so they drove into the city to meet us for lunch. We ate at the Union Oyster House, which is America's oldest (still-operating) restaurant - really cool place with good food. The Kennedy's ate there often and we sat right across from "The Kennedy Booth". This is a picture of us at lunch - Jim and Fran are next to me and their traveling buddies are next to Brian.

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We had a picnic and went hiking in the Arnold Arboretum with our friends Ben and Tara.

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Thankfully I had the weekend of our anniversary off. So, we celebrated our 1st anniversary by taking a little trip (in our fabulous new car) to Portsmouth, NH. It's a cute little town on the harbor, right next to Maine. We just walked around the town, shopping in the cute stores, went to Kittery, Maine for a lobster dinner (for Brian), and got hour long massages the next day. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel and they left us some nice chocolate covered strawberries and champagne. On our way home, we drove through New Castle, NH, which is apparently the smallest town in NH and is entirely on islands. We saw some of the cutest houses there - I could move there in a second! Unfortunately we were focused on driving and I didn't get many pictures though. To end our trip, we stopped to have dinner at Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse. It was just like being back home :) We are certain there are places like these in Boston - we just haven't found them yet. Here are some pictures from our anniversary trip:

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I had to work on the 4th of July in the evening, so we had a picnic lunch in the park with our friends Chris and Cate. We also were housesitting the beagles, Lily & Molly over the weekend, which is A LOT easier to do with a car now. Their house is about 15 min walk from the subway stop, so it was kind of a pain getting there before.

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Lastly, I've been working a ton! After our anniversary weekend, I worked 8 days straight (between VA and Whidden) and then had 1 day off before starting a row of 12 work days. On my day off, we went downtown and wandered around as usual. We went to a cupcake shop that we've heard lots about and got mini cupcakes which were amazing. Then we walked on the bridge over the Charles River - it was a beautiful summer day in Boston. To end the fun on my day off, we had dinner at a nice modern restaurant in Newton (something we couldn't do before because we didn't have a car). So, now I am on day 3 of my 12 day stretch. Things are going really well at work - I am officially working on my own, no more orientation at the VA. I am working as an RN for real now - 2.5 yrs after getting my license! HA! And I only have 3 more days of orientation at Whidden and then I will be working per diem there. So, things are going very well over here!!

December Activities

A couple Sundays ago we met Caleb & Robyn (and her sister, Becky) for breakfast in Cambridge. We were connected to Robyn through Brian's teacher Tracy from LMU (but she went to BC as well) - Tracy and Robyn are cousins and Robyn recently moved here with her husband - they're very nice!! When we got off the subway, we were shocked to see the stairs/escalator climb up to the street. This is a picture from the bottom of the first set of stairs/escalators (the second one was shorter).

I am working on a little class project for St. Norbert School for my flower girls' class. They read a story about Flat Stanley, so I colored him and put him in his winter clothes and have been taking him with me places. This is us going down the giant escalator.

A few days later, we went to a Christmas party at one of Brian's teachers' house in Newton. Her students turn in their papers at the party, which is probably a great way to get more people to turn them in on time. It was starting to snow a little on our way home, but it was tough to take a picture of since it was very light (but I tried anyway, pic on the right).

Then we stopped to take a picture at the entrance of BC on our way home. Like I said before, everything is so nicely decorated for Christmas!! :)
Lastly, this is our little "Christmas Tree" that we got for our apartment. It is actually rosemary, but it was cheaper than the mini pine trees, and it's edible! :) We put just 2 little ornaments on it because it can't hold much weight, so these 2 are from Dawn in 2007 and are perfect on our little tree.

Catching up

On November 20, Faneuil Hall had their 26th annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, so we went to check it out. All the trees were lit, there were street performers, and live music. The Christmas Tree was huge!! We just walked around the shops and then ate dinner in the North End at La Galleria 33 - yum!


I will be posting many more pictures of Christmastime here in Boston, hopefully with some snow on the ground too! We have been walking around a lot and I've seen a lot of cute decorations and lights, but never have my camera of course.

Other things over the past few weeks that are notable are the meals we have had with friends. I met Kate at Panera in Brookline during thanksgiving week - she and Conor are getting married this weekend! The night before thanksgiving Daryn & Nichole came over and we went and ate at Harry's Bar down the street. We went to dinner a couple Sundays ago with Maggi, a girl from Orange County who is now going to Harvard Divinity School. Kirsten connected us, but Maggi also knows Pam, Teresa O., and Megan. We had dinner at an Irish pub called Mr. Dooley's downtown. They had live music and the food was great - very cute, fun atmosphere. I also went out last week for lunch at Quotes Cafe to meet a girl named Stephanie. I was connected to Stephanie through Katie, another bridesmaid from Kate's wedding last month. Kate, Katie, and Stephanie all went to USC, but Katie went to New York for some time which is where Stephanie is from. Stephanie did her undergrad here in Boston and now is back here living with her boyfriend. She is an occupational therapist in New Jersey and works with babies, which was really fascinating to learn about. We have been very blessed to be able to meet so many wonderful people here in our new town.

Now onto the weather - here are some pictures to show the progression of the trees in our "backyard" (view from the kitchen window). Green --> yellow/orange --> brown --> bare!
We have a huge pile of leaves on the ground outside our bedroom window from all these trees over the past month. Pretty much all the trees (and bushes) around here are bare now - its sort of sad, yet interesting to think that they are still "alive". Loving the seasons here, as we approach winter. On the news today they said today is the coldest day of the season (fall, since winter starts in a couple weeks). It was 23 this morning, but "felt like" 10 degrees (which is all that really matters!). The wind sure does make a difference, but we are enjoying it & having fun, especially now that we have all our gear (long underwear, beanies, gloves, scarves, ear muffs, jackets, boots, etc.). Next post will hopefully include some snow, which is coming soon!!! :)