Boston Strong America!

Anyone who has talked to me this year knows, after my Europe trip earlier this year, I'm not making any more trips this year because I'm saving money. The problem is, saying and doing are very different things. Becca messaged me back in June. This is more or less what happened. I took out the extra stuff.

Becca: Do you have plans over labor day weekend this year?
Me: Not that I know of. What are you thinking? Britney in Vegas????
Becca: haha. That wasn't what I was thinking...
Me: What were *you* thinking?
Becca: I was just thinking that Labor Day weekend was fun last year, and it seems like a good vacation opportunity. I'll try and think of potential places.
Me: Boston?
Becca: Are you a mind reader?
Me: Yes, yes, and yes.

What can I say? It's very hard to convince me to travel...because saying and doing are two *very* different things. Funny story: we were looking at hostels, and the one we were originally looking at fell through. We waited a bit long to book rooms, and wanted to get it done before everything booked up. We were both away from our computers, so we ended up booking everything on our phones. #classylassies

I took a nice long Labor Day weekend vacation. I took of Thursday night, so we could have all of Friday together. Did I mention that Becca's parents were joining us on our trip? Because they did, and they are so funny! I was a little nervous because the only interaction I've ever had with Becca's parents, as Becca reminded me, was when her mom would transcribe my letter into an email to Becca, while I was on my mission, and Becca was teaching in China. I remember Becca telling me that her mom was having difficulties transcribing my smiley faces and other drawn expressions that I use in my letters. Anyways, Becca and her parents picked me up from the airport Thursday night, and we went to the hotel.

Friday morning, I should have gone running, but I made excuses in my head to no go. It's even worse, because Becca's dad came back full of happy runny energy, because he had a great run along the bay. Shame on me. We had a nice breakfast before heading out for the day. There was a nice man who redirected us to the correct side of the train by saying "you only go that way if you want to get run over by a train". He was funny. We walked along the harbor and waited in line for our whale watching tour. Another reason I'm happy Becca's parents came along! I'm not to sure I could have convinced Becca to go on a whale watching tour without the added votes from her parents. We were warned before going on the boat, there were 3ft waves that day. I may be Boston strong...but it turns out my stomach is not. Several kids and myself had motion sickness...unlike the kids, I found a trashcan to vomit into. The kids will learn, but I felt pity for the workers who had to clean the deck of vomit. Gross. We saw whales. (If Marijn is reading this...it says: we saw whales. Whales were seen. We zagen walvissen) They were so big! It was magical! Everything I wanted and more (in both a good and bad way. lol)

We walked to see a graveyard, some parks, and the Cheers bar. That place was pretty cute. Then we went to the oldest restaurant in the United States! Union Oyster House. It was cool. The waitress had such a Bostonian accent, it was adorable. (spoiler...Becca and I walked by the waitress again the next day when we were going to our hostel) We ate so much, and it was so good!

 Saturday we said goodbye to Becca's parents and went to find our hostel. We took the train to the stop, and decided to walk to the hostel instead of calling the shuttle. This is when we saw our waitress again. We both weren't sure if we should say hi or not, so we stayed silent. As we were walking on the sidewalk, a van pulled over and asked if we were going to the hostel. It was the shuttle! He was driving back from dropping someone off. What a coincidence! We checked in and went back to the train stop before heading off to the Freedom Trail.

Freedom Trail notes:

• The best part about walking the freedom trail: me wearing my American shirt that I bough specifically for this trip.
• The worst part about the freedom trail: the wreckage it did to my legs that lasted for a week. I was literally limping for a week, and I felt it in my left hip. Personally, I blame the 294 stairs at the Bunker Hill monument.
• It made the black history trail seem terrible. I'm just going to take a moment for this. Dear Boston, If you are going to advertise you have a black history trail, put signs up to mark where you are supposed to be going and where you should stop! The Freedom Trail has a trail in the pavement! The Black History trail had nothing, but other tourists wandering around asking each other if they think they found one of the landmarks. This is embarrassing for you Boston. Just stop.
• Turns out the midnight ride of Paul Revere NEVER HAPPENED! American history is a dirty liar. He had someone else light the lanterns in the church...and we aren't even sure who!!!
• We stopped at Mike's Pastries. It was tastey...but not worth all the hype. 

