New England, New Year

Long time, no blog. 

I will be the first to admit, I have seriously fallen down on my blogging "duties." The truth is, it's hard to live your life, while simultaneously taking pictures, jotting down specific details and finding time to write about it all. 

That being said, you haven't missed anything overwhelmingly exciting in the past 6 months that I haven't shared here and there on social media.

With a busy Fall schedule, including keeping up with Langston, helping my BFF plan her wedding and cringing through another Gamecock football season, Taylor and I thought it would be fun to get away.

We did some brainstorming and settled on Boston for New Years Eve. 

We had both been before as kids, but cities are a bit more magical when paired with a cocktail. 

With lots of time spent researching restaurants, gathering recommendations from experts, searching for the best flight/hotel deals and organizing it all on a handy-dandy Google Doc, we headed North to Beantown and were greeted with freezing temps.

Throughout the trip, multiple locals asked why we chose to visit in the dead of Winter. I think it's much more fun to travel to a city during the "off season." After all, during the Summer, it's just as hot in Atlanta as it is in Boston as it is in NYC as it is in Chicago....what fun is that?! 

I should mention that part of MY planning included purchasing appropriate clothing for the weather. Taylor, however, didn't find it necessary to follow suit.

He reluctantly let me purchase a beanie for him before we left ATL, but refused gloves.

I should also mention he insisted he would NOT be wearing the hat under any circumstance. ((More to come on this))

We arrived in Boston around 10 a.m. and did what any good tourist would do--headed straight for Sam Adams! 

We have been on dozens of brewery tours before, but I have to say, Sam does it very well! The tour guides were incredibly knowledgeable about every aspect of the brewery, and you could tell they truly loved their job. Then again, who wouldn't?

They had an interesting tasting room as well. Instead of patrons purchasing pints or redeeming tokens for pours, everyone on the tour sat at long, family-style tables and passed around pitchers while the tour guides gave us the background on each brew. It was a really fun experience!

We even got to try a beer sold exclusively at the Garden during Bruins games. Pretty cool!

Next, we had an afternoon beverage at Row 34. I got a big kick out of our coasters, appropriately labeled I thought :) 

My coaster: "Professionals only"

Taylor's coaster;) 

Keeping with the beer theme, we hit up a small up-and-coming brewery called Trillium. Taylor had watched their episode of Brewmasters and was dying to taste test!

Sadly, they were so busy they weren't offering tastings, so we took a chance buying a growler of their farmhouse ale, conveniently named "Trillium." 

It was a wonderful complement for our dinner straight outta Chinatown. Yes, we called it an early night and ate it in our hotel, but we had been up since 4 a.m.!! 

We did enjoy beautiful views on our sunset walk to the hotel!

Site of the Boston Tea Party

The next day, we took the "T" bright and early to make our way to Cambridge. **Note, it was 19 degrees that morning and Taylor ((who was "warming up" to wearing his beanie)) was refusing to wear his jacket. He thought it best to wear a button-up with a vest...in 19-degree weather. 

I'll save you the details, but he wore the coat and later that day, he bought a pair of gloves.

With a quick Google search, we found a casual breakfast spot near Harvard's campus, and although it was nothing fancy, we felt like we stumbled upon a pretty cool spot! 

Of everything we did on the trip, I have to say that Harvard, and Cambridge in general, was my favorite spot.  It's so clean and pristine, with so much history!

Like true nerds, we used our iPhones for a guided tour of the campus...until our hands were too cold to leave our pockets, and then we opted for a self-guided route!

Fun fact: apparently Harvard students frequently pee on John Harvard's toes as a prank because they know tourists ((like us)) are told it's good luck to rub his foot. Clearly, I didn't learn that until AFTER our trip. 

After our brisk stint in the Ivy League world, we headed indoors to watch the Celtics take on the Sacramento Kings. 

The Celtics pulled off the win, but we had a major fail. Apparently, you can't drink at the Garden with an out-of-state ID if you're under 25. ((we're both 24.5...))

Alas, we had to eat our carbs and not drink them :(

A quick stroll and some shopping on Boylston street was just what we needed before we kicked off the New Year with drinks at Rustic Kitchen and  dinner at Erbaluce. The quaint Italian restaurant specializes in pasta sauces made without cream or butter. Instead, they experiment with different herbs to recreate typical Italian dishes. 

With a few too many pre-dinner cocktails, however, we totally forgot about this fun fact ordering steak and wild boar-OOPS! 

The next morning we took a break from the T and walked to brunch, taking in the sites!

Boston Marathon Finish Line

And at brunch, I got my Clinton fix! 

So great spending time with Amanda and Matt at Bar Boulud, Fenway & Boston Beerworks. 

((A little bit different than our first trip to Boston together with Bell Street ;) )) 

If you asked me why I wanted to go to  Boston, I could give you a page full of reasons, but Taylor had just one goal- lobster roll.

We were able to satisfy his craving at Union Oyster House ((the oldest restaurant in America)), which was admittedly a tourist trap, but still delicious!

After dinner, we made our way over to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market and Cheers, which were both still beautifully decorated for the holidays! 

We also stumbled across a moving Holocaust memorial.

So if Harvard was my favorite place we visited, my favorite food in Boston was without a doubt, Mike's Pastry. A Bostonian recommended this place, and while I knew it would be good, I had no idea just how INCREDIBLE it would be. 

After one bite of my Boston creme pie, I thought there could be no better taste in the world. Then I bit into the espresso cannoli. Bravo, Mike - you really know what you're doing!

Our last day was spent by the water. We took in the gorgeous views before boarding a plane back down south! 

By now, I've been to several non-Southern cities, and I always love the odd looks and funny questions I get when people take note of my Southern accent.

In Boston, whenever we told someone we lived in Atlanta, their first question was always "Oh my gosh, have you been to Charleston?!!!!" 

I did love our time in New England, but is there anything better than the South? 

I'm afraid not! 

Thanks for reading y'all!