Since June 2016 the summer around here was totally different then ever before. During my many months of living in Boston, every day after work I was home alone, sometimes bored, sometimes busy, always trying to do something useful with my long evenings. It worked this way until my Joe changed his job. Free time now equals so much more then just sitting at home by myself! Thanks to these new circumstances we had a wonderful summer and really enjoyed the time we spent together.
1. so much free time!
Ever since the day my Joe changed jobs (more about the process here) he's been having a ton of free time! It might be normal for some of you to be home each day at 4 pm but it wasn't very normal for my Joe. He used to be supper busy, often working days AND nights and even if he wasn't working he's phone had to be on and he would receive calls ANYTIME. Can you imagine someone calls you at 11:30 pm, just 5 minutes after you finally fell asleep? And then someone else at 2:15 am? And 2 more texts that wake you up come at 4 am?
As crazy as it sounds, it was even worse than that. Joe was never able to rest and completely turn off work in his head because he could have an emergency anytime.
Until he realized that it wasn't something he wanted to do anymore. It took him only 1 week to start at a new company and he's absolutely happy that he made that decision.
But now - we have so much free time in the afternoon! I used to be all by myself after work, never knowing what's on Joe's schedule. Now we go for long walks, go to the beach, play tennis, cook, bake, play board games.... and so much more. Some days we just sit on the couch and watch TV, but it doesn't bother me that much anymore because I know that this free afternoon wasn't the only free one in a month. We really love it this way!
2. month of the firsts
Even though Joe's birthdays was months ago he didn't have time to enjoy his birthday present until early July. I found this great company that has a flight simulator just outside of Boston and you can buy a flight there AND you can be the PILOT. You choose the airports you'd like to depart and land at. You sit on the pilot seat and YOU flight the plane. Then there's this big screen in front of you that makes it very real. For those of you interested in it, the company's called Flight Experience and I believe they have offices in more states.
When I found this online I new it would be a great present for my Joe. He absolutely loves planes and could watch any plane related movies on youtube or Netflix pretty much 24/7.
So I was pretty disappointed when it seemed as he's not gonna use the certificate I got him. As I wrote before, he was terribly busy at work and I had to re-schedule the flight couple times until it looked like it's going to expire without him having the chance to flight the plane. BUT then Joe quit his job and on the very next weekend we flew. First we departed from St. Martin and landed back there. Then we went from Singapore and landed in Hong Kong. Joe was the pilot and the simulator could change the weather as well as the time of the day so our last landing could be at night time.
This is how realistic it was in the cockpit:
The flight experience was the first time for Joe to "be a pilot". Then couple weeks later I got to have one of my firsts.
I've been living in Boston for quite some time now but never had a chance (or never really wanted to pay for) to try a lobster. Then one day this summer I said to my vegetarian boyfriend that he has to take me to some sea food place and I want to try it.
So there we were one Sunday afternoon walking around Boston when I started feeling hungry. First I wanted to buy something small and wait until we're back home (we really don't like to pay much for eating out) but then I realized this could be the day one of my dreams comes true. We started googling a decent sea food place. Joe ruled out everything similar to Legal sea food, we didn't want any big chain restaurant, and finally found this wonderful restaurant right on the water.
Wait, did I mention it was Sunday afternoon during summer vacation with thousands of tourists all around Boston? When we got to the restaurant they told us the waiting time is 45-60 minutes. But we never wait, unless it's at Pizzeria Regina, the best pizza place ever located at Boston's North End (opened since 1926!). They had this tent-like outdoor seating area where everybody wanted to be seated even though there was not much fresh air in it. Then I, so hungry and really-desperate-to-be, asked if we could maybe sit on the sun. They had couple tables at the entrance to the tent located on the sun, some of them with umbrellas, some not. And the nice lady said yes, you can have one of those tables with the umbrella.
That's how we cut the waiting time to 0 minutes and I had my first (and definitely not the last) lobster ever. It was delicious! Plus Joe had so much fun watching me trying to get all the meat I could find inside that poor creature. He didn't even mind that all he could buy as a vegetarian was pasta and french fries. We coupled our delicious food with mojitos and had a wonderful time in 90-degree sunny Boston weather.
3. summer recipes - zucchini fritters
Do you like tasty summer recipes? Then you should definitely try these zucchini fritters. They are so easy to make and so delicious. For all of the zucchini lovers this is the go to recipe anytime you don't know what to make for a quick lunch.
4. not really a camping trip
One beautiful Saturday morning Joe and I left Boston very early - we had a plan to go camping on Cape Cod. The early morning departure from the city didn't help much and we were stuck in the traffic for almost the entire time but we had some good music with us and the scenery around was beautiful. At one point this cool red convertible drove by and in it - the most bored dog ever! Can you see him behind the passenger seat? I had to take a picture. He seemed to be suffering so much on the boring trip.
Eventually we got to the Cape Cod sometime around 8:30am. Since we still haven't had any breakfast by then I googled a diner. It was so busy when we got there and the lady told us we would have to wait another 15 minutes. I already mentioned that we don't like waiting for food but the nice lady saw our looks and said that it's really worth the wait. So we did and it only took 5 minutes to have our table ready. And the food was delicious.
To make a long story short we had a wonderful day. We drove all the way to Provincetown, walked around the town, had lunch and drink at a nice restaurant, then drove to a beach, and finally checked in at a campground where we were going to spend the night. We unpacked everything and went for another delicious meal that day (good food seems to be the main part of this trip, right?). When we got back to our tent we made fire and had a beautiful and very romantic evening by the fire light.
And then it started. A little thunder somewhere around. Then a lighting. And a second one. By 9pm we were pretty sure there's a big storm heading our direction. Here comes the end of our camping trip. I definitely wouldn't mind some rain while camping but being trapped in a tent during a storm was not my idea of a happy camping trip. So just as we unpacked everything earlier that day, we packed it again and headed back to Boston. Good for us it was only an hour and a half long trip. I know it's a shame we couldn't enjoy at least one night camping but we really had a wonderful day on Cape and didn't want to ruin that memory with a stormy night.
Then, thanks to being home on Sunday morning, right after the morning mass we drove to Boston and I got to enjoy my very first lobster (did you read about it above?). Even with an emergency driving during the night that weekend is one of the best we had this summer.