Saturday night was fireworks in the Harbor. It was gorgeous. 

Sunday arrived with achy legs. We played too hard Saturday, and our bodies hated us on Sunday. We still went into town for a much slower-paced day that the day before. We started off with Sunday brunch at a bookstore/cafe. Trident Book Cafe. WHAAAAAAATTTT???? Books and food! Dreams do come true. The food was amazing too. Apple turkey sausage! I died and went to heaven. Seriously amazing. Then we went to go to the library. It was closed. Obviously we checked the time again and decided to come back when it was open. Instead we went to Harvard. Why? To say we went to Harvard.

Harvard is not as impressive as I once thought. There was no sign that said "Harvard" anywhere. Who does that! Every school has a sign that says their name. Nope. Not Harvard. Stupid Harvard. We went back to the library....it was still closed. Turns out, it' closed for Labor Day weekend, all weekend. bah. Then we couldn't find a public bathroom, and I'm like a child when I got to go.  We couldn't find a public bathroom anywhere for me. I was a hot mess. We wandered to a park to rest and FaceTime Marijn. It was a Labor Day reunion, because we were together in DC last year for Labor Day.

I had taken some Earl Grey tea from the hotel earlier this weekend and had been carrying it around in my purse for this very moment...I was going to throw tea in the harbor. Of course, I ripped the bag to get the tea out; I didn't want to liter. It was magical. I love how excited I look in my picture...because really, I was that maniacally happy about it.

We then headed to dinner for lobster rolls. We wanted to go to this place with awesome reviews, but they had a two hour wait, and we were HUNGRY. We saw that the place next door had lobster rolls too, so we went there. Turns out, there is a reason this place isn't rated. It was SUPER overpriced and not that good. It also turns out, I don't like lobster that much. Surprise. We went and got sweets from a bakery down the road and went back to the hostel to read for the rest of the night. We were seriously knackered. I love that Becca and I can just go back to read in our rooms, and be 100% okay with it. Great travel buddy. We went to bed, and I flew out early the next morning.

I was driven to the airport by a taxi man that I wasn't 100% sure if he was really a taxi driver or a hippie homeless man driver who was going to kill me. It was a wee bit stressful. I still arrived home safely and in time to head over to Marcia's farewell family Labor Day BBQ party, which was super fun too.

Florida Fun in the Sun

Background points: 

1. I don't like using last names in my blog posts, because I like to give people some resemblance of privacy, and I hate when people use my first and last names in blogs. You know, do unto others as you would have others do to you, and all that jazz. Now that you know that, you must also know: writing this blog was really weird, because I call Zach by his last name, probably 90% of the time.

#tbt #iwasfat #CSRM #missionaries

2. I haven't seen Zach since the mission, so about 3 years or so. We've kept in contact, text, and chat on the phone occasionally. I think my favorite thing to ask him is "Why aren't you married?" because he just laughs it off. Either way, we got along really well on the mission, and we still get along fabulously post-mission.

Storytime:

Zach told me earlier this year that he was planning on going to Austin sometime this summer, which made me super excited all year. But like every other time there's a possibility of us running into each other, something happened where he couldn't go anymore. Like how he purposefully goes to whichever mission reunion I'm not attending. (I'm on to you!) We were chatting on the phone one night, and he was just "why don't you come here?" and I immediately say "I'm not flying to tampa to spend a weekend with you." He's saying, "why not" and I'm saying many reasons, "It's going to be expensive. I don't have any time before you go off to school again. You're not really serious." We talked, and I looked at flights, hypothetically of course. It turns out, Houston to Tampa isn't that expensive for a weekend, and since I would be staying with his family, I would just be paying for airfare and if we went out to eat. It also turned out, there was a great weekend that worked perfectly for my schedule. I made him go ask his mom, for real, if it would be okay if I came to visit and verify he wasn't offering as an impulse thing. Once that was okay, I just had to think about it....and the real concern surfaced. If I went to visit him and stay with his family, everyone is going to think we're dating. I told him this and he just said "who cares? people are always going to think what they're going to think". Valid. I booked my flight. 

