Fourth Of July 2011 At Manomet Beach

This is clearly the summer of catch-up posts but to my dismay, I honestly thought I had already posted about this and shared pictures. Which is why I am sadly blogging about the Fourth of July in August. But seriously folks, where has the summer gone and how is it already August already?

Thanks to my side of the family and Andrew's side of the family, we tend to spend the whole 4th of July weekend in Plymouth and it's truly one of the highlights of the year. This year was especially fun since Camie and James stayed with us for the weekend and were able to join in on the festivities.

The 3rd of July is always spent with my family - John and Janet (cousins of my dad but really more like uncle/aunt figures to me and Amy) always graciously host a large group of family and friends at their house which is just steps away from the beach.

Look at this spread, we preactically elbowed the other guests out of the way and claimed the appetizer table for ourselves. From L to R, my cousins Jaimi and Andrew, James and Camie and my cousin Andrea are enjoying things like pigs in a blanket (drool), barbecue wings, spinach dip, seven layer dip, pretty much any dip that you can think of!

We also had the chance to catch up with Amanda, who was home for the holiday weekend.

Boys being boys, Rich and Phu were more interested in comparing their iPhones than joining us in chowing down:

More for me!

John and Janet have a beautiful home with a sprawling backyard, complete with their own vegetable garden and a pond.  Needless to day, it was a joy to just sit back, relax with a beer at hand and a full stomach, and taken in the fresh air and the view.

When the sun sets, it's time for the another time honored tradition (excuse the blurry picture, I took the picutre without a flash which seems to make the images more shaky):

Time to don on the glow in the dark necklaces so we don't lose each other in the dark:

This was the first thing we saw once we made it down all the stairs and onto the beach - a flare falling over the water:

To our right, you could see other bonfires lit along the coast and the dark outline of our bonfire, waiting to be lit:

Once lit, the bonfire was a total monster - I'm not sure if it was breezier than usual, but we shifted back to avoid some of the falling/floating embers.

We found perches along a sea wall and made ourselves comfortable, watching all the different activity around us. I had tried to describe how wonderful the 3rd of July is on Manomet Beach, and I think Camie and James got a good taste of it.

After waving some sparklers (I never get tired of them), I caught something new being lit on the beach. If I recall correctly, they're called Chinese wish lanterns It's basically like a mini hot air ballon that is lit from within:

As with all firework related things, it seemed a little dangerous to me. You light something on fire in the middle of the lantern, and have to hold it for a while until enough hot air is generated to lift the lantern.

I have to admit though, watching that lantern float upwards and out of sight over the water was pretty magical. I just hope the fire completely extinguished itself before it fell back to Earth!

After that, it was back to the house for desserts (no picture, alas) and dragging ourselves home, smelling like the beach, sunscreen and woodsmoke. The perfect ending to a wonderful summer day.

This Old House...

This is my favorite house on our street, hands down.

I just love the bold color which contrasts nicely with the white trim and really lets you see all the historical details to the house. The huge, nicely manicured lawn doesn't hurt, either.

We took this picture for Andrew's mom Charlotte, who's also a big fan of the house but I didn't want to deprive you of the view as well.

Summer Fruit Coffee Cake

Sometimes, when life hands you a bunch of ripe fruit (in my case, raspberries and blueberries nearing their expiration date plus some sliced strawberries and a nectarine for good measure):

It's time to whip up a summer fruit coffee cake. Why coffee cake?

Because I wanted a crisp, crumby topping.

This is where, dear readers, I admit to leading you on. I've misplaced the recipe for this coffee cake (found on a random Google search). To be truthful, I'd share it so you would not make the same cake as me. It ended up being slightly too sweet for my liking, took FOREVER to bake because of all the fruit I stuffed in it, and had way too much butter in the topping. I wanted soft crumbs on top, not a hard crust of sugar. It did taste good but just wasn't perfect, it felt more like a cobbler that needed to be topped with vanilla ice cream.

