north shore

it appears as if we may be moving within the next several months (most likely in the dead of winter, yay...), so now is crunch time to squeeze in lots of fun things.  for our long weekend, we did the north shore of mass.

and now, please enjoy many pictures of robert... because i guess that's what happens when you're the one carrying the camera in your purse all day.  

first stop: gloucester, america's oldest seaport.

first we walked around the harbor

 

and then we visited hammond castle.  back in the day, some guy built it as a wedding gift to his wife.  not bad.

although it kind of looks like it, no, i did not chop my hair.... yet. maybe i'll get the courage one day. in a few years.

next stop: rockport. we got crab cakes at some little place off the side of the road (i never knew i liked loved crab cakes until i moved here) and then went to halibut point state park, my new favorite place. we went to a beach where the shore was just a bunch of big granite boulders.  rob found a cool rock and we sat on it for a good while and just watched the waves crash against all of rocks right in front of us.  

i spy mr. rob siting on a rock. you can barely see him here.

 

third, and final stop: ipswich.  all we actually did here, besides drive, was go to an orchard.  but it was a lovely orchard, so worth the extra drive time.  we got delicious cider and donuts and then walked around the animal area.  i love farms/orchards/cider mills/etc.

 

to top off our day, we had the pleasure of seeing this hen.  the oddest looking hen i have ever seen. in my life.  this was the best pic we have of it, and i'm not sure if it fully captures all of its...beauty..  but all of a sudden it came out of its hen house and gave out a loud cocka-doodle-doo, announcing its presence.  it was hilarious.

new york city, continued.

Day 1:

Maroon 5 Concert in Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rock, walk around Central Park, row boat in Central Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, Broadway show

 

 

Day 2:

Met up with friends for Cafe Habana, Doughnut Plant, Bleeker Street Pizza, Staten Island Ferry, Wall Street, The NY Stock Exchange, and a movie back at their apartment in Harlem.

 Day 3:

Breakfast with friends, Crumbs Cupcake (oreo), Street Market, see the Temple, Levain Bakery for yummy cookies, Greenwich Village, and kind of took it easy because we were tired and it was SO hot.

Our hotel:  We had a nice view of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the best part- they had French Bulldog statues all over the place!  I wish I could have one for my home.

The one thing we didn't do, that I would really have loved, is walk the Brooklyn Bridge.  I guess we'll have to save that for our next trip.

a walk in the park

I have found the most enchanting nature walk by my house.  It is goes around a lake, through a forest, over some beautiful bridges, by a really neat/interesting Asian-looking tree park, around Wellesley College with its cool architecture, past wildlife (swans, cool birds, and some cute dogs along the way)... and I really think it's one of my new favorite places. 

I actually did the 2.5 mile trail twice just so I could grab my camera and take pictures the second time around.

hello, new york

For our 5-year, Mr. Rob and I went to NYC.  It was pretty amazing.  I can't find the cord to the other camera that we mostly used, but here's a few pictures.  I'll post more soon... hopefully.

Time Square in the pm.  What an interesting place.

We saw the Addams Family on Broadway.  I think the reason we chose to see this, not knowing a thing about it, is that a.) we both watched Addams Family as kids, and b.) Brooke Shields was Morticia.  Despite our lack of knowledge, it turned out to be a good choice and fun to watch.

We knew someone who was staying at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and they invited us over for breakfast one morning.  The food was good, but the view was amazing!  We didn't make it to the Empire State Building for the city views this trip, but I felt okay about it since we got to experience this.

movie night and beach day

Friday nights at the Hatch Shell in downtown Boston you can go watch free movies.  So we took advantage of free fun and went last weekend to see Despicable Me (very cute movie, by the way).

Rob carrying all of our equipment.  I felt like we were going on a camping trip or something with all the stuff we had.

The Hatch Shell

Part of our picnic.... which I guess you can't really tell what it is.  But we had deli sandwiches, fruit, chips, E.L. Fudge cookies, crackers and cheese, and root beer.

And afterwards we used our Groupon and got  Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  I really didn't want the ice cream (well, I did, but I wasn't hungry for it) but the Groupon expired the next day, so it didn't matter that I had already eaten a full dinner and snacked throughout the movie, I needed it.  So at 10:30pm, we got it.  Rob was very kind to appease me.

On Saturday, a guy we work with invited us to his beach home on Plum Island.  

And we had a lovely time.

mary, mary, quite contrary

I have a little garden that I planted in my backyard.  I love my garden.  And I love that it is finally starting to feed me.

Something I learned: Baby cucumbers are so cute.  This isn't a baby, but if you ever grow cucumbers, watch for the baby ones.

 

Something else I learned: Zucchini plants grow bigger than expected.  Give them a lot of space to grow.

After a day of work, happy to come home and pick lots of full grown zucchini! 

oot and aboot

mama and papa lovell were in town last week.  we had lots of fun...

touring the mansions in Newport, Rhode Island

spending a day browsing shops and enjoying the scenery in Rockport, MA

Apparently parts of the movie The Proposal (with Sandra Bullock) were filmed in this cute little town.  I guess it looks like Alaska?  I'll have to re-watch the movie to check it out.

driving up the coast of Maine (no, we're not saluting. it was just really sunny)

spending a good amount of time in the Concord Museum and then touring through Louisa May Alcott's home, The Orchard House (where the book Little Women was written- which no, I have never read but now feel like I should/want to)

hanging out in The Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  Rob and I have walked around this cemetery trying to find Author's Ridge before, and were unsuccessful.  Funny how some things are just 10x easier when your parents are there.

and doing other fun things that I just didn't get pictures of.  

Thanks for visiting :)

...sorry for leaving off with a picture of a grave. kind of morbid. but it's decorated really pretty, huh?

4th of July. Better late than never.

And this is why it's my favorite day of the year...

We started the day off right... dressing patriotically.  Even Chalmers joined in on the fun.

Apparently he really likes going for the 'tongue out' pose.

And then we went over to Concord for a little town celebration.  I know the picture below isn't great, but it gives you a little idea of how it was.  A row of tents with people selling things (like this women's association- all senior citizens wearing handmade tiarras- selling earrings for $2.50 a pair and all the proceeds went towards a scholarship foundation), people sitting out on lawn chairs or blankets and listening to live music, some people dressed up like early settlers, homemade apple pie, hot air balloon rides, etc.  It was kind of picture perfect.  Concord is such a cute little town!

Hanging out with a Minute Man and eating pie and/or cookie ice cream sandwiches.

Rob throwing a baseball to see how many mph it traveled.  

I think the machine malfunctioned because it read "0".  I got a good laugh.

And then we took the T into downtown Boston.  It was my first time on the T (the train that takes you into town) so it was actually kind of fun,  but we learned that it is just a lot easier to drive your own car.  

We walked around Boston all day and then squeezed our way into a small spot on the sidewalk for the fireworks show.  It may have been a small spot, but we had a spectacular view!

I like looking at people during the fireworks show.  Everyone always looks happy.  These are my parents- they came in town for the week!

The grand daddy of them all.

Rob said it was the best fireworks show he's ever seen.  It's in my top 3.  Either way, it was wonderful and I'm glad I got to spend the 4th in a new and fun location with my parents and my Rob.