Easter 2012: New England

We took a little trip over Easter weekend...Justin and I flew into Boston on Thursday and met my parents at the airport. We took the T into the city and walked over to our hotel, The Millennium Bostonian right across from Quincy Market. 

Started out with eating my special Italian Sandwich brought just for me from Maine!!

Our corner hotel room with pretty views!

Such a perfect day in Boston

Quincy Market

Justin with his Dunkin' Donuts...finally at like 1pm!

Walking around Quincy Market

We decided to go to the Aquarium since Boston has one of the best and it was only about a quarter mile from our hotel. We spent a lot of time watching the penguins - it was feeding time and they are just so darn cute!! We also saw sea lions, lobsters (of course!), an anaconda (gross!), a massive turtle and massive sting ray, among many other sea creatures.

So many little penguins!

What a cute little guy :)

Murtle the Turtle...weighs 600lbs and is 70 something years old...crazy!

Crazy sea creatures

After the aquarium and some shopping in Quincy Market we walked over to the North End and had dinner at an AMAZING Italian restaurant: Al Dente. We stumbled upon it when we were in Boston 2 years ago and when I looked it up (from the picture I took last time) I found out it's ranked #2 Italian restaurant in the North End...not bad!

Pretty trees outside the Hard Rock Cafe

Inside Quincy Market - some late night snacks

Love the historical architecture

Late night shopping :)

Finished the night off with a DELISH Sangria at Hard Rock!! I've been craving one since SA

When we woke up Friday morning Justin and I decided to find a McDonalds to grab some breakfast. We asked Siri (along with mapquest and google) where the closest one was and it was only around the corner from the hotel...perfect! or so we thought. We walked around in the COLD (like 30 degrees) for about 20 minutes until we figured out the McDonalds had closed and we were in the spot where it USED to be. So we went over to Quincy Market and found a yummy Mexican place for breakfast.

Little alley way near our hotel

Inside Quincy Market again

View outside our window!

The real reason for our trip this weekend was to attend my grandfather's memorial service. He passed away in November but there was no way we could all scramble to get up there before Christmas to bury him. He didn't want a funeral or anything like that so my mom and uncle decided the best way to honor him would be to have a simple service at the cemetery and then have the family over to his house afterwards on Easter weekend. Yesterday, Easter Sunday, would have been his 95th birthday. His birthday only fell three times on Easter (this being the third).

Rest in Peace Gee

Absolutely perfect day

My Grandpa's house

Phoebe was pooped after all of the commotion

Masonic coin we found in his coin collection

We stayed at my mom's cousin Keith's house. He lives in a little further out of town in the woods - so pretty!

Old tractor

Trees and Clouds

Big Kitty...he owns the house obvi

He's a good poser

Morning through the skylight

What a view to wake up to

My Mom's cousin Lisa's precious puppy!!

Looks like winter!

**I took all of these pictures with my iphone...either camera or instagram. I honestly never understood why people would take pictures with their cell phone - especially because I have 2 cameras that I love...but for this trip it was definitely easier to just snap pics with my phone and I must say I am not disappointed with the results**

New England Trip

This past weekend Justin, my parents and I took a trip up to New England so Justin could meet my family (especially those who aren’t coming to the wedding). We got into Portland, Maine late Thursday night. On Friday we went out to lunch at Clambake with my grandparents and then took Justin on a tour of Portland all afternoon. We started out with a quick drive through Pine Point (where my great grandparents had a beach house) and then went out to Portland Headlight. It was such a beautiful place! We had nice weather considering Earl was supposed to hit – so the overcast day was not a problem for us! After Portland Headlight we went out to Bug Light Park and then East End Beach. After our Portland tour my mom and I took Justin to Freeport so he could see L.L Bean. It’s changed so much since I was there 2 years ago – too bad we didn’t have time to shop!!





