boating

Newport Bridge

Hello everyone and Happy Sunday! Today is my beloved husband’s birthday, and it was such a great day! I am completely exhausted and will be back with a full recap tomorrow but wanted to share some of our day with you today.

My husband turns 31 today, and it has been a really incredible year! He started his Masters’ degree and finished his first year (one to go!) while working 60+ hours a week. We had a new niece this year, and we have traveled quite a bit: Ireland (twice), Spain, Iceland, Montreal, and New York City were some of the highlights. He works so hard, and I wanted today to be really a day for him to be out of the office in the great outdoors relaxing.

We started with flaxseed and raspberry pancakes and huge green monsters (spinach, flax, chocolate almond milk, blueberries, bananas, ice, and chocolate SuperFood), stopped at the MSPCA to drop off dog and cat treats, and headed to Newport, RI. The morning was dreadfully cloudy as it POURED all night long, but when we arrived in Newport and rented our boat for the afternoon, the sun came out, and we had blue skies all around!

Renting a boat for the day was a big surprise to my husband, and he loved it! We drove around the harbor and just outside, and spent sometime just relaxing out on the water. The sights were amazing and included lots of really cool boats and mansions, including the childhood summer home of Jacqueline Kennedy.

The "Summer Whitehouse" of the JFK presidency

Some of the many boats

Our new boat? 🙂

We forgot the camera on the boat outing, so these are blackberry photos, not too bad though. Don’t worry, I photographed the rest of the day which included a Portugese Festival, lobster lunch and Newport Storm beer, fudge, a walk around Newport, and two vineyards, Newport Vineyards, and Greenvale Vineyards, and dinner at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, Ashmont Grill. I will post about all of that tomorrow. I am really getting the hang of taking photos of everything I do, and its kind of fun!

Ahh it was a great day. We have been seriously considering buying a boat, and renting one today brought home how much fun it would be. We already decided on a name, “Ceol na mara”, Irish for music of the sea. We are going to spend tonight talking about future travels and boat buying. I am a little stressed because in general we plan really great, long holidays when we travel, and right now all I want to do is have enough time off to take days here and there to recoup from all of the long hours I am working. BUT I still want to have enough time off to go to Argentina in November. What to do?

I wanted to remind everyone that my Nigella Express giveaway started today. To enter, just link back to my blog on yours and leave a comment about your fave chef, celebrity or otherwise.

Some of my favorite bloggers are also having giveaways: Marathon Val and her Holey Donuts, and Lynn over at The Actor’s Diet has a Mirabella lip gloss AND Ginger Chews giveaway. And, An Apple a Day is giving away some delish looking fruit spreads. I love all of this spreading the love in the foodie/fitness blogging world!

Have a really great Sunday evening and Monday (ugh already???). See you all soon 🙂