Boston or Bust

November 15th - 18th

This weekend Kelly, Adam, Cindi, my mom and I all headed to Boston for the Tech vs Boston College game. We were able to spend the entire day on Friday exploring the area.

When I got into town on Friday morning, I immediately picked up everyone and we headed down to Providence, Rhode Island. We have an old family friend that lives there now and we thought it would be fun to go have lunch with her.

Providence is a really cute little town. They recommended a restaurant called The Duck & Bunny. It was FANTASTIC! The atmosphere was great, the food was amazing and they had cupcakes! We sat and ate and laughed for hours.

We said goodbye to our friend, Diane, and headed back to Boston before the Friday evening traffic. But on our way back, we drove through the campus of Brown University & drove by Gillette Stadium, Home of the New England Patriots.

Brown University

When we got back to Boston, it was time to try our hand at the public transportation system. We were able to successfully navigate our way through the "T" to get to the Sam Adam's Brewing Company. We got there just in time to take there last tour. Our tour guide was so much fun and we learned a lot about beer, tried some different grains and were served 4 different kinds of beers (one you can't even get in stores!). We made a quick stop at the gift shop to get some mementos to remember our trip and we were off and running again.

Our next stop was The Blue Man Group. The lead Blue Man is a guy that Kelly went to High School with and they have stayed in touch over the years. They put on an amazing show. It was so fun when her friend came out in the audience and saw Kelly and the excitement on his face when he saw her was priceless. After the show, we were able to take pictures with him and the other two guys before they headed back to take off all there makeup. He even asked us to stick around and we were able to go back in the VIP lounge and wait for him until he was done. It was such a neat experience.

After the show, we were starving so headed to dinner. I have read about a place that was near by called Picco. It was a HUGE success. Unfortunately, they didn't have a table for us but we were able to eat at the bar and it worked out great. We ended up with way too much food but it was completely worth it.

We were all ready to call it a day after dinner but when Kelly found a dessert place, we had to check it out. So we dropped of mom and Cindi in the hotel and Adam, Kelly and I all went to find this highly talked about dessert restaurant. Finale Desserterie & Bakery was just around the corner from our hotel. You could tell it was good and very popular when we found ourselves on a two hour waiting list to sit and eat. So we decided to check out their bakery section and just take some back to the hotel. I am sure it was not the same and I would one day love to go back and try something off there menu but there bakery desserts were great and even mom and Cindi got to try some so it was a win-win situation.

The next morning was game day! On our way to Chestnut Hill, we found a cool looking doughnut place, Twin Donuts, that we just had to try. It filled up fast with lots of locals and at 9 am they were already out of a handful of their pastries so we knew we had found a winner. We couldn't stay long since we wanted to check out some of Boston College's campus so we were back on the road in no time.

By the time we found parking, took the shuttle into Chestnut Hill and to the stadium, it was game time so the campus exploring would have to wait until after the game.

The game wasn't pretty but it was definitely a win. The stadium was really neat but it kind of felt like we were at a high school football game. At the beginning of the game the seats were pretty empty and as they filled up during the game, more people seemed interested in socializing then watching the game. Of course, it was a pretty ugly game so I can kind of understand. It was another nail biter of a game and Tech was able to pull it out in the end.

After the game, we took a detour through campus on our way back to our shuttle bus. Their campus is BEAUTIFUL! And I think the campus was a lot hillier then Tech. We climbed a lot of steps but it was definitely worth it.

That evening we went to dinner at Cindi and Kelly's families house that lives really close to campus. They were very gracious hostess and made a very nice pasta dinner. It was fun to hear stories from when Cindi and her family were growing up.

Sunday morning we had to squeeze in a few more things before we headed to the airport. Adam and I really wanted to check out Fenway Park. We were really hopefully that we would be able to take a tour but learned that they had shut down the tours for the Spartan Race. We were definitely disappointed we couldn't get in but we made the best of the situation and just walked around Fenway and tried to peek into the stadium through the fences.

On our way to the airport, I had to stop for one more cupcake. I had read about a cupcake place called Johnny Cupcakes and I thought it would be a lot of fun to try out. So after searching for parking for over 20 minutes we finally made it to Johnny's.

The store front and inside were really cool. We walked around inside for a few minutes until we realized that Johnny Cupcakes doesn't actually sell cupcakes! Boy did I feel silly for taking us on that wild goose chase... thankfully Sweet Cupcakes was just 2 blocks away and saved the day.

