The weekend started in Pennsylvania. It was Tommy’s dad’s birthday weekend, so we decided to take him out for a hike on the Delaware Water Gap. We followed the Red Dot Trail, which was supposed to be the easiest, but it was still a bit tough with a bunch of rocky portions that were pretty difficult to climb, especially with Alex. We made it to the top, and the views were amazing!

We all agreed that we have to take the hike up there once the leaves start to change colors. I can only imagine how gorgeous it will look then.

We woke up bright and early Monday morning to head out to the beach in Point Pleasant, NJ. It was the perfect relaxing day at the beach followed with some evening boardwalk fun. Alex loved the arcade and won himself a cool giraffe in a dart throwing game.

On Tuesday, we once again got up bright and early and drove out to Riverhead, LI to meet with a potential wedding photographer. We were done with out appointment by noon and drove out to the North Fork for some relaxation. We started at Raphael Winery. We got three wines each to taste and enjoyed them on the back patio while taking in views of the vineyards.

We headed out farther east and stopped in Jamesport for some lunch and to ride the carousel.

There were many gorgeous yachts docked in Jamesport, but one in particular caught my eye – Lady Sylvia. Tommy and Alex joked that they planned the whole day out so that they could give me the yacht as my early birthday present. I wish!

After lunch, we headed out even farther east and settled in at the beach at Orient Point for another relaxing afternoon. The beach here was amazing. The water was so clean that you could see the rocks and shells all over the sea floor. The beach also had a great children’s area that Alex had a lot of fun on.

We all agreed that even though it was over a two hour drive to get there, the beach is totally worth the trip and we will be coming back.

Our three whirlwind days were the perfect way to end off the summer. I still can’t believe I have to go back to work on Monday! This summer really flew by and I hope the weather stays on the warm side for a while longer, so we can enjoy the afternoons.

What’s your favorite quick getaway spot?

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Our first night at the resort, we went to the seafood restaurant, Marina.

I had the Tuna steak

with herbed polenta and vegetables.

Tommy went for the seafood stuffed salmon and we both practically licked our plates clean. After this dinner, we knew we were in for some good eating over the week.

On our second night we went to the Mexican restaurant. When we sat down, we asked the waiter for drink recommendations. He asked us is we liked spicy and when we said that we did, he brought us fire margaritas. They were made with hot sauce and had a really nice kick to them.

It went perfect with the guacamole and warm tortilla chips.

For our entrees, I got the fajita, which I failed to photograph and Tommy got seared tuna with risotto.

Our third dinner was a sunset dinner on the beach following our engagement. Tommy got to pick out our whole meal, and all the food was amazing. We started with champagne and three different types of bread with an oil and vinegar dipping sauce. How amazing was our view?!

Next was a spinach salad with brie cheese.

After that was lobster ravioli.

And as is we weren’t already stuffed, our entree was lobster stuffed chicken. This was so so good and since we so stuffed, our waiter was kind enough to pack it up for us to take back to our room because we just couldn’t eat anymore.

For dessert we had cannoli crepes.

On our last day we went to the Mediterranean/Asian fusion restaurant. They had a delicious antipasto/sushi buffet to start and we both got the tuna sashimi.

The food was great, but this wasn’t half bad either.

Can’t wait until our next vacation!

What was the best thing you are this week?

Check out some other great WIAWs over at Peas and Crayons.

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This year, we headed up to the Finger Lakes Region of New York. The Finger Lakes is known for it’s gorges, waterfalls and wine. Gorgeous scenery and delicious wine, what more could I ask for?

After a five hour drive, we arrived at our hotel, quickly changed and headed to Ithaca for some dinner. Our first stop was the Ithaca Brewery. Of all of the breweries that we have visited so far, this was my absolute fav. There was a beautiful backyard set up with picnic tables and Adirondack chairs, where you could lounge to your hearts content. We grabbed some beers and enjoyed the warmth of the setting sun. I got a seasonal flight and loved all of the beer, especially the pumpkin. Tommy got their Peach Wheat, which was delicious.

We hit the hay pretty early on the first night because we had to be up by 6 the next morning to hike the Gorges at Watkins Glen Park. We read online that if you get to the park around 7, you will have the place to yourself and can take some gorgeous pictures. When we got to the park around 7:15, there were only two other cars in the lot, and on our hike up, only two pairs passed us.

