Discovering New England: Boston on the 4th of July

Holidays mean long weekends and for us, that brings with it the possibility that family (or friends!) will come visit. Bree and Jay decided to come spend the 4th with us and we wanted to do something really fun to celebrate.

We decided to hit Boston for the day ... what a great place to visit in the summertime! We took separate cars as Dave and I wanted to drop Rascal and Daisy off with Kim our wonderful pet sitter first. Bree and Jay ended up in Beacon Hill and Dave and I ended up exploring Quincy Market for a while ... great fun and not nearly as crowded as we had expected. Weather was perfect too -- sunny but not too hot. Great for walking the city streets!

The highlight of our day however was a dinner cruise on The Spirit of Boston -- and seeing the city from the water. Love, love, LOVED it! Here are a few pics to enjoy from our walk through the city and of the cruise from the upper deck ...

"Arthur" sitting on top of The Children's Museum

Rowe's Wharf

I fell in love with these lights outside One International Place

Outside the famous Quincy Market

And a quick snippet of inside Quincy Market

Bree and Jay

Boat on the water right in front of the landing strips at Logan

 

Sun beginning to set ...

It all seems so peaceful from the water ...

The Boston Skyline at sunset ...

Wishing everyone a most patriotic and fun-filled 4th of July!

Catching Up -- Facebook Friends Party

On Saturday, February 20th, Jill and Tim Wirth hosted a Facebook Friends party in Hilton at the Firemen's Exempt Club. It was so much fun to have a chance to catch up with people I've known for years but, for the most part, only been connecting with on Facebook. Real life is great too - and so much fun!

Some pictures from the evening:

Jill Wirth and Patty Ayers

Scott Gailey and Jim Pink

Jill Wirth and Marilyn Bohrer

Me with Jill Wirth (and that's Patty and Steve Ayers in the background)

Tim Wirth, Dave, and Bill Bohrer

Kathy Neerbasch, Steve Curran, and Danelle Norris

Shelley Stewart, Marilyn Bohrer, and Danelle Norris doing the Macarena!

Jay Howcraft

We had a great evening and there were so many more friends there that I didn't snap pictures of ... Sharon Linehan, Laura Bowen, Jann Davis, Shari and Marty Klotzbach, Kevin Pfund, Tina Dodson ... we really had a nice time and I'm actually looking forward to my 35th High School Class Reunion! Never thought I'd say that :)

Catching Up -- All Framed In

We put a reservation in to hold the townhouse in Massachusetts about February 1st ... and then made a trip up to Massachusetts over Valentine's Day weekend to put in the formal offer and make selections. One nice thing about choosing this unit is that it was already framed in, but didn't have the cabinetry, tiles, countertops, etc. already in place.

We drove up and met everyone at the townhouse on Friday and then went over to the model in West Boylston to make selections and draw up an offer. Again, Claire was a God-send and SO much help. We were really blessed to have her on our team!

With the paperwork done, we were able to enjoy Saturday to ourselves. Mostly we just drove around trying to find where things were. We decided since it was Valentine's Day we would drive to Natick Mall where there is a PF Changs to see if we could get in for dinner. Wow ... what we learned is to NEVER take Rt. 9 to go any long distance (we later learned that Natick Mall is right off Exit 13 from the Turnpike ... MUCH easier and faster!)

Of course, about all that trip did was convince me that I would never be able to drive in Massachusetts. And we ended up having dinner at a TGIFridays that was busier than busy and not very good. Let's just say it was where all the couples with kids that didn't have babysitters but wanted to get out for Valentine's Day went. Not much fun ...

Anyway, we were able to get some pictures of the place while it was just framed in and before any real work got started in completing it for us.

Let the slide show begin:

Dave's office building at Dow Chemical

The garage ... hoping we can fit two cars in here!

View of front entry from the kitchen.

View of living room and dining area from front foyer.

View of dining area and kitchen from living room

View of windows in master bedroom

View of master bathroom

View of landing coming up the stairs to the loft

View of upstairs foyer/loft from back bedroom

View of loft ... there will be a railing across the opening!

View of the front upstairs bedroom/office

View of the back upstairs bedroom

View of living room from loft

Dave in upstairs back bedroom

View from the loft

Stairs leading into the basement

The 10' ceilings that Dave is so in love with!

Dave checking out the bulkhead

Well, that's it for now. More pictures on the way showing the progress we saw when we came for future visits! I just remember we kept saying to each other that we can't believe we're really doing this. LOL.