Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Double Digits!!

So, I just happened to open my pregnancy app on my phone today (I have 2! Im expecting and What to Expect), and saw that as of today I am expecting baby in 99 days! We're already down to the double digits!! Tomorrow I am in week 26 and after this weekend I will start trimester 3. Only 3 months til baby!


Tomorrow is Canada day and Aleksy and I are taking the day to paint baby's room (gray and navy!). We bouggt his furniture and some other things on the weekend so hopefully his room will be all set up in no time! 

States Roadtrip: Boston, Massachusetts!

After our adventures in Rhode Island with Aleksy's aunts wedding, family time, and a bit of exploring Providence and area, we headed to Boston on Sunday morning (June 7th) for 2 nights just the 2 of us. I had booked our hotel in Boston about a month in advance. I was looking up hotels in Boston and fond most were super expensive around $300 per night and the weekend we were going, there were lots of bookings. Luckily, I found a simply, definitely not fancy hotel just outside of Boston (in Malden) that we stayed at for 2 nights for around $250... breakfast included (we always need our breakfast included!).

It took about an hour and a half to get from where we were staying in Providence to Boston. When we reached Boston, the first thing we noticed was that driving was friggin crazy! There were lots of tunnels like this one, and "roundabouts" where not everyone goes the same direction... I did not drive in Boston.
After locating our hotel and dropping our belongings off in our room, we headed back into central Boston! We parked pretty close to the north end/harbour front. There was a little incident with parking the car where we tried to ask questions to the man in the parking garage and his instruction was unclear. After we parked in an area we shouldn't have, he requested to take the keys and valet park it. I was a bit (a lot) worried... about my car and about the cost!
After some serious consideration about moving the car, we eventually left it and we ventured into the heart. We first came across the harbourwalk. It was a pretty brief walk along the water, but it was nice to look from the water at the tall buildings toward Boston central.
We found some good buskering!! As we ventured further in, we noticed this massive crowd around a bunch of guys who were dancing. Then they pulled some people from the crowd including "tall white boy", gathered donations from the crowd and one guy jumped over 5 people (including "tall white boy"!).
Aleksy caught him mid-air. Photographer extraordinaire.
We took a mid day break from exploring for some dunkin donuts! If you read my Rhode Island post, you'll know that I needed to get me a Coolatta, and here's me having a Boston Cream.... in Boston!

So many stops at Dunkin Donuts on this trip! They were so readily available...
And we made it in to the Boston Common! This was our first of many stops to the Boston Common: a massive park right in central Boston. It was my opportunity to have a sitting break because at 23 weeks pregnant, all that walking makes my back need a break...

While we were in Boston Common, we decided that we would take the next day to complete the freedom trail... a walk through Boston viewing historical buildings while learning about the history of the City and its relationship to independence. We bought a booklet from the tourist centre to inform ourselves of the history on each site of the freedom trail for the next day...
Right across from the Boston Common is the original Cheers bar from the 80s show. I don't really remember the show but we needed to hit up the bar because its one of the main touristy attractions! Aleksy did get to drink out of this fun beer mug... having the local selection of Samuel Adams. And I felt included also because Cheers had their own special brew of root beer in its own special brown bottle that made me feel like I was drinking... without the harmful effects on baby!

The food itself in the bar was not fabulous... we had a couple of burgers with salads and it was very basic. We also had the clam chowder... it was a bit pricey. We found it to be more of a come for a drink kinda place.
And after supper, we did a little more exploring of the shops in Boston from Bunker hill and to the North end. When exploring bunker hill, we found a children's store and bought some books for baby! The streets and buildings were pretty cool along that walk... lots of hills and buildings that were very old.

We stopped at Mike's Pastry shop in the north end just before heading back to the hotel for the evening. This is one busy pastry shop.. you can see the people packed in behind me. It was so busy that you couldn't fully see all the pastries and goodies that they had because of the swarms of people inside. We did get some amazing canolis, cookies, and boston cream cake!
Our goodies from day 1 exploring Boston: our books that we bought for baby, our pastries, and our freedom trail guide and Boston map for day 2 in Boston.

