Four Days of City Living in Boston, Ma

Hello everyone! I cannot believe it's already July. I remember when I booked this trip we had like a month to wait, now we have already been home for over two weeks and I have no idea where the time went! Austin and I wanted to do a few fun things this summer before I start nursing school full time in the fall, and a short getaway to Boston seemed like a good idea!

We flew to Boston early Wednesday morning and checked into our Air BnB! We stayed at two different apartments while in the city. The first one was in East Boston and was a short 10 minute walk to the subway station then about another 10 minute ride into the city. We had the whole apartment in an older house that was converted into three apartments. The owner of the Air BnB actually lived in the upstairs apartment which was super cool and she stopped by one night to introduce herself and say hello. The apartment was super clean and the perfect size for us to be there for a few days. This was our first time staying in an Air BnB and it was so nice! I feel like staying in an apartment rather than a hotel gave us a better feeling of what it would be like to actually live somewhere different. The second apartment we stayed at was one subway stop closer to actual downtown Boston. We only stayed in this one for a night because we decided to stay longer and I couldn't book our other apartment for another night. At this apartment we only had a bedroom and had to share the kitchen and bathroom with the other guests and the owner. I don't think we would stay in this kind again, it was a little weird but fine for just a night. At the end of this blog post I'm going to link both of the apartments that we stayed in along with a coupon code to get some money off of your stay at any Air BnB!

During the 4 days we spent in Boston, we walked around....A LOT. We basically wanted to see as much of the city as we could with our time there. It blew my mind how Boston feels like a big city but literally you can walk from one side to another in under an hour walk. We would take the subway into the city to Government Center and then end up walking to Beacon Hill in no time.

Our first day we ended up walking more of the city than we thought we would but we kind of got a feel for where everything was which was nice. Austin is super good at remembering where things are and figuring out his way around cities, so after the first day he pretty much got us around everywhere.

On the second day we started the day with a Duck Tour. This was my 3rd time doing a duck tour (I've done one in Wisconsin Dells and Seattle) and as cheesy looking as they are, they are one of my favorite tours. The Ducks are a great way to see a city that has water because you get to do some of the tour on land and then some in the water. Our tour guide was awesome and made the tour super interesting. Since the tour ended down by the Boston Common, we walked around there and went to Beacon Hill. Beacon Hill is the cutest area! It is picture perfect red brick buildings, I'm obsessed. If we ever go to Boston again we would definitely get an Air BnB in this area. There were a bunch of shops and restaurants in the area as well. 

 Boston Common

 Beacon Hill

Acorn Street, Beacon Hill

Day three was spent walking the Freedom Trail. Super touresty but it's a good way to see a lot of the city, especially the parts with historical importance. I think it was about 2.5 miles and it started in the Boston Common and ended at Bunker Hill. You can pay to follow a tour guide on the trail, which I feel like would be super interesting if you're big into history but Austin and I are not (it was still super cool to see everything though). Along the trail there are museums and houses that I'm pretty sure you get to go into if you're on  a guided tour. After walking the trail we went to the Navy Shipyard which is where the USS Constitution ship is. Then we took a short ferry ride back over to the main land of the city.

Our last day was spent kind of just going back to places we wanted to see again (or where I wanted to take more pictures/video clips). One thing that we did everyday that we went was got ice cream from the Cookie Monstah food truck. It's a truck that does custom ice cream sandwiches or you can just get a cookie with ice cream (which is what we did) and it's literally the best! We also went to the Quincy Market area everyday. Aside from the actual market itself, there is always something going on outside. One night we saw a workout class going on outside and we sat and watched the Boston Piano Kid (check him out on YouTube he's such a talented 14 year old https://www.youtube.com/user/jazzpianokid).

