June has been freaking crazy. Actually, we have been running around pretty much non-stop since Memorial Day weekend. I kind of made a mistake this winter, while I was cooped up inside going stir-crazy - I sort of planned a lot of summer activities. We have been all over the place this month, which means we have spent little time at home. Which is good. It's important to get out there and do things! But... the sweatpants-wearing, Netflix-watching, chip-eating part of me misses the couch a bit. Good news is, the next couple of weeks are pretty wide open and there will be lots of time for that, as well as hopefully creating some new designs.
So. Want to know what we've been up to this month?
Here's a run down:
The first weekend of June, we were supposed to go on a long weekend boat trip with my bro, Dave. Unfortunately, the day before we were supposed to sail out...one of the engines stopped working and it was going to be a week before it could get fixed. So, after stewing over what to do for a couple of hours we decided that we'd head to Cape Cod. None of us had ever been there, so we went for it. Good decision.
We took our time driving out there, we stopped at a bunch of little towns along the way until we made it to our final destination of Provincetown. What a lovely place. I love the houses there and all of the gardens. Every single house has shaker shingles and rhododendrons, and they are all so cute and quaint. We spent a lot of time walking down the main drag, going into some cute (and....just...weird) shops. We flew kites on the beach, ate lobster rolls, raw oysters, clams. We went to a karaoke bar that had a drag queen DJ. We climbed to the top of the Pilgrim Monument (which is 252 ft, by the way). This is where I realized that I'm much more afraid of heights than I originally thought. Oops. Shortly after we did this we headed over to the Breakwater Walkway, which I had noticed on the drive into town. It's this walkway that stretched across the bay over to this beachy area with two light houses on it. We got there and began walking... from the road it looked pretty easy. It looked rocky, but flat, and it didn't really look that far. We began walking - in flip flops and no water. I was wearing skinny jeans. We quickly learned that this may have been a mistake. The walkway was made up of giant rocks that weren't completely touching, so there were big gaps in between that we had to jump over. There was climbing and careful footwork, and just a lot more nimble cat-like moves than we had planned on. Oh, and also - we learned that it was 1.5 miles.. one way. We made it across. Thirsty and tired, but we were happy that we made it. We trudged around the beaches there for a while and took in some of the sights. We hadn't noticed how lovely it was on the walk over since we had to look down the whole time. It was a beautiful, sunny day. There were two light houses, which were way farther away than we thought - so we admired them from a distance. After spending a while there, we decided to head back. That's when someone said to us "Hey, did you guys notice all of this poison ivy?" We had not, but we realized that we had definitely been walking around in it the entire time. This really just reminded us of how unprepared we were for this adventure and that we had to walk back across those rocks another 1.5 miles. Even though it wasn't rainbows and butterflies the whole time, I would do it again. Mental note: next time - wear sneakers, shorts, and bring a freaking drink.
Okay, I guess I wanted to tell you more about our Cape Cod trip that I knew before I started writing. Here is a quick rundown of the other things:
- Memorial Day weekend we spent in Cambridge, MA visiting friends from college. They took us to Harvard Square, where we ate a ton of awesome food, went to a record shop, explored the stunning Harvard campus. We went into Boston for a bit for dinner and a had quick walk through the Boston Public Garden. My favorite activity was kayaking down the St. Charles River. That was so fun. I have done plenty of kayaking, but never any "urban kayaking."
So. Want to know what we've been up to this month?
Here's a run down:
The first weekend of June, we were supposed to go on a long weekend boat trip with my bro, Dave. Unfortunately, the day before we were supposed to sail out...one of the engines stopped working and it was going to be a week before it could get fixed. So, after stewing over what to do for a couple of hours we decided that we'd head to Cape Cod. None of us had ever been there, so we went for it. Good decision.
