Slowing down for summer- finally!

Hi guys, happy hump day! I find whenever I have a Monday off, the week seems much longer for some reason. Weird, huh? Last night we had our National Night Out BBQ with our neighbors. It wasn’t really a plan ahead type thing, and we had typical BBQ fare: hot dogs and burgers, veggie dogs, veggie burgers, corn, and an amazing sun dried tomato pine nut pasta salad that my friend Jill made. It was so good!

Typical BBQ stuff

With Real Pickles of course!

We were outside until 11 pm, so that plus the cleaning meant a late night. I felt good this morning though, until I went to drink my Green Monster. Last night, after making a carrot, celery, pepper and granny smith juice, I saved all of the pulp to put in my GM as I have done the past two days since I bought the juicer. I started drinking my GM as I was getting ready and started finding hard bits in my mouth, and they were clear, like glass. I stopped drinking, checked my blender, and it was fine. So I checked the juicer. An entire piece of plastic had broken off, gotten chopped up, and was being ingested by me! 🙁 I am so bummed. I didn’t have time to go back to the store today, but I need to contact the company to figure out what to do with it. I LOVED making juice, and I am hoping to get a replacement soon.

Anyway, that was the start of my day, and it did get better. Over the past few days, I have finally been feeling a little bit  of summer. My workload has slowed down a bit, I have set my alarm for 15 minutes later 🙂 and I am walking a little more slowly to work. Summer in Boston is so great, and this week I am happy to finally be partaking in it!

I know some of you are traveling to the Healthy Living Summit in a little over a week, and if you are staying in Boston for longer than the weekend and need some fun ideas, let me know, especially if you have some extra time before the Friday cocktail party; I will be getting out of work at 5 and will have some time to kill!

  My family is coming to visit Friday, and we have lots on tap including whale watching, a Duck Tour, taking my niece to Davis Farm, eating at Cambridge Brewing Company and Legal Seafoods, a Sam Adams tour and hopefully a stop at Nashoba Winery for their gourmet pretzel and beer tasting. I am so excited, and I plan on sharing all of the fun on the blog. Below I have posted a few summer photos of beautiful Boston, taken in the last week with just a few ideas of places to go and to eat around town. I hope that you are going to a BBQ, the beach, or doing some other fun summery thing this week. Hooray for August slowdown!

The Boston skyline taken from Thompson Island

If you come to Boston and have the time, a visit to any of the harbor islands is a great way to take in some nature while staying very close to the city. I have been to Grape Island, Thompson Island, and Spectacle Island, and there are many more to visit. What I love is that all of the islands are different. Grape is very remote with just a campground and outhouses on it, some lovely rocky beaches, and good woodsy hiking trails. Thompson Island has a picnic pavilion, dorms for outward bound courses, and a building with real bathrooms. Spectacle is really cool; it was created with all of the land dug up during our famous Big Dig. It has a nice visitor center with food for purchase, jazz on Sundays, and a good jogging trail in addition a nice sandy beach.

Pretty city

Arriving at Thompson Island

No trip to Boston is complete without a visit to the Public Garden. I am very lucky that my office sits right across the street from the garden, and now that work is slower, we grab a blanket and have lunch outside.

Public Garden Swan Pond

Beware of the squirrels in the garden; they are waaaaay too friendly for my taste! The Public Garden is just across from Boston Common and a very short walk from Charles Street, a foodie and shoppers’ paradise. If you are in the neighborhood try Toscano, Figs, Bin 26 Enoteca, or The Upper Crust Pizza.

That’s all for now, but I will be back tomorrow with a quick and easy weeknight dinner, an update on my half marathon training and some exciting upcoming events I hope to attend.  G’nite!