Cummings B&B

Last week we acted as a Bed & Breakfast for 8 days straight and 3 different sets of visitors. It was exhausting but fun and we wouldn't have it any other way!

For starters Chuck's sister, Shawn, who we just visited in Virginia, came into town to visit with us a for a few days before she had to attend a work conference in downtown Boston. We don't get to see Shawn a whole lot so it was a treat to see her twice within two weeks! Chuckie had a lot of work to do so he spent as much time with us as he could but had to go to meetings and class here and there throughout her visit.

As soon as Shawn came in on Saturday, she and I hit the local nail salon and got a mani/pedi while Chuck did some homework. It was great fun to watch the manicurist try to get the 5 layers of teal and glitter polish off my toenails before starting my pedicure. (Who needs gel polish when you can just get your nieces to layer regular polish on thick and cover it in glitter?)  When we were done, we swooped by the house to change into warmer clothes and get Chuckie, and then we were off to the North End for dinner and cannolis. Shawn got to experience the legit Italian food and wine and wait in the long line at Mike's Pastry. It was perfect!

Sunday we took a Target trip and walked around Harvard Square while Chuck met with a group to do homework. When he was finished, we hopped in the car (I love that we can do that now) and drove northeast for about an hour to Rockport, MA- AKA my new favorite place in Massachusetts. The town is so quaint and perfect it almost seems fake. It's probably why they chose it as the setting for the movie "The Proposal."

After walking and sight-seeing and ice cream, we got back in the car and drove 30 minutes back towards Boston and stopped in Salem, MA to walk around and have dinner. It was chilly and kind of slow, considering it was after 5 pm on a Sunday night, so we just walked where our noses took us and then ended up eating at a restaurant called "The Old Spot" which I thought meant the place was really old but in fact had something to do with pigs or pork or something.

When we got home around 9:30, Chuck had YET ANOTHER school group meeting (via google hangout) and Shawn and I watched "The Proposal" to see what places we recognized from Rockport.

Monday, Chuck had class all day so I acted as tour guide again and took Shawn to see MIT, the Freedom Trail, and Qunicy Market. I've lost count now as to how many times I've been on the Freedom Trail but MAN do I know a lot of random trivia about Paul Revere and John Hancock.

Monday night Shawn checked into her hotel in Back Bay and our visitor #2 arrived. I should say visitorS because it was Robbie and Jessica- a fellow LGO and SO who were in town for Robbie's "midstream review"- the halfway point for the on-cycle LGOs to come back and give presentations on their internship projects. Chuck stayed with them when he came to Boston for a few days back in April, so we were returning the favor!  Soon after they arrived, we all headed to Harvard Square to meet Shawn for dinner at one of our favorite spots in Boston, Border Cafe. Their food is really random but good and the margaritas are tasty.

Tuesday we all worked and Jessica and I met another SO for dinner and ice cream near our apartment.

Wednesday we didn't have any visitors, as Jessica and Robbie left to stay with another couple and I did laundry and cleaning in anticipation of our next visitor. I also watched 5 episodes of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black and got addicted, all while Chuck was still at school attending meetings and doing homework. (I get to have all the fun. It's really not fair. You should all feel a little sorry for Chuckie. But not really because he's getting to learn at MIT, so, it's not really THAT bad but, he doesn't get to binge watch TV shows and get mani/pedis like me. Not that he gets mani/pedis but you get what I mean.)

Thursday our visitor #3 arrived in the evening. Matt, a friend from church in Louisville, got in around 9 and was immediately swept off to a Japanese C-Function and then the regular Thursday night karaoke. Friday, he and Chuck explored Harvard until I met up with them around lunchtime. We had lunch in Harvard Square, then went into Boston to go on a tour of the Harpoon Brewery. Unfortunately all of the tours were sold out until 5 pm and we didn't have time to wait, so we decided to just do a tasting and then head to Fenway for the Red Sox game.