We took our time driving out there, we stopped at a bunch of little towns along the way until we made it to our final destination of Provincetown. What a lovely place. I love the houses there and all of the gardens. Every single house has shaker shingles and rhododendrons, and they are all so cute and quaint. We spent a lot of time walking down the main drag, going into some cute (and....just...weird) shops. We flew kites on the beach, ate lobster rolls, raw oysters, clams. We went to a karaoke bar that had a drag queen DJ. We climbed to the top of the Pilgrim Monument (which is 252 ft, by the way). This is where I realized that I'm much more afraid of heights than I originally thought. Oops. Shortly after we did this we headed over to the Breakwater Walkway, which I had noticed on the drive into town. It's this walkway that stretched across the bay over to this beachy area with two light houses on it. We got there and began walking... from the road it looked pretty easy. It looked rocky, but flat, and it didn't really look that far. We began walking - in flip flops and no water. I was wearing skinny jeans. We quickly learned that this may have been a mistake. The walkway was made up of giant rocks that weren't completely touching, so there were big gaps in between that we had to jump over. There was climbing and careful footwork, and just a lot more nimble cat-like moves than we had planned on. Oh, and also - we learned that it was 1.5 miles.. one way. We made it across. Thirsty and tired, but we were happy that we made it. We trudged around the beaches there for a while and took in some of the sights. We hadn't noticed how lovely it was on the walk over since we had to look down the whole time. It was a beautiful, sunny day. There were two light houses, which were way farther away than we thought - so we admired them from a distance. After spending a while there, we decided to head back. That's when someone said to us "Hey, did you guys notice all of this poison ivy?" We had not, but we realized that we had definitely been walking around in it the entire time. This really just reminded us of how unprepared we were for this adventure and that we had to walk back across those rocks another 1.5 miles. Even though it wasn't rainbows and butterflies the whole time, I would do it again. Mental note: next time - wear sneakers, shorts, and bring a freaking drink.
Okay, I guess I wanted to tell you more about our Cape Cod trip that I knew before I started writing. Here is a quick rundown of the other things:
- Memorial Day weekend we spent in Cambridge, MA visiting friends from college. They took us to Harvard Square, where we ate a ton of awesome food, went to a record shop, explored the stunning Harvard campus. We went into Boston for a bit for dinner and a had quick walk through the Boston Public Garden. My favorite activity was kayaking down the St. Charles River. That was so fun. I have done plenty of kayaking, but never any "urban kayaking."
- My aunt Paula (Paula Who?) did stand up at a comedy show at the Kallet Theater in Oneida. She was so great. She was by FAR the best one that performed that night. The whole place was cracking up. Plus, she ended with a McAllister dance party. Who doesn't love that?
- We saw Mike Gordon at the Papermill Island, which is like.... RIGHT down the street from our house. Mike gave Sam and I high fives. No big deal. The show was great. They had touch screen pads at the front of the stage that lit up during a couple songs and you could play along. They also had LED guitars.
- We saw Mike Gordon at the Papermill Island, which is like.... RIGHT down the street from our house. Mike gave Sam and I high fives. No big deal. The show was great. They had touch screen pads at the front of the stage that lit up during a couple songs and you could play along. They also had LED guitars.
- The day after the concert, we headed to Doylestown, PA to visit our other friends from college. We spent that Saturday tubing down the Delaware River, being all like George Washington. We each blew up our tube. (Just kidding. Sam pretty much blew up everyone's tube.) They also had a floating cooler! We put that in the center and tied up to it, so we were one big floating party. It was so fun. If you have never been tubing - do it!!!! It's so, so fun. All you need are two cars, tubes, and a few hours to do nothing, but relax.
- And, lastly, just this week we went to see Todd Snyder at the Westcott in Syracuse. He had an opener, John Craigie who was SO GOOD. I loved him. His stories and songs were hilarious and he was super talented to boot. Todd, of course, was great. I don't know a ton of his songs, but Sam knew every single one. I had never been to a concert like that. It wasn't really the type of music to dance to (which is a relief for me). It was so casual, everyone sat down and just listened to his words and appreciated his talent. Definitely go see him!
- And, lastly, just this week we went to see Todd Snyder at the Westcott in Syracuse. He had an opener, John Craigie who was SO GOOD. I loved him. His stories and songs were hilarious and he was super talented to boot. Todd, of course, was great. I don't know a ton of his songs, but Sam knew every single one. I had never been to a concert like that. It wasn't really the type of music to dance to (which is a relief for me). It was so casual, everyone sat down and just listened to his words and appreciated his talent. Definitely go see him!
So. Here we are now. It's been a crazy past few weeks. I'm ready to do nothing this weekend and all of this travel has given me a ton of inspiration for some new designs. Stay tuned for those! :)
What have you been up to so far this summer? What are you looking forward to doing that you haven't done yet? Let me know in the comments!
-- Alison --
