From the category archives:

New places

A little slice of college…

by agirlandhermutt on January 16, 2011

Wow. That photo of me in my face mask has been on the top of my site for a bit too long now. Time to get some fresh funk out there!

I got a bit caught up with all the snow brewhaha that I totally forgot to tell you about my fun little weekend last week! One of my college roomies, Stacey, came to visit!

Stacey and I met my sophomore (her freshman) year of college in Astronomy. We *might* have been the best nappers in that class. Despite our attempts to sleep through that whole semester, we managed to become friends and somehow or another we decided to move in together. Junior year was the Stacey & Erin Show!

She now lives in Denver, where I visited her back in 2007. We haven’t seen each other since so this visit was a long time coming.

After an eventful trek from Florida to NYC to Philly, Stacey arrived into Boston safe and sound. It was so fun to show her some of my fave places in Boston but also try a few new places I’ve had on my “To Do” list.

Dinner in the North End at Ristorante Saraceno.

Drinks at one of my fave bars, The Green Dragon

Dim Sum in China Town at China Pearl

A visit to the Harvard Museum of Natural History

*All of these flowers were made over a century ago out of GLASS*

A walk through Harvard Sq and Grendel’s Den for a few drinks

Traditional lobster meal (Stacey’s only request when visiting Boston!) in Faneuil Hall at the oldest restaurant in America, Union Oyster House.

Exploring Faneuil Hall on the search for a Blood Mary.

Found one at Goody Glovers!

As every meal must end, so should Stacey’s visit. And just like a good meal, we ended our visit with a coffee, courtesy of Café Vittoria.

I waved good-bye to Stacey and we made promises to see each other SOONER rather than later. Our friendship has spanned almost 11 years now and I’m looking forward to our visits for many more years to come!

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Healthy Living Summit: Part 1

by agirlandhermutt on August 16, 2010

I have a confession for you all. As I got off the train to head towards the hotel a thought jumped in my mind that had been nagging me on and off for a few weeks.

“Erin…This is nuts.”

It was nuts to go to a conference where I didn’t know one single person. It was nuts to stay in a hotel room with someone who I had only emailed a handful of times. It was nuts. Plain and simple. It was also supah exciting! New faces! New places! I took the plunge head first and kept my fingers crossed for the best.

The first person I met instantly put me at ease though…I met Dorry! She has the BEST hugs around. No lie. We met up with a some other HLS peeps and set off for some lunch.

A few of us had heard about Raw, a restaurant in the French Market, that was supposedly quite tasty.

Holy yum…this place was not only super fresh and healthy, but everything just tasted fantastic!

The employees were kind enough to provide some samples so we could make some choices.

Jessie, my roomie, and I decided to split the raviolis and a tuna sandwich.

To finish the meal we were treated to an amazing truffle! Not the best looking goodie but oh so good.

Everyone in our troupe really enjoyed their dishes. Yay for foodie satisfaction!

Nicci, Dorry, Jessica, Courtney, Jessie and Me!

It was blazing hot so I had to stop for a water on our 1.5 mile trek back to the hotel. Thank goodness I did because I discovered that Chicago likes their booze…in CVS! They even have Bud and Tomato juice. Keepin’ it classy Chicago. Nice work!

When we got back to our creeptastic hotel (more on that later), we quickly got ready for the OpenSky cocktail party that was held at LaSalle Power Co.

There was food, drinks, new faces and a photo booth. Insanity!

Hey! Look who I found—>Spabettie!

Throughout the night I met tons of blends (blog friends!), hoards of new to me bloggers, and a few bloggers that I stalk on a regular basis.

Beth

Stina

Tina (ACK! So excited! I creepily waited around like a groupie to meet her)

Jessie (The Roomie!)

Angela

I was BEAT by 9p! Jessie had a bit of a headache so I jumped at the chance for us to head back to the hotel for us to relax, gossip, and check out our mea swag bags.

I see a few giveaways happening in the next few days! Don’t you?!

I can’t really articulate how great it was to meet so many others that have this strange interest in blogging that I do. I was in total overload all night long!

Stay tuned for a recap of our sessions from Saturday, our eats, and a great night out!

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Day Trip Success!

by agirlandhermutt on July 3, 2010

Who doesn’t enjoy a day trip?! You get to go to a fun place for the day and then come home to sleep in your OWN bed. I love it!

Today The Scientist and I hit up Portsmouth, NH. We have tried to go for a few weekends now but things always seem to come up. The 3rd of July was the perfect reason for us to finally go!

Portsmouth is really an adorable city. It was right on the water and reminded me a lot of cities like Salem and Newburyport.

We had plans to do a brewery tour later in the afternoon so we did a little walking around and got a bite to eat.

Our first pit stop to get out of the BRUTAL heat was to Portsmouth Brewery.

We were lucky enough to score patio seating on their cute little deck. The Portsmouth Brewery offers a pretty big selection of handcrafted beers.

I was a little overwhelmed with all the choices so The Scientist came to the rescue and ordered a sampler…all 10 for us to taste!

We did some tasting and played a few “figure out the beer” games. Looks can be deceiving so let me tell you that this glasses were about the size of shot glasses. We weren’t chugging down drink after drink.

The Scientist was in heaven!

I was pretty pleased with the experience myself.

We made a solid dent on those suckers!

We did a bit more walking around and came across some fun sites. Including this announcement for 2009 movies and a random whale mural. Love it!

Our break mid-day was to get a bite to eat and went all the way to Maine to do it! Eh, it was just a walk over a bridge so we figured why not.

The first site over the bridge was Hebert Brothers seafood. They had a sign for 2 lobster rolls for $9.95. Sign us up.

They had everything seafood related, including frozen bait. Every city should have a frozen bait machine.

Our lobster rolls came out and were PERFECT. Seriously, EPIC.

Perfect food for a perfect view.

We did manage to make it to the RedHook brewery tour, but I did *not* manage to take one single photo. You will have to take my word for it that it was a good time. It wasn’t so much of a tour as a tasting, but for $1 you can’t beat it. If you are in the area, make sure to make a pit stop there.

We spent the rest of the day walking around exploring the sites, hitting up some shops and doing some people watching. One of the coolest things we came across was The Music Hall, a non-profit performing arts center.

The staff was nice enough to let us in to check things out and take some fun photos.

Even the bathrooms were stellar.

Our final stop was for dinner at Flatbread Company. I’ve been to a Flatbread before with my Dad and loved it. Stick with what is good, right?

We sat right by the oven and were fascinated by the guy doing the actual cooking of the pizzas. Holy crap he moves fast.

Funny enough his name was “Shadow”.

The pizzas are made with organic and locally grown produce, which is right up my alley.

Our pizza was quite tasty and there was plenty to take home.

The Scientist and I had a great day, but remember one of the great aspects of the day trip? You get to go home! Had a great time, but ready to get back.

I love discovering places close to Boston to enjoy. Bring on the next trip! If you are from the area, feel free to leave some suggestions in the comments or shoot me an email.