Matt treated us to the game (thanks, Matt!) and we had awesome seats in center field where we could see the whole field and had a good, close-up view of the Monstah. The game proved to be quite interesting, as our seats were surrounded by members of the Wounded Warriors group and at one point in the 6th inning, one of them took off his prosthetic leg, handed to a friend, who then proceeded to chug a beer out of it up in front of everyone. You definitely don't see that every day, huh? Soon after that, I made a bathroom run where the girl in the next stall puked and apparently missed the toilet but hit the ground BIG TIME and puke splattered into my stall onto my shoes. Someone had one too many vodka cranberries before the game I believe. Luckily for me, Sperries are meant to get wet and were pretty easy to clean. But, ew.  This picture was taken pre-puke incident. That's why I still look happy.

Saturday, Matt ventured out into Boston for several hours on his own to explore the JFK Library, Beacon Hill, the Old North Church, and the original Cheers. Chuck and I watched the UofL game and then Chuck was able to get a little homework done. That evening, we took Matt to the North End for Italian and pastries as we didn't want to break our streak. We've taken literally every visitor there so far. Can't stop now. Plus it's a good excuse to get a cannoli.

Sunday we lounged around the apartment most of the morning and then headed into Central Square for a late lunch before Matt had to leave for Louisville.

And then our 8 days of acting as a B&B ended.  We loved all 3 sets of visitors and wish we could have had a full week with all of them! But we made the most of the short visits we had and can't wait for our next set of visitors in November!

Road Trip: Days 13-15

Day 13

We left Louisville around 9:30/10 am to start our trek to Virginia Beach.  The drive to Boston takes 2 days no matter which way you go, so we decided to drive a BARELY longer route to Virginia to visit with Chuck's sister and her family for a day before we finished the trip. The drive there was pretty easy and scenic.  When we got into VA Beach, Shawn and the fam were at a show they had purchased tickets for a long time ago, so we posted up at a nearby Cuban place called Havana's to kill time until they were home. (I'm sure everyone is surprised that we ate at a Cuban place...Stick with what you know, right?)

Day 14

This was our visit day in VA Beach. We didn't want to drive in late and leave early the next day so we had planned to stay and visit for a day before making the second leg of the trip. Our day started early with coffee and cinammon rolls. The nieces (Ava and Caroline) and Chuck watched Youtube videos for awhile, then they played a game of "let's try to knock down Uncle Chuckie." It was pretty entertaining. Then the girls asked if they could paint my nails which led to an hour of spa treatment for me, where one girl was painting my toe nails while the other was painting my finger nails. Three colors and (what seemed like) a whole bottle of glittery top coat later, I was all done.

 

After the spa hour, we hopped in the car and took off to the beach. It was perfect weather for a beach day and having not been to a REAL beach in a couple of years, I was excited to be there. (By real beach I mean one that is meant for regular beach activities- not a Seattle or Maine beach where there are rocks and freezing cold water.)

After our beach day we got cleaned up and then headed back out for pizza. After pizza it was home for a viewing of The Karate Kid with the whole family and then Mud for just the adults, which is a weird/slow Matthew McConaughey movie and then it was bedtime.

Day 15

The last day of our two week cross-country trek started out great and ended great, but sucked in between. We woke up and got dressed, then ate an amazing family breakfast prepared for us by Shawn. We had every intention of leaving Virginia by 10 am, but our family breakfast turned into deep and good discussions about politics, religion, morals and "life things" and before we knew it, the clock said 11 and we weren't even packed.

So by 11:30 we made it out of Virginia which was sad because we didn't want to leave Ava and Caroline and also they do my nails and give free back and arm massages and compliment us and tell funny stories and wait why did we leave there again??!!??  Anyways.... We began our awful driving trip to Boston. I won't get into all the sucky details but basically it took us a few hours longer than expected, traffic was terrible, we spent a million dollars on tolls and I missed our turn when we got into NYC so then had to take a crazy route through Connecticut and ughhhh it was so miserable. Also I was hungry for pretty much the entire drive so, you can imagine how miserable that made Chuckie. (Sorry, Chuckie!)

We finally reached Boston sometime after 10 pm and that's when the suckiness ended.  Our apartment was just as we left it, plus a couple of little signs that someone had lived there for 6 months. It felt so good to finally be "home." With that, our trip came to an end! And now we never have to drive across the entire United States again if we don't want to because we've already checked it off the list of things to do in your lifetime.

