Wine and Love, Friday Edition

I'm a bit late to the party this week, but I just can't seem to get much other than work accomplished Monday-Thursday. I guess that is the price I may for my Fridays off. A price that is well worth it, I may add.

You must know the Wine and Love drill by now. If not, too bad :) I know you guys are all smart so you'll figure it out.

Wine

1. My kiddos are getting sick of tutoring right now and I really don't blame them. Tutoring is a good job, it pays well and you can see the kids make a lot of progress. Even though I try really hard to make it fun (and I think I do a better job than most), it's still extra work they don't want to be doing. Ideally, both I and all of them would be going away next week so everyone could take a break- but I decided to take my vacation in a few weeks so, they are just going to have to deal with me for a little while longer :)

2. I've finally started working on my wedding album (yes, 1 year later) and I was going through pictures on shutterfly (I decided to use that instead of my DVD because the DVD takes longer to load). Well, apparently I uploaded all my photographers pictures except for oh like 5 or 10 which are just randomly not there. WHY? I'm telling you this always, always happened during wedding planning to me. I'd put people on the guest list and they would disappear. I'd have someone's address and BAM it would be gone. I would think I confirmed with the hair person and then she would say, no, we never talked about this. Etc, etc. So happy wedding planning is over :)

3. Social events at the same time. Sure, there are times when it's sort of convenient to have two events at once, mainly when you don't really want to go to one haha. However, this Sunday I have my cousins bridal shower at the same time as one of my friends is having an ice cream sundae birthday party. I'm excited to see all my family at the shower and hang out at my grandmother's house, but I don't pass up ice cream sundae's easily. It should also be mentioned that this same friend had a similar birthday party when we were in elementary school and I may or may not have gotten sick from eating so many delightful treats back then. Hmm, maybe this two events conflict for a reason...

Love

1. I genuinely love all the kids I'm working with this summer- which of course makes it harder to torture them, but it does make the time more enjoyable. One of the kids I'm working with LOVES Red Sox stats. It's been a lot of fun to "have to" (for the job that is, haha) get back into all the details of the Sox that I haven't had time for the past couple of years. Last weekend our manager won his 1,000th game, one of our pitchers (Tim Wakefield) got his 2,000th strike out. This week David Ortiz hit his 1000th RBI, a grand slam! Also, Dustin Pedroia is currently in the midst of a 25 game hitting streak. Since I'm really not a math person, it's all a bit challenging for me but it's fun to try to keep up with him. Maybe you wouldn't understand unless you have also attempted to keep up with the Star Wars and Pokemon crazes- I do my best but I just have NO interest what-so-ever in those two topics of conversation haha.

2. Long weekends. I really just love them. What more can I say about that?

3. Beating a food rut- or at least trying. I have been in a total food rut for awhile, but not really in the mood to cook and try new recipes. Last weekend I ate at some really awesome restaurants at the Cape with my parents (I'll review them soon, I took a lot of pictures). Then, this week I got newly motivated to try new recipes and by try, I mean bookmark like 10 recipes from Eat Live Run and Peas and Thank You. So I WILL be trying them soon. I'm just happy that my motivation has returned.

How about you? What is your wine and love this week?

Who's Responsibility Is It? (aka The Happy Meal Make Over)

Hello everyone :) I hope everyone is having a happy Tuesday. I had a happy, but busy Tuesday. I had work and tutoring and I spent the time in between at school organizing. I cleaned out all my desk drawers, and 4 cabinets. The only thing I really have left to tackle is a few shelves and a closet. When I first started teaching my closet was a scary place to enter- I don't think it had been cleaned in YEARS. I found an old typewriter among other random things in there. Luckily now everything in that closet is mine, so it won't be as hard to reorganize this time. Then I can deal with actually getting ready for the year. My goal is to have things done early this year because Eric and I are going to the Cape for a week at the end of August and I don't want to have to think about it then :)

Have you heard the latest news about the Happy Meal? It's getting a makeover!

