Boston Trip 2011

In April, my whole family went to Boston, MA, to hang out and see what was there (we had never been there before). This was our Family Trip 2011! We go somewhere every year and that was the spot that was picked this year. We had a lot of fun and got to see a lot of things.

We spent the first day just walking around and kind of getting oriented. We had lunch at the Quincy Market. Even though it was very cold, there was a lot going on - - street performers, singers, and lots of people to sit and watch as they rushed by. I think that this spot is more for tourists than anything for locals (seems like the local spots were surrounding this place), but it was still fun to browse around and look.

That evening, we snuck into the little Italy section for dinner and dessert! The following day, we headed up to Salem to walk around, eat candy, and let the kids just run without worrying about them. It's nice that Salem is so close to downtown Boston. In downtown, we worried about the kids, but in Salem, it's so relaxed and kick back, we were able to just let them go!

We also stopped by the Make Way for Ducklings statues in the park - - more than once - - we even went one time in the rain! My mom reads the story to the kids all the time, so they just couldn't get enough of it.

And we saw this cool, little lighthouse. Mr. No-No proposed to me at the base of a lighthouse so if we go somewhere and see one, I usually try to get a good picture of it!

We also ate tons of awesome food, walked around at Fenway Park, went to the Sam Adams brewery (where we actually saw the two brewers featured in the Sam Adams commercials! and then drank FREE beer!), walked through the financial district, walked through Chinatown (the third largest in the US), and went to Cheers - twice. One night, we did "happy hour" in our hotel - cocktails and desserts from a bakery in Little Italy while the little ones ran their energy out and we all just talked and laughed about stuff. Overall, it was a cool trip. Downtown Boston is actually small enough that we were able to walk around most of the time and still get to see everything that we wanted to.

Can't wait for next year's trip!!

What's the best trip you have taken so far this year?
Do you have an upcoming vacation that you are looking forward to?

More later! :)

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Santa Barbara Weekend

We spent Saturday in Santa Barbara - it was a Girls' Weekend!! :) Me, my mom, Miss No-No, a few of my aunts and all of my girl cousins were up there for the day.

We went for lunch, a long walk, and shopping. We saw a concert in front of the Borders (wow! they should do that at MY Borders!!!), we looked at flowers, watched a wedding procession file out of a church, and ran in the rain. But, the highlight of the day, for the little ones at least, was this crazy park that has a castle structure with catwalks, hidden stairways, and secret hiding spots. We could have gone up there, gone to the park, played until Miss No-No couldn't take it anymore, and then driven all the way home and she would have loved it just the same - lol!!!

More later!!! :)

Family Trip 2010

Just got home from a week up in NoCal - Family Trip 2010! :)
Spent Monday and Tuesday in Napa (that was the first time we were up there). It was very cool and relaxing. Once we got ourselves oriented in the city, we had a great time. We did wine tasting at Uncorked, Ceja, and one other winery, ate lunch at CCasa one day (yum yum bean tacos), dinner at Fume, and lunch the next day at Joe's (by the Riverfront). Tuesday morning, Miss M woke up with multiple (!) mosquito bites on one finger that were so swollen that we spent most of the morning looking for a doctor and then waiting around for the appointment - but, it saved my sanity knowing that all it was was mosquitos and wasn't some wild allergy that it looked like!
Tuesday night we got into San Francisco and met up with everyone else. We had so much fun while we were there! Spent one day at the Exploratorium, another day at the Ferry Bldg, Pier 39, and Chinatown and one day it seemed like all we did was ride cable cars! Hahaha! Very fun. We also ate great food - Millenium one night for "high class" vegan, Eastern Gardens one night for Chinese vegan (my whole family went for that!), Cafe Utopia in Chinatown one day, and some philly place (vegan cheese-less seitan sandwiches - they really served that, it was on the menu) in Lower Haight another day...and then there was the usual browsing and tasting - yum! Boulettes for afternoon sweets, boba tea with almond cookies followed by sesame balls and fortune cookies while in Chinatown, and the salad bar at a whole foods (not the chain) market in Lower Haight. We even met Joe and Aimee at an Irish bar in Union Square - nice!
It's nice to get outta town, but it's great to be home.
Some people (ahem! Miss M) are not quite back to the regular schedule at home! ..wanting to stay up late and then sleeping waaaay later than normal! :)
Going to SLO this weekend for Ty's college graduation. Staying with KT at her new place - should be nice and relaxing. Ahhhh! More relaxation - - just what I want!
More later!
:)