Lucius at the House of Blues

When tickets when on sale last spring for the Lucius show a the House of Blues, I snapped them right up.  This show was pretty much what was getting me through the first few weeks of school.  I could feel a fall cold coming on but I demanded my body postpone the sore throat, fever, and aches one more day so I could enjoy this show!  Mind over matter!

You definitely know your in your late thirties when you pre-game for a concert at the House of Blues with cocktails on the patio of The Hawthorne!  My late thirties self really knows how to live it up!  It was a beautiful night for the patio and The Hawthorne makes great custom gin cocktails (well, really great cocktails in general but I really love the gin ones.)  We had fun relaxing and reminiscing about our road trip before heading over to the venue.

Lucius put on a great show and I felt my city meter cranking up!  I love city nights out on a school night :-)

Lincoln Lafayette Loop

After hiking over thirty miles in twelve days, on our road trip, we were in great hiking shape and wanted to take advantage.  JO suggested the Lincoln Lafayette Loop trail since it would be a real challenge.   At nine miles and 3,000 vertical feet it was certainly a challenge, but I thought I would be able to handle it.  What I didn't expect was the crazy trail conditions that involved a lot of scrambling over rocks...for pretty much the entire nine miles!  At times, I didn't think I would actually be able to finish, although that's not really an option.  I wasn't even that excited when we finished because I was so spent from flinging my body up and over rocks.  It wasn't until a few days later that I truly grasped the feat I had conquered.  At some point, I'll have to do this again so I can truly enjoy the views- because they were amazing.

P.S.~ If you check out my fitness stats for the day, that 9 mile hike ended up being about 14 miles with all of the maneuvering over rocks.

Bin 26- An Instant Classic

After working another four day weekend, I was definitely ready for a weekend of fun in the city.  We decided to go see a movie with friends at the theater near Park Street.  Usually, we would go to dinner at Teatro but there wasn't a reservation available all weekend.  In fact, there weren't many reservations available anywhere near the theater.  That's when I stumbled upon a table for four at Bin 26 on Charles Street.

I'd heard of Bin 26 before, and I love Charles Street, so I was excited.  The restaurant has a lounge/bar area and a dining area separated by a funky wall with a square cutout in it.  The lighting in the lounge is bright and upbeat, the dining room is softer.  The decor reminded me of Estragon- wine labels and bottles, soft yellows and muted reds.

The menu features a lot of options.  Small plates, vegetable sides, and half/full portions of pasta.  We ended up getting way more food than we needed- serano ham, burrata, four of the vegetables, and pastas.  Everything was so delicious, especially my clam and sausage pizza.  We also ordered a bottle of wine, recommended by our waiter, and it was so good!  I'm not usually one to chase after a bottle of red at the wine store but we've been pursuing this wine ever since our visit.

I loved everything about this restaurant.  The food was perfect, the atmosphere great, and the location ideal.  Charles Street is so fun and after dinner you could easily get to the Omni Parker or Liberty Hotel.  I love that it's fancy without being fancy.  We've been talking about going back since the day after our first visit.

New England Sunsets

We spent Labor Day weekend in New Hampshire with JO's parents eating lobsters and enjoying lakes!  Pretty epic sunset if I do say so myself!

Smoke Shop- Revisted

Guess what?  The Smoke Shop, in Kendall, is still amazing!  We loved it the first time we went, and loved it even more after the second visit with friends.  So, so delicious!

Is it wrong to have barbecue more than once a week?

Emma's Pizza and State Park

I had to work four long days, before getting a four day weekend :-)  I got all my school work done on Friday so when JO got home from work I couldn't wait to go out and enjoy a city night.  We wanted to try somewhere new and started wandering towards Kendall.  We weren't sure what our plan was but when we passed Emma's Pizza we decided to give it a shot.

Emma's was a great find.  A sit down pizza place, that also serves salads, pastas, and sandwiches.  I loved the homey atmosphere.  I kind of felt like I was eating at my grandparents, in a good way!  The pizza was yummy and everything was very reasonably priced.  Emma's is definitely a place I will go back to.  It would be perfect for a night when we plan on hitting up Cafe ArtScience for cocktails.

After dinner, I didn't want to head home so early, so we decided to see if we could get seats at State Park!  We were very lucky and ended up with two seats at the bar and the best bartender serving our section.  I've been really into State Park's "Old Cuban" rum, mint, lime, and Cava cocktail and this bartender makes it the best.  I even felt a bit cool, since I guess they have taken it off their menu so it was kind of like I was ordering a secret drink!

It was definitely nice to be back in the city, even if it was only for a few days.  We were headed up to New Hampshire for the rest of the long weekend.

Summer's Over...Fall is Here

The end of summer was epic!  We cruised our way to Bermuda with family and some great friends.  The island was beautiful and there was lots of fun had on the ship!

A few days later, JO and I headed out on our most epic road trip ever, Napa Valley to Mt. Shasta to Lassen Volcanic National Park to Lake Tahoe to Bodie Ghost Town to Mono Lake to Yosemite National Park to King's Canyon National Park to Sequoia National Park and home.  Only twelve hours separated our return and the start of work for me.