We were actually back at the hotel at a very decent hour (before 8pm). It was Sunday night, so al the stores that sold alcohol were closed so Aleksy had a dry night with me... just iced tea and lemonade (my new go-to pregnancy drink!). With all our extra down time, we even had time to watch a movie: the blindside.
Day 2 exploring Boston: we parked in a different parking lot closer to the Boston Common (which was more expensive at $33!) and started our day finding the bench from the movie Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams sat. Google helped us to locate which bench it was... but there were people sitting on it. All that searching to find it and we took this picture
<------ that's actually the bench beside it (its kinda the same thing...)

This was in the park beside Boston Common where they have swan boats!
And we started the Freedom trail from the Boston Common! We started around 11am and it took us about 5 hours! The man at the tourist building estimated 2 and a half hours so I guess we were pretty slow and thorough...

It was really easy to follow with a brick path that leads the way (you can see the rd bricks in the picture).

The freedom trail was a trail with numerous stops to see buildings, churches, cemeteries, monuments etc. and with the brochure we bought we informed ourselves of the history of the various sites. The history was all about local events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Some of the stops along the way were cooler than others... there were 2 churches that we visited that were designed like this one in the picture. Instead of rows of pews, there was actually little booths where you have your own private sitting for church! They were divided up into a bunch of little booths... probably not the best way to fit lots of people...

I took a little pregnant sit break in a booth and read up on the church in our guide!
One of the last couple stops on the freedom trail was this: the bunker hill monument. It was located right near the water and on elevated land. The monument was built to remember a battle that took place on the land. It was definitely one of the cooler looking sites that we visited!

While it was nice to tour around the city centre of Boston (and the freedom tail is a great way to see the whole city centre and lots of touristy sites), it was also not quite as happening of a place from our last vacation adventures on the UK. We were really glad to have visited the city, but found that 2 nights was more than adequate to see Boston!
This was our very last stop on the freedom trail before heading back to where all the restaurants and shops are (At this point, we had walked so far on the other side of the water!). This ship was massive even though it doesn't look it in the picture! The crazy part is that this boat still goes out! It was restored a couple decades ago and goes out a few times per year since the restoration...
The massive ship was our last stop, which was right along the water. When we had picked up our trail guide from the tourist information centre, the person checking us out recommended that we take the ferry back into the city to save some walking and see Boston from the water. This is us on the ferry heading back into Boston for some supper!

It was a wee bit windy...
Our final stop in Boston was at an Italian Restaurant for supper! There seemed to be a lot of Italian restaurants and the night before when we were walking down the north end of Boston, we could smell delicious garlic bread so I really wanted some Italian on our last night!

We found a restaurant that was just off the strip where all the other restaurants and shops (like Mike's Pastry) were, which we were hoping was less expensive. We ended up paying a bit more than expected because our appetizer was $20... but sooo worth it! Best antipasto plate ever with meats, cheeses, flatbread, olives & greens. We were pretty full from our appetizer, so we had our pasta to go (and ate it for lunch on the roadtrip home the next day!).

It was a little of a weird supper because we were offered to sit in the lower level of the restaurant and no one else came downstairs so we had the whole lower level to ourselves (while the upper level had several tables!).

After supper, we headed back to the car, made a pit stop to the liquor store to get drinks for the night and a bottle to take home (which is the worst pregnant experience when in the States... I couldve had so many yummy options!). We were back to the hotel at a reasonable time again (around 8pm) and planned to leave for the road trip back home the next morning!

The next morning (which was Tuesday the 9th) we left for Canada! We paid our fortune to the tolls on the way home and made sure we filled up gas before crossing the border. And made one last supper stop at Cracker Barrel. I don't remember ever eating there before but we got some delicious southern style food (lemonade, fried chicken, biscuits, and corn bread) for a reasonable price (it was around $20!). We even bought a gift for Cadence's first birthday at the country store where they have some super original things!

Sunday, June 14, 2015

States Roadtrip: Rhode Island!

