Grand Teton National Park

We woke up pretty early on Monday morning to get to Grand Teton as early as possible to enjoy the park... unlike last year when we were trying to get to the parks early to avoid the heat.

The mountains looked pretty awesome entering the park, but I was still waiting for the "moment." About five minutes into the park we were greeted with this.

And it only got better from there.

Our big excursion for this park was a hike around Jenny Lake. This was a pretty big deal for me since it was a five mile round trip to the Hidden Falls. There is an option to take a boat across the river and cut the hike down to 1.5 miles but I was feeling up to the challenge. The weather was perfect for hiking, plus there was a lot of tree cover.

Along the hike we had gorgeous views of the lake,


a baby moose in a pond,


and ultimately the Hidden Falls.

After the hike we were both starving but ended up getting big ice cream bars at the general store instead. We continued driving through the park, stopping often to take pictures and take in the majestic mountains.

Our final destination for the day was the Jackson Lake Lodge in the park. The lodge is absolutely gorgeous. It's a bit of a "forced modernism" structure that has retained it's original look from the 50s. When you walk about the stairs in the lobby you are greeted with 60 foot, floor to ceiling windows with the ultimate view of the Teton Range. In my opinion, this is the best view in the park. You have the rolling meadows that open up to the Jackson Lake, and then the mountains in all of their glory. It really is stunning and I could have sit there all day staring at them.

After getting settled in our cabin we headed over to the Mural Room at the Lodge for dinner. The Mural Room has the same huge windows, and the same view. It was one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to! We had fun deciding what to get for an appetizer. We finally decided to be adventurous and ordered the hazelnut and ginger bison carpaccio. I was a little nervous about eating raw bison but it was delicious. We also had an amuse-bouche of tuna tartar which was quite yummy! Our dinners were delicious and dessert was as well. We had such a great time staring out the windows at the mountains. A fox even ran by the window.

After dinner we headed to one of the Lodge bars to have drinks outside and watch the sunset over the mountains. Unfortunately, the mousquitoes were really bad so we watched from inside the lobby darting outside every few minutes to take pictures. As the sun was setting deer and elk came out in the meadows. It was truly beautiful. I still cannot get over how amazing the mountains were. Grand Teton National Park definitely surpassed our expectations.

Road Trip 2011- It all Starts in the Ski Towns

Last year, after getting hooked by Ken Burns' documentary on the National Parks, we went on an epic road trip that encompassed five National Parks in five days. This year we decided to do it again. We planned a road trip from Salt Lake City, through Park City and Teton Village, to Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and back again to Salt Lake City. This trip was a lot different. We had a day and a half at Grand Teton and four straight days at Yellowstone!

We flew out of Boston on one of those lovely 105 degree heat wave days. The thought of mountain weather never seemed so appealing. Of course, packing for a mountainous environment while melting in 105 degree heat means not bringing your scarves and mittens...but we made it work.

Our first stop was Park City, Utah. We went back and forth about weather or not to spend an entire day and night here. One version of our trip had us spending the night of our flight in here, doing a little exploring the next day, and then heading straight to Grand Teton. I'm so glad we decided to stay the extra night. Park City proved to be a lot of fun and a great way to relax and rest up for the epic adventures that awaited us in the National Parks.

The first thing that I loved is that on the drive from the airport there the thermometer in the car reported a cool 56 degrees! You also could tell that you were surrounded by mountains even though you couldn't really see them. It was a bit spooky, but in a fun way.

After sleeping in, a rarity on this trip, we headed into Park City for lunch. The weather was a beautiful 75 degrees and sunny. Even though it was well past noon on a Saturday, Park City was still a bit sleepy. It reminded me a lot of Breckenridge, although Breck is still tops on my ski resort town list. We had lunch at a pub that offered outdoor seating. Of course we wanted to sit outside, but the waitress told us it was going to get too hot to sit outside. When I asked her how hot she said it might reach the 80s today. I laughed and informed her it was the second hottest day in the history of Boston today and that we'd take the chance of sitting outside. Lunch was really good and it was fun to watch more and more people file into the town.



After lunch we spent some time browsing the shops and galleries. JO bought a winter hat for Yellowstone after realizing he hadn't brought anything with a hood and the lows could be in the 30s.

One of the neatest things about Park City is that it was an Olympic Venue during the 2002 Salt Lake City games. You can tell how much pride the town took in that special time. Many of the Olympic signs are there. We headed over to the Welcome Plaza where we found this:

Yes, that's right. You can stand on the gold medal podium for the events held at Park City. That was seriously a cool feeling!

