A Wicked Good Time in Bahston

We finally made it to the Boston area! Our friends Claire and Travis tragically (only tragic because we miss them) moved away almost two years ago and this past weekend was the first time we were able to get up north to see them. It was worth the wait...we had the best time and were reminded how much we miss seeing them on an almost daily basis. 

We flew in late Thursday night and stayed through Monday morning so it was a nice long weekend with three full days. Claire and Travis had it all planned out for us and we took advantage of every minute we were there. 

On day one we headed into Gloucester and Rockport. I had to google how to spell Gloucester again because it's pronounced Glooooooster or something like that. 

There was a street festival going on in downtown Gloucester so we walked the booths, bought a few things, and held a snake. 

You read that right! I held a boa constrictor and it was terrifyingly awesome. I saw them passing her around and wanted to hold her but as he was putting her around my neck I started having second thoughts. She was gripping my foot when I handed her back and I had to twist my foot away from her to get out of her grip. 

We had a delicious lunch at a deli while we were in town and then headed to Rockport. It's a little coastal town with the most adorable downtown. The parking is a little crazy in the small downtown area so they have a $1 trolley service that shuttles you in. We had the trolley to ourselves on the way in. 

Rockport was so cute! We checked out a little beach that was super crowded and put our feet in the water. Freezing by the way.

The coastline was so pretty and we sat on the rocks watching the boats for a while. Then it turned into us not being able to leave because there were some stranded boaters duck calling for a ride. We were sucked into watching their drama. Good thing it was a nice day. 

Don't forget this is a vacation with the Marceys so of course we snuck in an escape room on our first day there. There was a local place about 20 minutes from their house and we were able to snag the last room of the night. It was Claire and Travis' first room and we escaped with about 4 minutes to spare.

Day two was Boston day. We caught the train into the city and, surprise, surprise, we did not one, but two more escape rooms! We were only scheduled for one but we noticed there was an un-booked slot right after our first room and decided last minute to go again. Travis and Claire are officially hooked! We escaped both rooms. Trapology has some really well done rooms...if you're in the area we definitely recommend it!

A good waiting room sets the scene for a good escape room.

The escape room was followed by lunch and a walking tour of the garden and the city before we hopped on a duck tour.

I loved this view of the super old church next to the super modern sky scraper.

We caught a duck boat tour for the second half of the day. It was the perfect way to see the city and get some history. The fact that they drive from land into the water is pretty cool too. 

To make it even better, after the 7 year old had his chance, I got a chance to drive the duck boat on the water!

Day three was a full day on the relaxation station. Seriously, that's the name of their massive raft that we floated down the river on. The temperature was perfect and there was the perfect sun vs cloud cover ratio to keep both Derrick and I in our comfort zones. I could only snap pictures of our starting point or else risk losing my phone in the river.

We spent almost 5 hours just lazily floating down this river, eating sandwiches and snacks, drinking cider, and generally relaxing the day away. It was magical.

We were so sad to leave. Claire and Travis are such good friends and amazing hosts. We'll probably get to see them in October so it's not goodbye for long but it's definitely a bitter-sweet reminder of how it used to be hanging out with them everyday. The olympic gods must have known I was feeling sad because the cross country portion of the Olympic equestrian was on my personal TV the whole way home. It was quite the happy surprise!

Bark in the Park

Last night was bark in the park at the Durham Bulls baseball game. This is the one baseball game Derrick and I go to over the summer and it's obviously because we can bring our girl. 

Michael and Rebecca asked if we wanted to go a few weeks ago so we joined them and their dog Zoey.  Crosby loves Zoey, and Michael and Rebecca, so she promptly flipped out when we met them for dinner before the game.

The dog zone was so crowded and there were dogs everywhere. It was heaven! Crosby did awesome and mostly ignored everybody except Zoey.

I love french bull dogs. Derrick thinks their weird looking but I think they are so cute! We saw a grey one that Derrick didn't completely dislike so maybe one day :)

This photo makes me laugh. We were trying to get a family photo for Michael and Rebecca. You can just make out Zoey's nose as she disappears between Michael's legs.

One inning in and Crosby was already napping. She's been napping all morning today too...the game wore her out!

The weather was perfect, no rain and not too hot. We stayed for a good chunk of the game but by the 7th inning the Bulls hadn't even gotten a hit off so we headed out early. Crosby is so good at these types of things...she mostly just ignores the other dogs and is content to lay under our feet during most of the event. It makes her easy to bring along. Can't wait until next year!

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!

