More visitors!

This weekend involved another visit from some great friends. Kim, who I've known since high school, her sister Kelly and her son Alex and our friend Meg all came up for the long weekend. They got here Saturday (Kim's birthday) around 11am and we headed out to the Harvard v. Penn football game. Kim works at Penn, so she and Alex had their matching Penn sweatshirts on, I had on my Harvard t-shirt and ended up being the only person in our crew rooting for the winning team! It was pretty cold, sitting on the concrete bleachers, but we stayed through the whole game.

After getting home and warming up a little bit, we got in the car and headed out to the Roller Derby! It was the Nutcrackers v. the Wicked Pissahs (both of the Boston Derby Dames). Kim, Alex, Kelly and Meg had never been to the Roller Derby before, so they picked up on it pretty quick, and this time we were all rooting for the winning team. The Wicked Pissahs won by almost 100 points. That's a blow-out, even for Roller Derby. Here is a photo of all of us after the Derby:

Here is a great photo of Kim and Alex as Derby Dames:

It was super-fun and then we ended up eating at the All Star Sandwich Bar and finally got to sing Happy Birthday to Kim. We ended the evening by getting some homemade ice-cream at Christina's.

Sunday was a nicer day with a little more sun, less wind and slightly warmer temperatures. We all got ready and went to brunch at The Neighborhood in Union Square, Somerville. This place is amazing. It's teeny tiny, but you get so much food. All the breakfast options come with OJ, coffee or tea, hot cereal (Cream of Wheat), popovers, toast and homefries. That doesn't include whatever you actually order. I had the "lite" option of whole wheat pancakes topped with crunchy granola and bananas drizzled with yogurt. I had to cut this back from what the menu offered because it also originally came with 2 egg beaters cooked with spinach! And that's the lite option! Needless to say, no one left hungry.


After amazing brunch we headed to Downtown Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. Alex and Kelly had never been to Boston before, so we did the most educational, touristy thing we could. It was a nice day to walk around and see the city.

We started at the Boston Common and skipped going up to the State House, but we walked that Freedom Trail, stopping at Paul Revere's house, all the way through to the bridge that goes into Charlestown. By that point we decided to turn around and save Charlestown for next time, so we headed back through the North End and got cannolis at Mikes Pastry and gelato at a little place with amazing gelato. Here's all of us at Paul Revere's House (Kelly, Kim, Alex, me and Meg):

We walked all the way back to the Common and Meg had to catch the train back to NYC. The rest of us ended up walking through the Public Garden and doing a little shopping on Newbury Street. Here are Kim, Alex and Kelly on the smallest suspension bridge, spanning the lagoon in the Public Garden:

The day ended with an amazing smorgasbord dinner including sushi, tempura, Saag Paneer, Aloo Gobi, samosas, Raspberry wine and pizza for Alex! We had cannolis and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Again, no one went to bed hungry.

This morning we went to breakfast at Darwin's and then Kim, Kelly and Alex headed back to NJ and Philly and I went to do laundry. Now I actually have to do homework....