*I have so many more pictures from Virginia but blogger is being annoying and won't let me upload more than these few. :( So you can just imagine a few more pictures of us and the nieces at the beach, a picture of our breakfast set up on Day 15, and a blurry picture of Boston at night as we drove into the city.

Road Trip: Days 5 - 12

Days 5-12

We stayed in Louisville for about a week during the cross country trek to visit friends and family once again.  This was our 3rd visit to Louisville in 4 months. I'm afraid our friends and family are starting to feel spoiled! ;)  I'm glad we were able to visit several times this summer though since we probably won't be visiting Kentucky again until Christmas break.

The week was very busy as it always is at home. Dinners and chill time with our families, a trip to Lexington to see my little sis and cousin, church, the pool, catch-up lunches with friends, etc etc etc.

My favorite part of our visit was the weekend. Friday night we had dinner at Havana Rumba (obviously- we freakin' love that place STILL) with our combined families. Saturday was our 1st anniversary. We went out to my Uncle Tony and Aunt Kelly's house for a swim party with all of my aunts and uncles during the day, then to Jeff Ruby's for our anniversary dinner, then to our friend Jen and Matt's house where we sat around the fire pit in the backyard with some of our best friends just talking and laughing until way too late in the night. :) Sunday was church, lunch, and then we spent the entire day at the pool playing with the nieces and relaxing. Do weekends get any better than that one?

The trip was entirely too short, as it always is, and we will miss home until we visit again in December!

And now... pictures.

I love this little face!

Sami and Anna out to dinner in Lexington after a full day of walking UK's campus, the mall and a movie.

I got to meet little baby Jayson while in town! Jayson is the baby of my former supervisor and now just my friend, Shannon. It was so fun to see them and hold the little guy. He will be so big next time I see him!

Dinner at Havana Rumba. Yum.

 

 

 

 

The perfect pool day out at my aunt and uncle's. 

Our anniversary- a picture of a picture taken and given to us by Jeff Ruby's. :)

 

 Candles on our wedding cake topper?  A little weird but we went with it. :)

Another perfect pool day.

For these pics I said "Jump in the pool and do a funny pose and I'll take your picture in the air."  And they did!

Road Trip: Days 3 & 4

Day 3

We drove from Rapid City, SD to Rochester, MN.  The drive started again right around 8 am and finished around 7:30 pm. This was technically the shortest distance drive of our trip but we took an extended detour into the Badlands National Park. We ended the evening in Rochester where we met up with my best friend, Lauren and her fiancé, Brenden for dinner, toured downtown Rochester a bit, had drinks on a rooftop bar, and stayed up late watching old videos on Chuckie's laptop from when Lauren visited Boston last year.

We took about 500 pictures in the Badlands so I will only share a few of our favorites. We could have spent an entire day there but because of time, we only spent 1.5-2 hours.

 

 

My "art shots."

 

 

 

After dinner on an outside patio in front of a really cool Barnes & Noble. :)

Me and Lauren on the rooftop deck where we had drinks! Our hotel is in the background.

 The Mayo Clinic at night.

The Mayo Clinic in the morning. At the bottom of those stairs, there is a person playing piano. It sets a very calm and soothing atmosphere in there.

The hospital building where Lauren works!

Day 4

We drove from Rochester, MN to Louisville, KY! The drive that day began a little before 9 and ended by 8 pm. Lauren gave us a quick tour of the Mayo Clinic where she works and we had breakfast together before hitting the road. The drive that day was not very exciting and a little stressful. We were happy to be out of the car once we got to Kentucky, knowing we didn't have to drive a long distance again for another 8 days.

 

 

 The only cool picture I got from Day 4 of driving:

A rainbow as we drove into Louisville!

 Yay!

Like I said, Day 4 wasn't the best so there weren't a lot of stops or pictures. Most of the day consisted of traffic, construction, and trying not to wreck due to crazy Illinois and Indiana drivers. It was a long day. So I will leave you with one more picture from the Badlands from Day 3.