The changes are:

1. The addition of apple slices to all happy meals.

2. The reduced portion of french fries.

3. Two additional choices for a drink including fat free chocolate milk and 1% low-fat white milk.

This new happy meal (if the child gets 1% milk) has 410 calories, 19 grams of fat and 560 milligrams of sodium. These changes come as a response to some cities banning toys from happy meals because they were concerned about the nutritional quality of a happy meal. McDonalds in general are trying to make some positive changes in their menu which you can read about in the article: Happy Meal Gets a Makeover.

As a healthy person, teacher and wife of a PE teacher- I have to say I am psyched about the big focus the US seems to be putting on reducing the problem of childhood obesity right now. It seems that thanks to Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver and others, people are actually trying to change things- which is wonderful. I see such differences in the snacks and lunches of students in my class- just today I had a student with grapes and almonds for a snack and another with chips.

I am not one of those people who feels that kids have to eat healthy ALL the time. I think childhood is a time for baked treats (think brownies, cookies and cake!), the occasional bag of cheesy doritos and I couldn't possibly mention childhood without the ever popular candy! But it's also an important time to instill good eating habits in children and provide them with healthy choices on a daily basis.

I think that changing the foods served in schools and improving the nutritional value of happy meals are good steps in the right direction. However, I think something that is going to be SO hard to change, but so important is the parental influence. Parents HAVE to set a good example. Sure, it's GREAT if a kid has a "healthier" happy meal, but if the parent gets a big mac with a super size french fries... where are we then? Sure, today the child is still better off, but what about when they become a teenager, or even an adult- they may not be able to make healthy choices for themselves.

Do you think that it is enough for parents to provide their children with "healthier" (sorry I still can't call a happy meal healthy) choices when they themselves may not be making healthy choices?

How do you think we can educate and encourage parents to make healthy choices for themselves and their whole family?

PS. We also have to stop cutting PE and recess if we want healthy kids, but that's a post for another day :)

Seven Links

Last week Amber tagged me in the Seven Links post that has been going around in the blog world :)

I've found it fun to read this on other blogs because I got to read posts I hadn't read before, or revisit ones I had. So, I hope you will have some fun reading some of my old posts!

Most Beautiful Post: Never Gonna Feel Like This Again

This post is my summary of the reception part of my wedding. Obviously the pictures are beautiful, but also it's a beautiful memory of all the love that I felt on that day.

Most Popular Post: Blame It On The Boyfriend

I can't really figure out my stats lately (it keeps saying my most recent posts are the most popular, which I know is a lie) so I just picked a very popular post where I got a lot of comments. This was when I wrote about whether or not being in a relationship/marriage makes you gain weight :) Has it for you?

Most Controversial Post: The 25 Year Old Troublemaker

As it turns out, I do NOT have a very controversial blog. I really have not had any controversial posts, so I posted the one about getting in trouble for talking in spinning class. A few people did mention that they agree talking should not happen, so that's my controversy haha. Especially because I still maintain they are wrong :)

Most Helpful Post: Elliptical Challenge

Apparently I'm not that helpful on my blog because this one was hard. However, I did a fun Elliptical Challenge with some of my readers awhile ago and I think that was really helpful getting us through January 2009 :) So...yes. I am super unhelpful. Gotta work on that.

A Post Who's Success Surprised You: Do You Tell All?

This was my post about how much people tell in blogging and whether or not they've ever fought with someone about their blogging :)

A Post You Feel Did Not Get the Attention It Deserved: Just For Fun

Rookie blogger mistake, I should have given this post a better title than "Just For Fun" haha. Anyway, I didn't really have a post that I felt should've gotten more attention because I don't really think in that way about my blog. However, this post was the one I did with Eric about what constitutes "cheating" and I think a lot of people may not have read it since it was at the beginning of my blogging days. Sorry in advance that the spacing is terrible!