The hike was breathtaking. The calm and quiet really made it even more beautiful. We were alone with nature and were really able to enjoy and take it all in. We took the Gorge Trail all the way up and the Indian Trail back down. By the time we got back down, the place was filled with other hikers. I was so happy that we got our butts up early because the trail is pretty narrow and got crowded really fast.

We also visited Six Mile Winery. We got to have our wine tasting with the winery owner, and he was a total sweetheart. As much as I like wine, I don’t know much about it. He took the time to explain pairing, the proper way to taste wine and basically let us try every wine the winery produces for only $3 each. The Finger Lakes are famous for their Riesling, which just happens to be my favorite wine. We left with four bottles of wine – two red and two white!

Overall, my birthday weekend was an absolute blast. I fell in love with the Finger Lakes, and I know we will be going back, hopefully next fall. The area is absolutely beautiful and if you add the changing leaves, it will be even more breathtaking, if that is possible. The wineglass half is starting to look pretty good for next year!

What was the last weekend getaway you took? Favorite hiking spot? Favorite wine?

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First up is one of my favorite things in life, quinoa and eggs. We brought leftover Southwestern Quinoa Salad with us and I enjoyed it topped with some dippy eggs.

Huge fruit salad. So good, so sweet, so refreshing.

Goat cheese and fresh tomato sandwiches -something I never tried before and was really surprised by. The flavors worked great together and made for a very satisfying lunch.

Dinner at the Front Street Brewery. We went for a brewery tour and got to taste some of their amazing beers and we stuck around for dinner. I had the Blackened Salmon with red rice and seasonal veggies.

For our last dinner on vacation, we headed to the Riverwalk in Willmington. After strolling back and forth, we chose The George. We started our dinner with the shrimp and crab nachos. They were amazing!

For my entree I chose the crab stuffed salmon with herb risotto and spinach. I was obviously in a very crabby mood that day and I practically licked my plate clean.

Tommy had the bacon crusted scallops, which were also amazing. I had to sneak a bite, but when don’t I?

No vacation is a vacation without some treats. We stopped at Majik Beans coffee shop for some lattes. So rich and delicious.

When researching Carolina Beach, the number one rated place was Britt’s Doughnuts. They are the #2 rated doughnut in the United States and we could not pass up the opportunity to try them. They are so busy that the doughnuts are cooked fresh to order and so soft and airy that they practically melt in your mouth.

What’s the best thing you ate this week? What’s the best thing you ever ate on vacation?

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The 10 hour trip flew by and before we knew it we were in Carolina Beach and enjoying the view from our ocean front condo.

We headed down to the beach to enjoy the water, which was ridiculously warm, and splashed around in the waves while the sun set over the town. We were so excited to get out on the beach the next morning, to explore the town, and get some good eats. Little did we know that at 3:30AM our vacation plans would be turned on their heads and the next three days of vacation would be spent eating saltines.

In the middle of the night Munchkin crawled into bed with us and started throwing up. We thought it was just him, but we had all caught a bug from Tommy’s niece, which made for a miserable couple of days.  The little guy was luckily fine by about noon, and back to his happy self, but Tommy and I felt so weak, that all we could do was lay around and rest. The oceanfront balcony which we were so excited about just the day before made me so angry because we were stuck inside, instead of enjoying the sun and sand, like all the people below us.

Thankfully, we felt well enough the next day to make it out to the beach. Munchkin loved the water and sand, and could probably live in the surf if we would let him. I also fell in love with boogie boarding. I could spend hours out on the boogie board bobbing around the the waves.

Overall, we had a great time in Carolina Beach and I highly recommend the Atlantic Towers as a place to stay. I wish that we had gotten more time to enjoy the area because there were a lot of things we wanted to do, that we didn’t get to. Hopefully, our next vacation will be illness free!

Are you a planner when it comes to vacations? Have you ever gone on vacation and gotten sick?

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We shared some seared tuna as our appetizer and I dug into a crab stuffed portabella mushroom. OMG amazing!

As amazing as the crab mushroom was, the best meal of our vacation was a little Mexican spot off the boardwalk in Virginia Beach called Side Street Cantina.