So let this be an inspiration to you to find your own summer fruit cake recipe and get baking, pronto!

Alma Nove At The Hingham Shipyard

Andrew and I seem to spend a lot of our time in the Hingham Shipyard, but mostly, we tend to hang out at the Hingham Beer Works or the Red Mango (which has seriously disappointed me the last couple of times I've had it, so Pinkberry still rules my stomach).  However, on a recent trip, we decided to try out Alma Nove as a belated birthday celebration for my cousin Andrea.

From it's external appearance, it definitely seems to be the most upscale place of all the restaurants in the Shipyard.

After being told about a ridiculous wait (two hours on a Friday night for dinner, I guess shame on us for not making reservations), we scored one of the couches in the outdoor seating area, and pleasantly spent the next hour and a half enjoying drinks and an appetizer (the grilled calamari was underwhelming).  However, we loved this outdoor patio, the drinks were good, and the long wait gave Amy time to arrive directly from working late at her job (hence the button-down shirt and glasses)

Andrew was clicking away, hence the goofy picture above and the nice normal picture of the three of us:

Watching the sun set over the water, enjoying balmy outdoor temps sans humidity, hearing an outdoor band play and enjoy a cold drink were only enhanced by...

The fire pit in front of us! We had the best seats in the house, and let me tell you, there was a couple eyeing our seats for a long time that pounced once we were finally seated.

A nice shot of Andrew and I (since I never seem to remember to get these taken anymore now that we're an old married couple) and yes, I did chop off most my hair last month!

Inside, I really should've been taking pictures of the food but I didn't. It was dark, I felt like enjoying myself and you know what, the food ended up being only ok. It was Italian style and while the bread served at the table was fresh and delicious, all of our food was nothing special. Slightly overpriced and you're definitely paying for the atmosphere. So if you find yourself in the Shipyard, I would try scoring one of the seats on the outdoor patio and enjoying drinks and appetizers out there. Skip a full meal and the long wait, and head to Beerworks next door if you're really hungry. There was also a distinct difference in the ages of the people that patronize Alma Nove, we were amongst the youngest that I could tell, although a very loud group of drunk Hingham moms got most of the attention while we were in the restaurant (standing on top of furniture and clutching furnishings as a photo op) so at least the entertainment was free!

Hiking In The Blue Hills

Thanks to my good friend Rosie, I learned a quick and easy hike in the Blue Hills that's conveniently located right off Route 138, close to 128.  I went hiking with Rosie and Breena back in June, and then had the opportunity to take my parents on the same trail, this time with a camera to capture our journey.

From the parking lot by the Trailside Museum, it was fairly easy to follow the red dots on trees and rocks to make sure we stayed on the trail.

A view of my parents ahead of me on the trail - my mom is rocking my BC 2001 National Hockey Champions shirt while my dad is predicably wearing a shirt (in this case, Liberty Fest) from a past open base event (I think this one is from Taegu, Korea):

Waiting for us at the summit is Eliot Tower (as it's marked on the map)

From what I could find online, it was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s as an observation tower. Although it's described as falling slightly into disrepair, it still has nice seating areas scattered throughout, and most importantly, a sturdy stone stairwell that lead to the top of the tower:

The view from the top is spectacular and well worth the roughly 30 - 45 minute hike up, as my parents can attest to:

You've got Boston in the distance (it was one of the days this summer where it was overcast with scattered thunderstorms, hence the fog and haze you can see in this picture)

And from another side, what I believe is Houghtons Pond



The hike down is less rocky (and even has a paved road intersecting it), although we got hit by a heavy rain shower near the bottom and ended up making a run for the car. As we only got to explore one tiny section of the Blue Hills Reservation, I look forward to exploring more sections of it, especially the observatory which seems fairly close to Eliot Tower.