The Post You Are Most Proud Of: Officially a Sprint Triathlete

This one was easy! Completing a sprint tri, especially after hurting my knee was a huge accomplishment and I definitely hope to do it again sometime :)

That was fun :) If you have a blog, link us to your answer to one of these!

Kelly's Favorite Things

One of my favorite things about blogging is getting ideas for new foods to eat, exercises to try, and things to do in general. That's why I especially like when Sues does her favorite things posts on We Are Not Martha. It's the perfect way to get new ideas for things to love. I decided today I'll do my own, and hopefully you'll get an idea or two. Enjoy :)

The Carrot and Grape Combination

Yes, I realize I just started with a pretty random one. I've been taking carrots and grapes to work for my morning snack and I just love this combination. First of all it's practical for me right now because both carrots and grapes can be out of the fridge for a few hours and I don't have access to one as I run around to different tutoring houses. Also, I love that it's very crunchy- something about eating crunchy foods makes me feel like I'm really eating something. Finally, the combination of the really sweet/sour grape with the less sweet carrots is just perfect. Plus, they are good for you.

Summer Country Music

I think I've now liked country music for about 12 years, so that's nothing new. But I do have some new songs I love including:

Take a Back Road,  Rodney Atkins

Dirt Road Anthem, Jason Aldean

Without You, Keith Urban

Crazy Girl, Eli Young Band

If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away, Justin Moore

Barefoot Blue Jean Night, Jake Owen

Just a Kiss, Lady Antebellum

Knee Deep, Zac Brown Band

Seriously, all good. Download them all. If you don't like country, then reconsider that and download them all :)

Peter Christian's Honey Mustard

Remember a few weeks ago Eric and I went to one of my all time favorite restaurants in New London, NH? Well, they also happen to have the BEST honey mustard ever. I really don't even like mustard, but I somehow love this. I was really hoping to tell you guys you could buy it online (also cuz I need more) but sadly, they don't sell it online. So, obviously you need to make a trip to New Hampshire. And so do I.

Slimcados

Lol, the name cracks me up. Basically, it's a huge avocado with less fat than a normal avocado, fabulous. I love taste so when I'm not smearing honey mustard all over my sandwiches, I am spreading avocado across the bread. Yum.

Reading, Reading, Reading

Summer isn't all about teaching the kiddos how to read, it's also about catching up on my own reading. For a list of the books I have read and loved recently, visit my New Meaning of Summer Reading post.

Iphone Auto Correct

Truth be told, I don't have an iphone, but I can definitely appreciate a good laugh over the absolute HILARIOUS auto corrects that people have experienced. I was literally dying while I was reading the conversations on this website to Eric, it was hard to read I was laughing so hard. I will warn you, they aren't exactly G rated, but hilarious anyway! When I get an iphone the FIRST thing I am going to do is turn autocorrect OFF!

Erin Condren Life Planner

Okay fine, so I don't love this life planner yet because I haven't got it. But ever since Amber blogged about it last November, I've been waiting for the 2011-2012 life planner to come out (I had a new planner at the time) so I could get it. I just ordered mine last night and I could not be more excited for it to arrive in a couple of weeks. I'll show you it when it does :)

What are your favorite things right now? Please share!

Summer Lovin'

Oh summer, how I love thee. This weekend has been busy and great. I don't mind busy weekends in the summer because I don't feel like I need to savor every second of down time!

Friday

On Thursday and Friday night Eric and I went out for delicious dinners- first with friends and then with my parents on Friday. We went to a place I've mentioned once before called Masa. Masa has two locations, one in the South End of Boston and one in Woburn. First of all they have cornbread, which I honestly could make a meal out of it- it's so good. Last time I got a cod dish, but this time I tried the Pan Roasted Cod with New England Chowder Salsa (I got on the side). It came with fingerling potatoes, lardons and chile broth.

I thought it was great again :)

Saturday

Saturday was Eric's grandmother's 80th birthday! Do you believe she had grandkids when she was in her late 40s? Amazing. Saturday morning I woke up in a Martha Stewart mode so I decided to make chocolate dipped strawberries and s'mores on a stick.