Justin, Mimi, Bampy, & Me @ Portland Headlight

 

Portland Headlight

 Saturday we got up and drove to Boston. It was only about a 2 hour ride and it was a nice sunny day. We were making a game of trying to get all of the state welcome signs - I did better than Justin, just saying! ;) Once we made it to Boston we went on a trolley tour all around. It was a really good way for Justin to get a taste of Boston. We ended up getting off and walking through the Boston Common and going to the North End for a wonderful Italian dinner. We found this little place off the main street that my mom had read a lot of good reviews about and oh my gosh…it was DELICIOUS!! It tied the restaurant we ate at it in San Francisco last summer as the best spaghetti I’ve ever had! I made sure not to stuff myself so I could fit in some gelato after dinner! After dinner we decided to walk off our dinner and walked through Quincy Market on our way back to our hotel – which was near the prudential center. It ended up being about 2 miles but was needed after our dinner!


Frog pond - Boston



Really old cemetary in Boston

 Sunday we got up and drove to Torrington, Connecticut – where my mom grew up. It was a little longer ride than Saturday but not bad at all. The weather was in the 60’s all day which was AMAZING! When we got to Torrington we decided to go to the Goshen Fair – only about a 4 hour drive – that ended up taking over an hour. All this traffic was for this fair so you KNOW it was good! We got to eat lots of yummy (and SO bad for you) fair food including shoestring onion rings, a funnel cake, and apple crisp. After stuffing ourselves in the wonderfully cool weather we decided to go back to my grandpa’s house. It was a really fun day. On Monday one of my mom’s cousins had a Labor Day picnic so Justin got to meet most of my mom’s side of the family. We had another day of gorgeous weather and had so much fun with everyone!




Us @ the Goshen Fair



Me, Dad, & Gee playing bean bags!

 Sadly our trip came to an end yesterday but I was really missing the dogs so it was something to look forward to come home to! Yesterday was Lexie’s 1st birthday so I made her a cake and we had a mini-celebration for her. Of course the new toys we got her are half chewed up/destroyed today but that’s ok!


Get excited about my next post…it will be fully dedicated to Italian sandwiches!!

Off to New England!

I decided to do one quick post before we leave tomorrow. It's been a busy week with work, getting ready for our trip, neighbor dinner, and finishing up the invitations. But hallelujah they're done and sent (almost all of them are sent at least)!!! We finished stuffing, sealing, and double checking our list on Monday night...you can see the excitement in our faces because we are SO glad to be done with these!!

Look at all those invites!

Tonight we have to take the babies to Bastrop to meet Justin's parents because they are watching them for us while we're gone. Since we had to do that tonight we had our neighbor dinner last night. I decided to try a new recipe - Shepard's Pie. Sandie gave me the recipe at my shower and I decided to be brave and make a recipe I had never made before for company. Usually I go with something I've cooked before because I know there's less of a change I'll mess it up. I guess I got some kind of cooking confidence with all of our new kitchen items from my shower!! The Shepard's Pie actually came out really well...at least everyone said they liked it - and I don't think they were lying becuase there was barely any left!! I was so happy that it came out...but was short on time so no pictures :( but it wasn't a very pretty dish anyways.


We leave tomorrow for our very quick trip to New England. I have to pack tonight because I've been putting it off because we don't know what the weather will be like with that crazy hurricane Earl making his way up North. And sadly I'm not taking the Rebel...we are carrying on our luggage and it's such a short trip I have to leave it at home :( but I will have my little canon point & shoot so I will come back with awesome pictures still! So as of right now this is our sched...


Thursday: Get into Portland, ME late at night
Friday: Spend all day with my grandparents in Portland
Saturday: Go to Boston and do touristy stuff because Justin's never been there :)
Sunday: Go to Torrington, Connecticut
Monday: Mom's side of the family is having a Labor Day Picnic! wahoo!
Tuesday: Come back to Texas BRIGHT and early...actually probably dark and early because our flight is at 6am




Hopefully Boston will look like this...



and not like the great hurricane of 1938...

Portland Headlight on a beautiful day...

the surf @ Portland Headlight during hurricane Bill

Hope everyone has a fun @ safe Labor Day weekend!!