I have to add - there is plenty of free parking next to the Trailside museum; a few free outdoor animal exhibits that will excite kids of all ages (Rosie, Breena and I were also enthralled), and the trail seems very dog-friendly as we've run into several dogs on the trail or at Eliot Tower.

It's Spelled Worcester, Not Wooster

I had a meeting in work yesterday with a coworker in NY and four consultants who were also based in NYC.  We were reviewing an Excel spreadsheet of upcoming company events and a line item leapt out at me. It was labeled as the "Wooster" event.  I laughed out loud and told them while it was spelled correctly phonetically, the town was really spelled Worcester.

That sparked a response of "Oh! I thought I had seen it spelled differently somewhere else" and "Massachusetts has a lot of towns that are hard to pronounce correctly."  And somehow, I was asked if I could provide a list of the most commonly misspelled/mispronounced towns. Although I told them there was no official company list (one of them actually asked me that), I reassured them that I would do my best to create an ad hoc list. Mind you, I did tell them that I wasn't sure if I was up to the task as someone who grew up overseas and didn't grow up hearing all of these town names (although Worcester was one my dad used to tell us about as a classic example of how things were pronounced in MA).

Scrounging around the Internet, this is the list I came up with:

Worcester, MA - pronounced "WUSS-tuh"

Gloucester, MA - GLAWSS-tuh
Leominster, MA - LEM-in-stuh
Concord- KAWNK-id 
Quincy, MA - KWIN-zee
Woburn, MA - WOO-bin
Peabody, MA - PEE-b'dee
Reading, MA - RED-ing
Dracut, MA - DRAY-kit
Leicester, MA - LESS-tuh
Haverhill, MA - HAYV-rill
Scituate, MA - SITCH-oo-it
Natick, MA - NAYD-ik
Lowell, MA - LOW-ull
Methuen, MA - Meh-THOO-in
Pembroke MA - PEM-brook
Stoughton, MA - STOAT-in
Billerica, MA - Bill-RICK-ah
Needham, MA - NEED-um
Framingham, MA - FRAY-ming-ham
Eastham, MA - EAST-ham
Chatham, MA - CHAD-um
Waltham, MA - WALL-tham
Wrentham, MA - REN-thum

Can you think of anything that's missing? I did leave Andrew's hometown of Plymouth off because I hope that most Americans would be familiar with the story of the first Thanksgiving and know better than to pronounce it Ply - mouth!

Handy Andrew

In case you're wondering why I didn't label the post with the seemingly more obvious choice of "Handy Andy", it simply because no one calls Andrew "Andy".  It just wouldn't seem like I was talking about my husband!

So I'll start this off by saying this is an example of a rare occurrence where Andrew was right and I was wrong. Very rare.  He called me at work and told me he wanted to install a shelf on our sun porch for our plants...actually, he told me he had already bought the shelf.

I wasn't too keen on the idea of screwing something into our walls, as I told him, wouldn't it make more sense to get a cheap, short bookcase-type of furniture or a plant stand so we could move it around at will?

Andrew would not be swayed from his vision, and like all good husbands, sensed that it would be futile to change my mind over the phone and calmly ended the conversation.  Like all good attorneys, I think he had already had his persuasive argument planned out in his head for when we both got home at night.

This was the situation we were dealing with - due to Phu's green thumb and generosity in sharing plant clippings as well as a few potted vegetables we've been nurturing over the summer, our sun porch is overrun with plants.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to sit out on the porch and be surrounded by the plants and the view of the park next door. It's just not so nice to have the only surface suitable for holding drinks covered with flower pots.

Andrew described his vision of where he would install a shelf and how he would do it and I gave him the all clear to move forward (admittedly, in a somewhat exasperated tone of voice).  The end result was beyond my expectations.

The shelf stretches perfectly from one end of the porch to the other, and is aligned to fit snugly under the existing window frame.

End result: a charming display for our plants, more sunlight for all of them and a tidy looking table that's ready for a plate and a drink.