We started with guac which was made right in front of us at our table. It was hands down the best guac I have ever had, and that is a big statement for me to say since I consider myself to be somewhat of a guac connoisseur. Tommy and I also split a Chicken Tortilla Soup before I moved on to a Fajita Burrito which was sauteed onions, peppers and chicken in a tortilla. We where kind of gluttons and went for dessert. When I see churros on the menu, I cannot help myself!

We went for a late sushi dinner one evening and even though the sushi was amazing, I cannot for the life of me remember what these rolls were. I do remember how amazingly sweet the sushi chef was. When he saw that Munchkin was chowing down on sushi, he was super surprised and made him his own little plate of sushi using Kani. So sweet and so unpictured!

On our last day in Williamsburg, we went to Trellis for our last lunch in town and it was an amazingly cute and yummy place. The ambiance of the restaurant made it feel warm and homey and the food left me smiling.

I started out with Clam Chowder and was surprised when the waitress brought out a plate for the shells. I had never had clam chowder with real shells, but this was amazing. For my entree, I got a crab BLT with a side salad. This was on point. I could not get over how cute Munchkin’s meal was – a fresh mozzarella sandwich with a sizd of shoe string fries.

When I saw Death by Chocolate on the menu, I knew I had to try it. It was seven layers of chocolate, covered in chocolate and served with a side of homemade chocolate ice cream. Incredibly indulgent and just wow!

If our vacation was just judged solely on our eats, it would get an A+. It gets an A+ either way, but the food was great!

What was the best thing you ate on vacation?

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Virginia Beach

Willamsburg

Busch Gardens

We has an absolute blast and I cannot wait until our next getaway!

What’s the last vacation you took?

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We are currently in Pennsylvania celebrating Tommy’s dad’s birthday. He turned 50…err I mean, 25×2!

On Monday we will be road trippin’ it down to Virginia for the week and I could not be more excited! In my absence [I know you will all miss me tons ;)] I’ve got some great guest posts coming your way!

Monday: Kayla from Keep Moving Forward with a yummy recipe.
Tuesday: Chris from The Journey TV with some tips for getting over the “Newbie Nerves.”
Wednesday: Cinnamon from Eat Pray Tri with her go-to breakfast.
Thursday: Courtney from Journey of a Dreamer with trips on how to get through the self doubt and try something new!
Friday: Kate from Kate is Eating with some Cheap Gourmet ideas.

Hope you guys enjoy the posts! If you have any recommendation of what to do and where to ear in the Williamsburg/Virginia Beach area please share!

The post It’s Official! appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

We stayed at the Hayatt Place, which was a bit outside the city, and I highly recommend it.  When we got to our room, we found that our TV didn’t work, so they switched our room and gave us a free dinner for our troubles.  I got some yummy French Toast, which I shared with Munchkin who is a big fan of the stuff.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday to head over to the Samuel Adams Brewery to go on the Brewery tour.

I never knew that Sam Adams makes so many different varieties of beer.  They even make the most alcoholic beer in the world called Utopia which was over 27%. We got a walk through of the factory and got to try the different kinds of barley they use to make the different kinds of beer.

The factory in Boston is not where they make the majority of their beer, but it is where they make all of their specialty beers.  After the tour, it was tasting time!

We got to try three kinds of beer, Boston Lager, Oktoberfest and one of their specialty beers, which was a White Ale. After the tour, we took a trolley over to one of Boston’s oldest bars that serves a ton of different Sam Adams beers on tap. Doyle’s was also one of the first places that started serving Sam Adams beer, when they were just a little brewery starting out.

We had some lunch at Doyle’s along with our Sam Adams beers.  We both had clam chowder, but I opted for the bread bowl, which was so delicious that I can’t even describe it.  I think I could eat chowder out of a bread bowl, everyday, for the rest of my life and die happy.

We also shared some potato skins which were very yummy.

After our delicious lunch, we headed over to the zoo so that Munchkin could have some fun.

Munchkin enjoyed running around and looking at all the  different animals in the zoo, but honestly I wasn’t really impressed with it. I may be spoiled because the last two zoos I visited were the San Diego and Bronx zoos which are very impressive.

After the zoo, we were all tuckered out so we headed back to our hotel to rest up a bit and change because it was getting chilly out.

For dinner we decided to do more seafood.  I found a place a bit outside of Boston called Turner’s Seafood Grill.  They had received some of the best rating on Yelp and Urban spoon and we definitely know why.