The only plan I had for the weekend was spending some quality time with Zach, which is exactly what happened....everything else was extra. I flew in Friday night, and he's messages me to see if it's okay that his mom comes along to pick me up from the airport with him. I'm like, "uhhhh....sure." It was a great decision. His mom, is super awesome, and I adore her. We picked up his oldest (maybe?) brother and went to dinner near Clearwater Beach, where one of his younger sisters and her friends joined us. It was great. I think the best part is when we got back, and I met his youngest brother Matt, who was just waking up from a too-long nap around 10ish. I greeted him, and he just gave me one of those i-just-woke-up-and-nothing-makes-sense looks. I laughed. The next best part was that Zach's mom more awake and ready to stay up than I was. I felt so un-cool.

Saturday morning started off wonderfully. I did my 5-mile run on a trail down the road from their house (see pic above). It was my first 5-mile run; I was worried I would die from the distance, and Zach's family was worried I'd die from heat and humidity. Personally, I think Florida was less humid than Texas that week. I also had to tell Zach to make sure I didn't make up excuses to not run. The sad thing is, it was my last long-distance run. I've been making tons of excuses since. #fail

I went running, while Zach and Matt went to help someone move. Zach's mom made an epic breakfast when we all got back. We headed to the beach, where Zach and Matt did an indoor surf thing, while I hung out and shopped a bit with Zach's mom. Then it was beach time. The sand was so white and the water was nice, warm, wonderful, and clean.

On the way to the beach, I was having quite an interesting family drama morning, because everyone was convinced my older sister was dead. I thought she had been taken. It was very dramatic, and quite entertaining. Turns out she was just asleep. It was so anticlimactic. It did leave us very intrigued for the morning.

I'm not sure if I should share this story, but I'm going to anyway, because I don't have many boundaries. Zach's brother, Matt is a teenagers. One of the teenager things I heard from him was him complaining that his parents "cared too much" and "believed in him too much". I laughed so hard. Fast forward a few weeks. I'm in the car with my mom and sister, and my mom is driving me insane about something. I'm about to open my mouth and say "STOP CARING SO MUCH", but instead I think of Matt and start laughing. It was a great moment. I'm such an adult.

Dang. My face looks nice and tan. Go me...Zach looks tan too.

After the beach, we went back to the house. Zach and I went shopping for groceries for dinner, which was great, because we were very inefficient and kept backtracking trying to find things on our shopping list. I got to request spaghetti with meatballs for dinner. Victory! To make dinner even better, the sister missionaries showed up. I LOVE MISSIONARIES! It was a great night. The evening ended with a stroll and lots of sweets from the Sponge Docks. Then I introduced them to The Mindy Project. There were a few moments where I questioned my decision, but I LOVE THE MINDY PROJECT! NO REGRETS!

Sunset at the Sponge Docks. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!?!?!?!

Sunday Funday! Sunday was great. I wore my pretty new flower dress and had to borrow a safety pin to keep it appropriate. Clothing these days. geeze. Church was amazing. I was so uplifted. There were some great speakers, but my fav was a 15-year-old boy, who converted recently. The sunday school teacher was deaf, and had great insights into the book of Job. The Relief Society was full of women with wisdom. It was great. I didn't realize how much their words would impact me later the week. Seriously. There were a number of ladies battling cancer in the room, and they were talking about dealing with trials and cancer. I loved one older lady telling about when she got the call that she had cancer. She said something along the lines of, "When you get bad news like that, you take a moment to be miserable/upset/angry. No more than 24-hours. Then you have to get back and face it" She said she called her doctor back and said "ok. what are we going to do about it?" I'm not saying that everyone should deal with cancer or bad news this way, but I really liked the spirit behind her words.

We made sushi for lunch. Homemade sushi. I've never made homemade sushi before, and I felt super posh. It was awesome, and fun. After lunch, the only way to end a great weekend is with a great dessert! So I made Sister Bunker's birthday cookies (aka homemade oreos). They were a hit. Of course. You can't go wrong with those cookies. 

Overall, it was a great weekend. I needed it. I needed to relax, and spend some time with a friend. I had a great time. Maybe it won't take years before we see each other next. His mom asked me over the weekend what I thought about Zach, or if he's what I expected, or something like that. I've told him, and I told her: Zach is not what I thought he would be like outside of the mission. That may sound bad, but I mean it in the nicest way. You get to know and love fellow missionaries on your mission, and they just stay that way, in missionary-mode, in your mind forever. Zach just got more awesome since the mission, and I love it.