Zipping

Already Saturday? Where has the week gone?

I thought I'd share another part of my Autumn Adventures: Ziplining!

My mom and I ventured out to the Berkshires to enjoy the Fall foliage while zipping from tree to tree. It was SO much fun! It took 3 hours, and you literally zig-zag down a mountain on wires! Mommy and I had a blasty blast, and I can't wait to go again!

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

 We are expecting 6-10 inches of snow tonight. Booooooo. If this is any indication of the type of winter we are going to have, I'm going to need a one way ticket to Bermuda.

Just Call Me Miss Outdoors

You might recall me mentioning that I spent my vacation a few weeks ago hiking through the wilderness with the BF. If you read my blog regularly, you might also recall that never-have-I-ever done anything remotely outdoors-y.

Well, friends, that all changed on my little vacation. 

The BF is quite the outdoorsman. He has some spiffy backpacks, tents, hiking boots, lanterns etc. that he used to put to good use. Then he became a big kid, and  those favorite pastimes took the backseat to working overtime, visiting his beautiful GF two hours away every other week, and using any free moments for some much deserved relaxing. The BF's one request for out few days together was to go hiking.

Well, you might be able to imagine I was a little apprehensive to this suggestion. I was hoping to flee to NYC for a few days of fun. This hiking thing was the exact opposite of my envisioned vacation.  I (not begrudgingly, of course) said that would be a fantastic idea! The BF had been so sweet to me working around my crazy work schedule, so why not do something he loves?

I loved it.

 Well, at first there might have been a few comments here or there about how clomping through the woods, sweating, and tripping over tree roots was not my idea of fun. However, once we got to the first look-out point, I was a changed woman! The views were incredible, especially with the fall foliage! 

I was a happy little camper climbing up the rest of the mountain, down the mountain, up another mountain, and down that mountain too.

Here are some pics I took from our adventure in the White Mountains of NH...

I can't wait to go on another hiking trip! 

Do any of you know some great hiking trails in New England for us to try?

P.S. Don't forget to join the Mingle Monday Blog Hop at Life of Meg!

The Time I Saw the Queen...

Since the Royal Wedding Fever has overtaken the world, I feel the need to share what I like to call my "Royal Encounter" with Queen Elizabeth, Prince Harry, and Prince William. Prince Charles and Camilla were there too, but I don't particularly care for them, so I pretend they weren't there.

Here's what happened. One of my best friends, Chelsea, and I were in London in June of 2009. We were enjoying a lovely London weekend, when we discovered the Queen was celebrating her birthday. For those of you who have been following the Royals very closely, you know that the Queen's actual birthday is in April. However, June has better weather, so it is tradition for her to celebrate her birthday in sunny summer weather. Those of you who have been to London in June know that it's not exactly beautiful weather. But you understand. I digress...

Being two girls that were completely in love with the idea of Royalty, we decided we needed to see the Queen during her birthday parade. It happened to be a few hours before our plane was leaving, so we packed our little suitcases and headed to central London. Of course, all the Brits that witnessed the two Americans tugging along their little suitcases and asking where was the best spot to see the Queen thought we were a little off (or so a lovely London lady told us), but we didn't care. We wanted front row seats to see some Royalty. I also knew in my heart that if those yummy looking Princes saw me, one of them had to fall instantly in love with me.

(This is what front row seats look like. This is the Mall, which is part of Kate and William's wedding parade route)

So we waited and waited and FINALLY the parade started. Being the pushy Americans that we were, we made our way to the front of the fences (I needed William and Harry to have full access to seeing my face, just so one of them knew who they'd be marrying some day). It started like this....

Lots of pretty looking soldiers walked by in their bearskin hats. They were very nice...but we were waiting for the main event. Then all of a sudden we were taken by surprised and Prince William, Prince Harry, and that other lady drove by! I was so surprised/excited/about to wet my pants that this is the only picture I took:

That's the sexy Prince Harry sitting alone. William is sitting next to his stepmother (who notice thinks she needs to waive like a queen. Poser). Alas, neither of them looked my way...they were looking at the other side of the street. That explains why the Royal Wedding has Kate as a bride...neither of them looked over and saw me waiving like a crazy girl, screaming "I LOVE YOU" at the top of my lungs. Sigh.

Then the Queen Drove by! It was her birthday, after all, so I forgot about my prince-marrying dreams, and got excited for Queen Elizabeth's celebration! I got much better pictures of her!

There she is! In Easter Egg blue!

And then she was gone. But it was so much fun! After the Queen, there were many more soldiers marching by, but Chels and I had a plane to catch, so we walked through a gorgeous park and stumbled on to some soldiers with their bearskin hats! We asked if they would take pictures with us, and they laughed and said just one each. We got our pictures, but unfortunately, we gained some unwanted attention for them. There was a line of people waiting to take pictures as we left, and the poor guys had to fend them off to get back to their duty. Oops.

Successful day.

EYB in Boston!!!

Today started out like any other New England blizzard-y (it's a word in my book) day. I left an hour and a half early to make it to work on time, got really excited when I finally hit 40 mph oh the highway for about 30 seconds, and made it to work in one piece (thank goodness)! 

While I was crawling along the highway though, I heard a commercial on the radio for a children's hospital benefit concert...and then I heard the name Eli Young. What?! This got my attention instantly. The name of my favorite band? Surely not because they never, EVER come this far north. So I cranked my radio up so I could hear the unbelievable news over the blizzard-y (see, there it is again) wind. Eli Young Band is performing in Boston in 24 days!!!!!! 

Holy Cow! 

Excitement doesn't begin to explain how happy I felt! 

The first thing I did after braving the blizzard-y drive home this evening was buy tickets for my brother and me to see them! My little brother will be back from his Caribbean adventures a few days before that, so I thought it would be the best homecoming present for him too (he shares my love for EYB)! This band reminds me of college and Oklahoma and Texas, which are three of my very favorite things. 

Here is one of my fave songs! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!