Labor Day Visitor

Labor Day weekend John's brother Justin came down from Boston for a visit. We love having visitors and had a jam packed weekend full of fun. Saturday we went to the Intrepid Museum which was really cool!

The Intrepid was an aircraft carrier during several wars and then became the recovery vessel for NASA. It's huge and has tons of really neat stuff as part of the museum.

The newest addition to the museum is the Space Shuttle Enterprise which just arrived this summer. Fun fact, the Enterprise is actually named after the Enterprise in Star Trek. Apparently there was quite a letter writing campaign to President Ford and the name was changed from Constitution :)

Since it was a game day we had to show our Razorback pride!

And then we started goofing off :)

After we exhausted ourselves at the Intrepid we made our way over to the Arkansas bar to watch the game. And to make a long day even longer we went to see an interactive play after that! Sunday we were all so tired we just hung out at the apartment and played Settlers of Catan  :)

Hilton Head

Since I turned 30 this year and my baby sister turned 16 the very next day I thought we should do something special so we went to Hilton Head for the week :)

None of us had ever been to Hilton Head but it was a short flight for John and I and my family drove to meet us. My friend Michael came with my mom and sisters and was way too nice and ended up driving them the whole 13 hours!

It was such a great trip, we stayed in a great house close to the beach that had plenty of room for all of us. We did a lot of relaxing at the house and a lot of cooking too. John got a little excited over actually having a grill so he grilled several nights we were there. Since we were in the South and had access to Walmart we made all kinds of good Southern food, cheese dip, spinach dip, you get the idea :)

Everybody checking out the beach on the first day :)

My sweet family brought me birthday presents :)

We spent a lot of time going between the beach and the swimming pool. We ventured out a few days to do some sightseeing and shopping. In the historic part of Hilton Head there was a nice area with a lighthouse so we went to check that out. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were there!

My mom and I at the top of the lighthouse

Me and my sisters at the lighthouse

Everyone enjoying the rocking chairs overlooking the harbor :)

Everyone besides John and I had to leave a day early to get back to Little Rock so the day that John and I had by ourselves we went on a kayaking tour of the marshes. It was a really nice relaxing outing and we even saw a dolphin :) 

John and I did some kayaking

Our flight was actually out of Charlotte and not until late in the afternoon so John and I got to spend a little time in Charlotte before we left. We decided to check out one of the plantations. 

Magnolia Plantation Gardens

Magnolia Plantation was founded in 1679! Its over 300 years old, crazy! We didn't go in the actual house but we wondered around the grounds and gardens, it was really cool. I loved the Spanish moss everywhere.

Magnolia Plantation Gardens

So fun to get to hang out with my family and have a nice relaxing vacation :)

Weekend in Arkansas

I went down to Northwest Arkansas for a quick trip last weekend and it was so great to spend some time with friends and family and meet a new addition to the group :)

Sweet baby Wren was sooo precious!

I spent as much time hanging out with friends as possible and of course eating cheese dip :)

So many adorable babies!!!

My mom and sister even drove up on Saturday to see me which was awesome!

We all hung out at the Lake Fayetteville park on Saturday and I got to enjoy some greenery, definitely something I miss living in a gigantic concrete city :(

 

We even did a little swinging :)

It was a FANTASTIC trip, so laid back and so great to see everyone, if only it were a little longer!

Weekend with the Family

John's family came in from Orlando last weekend. I kind of forgot that it was St. Patrick's day and that we would be dealing with the craziness that brings. Luckily we were able to stay out of most of it. I made sure we weren't going to be any where near the parade or so I thought, apparently there was a little mini parade on our street!

I was really concerned with taking the family around the city because pretty much everyone starts drinking at 9am on St. Patrick's day. We didn't see anything too bad but just to let you know how nuts the city gets for St. Patrick's day, there was a guy walking around with a goat!

We had a jam packed weekend which is always fun! Saturday we went to the Tenement museum which is a guided tour that takes you through what it would have been like to live in the late 1800's and early 1900's in NYC. They have several different tours and John and I have done quite a few of them, they are always really neat.

Saturday night we all went to see Broadway shows. Some of us saw "Death of a Salesman" with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and then the others saw "How to Succeed in Business" with Nick Jonas. The shows were great and I think everyone enjoyed what they saw :)

We had beautiful weather all weekend so on Sunday we got sandwiches from Eisenberg's, one of the famous delis in NY and took them to the High Line park for a picnic.