As a side note, while I call them "our plants", they are truly Andrew's labor of love. He putters around each night watering them (if you look closely in this picture, you can see the teeny little green pepper growing on the plant Andrew's watering):

Clearly, they're flourishing under his care, as these two tomato plants demonstrate.  I just wish the plants would flourish enough to start producing some edible additions to our kitchen!



Summer Afternoon In Gloucester

Earlier this summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to continue what I hope becomes an annual tradition - a catered meal at a work function in Gloucester.

Look at this spread!

Um, heck yeah is that filet mignon, lobster tails and shrimp...

Some nice roast veggies and (slightly out of place to me but good nonetheless) a cold Asian noodle salad

Spectacular views of the water and a multi-layer deck...

Like the smart, hungry, anti-social person that I am, I parked myself near the food table with a few favorite coworkers.  I needed no urging to dive into my plate with a Wachusett Blueberry beer to wash it all down.

The view from my seat on the upper deck, with the lanterns waiting to be lit once the sun set

The perfect ending to a heavy meal, fresh fruit with a creme anglaise sauce

And yes, I used my excuse of being a newlywed (still true in the amount of time I've been married and in my intent to get home to Andrew) to be the first to leave after spending four decadent hours in Gloucester.

Look For Us On Your Nearest Newsstand

Apologies to anyone that has heard me gush about this in real life or Facebook, but I just couldn't resist sharing our good news with my online readers - Andrew and I made it into The Knot Boston magazine! We're in the Fall/Winter issue that just hit newsstands at the end of June. It was tough keeping the news a secret since we were notified way back at the end of January that we had been selected by the magazine.  The Knot doesn't really share much information other than what issue you'll appear in and when it will be published.  They had full access to our wonderful photos from Ciras Photography, and the only clue I had about what pictures they would work with was the fact that they requested around 12 pictures from Heather at Ciras. Beyond that, no guarantees on what pictures they would use and how many they would use.  I also filled out a seven page questionnaire (seven pages without my answers filled in) that quizzed me on every detail of my wedding.  All that work resulted in this humble page:

Picture courtesy of Ciras Photograpy

I'll admit to having a bit of Bridezilla attitude and being disappointed that we got just one page of coverage - I know, I know, I should just be pleased we made it in. And I am, when we first got the news, I did one of my patented happy dances in front of Andrew (think a cross between a jerky jig/hopping around).  It's just a little sad to see our lone page linger at the end of the Real Weddings when compared to some of the multi-page spreads in the issue.  But that's when I take a deep breathe, tell myself to snap out of it and feel extremely excited that we were one of the "14 Perfect Real Weddings" (according to the magazine cover) that made it in.

The reason I waited to share our good news is that I was waiting for our pictures to appear online at the Knot website.  I had my fingers crossed that some more of our pictures would appear on it (especially my bouquet, I could stare at a picture of that forever) and my constant stalking of the site was finally rewarded at the end of July when all of a sudden, there we were! Officially a "Knot Pick" and available in the Real Weddings section, woohoo!

You can see it for yourself here, but you won't be able to view the slide show unless you're a registered member of The Knot.

It's really cool to think that there are brides out there that will be scanning the Real Weddings (like I used to when I was in the midst of wedding planning craziness) and be inspired by something they see in the pictures of our vibrant, fun, and slightly quirky wedding.

And as I keep promising everyone, that's it. No more wedding talk as Andrew and I approach ten months of marriage.  The wedding has been celebrated in many wonderful ways and with this final hurrah, we now have another great keepsake of the day to share with our kids one day. 

Meet Cameron The Cutie

These pictures were originally supposed to appear in the last post about Philadelphia, but it was just too hard to pick just a few so I decided they deserved their own post!

While we were in Philly, Eric (another one of Andrew's college friends), his wife Jen and son Cameron drove into the city to meet up with us and hang out for a few hours.  Some of you may remember Cameron from way back when, he has really grown up (and grown a full head of hair) since then.  I had the opportunity to meet - and be charmed by - Cameron for the first time at the wedding but I didn't get nearly enough time to hang out with him.