Our last stop before the airport was lunch. We found a place called Angela's Cafe. It was the real deal Mexican food. It was a tiny little place and the group of us kind of stuck out but it was completely worth it! The owner even came up to us after and took a picture of us (I think for their website...).

It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our trip.

Random Quotes or Memories that I don't want to forget from this trip:
1. "What do they do come out with a mic?" as a response to learning the local mascot was an Archorman
2. Mom & Cindi trying to make hokie bird & VT hand motions.
3. "Come on Cindi, put on your clothes" when they heard the review for Finale.
4. "I don't mean to say stupid stuff, it just happens."

Football, Friends and An Engagement

November 8th - 11th

What a crazy weekend!
The weekend started early with a Hokie football game on Thursday night. It was pretty cold but that didn't stop us from continuing our traditional home football game tailgate. All kinds of people stopped by to hang out, eat and get ready for the big game.

Our friend, Tim came from Boston for the game and my mom and Tom come to the game too.

It was another heartbreaking loss in the end. We had the lead with 2 minutes left but just couldn't hold them off. As we stood there, just standing in disbelief that it had happened yet again this year to our Hokie Nation, Tom got down on one knee and asked my mom to marry him.

She was completely shocked and once she realized what was going on, she said YES. Tom's son, Ryan and his girlfriend, Mackenzie were with us at the end of the game so we were there to celebrate the exciting news.

Saturday was a jam packed day! It started with a really cool Silent Auction to help support some friends that are adopting a child from Ethiopia. We won a gift card and some VT autographed stuff for Jed's office.

After the Silent Auction, Jed and Tim headed off to a basketball game and I headed off to a baby shower.

That evening Jed and I meet up with my mom, Tom, Ryan and Mackenzie for dinner at Mackenzie's place. We had a lot of fun watching football, laughing and just hanging out.

After dinner we just hung out at the house until Mathis got here from Texas. That is when the party really started!

We spent late Saturday and all day Sunday, Monday & Tuesday hanging out, reminiscing about old times and making new memories. I think the highlight being a "two hand touch" football game.

I think all of us walked away for a few bumps and bruises but we had a great time!

A Non-Hokie Football Weekend

November 1st - 4th


First things first. I forget to post a picture from last week that HAS to be documented. As I left for all the festivities, Jed was getting ready for an amazing costume party. I think the picture says it all.

He went to the party as Shrek. I didn't get to see the full costume put together but I think he did an amazing job!

Jed headed to Miami for the Thursday night game. It was another heartbreaking game. Danielle and I watched it over at Derley's place. I did everything I could to help my team pull a win out, even standing on my head. But it was not enough. (Will insert the picture of the headstand when I get it...)

We decided that for the weekend, we were going to go watch a college football game that we didn't care if we won or lost. We were going to go just for the experience and the fun. So Friday night, we drove most of the way to Knoxville, TN. We stopped off in Bristol and revisited a restaurant that we really enjoyed on a previous road trip called The Mad Greek.

Saturday morning we finished our drive into Knoxville and just started exploring. It was a lot of fun. We wondered around the town, followed the crowds, checked out the bookstore, campus and downtown area.

We watched the team "walk" and heard "Rocky Top" about a few dozen times. We explored campus and all the festivities they had going on for the day. It was neat to see how other schools handle and participate in game days.

We found a local hole in the wall for lunch before the game called Niro's Gyros. The people there were super nice and the food was all the way from Chicago. It was such a neat, little, local place.

The game was a lot of fun too. There was no pressure or stress, we just sat and enjoyed a back a forth game with lots of points being scored. The final was 55-48 UT. They won in the last few minutes.

After the game, we wondered around and found a fun open air downtown area. We found another popular local joint for dinner, The Tomato Head, and then headed home. We had a lot to get done for Sunday.

Sunday we had the opportunity to host a very non traditional baby shower for our friends Scott & Katie. They have 3 beautiful girls and they are expecting a little boy in December. They are big sports fans so we combined the two for a Redskins Baby Shower. All that meant was we had some snacks, gifts and turned on the game.

Unfortunately, the Redskins were not able to pull off a win for the shower but we all had fun hanging out, celebrating the arrival of little Cole and watching some football. Definitely my kind of shower!