We headed back into Park City to enjoy a fabulous dinner with mountain views. We found this great Italian place at the top of the hill in town. This gave us a stunning view of the mountains while we planned our National Park adventures. A hint for Cambridge- Park City offers tons of outdoor dining by building elevated patios that are placed in the street next to the sidewalk. After dinner we took the chair lift to the top of one of the mountains before settling in by my most favorite perk of ski resorts in the summer, a fire pit!


The next day we drove through Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming with a stop in Jackson Hole for lunch at a famous BBQ place. The food was delicious! Then we drove the short distance to yet another ski town, Teton Village. I absolutely loved this place (still not as much as Breck...but it's really high up on the list!)

For starters, the sweeping views of the mountains are awesome. Not only do you get normal beautiful mountain views, but you also get views of the Grand Teton and Teton range. Plus, they have a Gondola and a Tram that give you even more amazing views. The town is small, but it has a handful of restaurants and shops and feels like a community. We even had a chance to enjoy the free concert in the courtyard.

The travel book I used to plan this trip raved about the Tram ride at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. I don't think either of us really knew what to expect. The tram takes you up 4,000 vertical feet to the top of Rendezvous Mountain where you come face to face with the Teton Mountain Range. I highly recommend this to anyone who visits, it's worth the $25 ticket. Stepping off the tram I was just overwhelmed by the mountains staring back at me. I had been waiting to have the "take my breath away" moment and this did it! We ran into some hikers who had just finished a 14 mile hike from Idaho over the mountains and it was fun to listen to them talk about their journey.




When we returned to the bottom we quickly headed over to the Gondola because we "just" had to take advantage of the free ride. The man riding in the Gondola with his daughter asked us where we were from, which led to this fun exchange.

"Oh, we live in Cambridge."
"You guys go to school down there?"
"No, we live there."
"Really, people really live there?"
"Yup, yup they do."


The Gondola also gave us the opportunity for our first of many wildlife spottings- a dear and a fox!

After grabbing dinner at the Mangy Moose we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day's adventure in Grand Teton National Park.

Overdue Update

It's been too long since my last post. It took me a while to get back on track after our crazy 4th of July weekend. Now that things have settled down we've been able to go out and enjoy the city once again.

Friday night I headed out to Boylston Street for a girl's night out at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill. I had been here once before, a long time ago, so I was glad to go again. Unfortunately it was raining so we didn't get to enjoy what I've heard is an amazing roof deck (and if you've read this blog before you know I love a good roof deck!) We were lucky to get a large table in the back away from the noise of the bar. Now that it's getting harder and harder to get everyone's schedules to sync up it's nice to go out somewhere where you can actually catch up with everyone. I have been thinking about the tacos I got ever since. I ordered the braised shortrib tacos with jalapeno yucca slivers and horseradish cream. So yummy! The meal was delicious and the company was great. It really was a lovely Friday night in the city.

I ended up taking the T into the city and walking up Boylston Street from Park Street which led to the discovery of a few new places I want to try out including the bar at the Four Seasons. I fell in love with their indoor/outdoor concept with their floor to ceiling windows that open up into an outdoor patio which overlooks the Public Gardens. I absolutely love the Public Gardens, and am actually a bit disappointed that we haven't been on the Swan Boats yet this year.

On Saturday we had dinner at Tommy Doyle's in Kendall Square. It was one of those beautiful summer nights where you just have to eat outside! If we had gone into Harvard Square or even Boston the odds would be against us to find an outdoor table... but I have never been disappointed by Tommy Doyle's. They have so much outdoor seating (they even added some more on Hampshire Street for good measure) and if they are full you can just go next door to Cambridge Brewing Company. And to be honest, Kendall Square just isn't that bustling of a place on a weekend night. Put all of those things together and the odds of scoring an outdoor table is quite high! It was so nice to sit and relax and enjoy summer at it's finest. Plus, I'm loving their new lobster salad sandwich since it's not doused in mayo. You can actually taste the lobster and it's cooked perfectly.

Sunday morning JO and I walked all around Cambridge taking pictures that we're going to use at our wedding! I love playing tourist!

Next up, Bastille Day in the Square. I have been trying to go to this event for five years and have always had to go somewhere. Not this year!

Happenings in the Square

My first week of vacation was Harvard Square bliss. The weather was beautiful, perfect for mornings in the Square. I was very happy to see that my tables were finally back. Last summer they disappeared but I was quite excited to find out they had been returned. Except for the pretentious summer schoolers talking about horse back riding my mornings were great. I followed up my reading sessions with some serious window shopping before returning home for afternoons filled with just the right mix of Food TV and HGTV.

Then the weekend got all crazy (I could write a whole blog post about the hospitals in Cambridge) and my calm vacation went haywire. Before anyone starts to worry, thankfully things are back on track but we were forced to miss out on going to the River to watch the fireworks with friends. It's one of my favorite city traditions and I was really sad to miss out on the fireworks. And then, in a city miracle, we realized we could actually watch the firework show from our bedroom. That's right, our apartment offers a view of the Boston fireworks!