Turner’s is not only a restaurant, but it is also a seafood market.  If they’re selling fresh seafood, you have to bet that what they’re serving is super fresh.  When we sat down, our server Peggy informed us that they were having Oysterfest.  Tommy and I had never tried oysters before so we decided to go for it.

The taste was interesting and not bad at all.  We did have a good time joking at the description of the oysters. One of ours was supposed to have a coppery finish…whatever that means. We also shared some Cherry Pepper Calamari which was very good, sweet and spicy at the same time.

For my entree, I got the crab cakes. They were probably the best crab cakes I’ve ever had in my life.

After dinner, we headed over to the Apple Store so I could purchase my birthday gift! I’ve wanted an iPad for a long time, but couldn’t justify spending the money, so my parents and I split the price tag and I am now the proud new owner of an iPad 2.

We slept in a bit later on Sunday and took our time packing up and checking out.  We headed over to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market for lunch and a bit of shopping.  We got lunch at Boston Chowda.

I got Lobster Mac and Cheese and Tommy got a Lobster Roll.  As much as we both love seafood and as good as lunch was, we both decided that we were seafooded out for a while.

After lunch, we hit the Freedom Trail.  I really like that all of the big sights to see in Boston are along the Freedom Trail and that there is an actual line on the sidewalk that you can follow to find these sights.

Quincy Mahket

Statehouse

Samuel Adams

Notice my two cuties in the corner!

My new boyfriend. Shh! Don’t tell Tommy

Park Street Church

Tadpole Playground near Frog Pond

Public Garden

 And since no birthday weekend would be complete without a cake, on our way back to the car we stumbled upon Sweet. I actually read about Sweet online when doing some pre-getaway research and I was more that excited to find it!

The decor of the place was very cute, simple and clean.

It looked like a place where you could have a tea party that every little girl dreams of.  I loved the way it looked! They also had the cutest packaging for their cupcakes.

We got a Red Velvet, Caramel Macchiato and a Boston Cream.  While they were very tasty, we both agreed that we have been spoiled by the House of Cupcakes and will probably compare every other cupcake we try to those.

Our drive home flew by so much quicker than the ride up, but I think that always happens, especially when you’re going someplace exciting.

I have to say that I had an amazing birthday and I am so lucky to have an amazing boyfriend who spoils me with these kinds of surprises.  I also have amazing friends because my phone did not shut up all weekend with texts, calls and facebook wishes.  Thank you to everyone!

What did you do this weekend?
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

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My vacation to Mexico was great.  Munchkin and I had a great time in the pools and on the beach.  We stayed at the Grand Riviera Princess Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico which is about a half hour away from Cancun.

The resort itself was absolutely gorgeous, by far the nicest place I’ve ever stayed.  The grounds were cared for each day.  There were always a ton of workers cutting grass and tending to the plants.  There were also a million of different little private seating areas where you could sit and enjoy the evening.

The beach was really nice, but we didn’t spend much time there.  Alex loved the sand, but he also loved eating it which I found a bit distressing.  The water was shallow along the shore and you could walk out for what seemed forever with the water not going higher than your chest.  Then again I am super tall, so maybe this isn’t exactly objective.

I also woke up super early one morning to watch the sunrise with my boyfriend via Skype.  We were both super bummed that he could not be there with me, but we got to enjoy some time together even though we were thousands of miles away.

The food was great.  There are seven different sit down restaurants and two buffets in the resort.  It is all inclusive so you can eat and drink to your heart’s content.  We went to the Japanese, Mexican, Italian and Steakhouse.  All the food was really good and I am surprised I didn’t gain twenty pounds while I was there.  My favorite thing that I ate during the week was a Poblano Pepper stuffed with chicken and cheese in a spicy sauce.  It was totally not how I had imagined it when I read it in the menu, but it was soo good.  I also fell in love with Tres Leches Cake.  I must find a good bakery in New York to continue my love affair with this cake.

We spent most of our time by the pool.  Alex loved it because there were shallow areas where he could walk around and play by himself, without having to be held.  There was also a jacuzzi in the middle of the pool that we always went to which was very nice.

Even though I had a really good time, its nice to be home.  The weather in New York is a lot like it was in Mexico, hot! It was over 90 degrees today and I spend a good part of the day melting. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend and Happy Memorial Day!

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