For some reason I get worried about bringing things to parties, maybe because most of what I can eat doesn't taste that awesome to everyone else. However, these were big hits and the only real concern I had bringing them was whether they would make it there in Eric's back seat, which they did!

The party took place in Eric's uncle and aunt's backyard. They had a tent and all went well :)

We got a whole family shot including Eric's grandmother and great uncle. Sorry to be a sketchball and blur out the little boy- I get really paranoid about putting kids up on my blog without asking their parents. He's a cute kid though- and I believe he is Eric's second cousin. I've made some effort to understand second cousins vs. cousins once removed, so assuming his mom is Eric's dad's cousin (which I think is the case) then I have it right :)

Finally, by far the best picture of the day was...

Good thing she is happily obvious to what is going on behind her :)

Sunday

In case we had not done enough this weekend, today Eric and I decided to go explore Concord and see some historical sites at the Minuteman Historical Park. We started with a quick history review multimedia presentation at the visitor center which was great. If you don't really know much about the Battles of Lexington and Concord and you are interested, there is some information on the Minuteman Historical Park's website. The park itself begins in Lincoln, and it includes a walking/bike riding trail that visits many of the sites. However, it's about 10 miles to walk if you go there and back and it was over 90 degrees today, so we just drove :)

One of my goals for this summer has been to explore Concord, mainly because I am tutoring a kiddo out there in the "country" and I figure why not? Of course, I tutor him at 7 am, so I'm not sure what brilliant things I think I am going to do at 8 am, but it's a really beautiful place: trees everywhere and lots of wildlife.

We packed ourselves some turkey sandwiches so we could have a picnic lunch, so we enjoyed that at our second stop which was Hartwell Tavern. This was the home of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell and it was also a successful farm and tavern where visitors would stop on their way to and from Boston :)

I don't think Eric would've enjoyed visiting this tavern as much as the people in the 1700s did...

Yeah, he can't stand up straight in this old tavern :) Let's just say Eric and I will not be buying an old historic home anytime soon! Also, at Hartwell Tavern we saw a great presentation called "Who were the Redcoats?"

(The building behind is a result of our crazy winter- don't let too much snow pile up on an old home!)

We skipped a few other historic homes along the way, so we'll have to go back to visit on a bit cooler of a day. Our last stop was at the Old North Bridge, official site of the battle of Concord :)

There is still a lot more I'd like to do in Concord: Walden Pond State Reservation and kayaking on the Concord River to name a few. I'll let you know when those happen.

For now, we are sitting around watching the first Harry Potter movie. Believe it or not, I haven't seen ANY of them and the excitement of the last one coming out is getting to Eric so he's decided he wants to watch all of them. I agreed as long as I can have my computer with me at all times, long movies are not my thing. I did love the first three books though, then they got a little too fantasy for my book taste :)

How was your weekend? Do you enjoy visiting historical sites? Are you into the Harry Potter movies?

A New Meaning of Summer Reading

Remember when Summer Reading was a stack of really boring books that had to be completed during our much deserved time off? Yuck.

Now that I get to choose my own books for summer reading (books that do NOT suck), it's a lot more fun. I know a lot of my blog readers enjoy reading as much as I do so I have some book recommendations for you guys:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This book was definitely one of the top books I've read this year. It's about a girl from an Indian orphanage who is adopted by an American mom and Indian father (both living in the states) who can't have biological children. The book follows her struggle with understanding her Indian heritage, her birth parents etc. It also follows the struggle of her birth mom (in India) and adoptive mother and her grandmother (Dad's mom, also in India). It was a really great story, and I think most girls or moms who have gone through the teen years with their moms/daughters can probably relate to this story :)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Okay, I realize I am seriously late to the party on this book. I actually took it out of the library last year and couldn't get into it at first- I must have had too much going on or something. I decided to give it another shot this year and I absolutely loved it this time. If you have somehow managed to not read this yet like I hadn't, you should read it now :)

