These are a few of my favorite things.

What a dreary week. Bill might've hit the hardest up North (coincidentally, the town I was just in a few weeks ago), but it didn't stop the hurricane's whiplash from hitting here in the South. It's been raining all damn week.

And I liked it.


Two more things I liked from this week:

Cute & creative save-the-dates. Always a pleasure to receive via snail mail :) Too bad I don't eat at home enough to put it on my fridge (yes, it's a magnet. Genius!)

My favorite guilty pleasure on the cover of a magazine I hold near and dear. For once, they designed it very girly with the hot pink and sexy clothes. This should get the subscription rates up!

Hoping for some sunshine before trekking to D.C. with the 'rents for Labor Day weekend. Adieu for now~

Food in B-Town

I've been a pretty good girl this summer. As a perpetual overeater (welcome to America), I vowed to cut my meals as soon as I signed up for the gym earlier this summer. Up until last week, I kept my word. Up until last week.

I wouldn't call Boston a culinary hotspot by any means, but it's still a city and urbanity attracts creativity n'importe où. That being said, yes, I did have plenty of seafood and ice cream made from New England cow's milk. Oh yeah, and can't forget NYC's famed chicken & rice on 53rd and 6th. I didn't expect such an uber-popular food cart to be in the courtyard of the Hilton, but whatevs! For 5 bucks, I'll take it.







We had the oysters and clam chowder at the Union Oyster House, which is supposedly the oldest restaurant in America. It was created in 1826, so it's had a string of famous people come through, namely King Louis Phillipe of France, Daniel Webster and the Kennedys. We actually sat in JFK's old booth! Pictures were hard because it was so dim inside, but it basically looked like a pirate ship with dark wood, ultra-low lighting and a even lower ceiling. But the food was good and paid for by a good friend who recently moved up there. Thanks, Ariel!

Now I'm back and looking forward to my new full-time hours at work and slowly packing my things before jumping the pond in September. I've tried to keep mum about my plans because I hate running into people and only thing they ask is when I'm leaving. I want to be like, "Well, I'm here now so can we just have fun?" Just a thing I have.. I'm sad as it is, I don't need a million reminders a day!

Ahem. Sorry for that outburst. Time for me to get on with my day and you with your's. Ciaociao!

(A bit more) satiated Boston

How's this for the unexpected: Boston is really, really humid! So much for escaping the Southern heat. It might as well have been rolled up and packed in with our luggage because it seemed to have followed us here.

No matter- Boston is still a cool city. Susan arrived and we were whisked away to her humble abode in South Hamilton, a quaint town 30 minutes away with farms and houses that could rival those featured in Better Home & Garden magazine. There's a noticeable colonial touch to the boxy, mostly wood-paneled houses and many do not have fences. THe short walls of large stones seem to hint at underlying Irish ties. So far, so good.

After we settled in and lunched on homemade lasagna, we headed out to Newburyport, a charming waterfront town 20 minutes away. Hot and suffocating are one way describe how it felt walking around the cobblestones and red-brick buildings, but plenty of stores had AC pumping to the high heavens, so all was still good in the 'hood. Newburyport actually reminded me a lot of the Georgetown area in D.C.



For dinner, we drove back into downtown Boston to try out the infamous Union Oyster House, but alas, it did not fit our budget (esp. after paying $30 for parking. $30!) We perused a number of pubs and taverns in the area, many adorned with Irish flags and featuring a lobster special. We chose the Hennessey, which sounds like an ode to the drink, but it was just one of many Irish pubs. The servers were very untimely, yet brusque in taking our orders of chicken foccacia and lobster. No beer tonight, as it would have been a deathly combo with the lack of sleep.


In the end, not my favorite place, but we were too hungry to care. Plus, they gave us a free round of Photo Hunt on the game machine. And we never say no to Photo Hunt! Once, the five of us crowded around an iPhone to try out an app very similar to Photo Hunt. We're very accepting people.

Then we tried to head back to South Hamilton, but somehow got lost while looking for a Target that Susan wanted to stop by at. It sent us on a detour... to the New Hampshire border! The GPS and Hannah's iPhone had gone completely kaput. We were doomed? We called some friends to help us, but few could figure out where exactly we were (heck, even we had no clue.) In the end, we just went with the gut and it ended up being the right choice.

Tomorrow is Salem in the morn' and clam chowda for lunch. Here's to Boston! Cheers!