Road Trip

Brad and I leave on Friday for our 2 week cross country trip. Unfortunately, we will not be staying at the beautiful Ritz Carlton resort above, but in the tiny little tent pictured below. So tiny that the couples feet are sticking out! Hopefully our feet will be covered in our tent because I hear there are bears out there.
I'm really excited about our trip, but I'm also a little nervous because I am not a camper. This entire trip came about when my brother decided that it was time for him to say goodbye to San Diego and move back to the east coast. Since Brad is out of work now and I have a lot of vacation time saved up, we decided that it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to fly out to San Diego and then drive cross country with my brother.
We'll be spending fourth of July weekend in San Diego visiting with my brother and great friends of ours, J, D & A who recently moved from Providence, RI out to LA. We'll also get to see one of my best friends from high school, S. We then journey up the west coast to Portland (camping on the way, excpet for a few nights I cashed out some Marriott points!) and then over to Troy, Montana where my sister now lives. We'll spend a few days with her and W and then it's down to Grand Teton, WY, South Dakota and then Minnesota and more camping.
One thing I know for sure is that this trip will be filled with many "Good Times" and a lot of laughter, drinking and family bonding.
I may or may not blog throughout the trip depending on the coverage with my aircard and if I really get into the R&R mood. If not, we'll have a ton of pics to show when we get back.

Happy 30th!

This past Saturday night we celebrated one of my best friends joining the 30 club! J's husband and parents planned a surprise dinner for her at one of the local restaraunts and it was our job to get her there. All of us girls met at my house and courtesy of M, shared many great pomegranite martinis. The birthday girl especially liked hers (all 3 or 4 of them.... birthday girl is also a new mom so she is very deserving of those martinis!)
The party went off without a hitch and J was extremely surprised. We all went out afterwards and were a little surprised and disappointed at our lack of being able to party like we used to. Only 5 years ago it wasn't uncommon for the circle to kick off a Saturday night with some pre-drinking at my mother in laws around dinner time and then head downtown to quench our thirsts at a multitude of bars, ending up on the dance floor of one in particular. This would often lead to a slice of pizza at one of the best late night pizza joints in town and then a cab ride back to my mother in laws and perhaps some very early morning swimming and continued partying. My how times have changed. We all had a great time regardless of not being able to fully rage, especially the birthay girl. Actually, I think we did fully rage, only now our definition of "raging" has changed a bit.

More Visitors

This weekend we had a visit from my aunt, uncle and parents and an oppressive heat wave making it unbearable to be outside during the day. My aunt and uncle arrived on Friday and temps were only in the 80's, so we decided to go for dinner at our sailing club. You really can't beat the view. After our dinner, our friends M and L picked us up on their boat and delivered us to my inlaw's who were anchored out on Spa Creek. We rafted the 2 boats up and had some cocktails. There was a nice breeze and it was a beautiful night to be out on the water.

On Saturday evening we celebrated my uncle's birthday a little early. We tried to eat the strawberry cream cake outside, but it began to melt with the heat.

On Sunday morning, we gave my parents one of our cars and sent them on their way to St. Michaels to the Inn at Perry Cabin for their 60th birthday trip. I just hope the 100 degree heat doesn't spoil all of the things they had planned like a boat trip, bike riding and walking around the town. I hear it's suppose to hit 102 degrees tomorrow! Luckily I am headed to the airport today to fly out to Northern California for the week for work, where there won't be any humidity.

The North Invades the South

This weekend the Boston Red Sox came to town followed by thousands of their fans from up north. Four of those fans included my parents and good friends of their's, C & G. We went to the game on Saturday night and watched the Sox claim another victory over the Baltimore Orioles. The scene below was a crazy one and as you can see, there are many more blue and red shirts than orange. Brad was very outnumbered. He was the only O's fan in our section.

Below is Manny Ramirez up at bat just before he hit his 500th home run.

The Sox fans from Mass are very happy their team is winning.

Prior to the game, we spent the afternoon in Baltimore. Due to the rain, we ended up having lunch in a bar/pub close to our friends house in the city. Our friend M was on baby duty this weekend and all of us ladies were delighted when he brought this little cutie below for a visit. T did not like it at all when we tried to put a Red Sox hat on him.

Now he's happy that the hat is off and he can go back to eating his Cheerio's in peace.