Last weekend Derrick and I road tripped to Hickory to meet Nikki and Justin to then road trip to Charlotte. Bayern Munich, Derrick's favorite club soccer team from Germany, was in town and playing at the Panther's stadium in Charlotte on Saturday night. We've had tickets forever and we were both really excited when Nikki and Justin could come too. Justin is also a big Bayern fan and Nikki and I were happy to come along, cheer, and get some time together.

We arrived to Charlotte early to hang out for a while. We booked an escape room for early afternoon because....duh...travel with the Marceys and you're going to do an escape room. While we were waiting for our time slot we walked around downtown Matthews. It was such a cute little town.

There was an adoption event going on and this guy was almost too cute to leave behind.

I do not get to see this girl enough. We've been friends for 15 years now...is that right Nikki?? I love hanging out with her and this was the perfect weekend to get a lot of hang time with one of my favorites.

We did the detective room at Escape Hour. We've done a room here before with Jay and Jack so Derrick and I were familiar with the place. It was a 10 person room that we did with just 4 people and we were minutes from escaping! We were on the last puzzle and we were just doing it wrong. Bummer but still a fun room to do.

Officially my first experience in a game store. Impressions: nerdy. Can I put that on the internet? We had some time to kill between the escape room and the soccer game and there was a game Justin wanted to check out so he and Derrick tested it for an hour. We ended up walking out with 2 games each, so as nerdy as I felt in this store, it was well worth the visit.

Our hotel was awesome. It was the Marriot city center and only a 15 minute walk from the stadium. The rooms were fully renovated and this was our penthouse view.

I have mixed feelings about the game experience. The game was actually great but, word of caution to anyone going to the panthers game, no purses allowed! At all, ever. It wasn't on the tickets and there weren't any signs. We had to wait in a super long line, then get shuffled to a bag line, and then get told we can either throw our bags away or take them back to the hotel. Luckily Nikki and I split off from Derrick and Justin when we went to the bag line so they were able to go on into the game while Nikki and I walked back to the hotel. In the end, we missed 35 minutes of the 90 minute game. It honestly felt like we didn't even go....it was such a short time actually being in the game.

The dreaded bag line. 

Bayern won 4-1. Three of those goals were scored while Nikki and I were still trying to get into the stadium :(

Dinner after. Like my wHagonweel jersey? Funny story. I bought a Bayern tank top for the game and accidentally threw it away while I was cleaning the house. My wHagonweel jersey fit right in though.

While we were at dinner we found an empty escape room and booked it for redemption. It sucks to fail a room and we were all itching for a win. We found Codescape. It had good reviews and an empty room at 11:15. We always try to book last minute so we have the best chance of not getting random people in the room with us. It's never as fun.

This was hands down the BEST escape room we have ever done! I can't explain it and give it away but I'm serious. We couldn't stop talking about it and I woke up talking about it the next morning. It was amazing and immersive. Everything was so incredibly well done. It was a bit scary which was unexpected and I screamed the whole way through but holey moley. If you get a chance to try Codescape you won't be disappointed.

We got out with 17 minutes to spare which seems like the room is too easy but we were just clicking on all cylinders and the room was so amazing we could have gotten out in 10 minutes and probably still felt like it was awesome.

It was an amazing weekend and I'm so glad we got to have some friend time with Nikki and Justin. They are some of the best!

Drying Rack for the Laundry Room

The laundry room is one of my favorite rooms as far as what we did with it. It was really easy, mostly paint, but it's really cute and functional. There was a big empty wall next to the garage door. Derrick and I had talked about doing a built in ironing board but....we don't iron! We do, however, have a ton of clothes that hang dry.

When I saw plans for this adorable hanging rack I knew that was the answer! Plans here. I won't do a step by step because they aren't my plans but if you follow that link you'll be taken to the site with the plans.

My version turned out pretty well although those hinges were a pain to install and mine still doesn't sit perfectly flush. I painted mine the same yellow color as the door leading to the garage. 

I used the same hangers that we used to hang our headboard. They work really well but they are SO hard to use. You have to blindly hook them onto the opposite piece on the wall.

While we were hanging the headboard Derrick had the brilliant idea of using painters tape as guide lines.  We put guide lines on the laundry rack and on the wall so we knew exactly where to slide them down the wall.

 It worked like a charm!

This is one of the first things that I've built for the house that adds function and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect but I did it! I built it and it works!

I also hung a mirror from an estate sale that mom and I hit up over the weekend. My best $1.50 find to date.

Perfect height for a quick hair or teeth check as you're running out the door.