In other news, we've started collecting pictures of our favorite places in the city to use at our wedding. It's been fun to play tourist in our own city!

Summer Vacation Starts!

Friday was my last day of school. It was my first "real" last day of school in several years and it's such a weird feeling. You're so excited for summer vacation but you've worked with these kids for 180 days and then it's over. I'm going to miss my class. They had such great personality!

We headed out to one of my favorite places in the city, Top of the Hub, for a friends surprise birthday outing. I love Top of the Hub, even on a stormy night when you can't see out the windows. I had such a fun time catching up with Tara and enjoying the beginning of my vacation!

We headed back to Central Square just in time to hit up the Cambridge Dance Party. I've been wanting to go to this for a long time and this year we finally were able to go. I'm so glad we went. This event just shows what a great city Cambridge is. The city closes down a section of Mass Ave. in Central Square. They bring in a great dj and light show to throw it's citizens a huge party to celebrate the summer. We stayed for about an hour and half and had so much fun. There were people of all different ages, races, and backgrounds celebrating together. I absolutely love my city!

The fun continues tonight when we head over to TD Banknorth Garden to see Dispatch and tomorrow morning when I head in for my first morning in Harvard Square!

Why I Love the City!

Why do I love the city so much?

After an exhausting Field Day I needed a recharge in the form of dinner at Teatro and drinks at the bar at KO Prime. The deviled eggs with truffle oil are way better than they have any right to be and the wild mushroom risotto will leave you nothing short of speechless. Seriously! It is absolutely amazing. Usually we would follow up this dinner with drinks at The Last Hurrah but we decided to be spontaneous and try some place new. Enter the bar at KO Prime. The bar area is pretty small but it wasn't crowded at all. The bartenders were super friendly and we enjoyed the quiet relaxed atmosphere.

After an unbelievable time (but rather wet and rainy time) at the NKOTBSB show at Fenway Park we had a 15 minute drive back to our apartment. It wasn't so bad being soaked to the bone knowing that our apartment, and dry clothes, were so close by. I couldn't imagine getting on the train in that condition.

It's a beautiful Monday night you say? Roof deck at Daedalus it is.

A quick walk through the Radcliffe Gardens discovering just how beautiful they really are after the most amazing meal trying out our wedding food at Nubar at the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Harvard Square.

Gourmet sandwiches at All Star Sandwich Bar.

Five minutes before leaving for a wedding and you realize you forgot a card? No big deal. Walk down the block and stop at Boutique Fabulous.

I love my city! I am so lucky to be able to live this life!

Lord Hobo and the RRs

JO and I recently went on a spontaneous Inman outing to try Lord Hobo, a local pub. This has been our list of places to try for a while and I'm glad we finally did.

We started with the chicken lolipops and I am going to tell you now- if you go you must get these. They are the most delicious fried chicken drumsticks on an exposed bone soaking in a soy and sesame seed sauce that is so good the waiter told us to keep it and dunk our fries in it! Our entrees were also good, but to be honest they were a bit underwhelming because the lolipops were so yummy! The restaurant is really open and has a really awesome Cambridge feel. We'll definitely be going back!

In a not so awesome turn of events our neighborhood has gotten some new RRs (Riff Raff if you know what I mean.) We've always had a few, and for the most part they have been more of a nuisance than anything else. RRs are just a part of city life and I'm fine with that...but this new guy is pushing it. Especially because he set up shop on the street corner right outside my door.

Yesterday when I got up to go to work I noticed an older, skinny man walking across the street. He seemed to be moving a bunch of things from one side of the street to the other. When I drove a bit further I realized that he had set up what I can only describe as an outdoor living room, furnished with all of his worldly possessions- including brooms, boots, a mattress and 2 office chairs, on the street corner.



When I returned from work the guy was still there but he was creating some sort of art display with all of his trinkets.


It was extremely strange. JO and I tossed around many theories about this guy including: he was evicted, he was in between leases (it was May 31st after all), and he just really liked to sort coins and hair clips and decided to become his very own living art installation.

We decided that if he wasn't gone by Thursday we would call the police. Lucky for us it didn't come to that because when I left for work this morning he, and all of his possessions except for the art display, were gone. We did find two empty crates of his stuff further up the street. We'll never know what happened to "Super RR" as we nicknamed him but I'm glad he's gone!

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Mission stated- This Friday night JO and I are going to get drinks at Upstairs on the Square. We have always wanted to eat at this restaurant but their menu always looks just a little too strange for us so we decided this was a nice way to check this place off the list :-)