Life {R+S}: Boston With My Bestie + 24

Hey Ya'll! Happy Birthday to me! As Ryan woke me up this morning, he said... you're ALMOST a quarter or a century old. Thanks babe!

While I was 23, I .. celebrated a birthday in New Jersey, planned a wedding, got married to my best friend and love of my life, honeymooned in Jamaica, moved to the Boston area, lived through my first blizzard (or two), substitute taught in Weymouth (and realized how great my passion is for teaching), traveled to Maine and skied, went snoeshoeing, and snowmobiled for the first time ever, traveled to Indiana for the 4th of July, traveled to St. Kitts for a Smith family vacation, and did many, many more things. 23 was an unbelievable year for me and I can't wait to see what's in store for 24!!

I'm so excited I get to spend my birthday with my best friend from home and some of our AMAZING Weymouth friends! I feel so blessed that these people want to spend time with me and I can't wait to celebrate with them!

So let's back up a bit and talk about this weekend!

Saturday:

Saturday morning, Ryan and I headed into the city to pick up Stephanie and Ben from the airport! They got in around 11 with no problems and we took off straight for the Sam Adams Brewery to take those crazy kids on a tour!

The Sam Adams Brewery offers a free trolley ride to Doyle's Pub in Jamaica Plain, where, if you bring your tour ticket and order a cold Sam Adams, they let you take home the specialty glass for free! We've been on the tour 3 times and have never taken them up on this offer until this time! The four of us hopped on the trolley for a short 15 minute ride! The restaurant was fun and we had a good time catching up over lunch (and a couple beers!)

Since Steph and Ben had to get up super early to catch their flight to Boston, we decided to head back to our apartment and rest up before our dinner reservations that night.

After we rested up for a bit, the four of us met up with Kristen and Stephen for the evening! Dinner Saturday night was enjoyed at Lucia's, an Italian restaurant in the North End, followed by some dessert at Mike's Pastry, because... well... you just can't go to the North End and not get some Mike's! (Right, Kristen?!) We had plans to go see the 10:00 comedy show at Improv Asylum, but it sold out before we could buy our tickets, so we stuck around for a bit and caught the Midnight "Raunch" show, which really wasn't any dirtier than their normal shows! It definitely made for a few laughs. (Dancing Lobsters, anyone?) The show got out around 1:15 AM, so we dropped Kristen and Stephen back off at their house and headed straight to bed.

Sunday:

Sunday morning, after church, the group went to Uncle Charlie's for brunch before heading back into the city to explore some more. Our first stop in Boston was Newbury Street in Back Bay, where we did a little shopping before resting at the Joe's American Grill bar! After we enjoyed a nice cold drink, we got back in the car to explore Beacon Hill before heading to dinner. We had to eat an earlier dinner, so after we parked the car, we walked to the Union Oyster House (the oldest restaurant in America) and shared a couple bowls of clam chowder and two seafood platters!

On Boylston!

After dinner, we walked to the Boston Harbor to catch our boat! Earlier in the week, I bought tickets for us to enjoy a 90-minute sunset cruise around the harbor. Unfortunately, the boat was delayed 30 minutes for some reason so we missed the majority of the sunset, but it was still pretty awesome to see the Boston skyline all lit up against the night sky. We wrapped our night up with a couple scoops of Friendly's ice cream and some VMA's (turned on just in time to enjoy a little N'SYNC reunion).