If you're actually still reading this, thanks so much for reading this long post! Boston was such a cool city to visit and somewhere I've always wanted to go! Below are some of my favorite pictures from the trip! Also here is my Air BnB code if you want to save some money on your next trip! (and help me save some money on my next trip ;) www.airbnb.com/c/baileyl244 

Also, check out my short video that I made with a bunch of clips from Boston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve9l6zqY4mQ

 Boston Public Library

Boston marathon finish line

  

Panama City Beach, FL 2016

Hi everyone! We have had a crazy month already between being in Florida twice in two weeks and me getting adjusted to my new job and getting ready for school to start that I am just now having time to finally get this post up!

I did something new with this trip though, I made a video blog (vlog) of the trip! I will link it below! I had so much fun making the video and will definitely be making more of them :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUEjWH8R3oE

Anyway, this year we stayed at the same condo as last year except this time we had 8 people instead of 6. My sister and her husband came along, my parents, Alec and his girlfriend Kati, and myself and Austin! It's the first trip in a long time that my sister came which was fun! 

We spent a lot more time relaxing on the beach this year and except one day we rented a pontoon boat to go out to Shell Island! We rented our boat from Aquatic Adventures ( http://www.pcbeachadventures.com/) we already plan on doing it again next year! We were able to anchor on the island, grill out, swim and snorkel!

Another day we also rented tubes again, as we did last year, to float down a near by river! We rented from the same place as last year and would recommend it to anyone! The man who brings your tubes and picks you up is so nice and friendly. Also leaving the link to their website, they have a bunch of different rental options!   http://www.chipolariveroutfitters.com/

Of course we went down to Pier Park a couple of times over the week to get ice cream and shop.

Lucky for us it only really rained one day and that still didn't stop us from enjoying the day!

Below I am going to insert some more pictures from our trip and a video tour of our condo! :)

Our condo, Aquavista!

Columbia, Missouri Oct. 15-18, 2015

Well Austin and I covered another state this passed weekend! We went down to Columbia, Missouri to visit our friend Ashley at Mizzou!

We got in pretty late on Thursday night and decided to just go to the downtown area to get some Chipotle (Mine and Aust's favorite) and call it an early night.

Friday morning we were woken up at 6:30am to the tornado sirens going off, I guess the fire department set them off on accident haha, but anyway we got up on Friday, had some breakfast then it was off to explore! We of course had to go to the downtown area to do some shopping! There were several super cute clothing shops, some Mizzou spirit stores and a couple home-ish stores :) I always love going to cities with cute downtown areas. We checked out Lakota Coffee downtown which Austin and Ashley really liked! Little too strong of coffee for someone like me who usually drinks their creamer with a little bit of coffee ;)
On our way home from shopping we went to a little hiking area which was super super pretty and had a great view

Friday night we went out to pizza at Shakespeare's Pizza..so so good. We also went to the Dan & Shay concert at the Blue Note. Super small venue but it was awesome because we got to be so close to the stage! Dan & Shay were so good live and also sang some rock songs which was really fun :) Shout out to Austin for coming with us and dealing with a bunch of screaming girls ;)

Day 2, Saturday we went hiking again! We went to Rock Bridge State Park for a few hours and it was so so pretty! All of the leaves were changing so it was perfect! The only downside was that the caves were closed for bat hibernation but it was still a fun day!

After hiking we went to Panera (our second favorite) and made a coffee stop. The rest of the day was a lazy day. We watched a couple movies and made some monster cookies!

We took off earlyish on Sunday and made a pit stop in Champaign to have a late lunch with Kayli, Jake, Hannah and John :) always so good to see them and stop at one of our favorite places :) and of course we stopped at Aroma Coffee before leaving, can't stop in Champaign without going there! ;)

We made it home a little after 7 I think on Sunday night and we were both EXHAUSTED, but of course were procrastinators and still had a little bit of homework to do, so that was fun.

On Thursday we will be heading out of town again for an overnight trip! Austin has a surprise planned for my birthday, so I have no idea where we are going or what we are doing, I'm sure it's going to be a great trip! :)