  

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

At first I was not sold on the interesting writing style of this book, and the fact that it is narrated by "Death." However, i was quickly won over by the amazing characters. Liesel, the little girl and her foster parents are all amazing, though at times quirky people. I also came to love Lisesel's best friend Rudy and Max, the Jewish man who hides in Liesel's basement (should've probably mentioned this book takes place in Nazi Germany). I could easily read another book featuring all of these people. I read this book pretty fast, but it's not an easy book to read, and the writing does make it confusing at times (which makes me thankful I read it in real-book form because I had to go back occasionally to check things). Personally, I felt the book had a positive message about what people are capable of and friendship/family, but it's not really a happy ending- so if you need that, this book may not be for you.

When I originally posted, I forgot one other book I read this summer so I'm adding it now :)

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

This book is a true story (I think, don't hold me to that) about a homeless man and a wealthy art dealer who become friends. The story was good, but it did move a bit slow at times (probably because it is real). Also, it was quite a bit more religious than I expected it to me, which wasn't a problem for me but it's something to be aware of. Again, not exactly a super happy ending, but a good read all the same.

I am now reading Little Bee, so I'll let you know how that is when I'm done with it.

Have you read any good books lately? Please share!

Have you read any great books lately?

Burlington VT, Days 2 and 3

Finally catching up on the rest of Eric and my 1 Year Anniversary Trip :) You can read about the first part here.

On Saturday morning, Eric and I decided to go rollerblading on the Burlington Bike Path. The view was amazing...

Both of us are comfortable on rollerblades, but the path was a bit more challenging than we expected...

We still managed to do a good amount of the path despite the obstacles, and it was definitely a good work out.

Next up, we hit a crepe placed called The Skinny Pancake for lunch. I was a little nervous because the reviews were not the best, but everything they said was totally wrong. The food came fast and it was amazing. I got the "Heart Breaker" which was a strawberry and banana crepe covered with Nutella. It was amazing and brought me back to my amazing crepe place in Australia called Pancakes on the Rocks (if you are ever in Sydney, go there).

Post-delicious crepe it was time for Eric to find his friend Champ. In case you are not familiar with Champ, he is an under water lake monster who lives in Lake Champlain. Eric visited Nessie in Loch Ness five years ago, so he is starting to reach his dream of swimming with all the lake monsters.

Even I put my feet in, it was too cold for me though!

In the afternoon, we stopped back at our hotel to get ready to visit the wineries. We stayed at Green Mountain Suites in South Burlington, which was about 10 minutes away from the downtown area. It was a pretty central location especially for exploring a bit outside of Burlington (where the breweries and wineries are) so that was great.

Overall, I really liked the hotel. It was all suites, so we got a bedroom and then separate living/kitchen area. I love having a full size fridge for water bottles and leftovers when on vacation! The other great things were free breakfast (and not a terrible one either), free internet and on weeknights they have a free dinner (only one choice but still) and free beer and wine from 5-7pm. Amazing! It's so funny to me how much MORE you get sometimes at a cheaper hotel. However, the one thing I did not love was the overall smell of the place haha- I really don't know what it was because everything seemed clean but particularly the stairways smelled terrible. Perhaps I am crazy but Eric agreed. Still probably worth staying here though because you can always open windows and there were so many other great things about it.

Enough about that, lets get to the wine! We started at Shelburne Vineyards which is about 20 minutes away from Burlington. All the wine was delicious and the girl who did our tasting was awesome. She's moving to Ireland next year to start her own business where she will lead people on writing tours of Ireland. Awesome? Yes.

After, we headed down the street to Charlotte Valley Winery to taste some more wine. Their view was beautiful...

The wine was good too, but the girl doing it was not as much fun, so we enjoyed our first winery a bit more :) They are both worth a visit though.

For dinner, we visited another Burlington eatery, L'Amante. I ordered a fish special which was delicious...

Plus they served hummus with their bread, which automatically makes me love them.

