BIRTHDAY IN BOSTON WITH BOYFRENN

 Guys I know - Im a traveling maniac. And to be honest it is kinda catching up to me but Ill talk more about that at the end... anyways I headed back east! Actually the most north east state Ive ever visited! And Im already ready to go back and see more states and places out there, seriously so pretty. Caught a red eye from SLC - BOS. Joshua picked me up bright and early at 6:30. First time I had seen him since the end of April, besides Facetiming obvi. That saturday was spent napping. A lot. I was pretty exhausted. Oh and did I mention the turbulence on my flight there was ridiculous. Low key figured I wasnt even going to make it to boston. good times. Josh's apartment is super nice and right on the beach. We spent a lot of time playing pool, watching sports, cooking food and riding segways around the apartment with his team. Sunday we got to go to church and later that day threw a surprise birthday party for summer (no pictures sadly).

Monday the crew left me for a long day of work. So I explored the beach. Found tons of massive seashells and a crap ton of hermit crabs. 

Walked out on these rocks for awhile. The boston Airport is just a little south of the apartments and so there is a constant stream of airplanes flying right over us 24/7. Seriously every 2 minutes one flies by and they are close!

Self timer for the win. Pretty beach and it was gnarly how low the tide was. It was ankle deep for at least 150 meters out. Perfect for hermit crab finding. The team got back around 10ish at night. Kinda sucky the first couple days. I didnt realize how crazy their schedule was, but I did end up getting used to it a little by the end of the trip. I made them fajitas for dinner and then off to bed for these tired salesmen. Next day... I explored the city. Bought me a week pass for the metro and headed on out. Honestly using the metro is the best. No traffic, no paying for stupid expensive gas... and it reminds me of europe so its a win win. Just gotta deal with the crazies sometimes. First stop was to grab me a cannoli. I was smart without even knowing it and beat the crowds to the famous "Mikes Pastry" I was there just after 10am, pretty quick got my 5 dollar cannoli and headed out to find a park to eat it in. I took the metro to Boston Common which is a pretty popular/ busy park in downtown. 

Super fun (not so) little park. Also my cannoli was massive. (pictured is just a tiny bite of it)

I ended up giving the rest of my expensive pastry to the squirrels. also side note I forgot squirrels existed. In Kentucky we had them everywhere but in Utah there are like no squirrels. Am I right or am I going crazy?

I aint no history buff and I saw a lot of statues of old dudes but pretty sure this one is washington. 

Boston had actually just lifted their mask mandate, but there were still a couple places that required one. The metro and the Boston Public Library. As you can tell I got pretty bored this day ahah I mean I ended up in a library of all places. Dope library though. 

By the end of the trip I honestly was super familiar with the city. I was pretty proud of how easily I traveled on the metro especially because in Europe it was always someone else's job to navigate. so this trip I definitely learned how to survive in the city alone. All I need is google maps and Im set. Wednesday was a lazy day. Pretty sure I just caught up on sleep, cleaned and did some laundry. Pretty boring. BUT thursday was my 22nd birthday. Joshua worked a couple hours in the morning while I went to the beach and then he surprised me with a super fun date that evening. We headed to the boston harbor hotel where we got on a sunset cruise boat tour of the harbor. Pretty chilly, but so pretty. 

After our boat ride we headed to dinner at Giacomo's. A super super nice Italian place in the north end of town aka "little italy". Guys I'm telling ya this place was posh. SO posh they didnt even have fettuccine alfredo on the menu. But its ok because I ordered noodles with creamy garlic sauce and it was delish too. We also shared a bowl of clam chowda. First time ever having clam and eh. I ate it, but not really because it was good. More because I was in boston and felt obligated to haha. 

Yum Yum Yum

It was fun to walk around the city at night. I could never live in the city long term, but it sure is fun for a little bit. A birthday well spent... happy 22 to me. Old woman over here sheesh. Friday I hit the town again. Did some shopping and had a little ice cream date with myself. 

Dang good gelato right there. 

Here's some pictures from a pretty sunset. Josh and I would take morning walks on the beach and I would escape in the evening time as well to go for a walk. I really enjoy going for walks by myself and having that alone time to ponder, listen to talks/music etc. I think its important for everyone to have time like that every now and then. 

Like what?! How pretty!!

 I really enjoyed having the beach right across the street all week. 

Saturday the team only worked till 4 which was so nice. We headed out to go canoeing that afternoon and it was so much fun. There were five teams and our team kicked butt. We whooped everyone by a longshot. 

Winning team right here!! such a fun time, but the party had just begun.... next up...

FENWAY! Red Sox / Yankee game 

When I say this was the highlight of the trip, I mean it! Dudes the energy at this place is insane and Boston fans are wild. I have no clue how I was so lucky to be here the week the red sox and yankees were playing at fenway what the heck. We actually snagged some cheap tickets for the sunday game as well so two baseball games in one weekend and I was a happy gal. Red Sox won both games. epic. Monday came and it was time for me to leave - sadly. My flight left at 7pm so I had a pretty boring day ahead of me. Before leaving to go selling Josh asked if I wanted to come "shadow" him. I thought he was joking, but turns out he was serious. So I was crazy enough to say yes to knocking doors in the 98 degree weather plus humidity all morning. Kinda cool seeing what he does all day. Let me tell ya, that job is brutal. Between the weather and getting doors slammed in your face - it sucks. But he's good at what he does and it was super cool to see him sell a couple people. 

This picture was taken at 3pm after being outside all morning. Drenched in sweat, holy cow. Headed back to the apartments to shower off and head to the airport. Said our goodbyes - definitely harder this time than it was a month and a half ago. As I was on the train headed to the airport I checked my email and realized my flight had been delayed till 9:15pm. Ugh. I was already getting in to SLC pretty late, but now it was even later. I texted derek, my ride and he's a homie and said it was fine. But I was sooo tempted to just get back on the train, head back to the apartments and catch a flight the next day. BUT I was already packed up, goodbyes were already said and I figured I should probably just get home. So I did. Got in after midnight and the best uber driver picked me up...

So good to see derek again and catch up on the drive home. Slept in Provo that night and headed home the next morning. Was home for a day and then headed out to Powell to meet up with the Schimbecks. But ended up getting pretty sick so came home early. I probably caught something on the plane or maybe its just from lack of sleep, but my throat has been killing me. I am now on day three of antibiotics and feeling tons better. I guess I should take a hint and chill out for a little when it comes to traveling and just enjoy being home for awhile. 

In the less than 24 hours I had at the lake I did learn to surf without the rope which Im pretty proud of. I also face planted about 10 times trying to slalom - not so proud of but maybe one of these days Ill get it. Happy 4th of July! Kind of quiet this year due to my sickness, the drought and so forth but I sure am happy to live in this country and have the freedoms that I do! Life is good as always. I love and am grateful for every minute of it. I love this dang blog with my whole heart and Im so glad that I have so many years of awesome memories to look back on.