Jimmy and I stole away for 4 days together in New England. It was heavenly. And hard to come back. He was already in Boston for business so I tagged on to the tail end of his trip and we turned the getaway into an early anniversary celebration. It will be 15 years on May 16th! I will always associate Boston with the start of "us", which doesn't make sense since "we" began in high school here in Ohio. But we moved to Boston after college, it's where we got engaged and had our first apartment together. It was when our relationship changed and we began planning a life together. As most of you know, I also have a long standing love affair with that part of the country and happily jump at any chance I have to return.
We had 4 picture perfect days of crisp, sunny weather and long (LONG) walks under the deepest of blue skies. We got really lucky. Boston has never looked more lovely. Honestly, strolling through Beacon Hill made me cry, the beauty and quaintness was almost too much.
In between all that walking came lots and lots of eating. And we ate really well. My favorite dinner was one in the South End at a cozy, unpretentious French bistro, called Hamersley's. The food from start to finish was exceptional! I also loved the chocolate champagne truffles from Hotel on Newbury Street and the salted caramel macarons from Beacon Hill Chocolates on Charles Street (the white chocolate and strawberry ones were amazing too).
We rented a convertible (excellent idea Mr. Foley! ;)) and drove up to explore the North Shore on Friday. If the weather is nice and you happen to find yourself driving along coastlines, rent a convertible! Period. Crank up the heat if you must (we did), turn up the radio (we did that too), and surrender to terrible hair days (check again!!) Totally worth it! We decided Marblehead would suit us just fine should we ever find ourselves house hunting in MA.
(if only this one had been for sale...)
On Saturday, we took that fun rental car of ours and headed south to Newport, Rhode Island. It was our first visit to RI and we were charmed. We stayed at the Castle House Inn. (you must click and check out the cuteness of their website!!) I found the Inn when looking at the Relais & Chateaux list of hotels. We had stayed at the White Barn Inn in Maine for our 10 year anniversary and loved it, so we trust the R&L designation for special occasion places. The Inn is an old mansion that was once a summer home. It is old, charming, and beautifully updated and maintained. Our room was glorious with water views all around. The bathroom was perfection and we slept with the windows open to smell the sea and the fireplace on to keep us warm, It was perfect. Gosh, I know that sounds a bit annoying, but it really and truly was a perfect long weekend. I'm so grateful we got to share it together. (Big thanks to my parents for taking such good care of our boys!) It is only our second time away together since Charlie was born and while I adore my children, I adore my husband too and sometimes it is nice just to be able to appreciate each other, uninterrupted and undistracted, for a few days to remember how much you enjoy each other.
We attempted to take our own photo b/c asking strangers is awkward and they can never figure out my camera. Clearly I have some challenges myself. ha!
And if you aren't totally nauseated with all the sappy, happiness of this post there's more! :) We used our iphones to document little pieces of our weekend and made a movie. We aren't as savvy as our film maker son, and honestly I wasn't sure I'd share it on the blog, just keep it for ourselves, but it was such a fun and easy way to capture memories beyond photos that I will definitely do this again in the future and thought you might like to too! :) Now it's back to regular, convertible-free, no ocean, living. Off to the grocery store...
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