The first weekend of June, Aleksy and I headed out for a 10 hour car journey to Rhode Island where we were going to see his Aunt get married on Friday June 5th! We left at the deathly hour of 3am on the Thursday and got to the house that Aleksy's Dad had found for the whole fam to stay around 4pm. There was a lot of driving and my new car held up great... so good on gas (plus gas is half price in the States!).

This was our house for 3 nights in Providence! When we got there on Thursday afternoon, we knew immediately we were in Providence's "hood". You know... a couple abandoned homes across the street, lots of people hanging out looking suspicious in large groups... BUT our place was actually so nice!

The Thursday we arrived, we headed over to Aleksy's Aunt's and her new husband David's house for a dinner before the wedding. It was kind of a meet and greet between friends and family from all over Ontario and the States. The food was delish! stuffed mushroom caps, fruit and cheese platters, fancy pizza, lasagna, eggplant rolls, and garlic bread. Being pregnant has its perks; Aleksy's aunt insisted that I take some of the dessert cookies to go! When you can't have wine... just have extra servings of dessert!

And Friday was the wedding day! It was at 4 in the afternoon and was in a little town just outside of Providence called Bristol, which is right on the water. Aleksy and I went to the wedding with his sister, Alyssa and Jon. Alyssa let us know that day that it was national donut day and if we bought a drink at Dunkin Donuts then we got a free donut! So guess what we hit up on the way to the wedding? This is when I discovered the delish coolatas... and had about 4 more before leaving the States!

This picture was taken before the wedding ceremony. We arrived a little early so we were able to explore the grounds of the mansion where the wedding was located. Right on the water.
And everyone after the ceremony and at the cocktail hour. There were some yummy hors d'oevres served at the cocktail hour, my personal favourite being the clam chowder with clam cakes... yum!

It was a really nice ceremony outside. The cocktail hour was outside too. The reception to follow was inside the mansion with delicious dinner and dessert.
On Saturday, the day after the wedding, we made plans to travel as a group to see Newport, Rhode Island, which was recommended by a few of the people we met from around Providence. On the way to Newport, we stopped for lunch at Evelyn's Drive In: an amazing restaurant that Aleksy's Dad scoped out that was featured on the Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives show. We were up for some good seafood!
And this is the platter of (wholesome, healthy deep fried) seafood that we got! It doesn't look like much in the picture, but it was A LOT of food! There was scallops, shrimp, cod, clams, and calamari. With a little lobster on the side... So good!
After our awesome lunch, we headed into Newport and wandered the harbourfront and the stores.

We bought our first purchase for baby in Newport! A little wooden sailboat for his room :) We also found some other fun shops like a popcorn shop where we got some blue raspberry flavoured popcorn.
And this fun store: fun for Aleksy and barfy for me. It was a store with a bunch of different animal meats. For example, Aleksy got these 2 meat sticks: one made of elk and the other kangaroo. They had all different types of jerky and also bacon soap, which I made the mistake of touching and it really smelled exactly how it sounds... bacon mixed with soap... ew.
Large plates of seafood and exploring Newport on foot can make you pretty tired. So when we got back to our Providence house, we did a bit of relaxing in the form of front porch sitting. Aleksys sister tried to nap, but what made that a challenge was the loud salsa music that was being played across the street. Aleksy and I (and Aleksy's Mom) found it pretty catchy! The front porch of our house was amazing for porch sitting! Perfect space and some good people watching...

When we had driven back into Providence the first night we were there after the "rehearsal" dinner, we saw a bunch of food trucks lined up a few blocks from where we were staying and planned to hit them after the wedding (but we were too full), then we definitely had to hit them the Saturday night since it was our last night in Providence!

This is us with all our food truck food on the Saturday night!



This is the sandwich goodness that we got from the food truck! Our first stop was for empanadas (our discovered gem in Chile!) and it was like a cultural experience right in the States... he made us order in Spanish... thank goodness for that tutoring 2 years ago. Then we stopped at another food truck where everyone got a bite to eat and we had the most delicious cubana sandwiches. Aleksys parents got quesadillas which they said were amazing and Andrew got a big plate of meat and fried plantains!


We left Providence the next morning (Sunday the 7th) around 11am and Aleksy and I headed to Boston for a couple days, which is just about an hour and a bit from Providence!