The last part of our trip happened on Sunday morning when we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's factory on the way home. It's about 40 minutes outside of Burlington so it makes sense to go on the way up or back.

I expected the Ben and Jerry's to be one the major highlights of our trip, but it was actually a little disappointing. I mean, the sample of mint chocolate chunk was delicious, but there were WAY too many people on the tour (even though they have tours every 15 minutes I think!). It was also just kind of corny in general, and this is a kindergarten teacher saying this.... so it was probably super corny to the average person. Also the line to get ice cream after was insane and wasn't moving so we decided to just wait until we can go to a scoop shop our next ice cream. Oh well! Eric and I are always cranky on

Sundays leaving a fun weekend so maybe it was that :)

Overall, I liked Burlington. It's a great weekend trip from Boston. It's definitely a beautiful area and there was more to do than I even expected when I first booked it. However, I don't think I'll be back any time too soon. I have much higher expectations for a place I visit in the summer because I need it to be significantly better than a weekend at the Cape or in New Hampshire to be worth my while to return. Hawaii was that, but Vermont really wasn't for me. Glad we went though :)

What are some weekend trips you go on from your house? Are they awesome enough that you would recommend them to a visitor coming from out of state/out of your area?

The First Year

Sorry about my weird blogging schedule recently. I've had a really hard time adjusting to my new schedule since I normally blog at night, but now get home later than usual most nights. However, I have a weird gap in the middle of the day most days so hopefully I can start blogging mid-day a little more frequently. Also, I am aware that I still have not blogged about the rest of my trip to Burlington, Vermont yet, but I couldn't let another day pass without saying:

It was Eric and my anniversary on July 10th :) Wahoo!

One of my friends once told me that the first year of everything sucks. Many times in my life this has been completely true. My first year of high school was rough. My first year of college was hard. Let's not even DISCUSS my first year of teaching! I still loved high school, and college, and teaching- just not the first year of any of them!

For me though, my first year of marriage was not one of those things. The first year of marriage was glorious :)

Here are some highlights of married life so far:

*An amazing honeymoon in Hawaii...

*Finishing a 5K together...

*Other fun trips...

But it wasn't all trips and finish lines. It was also just the day to day that continued to be as awesome as it was for the 5 years before we got married. Some of the day to day highlights were:

*Laughing. More than 13 times a day (apparently that's the amount the average person laughs- that person does not have Eric as a husband.... and probably doesn't teach kindergarten either).

*Went for walks and runs. Whether we just wandered around our neighborhood or ventured down to the res for a longer stroll, this was something we were more consistent about this year and it was the best.

*Made fun of ourselves. One of the best things about Eric is that he is fantastic at making fun of himself. The two of us really never get mad at each other about household duties, we just laugh about it. Same with 99% of other things that we do/say etc. It's a lot more fun to laugh than fight :)

*Talked about work. I feel really lucky that Eric and I are both teachers (well except maybe when it's time to pay bills haha). Not only do we have similar hours and vacations together, but I feel like we really understand what each other's day is like (even though Kindergarten and middle school PE are obviously a bit different!). We both love to share and appreciate hilarious kids stories and we fully understand each other's work frustrations. Eric has given me a lot of good advice about how to handle situations at work and I feel like we both have very similar philosophies about how to deal with children and coworkers.

*Supported each other. Okay, so Eric and I have some different interests sometimes. Like golf, which I do not love. Or yoga, which I don't think Eric will ever do. I'd rather be at work a million hours a day than clean or do really any housework at all and Eric would rather do yard work/cleaning/organizing/cooking etc than work a million hours a day. Even though we may not be exactly the same, I think we always try our hardest to support each other in our separate quests and interests. I am thankful for that.

So, overall our first year of marriage has been a blast :) Next year at this time I'll be in Canada celebrating Amber's wedding and I hope I'm saying the same thing about Year #2.

Do you believe that the first year of things often is not the best?