He was adorably shy and stuck near his mom for the first hour, occasionally peering out at us. Once he got used to us, he started moving around the room more, especially when we started tempting him with treats like mini chocolate chip cookies.

Now look at how adorable those curls and smile are! Apparently, he's quite the ham around cameras and once I pointed the camera his way, Cameron immediately stopped chewing and shot me a grin.

I didn't quite get to held him by the end of the visit (probably for his own good, because I would have squeezed him hard for being so darn cute) but we were successful in getting him to talk a little bit. Of course, he was more enthralled with the basement window at the top of the stairs that allowed him to look out into the street but I won't take that personally.

Highlights From Philadelphia

In another catch-up post, Andrew and I had the opportunity to visit Philadelphia for a whirlwind weekend last month. When I say whirlwind, I mean that we arrived around noon on Saturday and got home to Boston around 8 PM on Sunday, which means we spent a good chunk of our time driving the whole weekend.  I honestly can't remember the last time I was in Philadelphia so I suspect it was a good ten years ago visiting Breena while we were both in college!

Andrew went to Penn State undergrad, so needless to say, most of his friends from college (all?) still live in Pennsylvania! We were fortunate enough to stay with his friend Pete and his fiancee Nikki in their Philadelphia condo, which gave us an opportunity to catch-up and try some of their favorite neighborhood joints (pizza for lunch, Italian for dinner) for meals.  I think it would be tough for Andrew and I to downsize to a city condo (although Pete's and Nikki's is decently roomy) but I must say, it's awesome to walk out your front steps and have access to so many neat things within walking distance!

For example, while walking to the parking garage around the corner from their place, we spotted the Magic Gardens:

This what it looked like from across the street, and it immediately drew us in, even though our hands were full carrying overnight bags. 

By this, I mean that I dragged Andrew across the street so I could take pictures close-up

From researching the place after the fact, apparently this is a public art installation featuring the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar. It features "found objects and contributions from the community" and is a "labyrinthine mosaic collection". It was closed when we peeked in but you could see walls just covered with the most random assortment of things!

Bicycle wheels, anyone? We were bummed that it wasn't open (it was 6:30 in the morning, after all) but we'll definitely have to make another trip back to see it, especially since it's located so close to Pete's place

So why were we up at the crack of dawn? To watch Amanda compete in the Philadelphia Triathlon, which was the main reason we made the trek down to Philly. Unfortunately for us, while parking was readily available for spectators by the "Please Touch Museum," the triathlon's route was very poorly planned for people to be able to see the triathletes transitioning from one stage to another. Which means we spent the whole morning hoping for a glimpse of Amanda. We waited by the bike transition area but missed her out of the water (due to the crowd, it was impossible to pick her out) and missed her again on the bike route, even after standing an hour in one place. I'm positive we did see her (since the route looped twice, so chances were good that she passed us at least once) but the riders were going so fast down the hill, we couldn't be sure.

Finally, we staked out the finish line, determined to catch her running the last leg of the triathlon.  This is where we got lucky.  We caught a lucky break when we spotted one of Amanda's friends (whom we had met the night before at dinner) going through the finish line.  Javier joined us afterwards, and it was his sharp eyes that caught Amanda going by in the distance to begin her run. Andrew yelled her name repeatedly until she saw us, and we hoped that would give her a little boost to get through 6+ miles.

We kept on watching and finally, we saw Amanda!

Seconds away from going over the finish line

Amanda and her crew of fellow triathletes, who drove a fleet of Zipcars down to Philly from NYC

Amanda flashes us her "I got a medal" look as Andrew examines it admiringly

Some of you may remember the day-glo orange sign from last year, we saved it since we knew Amanda would be competing in more triathlons and it came in handy once again

We just need to buy Amanda a matching orange jersey so it's easier to pick her out from the crowd!