Newport and Plymouth Rock

My parents came up for a visit over Labor Day a few weeks ago.  Since we've "done Boston" with them over and over (and over) again, we decided to do several day trips over the long weekend!

The first day they were here, we went to Newport, Rhode Island.  One of my favorite things to do in Newport is the Cliff Walk.  The Cliff Walk is a beautiful 3.5 mile trail along Newport's eastern shoreline along a (you guessed it...) cliff!  To you left, water.  To your right, some of the largest mansions ever!

Along the cliff walk is one of the Vanderbilt's summer homes, The Breakers.  The home was amazing - here are a few shots of the outside of the property.

The Breakers' backyard...

The front of The Breakers

After touring The Breakers, we went back to Newport's downtown area and walked around before heading back home to Travis and Toby.

Sunday, we decided to take a trip to Plymouth, MA, to see the famed Plymouth Rock!  Plymouth is SUCH a cute seaside town.  The rock itself, is a little unimpressive.  The lady at the visitor's center was telling us that when she moved to Plymouth in the 70's, the souvenir shops were selling postcards with pieces of the rock on them.  She assumed that the pieces of rock had to be fake, but later found out they were real!  While she should have shelled out $4 for a piece of the rock back then, things like that are what helped turn the original boulder into a 3 foot rock.  Oh well.  :)

Mayflower replica

Path along the water where the original settlement was

Jenney Grist Mill

Old firetruck! 

Inside the courthouse

Guilty!

National Monument to the Forefathers - this was the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty!

Love my mamma!

Orange Pepper Jack-O-Lanterns

Fall is here!  It's getting cooler, days are getting shorter, and every now and then there's a little preview of color on the trees.  I LOVE fall - it's one of my favorite things about living in New England, and this year Travis and I have vowed that we're going to do fall "right".

So far we've already been apple picking (blog to follow) to get honeycrisp apples (the MOST delicious apples ever) and are working on booking a trip to the Berkshires in mid-October.  

Tonight, however, we decided to get a little creative with orange peppers.  Last fall, after Halloween, Trav and I were walking through the grocery store and he had the brilliant idea to carve orange peppers to look like jack-o-lanterns.  Today I found some fun looking peppers at Trader Joe's and decided to get them so we could do a "test run" before we carve a lot of them for this year's trick-or-treaters.  Here's what we came up with!

Here are the things I learned while making these:

The best peppers are ones that are large and can stand up by themselves.  Cut the top off just like you would a pumpkin and hollow the inside out.

Cut out the face.  (Can you guess which is Trav's?  He's the king of silly faces...)

From here you could either "stuff" them and bake for some yummy stuffed "jack-o-lantern" peppers, OR put a tea light candle inside to make them tiny "pepper-pumpkins".  Smaller faces (like the pepper on the left) will work best for stuffing (so the insides don't fall out).  If you're going to put a tea light in them, cut a hole in the bottom too so the candle can sit on the table.  That way the light hits the teeth too!

Here's the result once you turn the lights out!

If you find a REALLY tall pepper, you might be able to leave the top on once it's lit...but otherwise, that's probably not the best idea.  (You don't want to start a fire...)  The tops of ours were charred after about 10 minutes.  

Won't this make a super cute addition to a Halloween party spread?  We can't wait to make a whole line of them this Halloween!

4th of July in West Point

Since Labor Day weekend is just a few days away, I figured it's probably time to blog about the 4th of July. :)  (Hey...a lot has been going on!)

Since Travis was in Florida at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (a 3 week residency), I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to head back to NC for a few weeks.  The nice thing about working for an internet company is that I can head home a few times a year and work from NC!  Mom flew up to Boston and drove down with me so Toby could come too.  (I have the best mom.)  It was a LONG drive, but fun spending 16.5 hours chatting with mamma.  Toby got a brand new seat belt for the trip and everything!

I was MOST excited to go to West Point (Virginia) over the 4th.  My uncle and aunt live there on the York River in the house my dad grew up in.  I haven't been in waaaaay too long, so it was so nice to have a long weekend to spend with everyone there.  There was a house FULL - the NC Colberts (Mom, Dad, Mark and me), the VA Colberts (Kem, Sandra, Kemper, Kristyn, and Kyle), and my grandparents!  If that wasn't enough, all the pets came too - 4 dachshunds (Toby, Riley, Chloe, and Bo), Mark's new boxer mix puppy, Kem & Sandra's 2 mini shelties, their goat, "Gotus", and several ducks.  Here are a few (who am I kidding...a bunch of) pictures from the weekend!

 And now...for the cute "dogs playing on the beach pictures"...

 Needless to say, we had a GREAT time and I can't wait to go back!