Exploring Vermont, Day 1

We made it to Burlington, Vermont for our 1 Year Anniversary Trip. It's a little different than Hawaii (our honeymoon), but it will work :)

The drive up was about 3 1/2 hours. We stopped in New London, New Hampshire for my absolute favorite restaurant in the state of NH (and one of my top favorites ever): Peter Christian's Tavern. This place is near my childhood summer home and I have endless memories of it. Plus, they serve really tasty soups and sandwiches (and really good honey mustard that they sell to take home). Somehow I didn't take any pictures of our beautiful patio seat, but there is a good chance we'll be back on the way home so I'll have another opportunity.

Our first night we arrived, we checked out a place that had been recommended to me by a friend I used to work with (thank goodness for facebook) and it was rated the number 1 place to eat in Burlington on Tripadvisor- that's enough to convince me. It was called American Flatbread. Yes, it is a pizza place, but not just any pizza place- a pizza place that brews beers on site AND has only local ingredients (very Vermont). For beer I tried one of the house brews called Schoen Dorf... was probably one of the best beers I've ever had and it's actually kind of unfortunate that I can't get this beer anywhere else.

Mine was the top pizza- the "vegan" haha- It has tomato sauce, mushrooms and black beans- yum. The pizza was delicious and the service was great too. Plus the whole meal with drinks was $30 and I still have half that pizza in my fridge which I'll be having for lunch today.

Yesterday was our first full day and we had two major things on tap. #1- sailing on Lake Champlain. We made a reservation about a week ago with a company called Whistling Man Schooner Company which does 2 hour sails around the lake. There is also a big boat call The Spirit of Ethan Allen II that also does tours, the reviews were more mixed but I'm assuming if your goal is just to see Lake Champlain you'd be fine with either.

The day was flat calm, so there wasn't a lot of actual sailing happening, but as somehow who gets sick when it gets rough on boats, I really can't complain.

There were about 12 people on the boat, as well as a captain and first mate. Here is a look back at Burlington on the way out...

On the other side of the lake is New York State and the Adirondack mountains.

Life is good.

While on the boat, Eric also read up on "Champ" which is basically the Nessie (Loch Ness) of Lake Champlain. Eric enjoys underwater sea monsters and has a goal to swim in all the locations that are said to have them. So far, he has swam in Loch Ness and will hopefully swim in Lake Champlain before the weekend is over. A few more to go, I'm sure :)

Burlington Harbor has a break water (30 foot tall rock wall) to protect it. I think it's also pretty...

Post sailing adventure, Eric and I got soft serve and smoothies and headed back to our hotel to regroup. Next, it was time for adventure #2 of the day. The Magic Hat Brewery! Magic Hat is a favorite for Eric and his family so we were excited to visit the brewery.

It did not disappoint. It was really cool both inside and out.

Magic Hat just gave off a really awesome vibe. The people were really relaxed and seemed like people you could just befriend in a minute. Plus, they offered a free tour of the brewery, tons of samples AND Eric won a free pint glass for being able to tell what ingredients go into making all beers. Wahoo.

Finally, for dinner we headed back to Church Street (the main street in Burlington). We ate at a restaurant called Asiana Noodle House which served pretty good Japanese food. Although the real draw was the atmosphere. Church Street is fantastic for people watching and we had an awesome start up band from New Orleans playing next to us for most of dinner. They were great and lots of cute kids stopped to dance which added to the entertainment value.

Also, Eric found something very pink in his food...

Lol. It turned out to be a fish cake! I am really curious how it got to be so pink!

My college roommate was from Seattle Washington and one of the things she found fascinating about Boston (other than the fact that we did not have to bolt our shelves to our desks in case of earthquakes) was that we could very easily drive into several states in one day. Obviously in Washington State, this is a little more difficult. This post just proves this fact, as I spent Thursday in 3 states (MA, NH and VT) and then yesterday, I had a gorgeous view of the state of NY. Crazy!

Now I must go, time to wake up Eric so we can get free breakfast before our adventures today :) I hope everyone is having a great weekend!