John and I are big fans of the High Line but we hadn't been in a while. It was a little barren since most of the plants get cut back for the winter but they were starting to come back, can't wait to go back again this summer :)

The last night everyone was in town we went to try S'mac which is a restaurant that only serves macaroni and cheese! Anna, John's sister saw it on the travel channel or food network and so we had to try it. Glad we did because it was awesome!!! John and I shared the sampler which was eight different kinds of mac-n-cheese. They ranged from the standard 4-cheese to Cajun to one that even had figs!

Its always fun to host friends and family and play tour guide, it gives us a chance to show off our favorite places and even learn about new ones :)

Massachusetts Weekend

A couple of weekends ago John and I took the bus to Boston to visit with John's family. His brother and sister-in-law moved to South Hamilton, a small town about 45 minutes North of Boston earlier this fall. The rest of John's family came up for the weekend too. 

We got in really late Friday night so ended up just crashing. Saturday we all got up early and drove to Gloucester which was a cute little town on the coast. They were having a harvest fest so we checked out all the local shops.

All of the restaurants of course had lobster so the seafood fans were inspired to stop and get fresh lobster for dinner. The local lobster is super cheap so all of the guys each got their own to play with :)

Sunday we got up even earlier and drove into Maine. It was beautiful!

We got to check out Cape Neddick lighthouse and eat more seafood overlooking the ocean. I unfortunately don't eat seafood and so I ate the equivalent of kids menu food all weekend :(

It was a pretty quick trip but was lots of fun seeing the area and hanging out with family!

Alaska Wrap Up

Here's the wrap up of the rest of the activities we did while in Alaska. We were pretty non stop with activities but what's the point of being in Alaska if you're not going to really experience it :)

Wednesday we went salmon fishing in a river. I have no idea which river it was, sorry. I've been fishing plenty of times but this was definitely my first time wearing waders and standing in the river to fish. It was rainy most of the day and just a tiny bit chilly in the water!

We didn't let that get us down though and it was a lot of fun. Apparently this time of year the salmon aren't hungry and are really only swimming up the river to spawn. Standing in the water you could see dozens of fish just feet in front of you and you could watch them swim out of the way of the lure. It was a little crazy! 

I distinctly remember we went fishing on Wednesday because it was my birthday. Unfortunately I didn't catch a fish on my birthday but it was still lots of fun and my sweet sister-in-law baked a strawberry cake (my fave) for me :) 

The rest of the week we managed to do a little 4-wheeler riding in the valley behind the house. 

The boys did more hiking.

 The girls even managed to fit in a spa day while the boys hiked :)

Overall it was a fantastic trip and it definitely lived up to any expectations I had of a trip to Alaska! 

Glaciers!

I've always wanted to see a glacier, especially since there's all the concern over how global warming will impact them. While we were in Alaska I definitely got to see all kinds of glaciers and they were pretty fantastic!

Early in the week we drove out to hike around on the Matanuska glacier which was amazing, apparently it is the largest glacier accessible by car in the US. From the car there was a little bit of a hike to get to the part that actually looked like a glacier, I'm pretty sure we were walking on ice the whole time but it felt like another planet or at least more along the lines of a rock quarry :) 

You couldn't really appreciate the glacier until you got up close to it, it's absolutely massive (something like 4 miles wide!) and the texture on the ice is incredible!

The ice also has a blue quality and sometimes looks like its glowing. The blue color has something to do with the compression and how far the light waves absorb into the ice. It looks even more blue on overcast days.

You can also see it was a bit chilly as I'm wearing a scarf in August :)

It was really neat to see how water carves through the glaciers. There are also little pock marks on the surface where rocks have heated up in the sunlight and then slowly melted down into the ice. The whole glacier was so diverse and like a giant playground for us to explore!

If walking around on the Matanuska glacier wasn't enough later in the week we went on a glacier cruise. We drove to Whittier and got on a boat to tour the glaciers in the Prince William Sound. The boat ride out to the glaciers was beautiful!

And it provided lots of wildlife sightings :)

We saw seals and sea otters everywhere. There was also a mountain goat sighting but they were so far up the mountain you could only see them with binoculars. I took a picture but it just looks like white blurs in the greenery. Instead, here's a picture of a few of the multitude of sea otters.

Once we got closer to the glaciers it was so overcast and foggy that it almost felt mystical.

See what I mean about the crazy blue color!

The cruise we were on was called the 26 glacier cruise so we got to see plenty of glaciers. Definitely an awesome experience :)