A Day in Rhode Island

Hi everyone, I hope that summer has been going well for you so far!

My family and I recently took a day trip down to Rhode Island to visit Newport and in specific, the Newport Car Museum as a father's dad present for my dad!

I have been to Newport a few times but there is so much to do and see there that I hope to visit again sometime within the next few months! I have explored a couple of the Newport Mansions but the rest are on my list of places to go!

I made a short vlog of my recent trip to Newport to the car museum and we also drove around and got dinner at a cool restaurant. *Vlog located at the end of the post!*

Summer 2018 Bucket List: Things To Do In The Summer!

Hi everyone! The weather in Massachusetts has been fluctuating so much recently but we've had some really hot days lately. I'm so happy that it's summer and there's a lot of things that I still want to do in the next month or so! If you are in need of ideas for what to do this summer I've got you covered! Here are some suggestions for what to do in the summer! Including day trips, food recommendations, and other outdoor activities! (Also, as the summer goes on and I check off things from this list I will link any related blog posts with more info!)

So without further ado and in no particular order, what I want to do this summer includes the following activities and I hope they give you some ideas for what to do to have fun during the summer!

General Ideas: 

Go mini golfing
Berry picking- strawberry and/or blueberry picking
Take a spin class
Spend more time outside
Go kayaking/canoeing
Go to the beach
Be a tourist in your own city
Try out new food and new restaurants
Go to a farmer's market
Go thrifting
Do some crafts
Go to an amusement park
Attend a few concerts
See some new movies
Go to the drive in
Go to or have a paint night
Have a game night
Visit a vineyard
Have a staycation
Visit some neighboring state
Go to at least one state park or national park
Try rolled ice cream
Go bowling
Go white water rafting
Go horseback riding
Have a picnic in a park
Ride a bike more often

New England specific:

Visit Cape Cod
Visit Cape Ann
Go to P Town
Go to Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard (but ideally both)
Go to Maine: Kennebunkport and York
Go to Newport Rhode Island

Thank you for reading my summer bucket list! I'd love to know what you want to do this summer so feel free to let me know in the comments!

via GIPHY

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New York City Day Trip: Attending a Fashion Trade Show

Hi everyone, I hope that you've been doing well! I recently was in New York City for the day to attend Coterie and I thought I'd do a recap! Coterie is a large fashion trade show that occurs annually and allows buyers from various brands, boutiques, and stores to view collections by thousands of designers. This is part of the wholesale sector of the fashion industry. Buyers can see the lines in person, ask questions, etc. and place orders. It is a multi day event and my college organized a day trip for fashion students to go on. My professors, peers and I attended the last day of the trade show. It was a long day with lots to take in but I found it to be very interesting! My school had offered this trip in the past and I had not gone but as I am a senior now and it would be my last chance I decided to take advantage of the opportunity!

Preparation

The day we were going to Coterie was a Wednesday and as we had to leave campus at 6:30am I wanted to go to bed early on Tuesday. I hoped to get a decent amount of sleep so I wouldn't be too tired on Wednesday and I'd be able to enjoy the day and get the most out of the trip. Of course that didn't really work out though. I got in bed at like 10:40, which is very early for me since I usually go to bed after 1am (not something I'm happy about but #college lol). Unfortunately I had such a hard time falling asleep though, probably because I'm not used to going to bed so early. Though even once 2am came around I still couldn't sleep. It's one of those things that of course because I wanted to sleep I couldn't. I even looked up ways to make you fall asleep and those didn't help. So finally around 3am I think I feel asleep. Then I got a nice 2.5 hours of sleep before waking up around 5:30.

In order to minimize what I'd have to do in the morning I chose my outfit the day before and packed the bag I was taking so that I wouldn't have to worry about or waste time or forget anything in the morning.

The Morning of the Trip

I was very happy that I prepared the day before so that I was a little less stressed on Wednesday morning. The day of the trip we had a very early start as we wanted to have enough time at the trade show and the drive from my school (in Massachusetts) to the convention center in NYC was around 5 hours! All of the professors and students met in front of the campus center and we waited for out buses to arrive. We needed 2 coach buses as there were about 80 of us going on the trip. We left my school around 6:30am. Some people brought pillows and blankets so that they could sleep on the bus, surprisingly at that point I did not feel very tired, I knew it would hit me later though.

The Journey There

We made our way to New York from Massachusetts through Connecticut. As I mentioned the drive is a decent amount of hours. I wanted to listen to music but I did not want to drain my phone battery so I only used it for a little while. I did try to sleep on the bus but was not very successful and so I just rested my eyes. We stopped at a rest stop in Connecticut about halfway into the drive in order to give the driver a break and so all of us could stretch our legs, walk around a bit after sitting for so many hours and grab a bite to eat. The rest stop was not crowded when we arrived as it was so early but the 80 or so of us definitely filled it up. There were really only 2 options for breakfast food though which  meant long lines at each of them. This was a bit of an issue since we didn't have very long at the rest stop and people had to wait for their orders to be ready. I only got an iced tea and a muffin and didn't have to wait at all but some people who ordered more complex things had to wait. And as there were so many of us there was a backup with the food preparation and our professors were starting to worrying about timing. Once everyone had their orders filled and everyone boarded the buses we were on our way again. The buses were a bit more lively now as people were more awake which is understandable because we finally got food!

The Trade Show Itself: Coterie

As we were driving through Connecticut and getting closer to New York City the traffic started getting worse as was expected. When we finally arrived in the city we still had a decent amount of driving to do before we reached the convention center and the traffic in the city was so hectic. We were all so happy once we made it to the Jacob Javits Center and were able to get off the buses and get in the tradeshow. We all entered the building, checked in, and got our official passes. Then we took a group photo and were set free to roam around the tradeshow.

Coterie is very, very large and the trade show consisted of multiple floors. The main area was a huge open room with hundreds and hundred of booths set up with each brand having their own and displaying their collections however they wanted to. Some of the brands kept it more simplistic and others brought in lots of props and decorations to make the booth their own and convey the brand's message and image. Free People had a large booth and it was decorated gorgeously, very bohemian and lots of flowers everywhere. Alice and Olivia's booth was extremely colorful, fun and sparkly. They also had a large sign with the message "Empowered Women Empower Women" which I loved!

Each brand had a representative or a couple reps to show the lines to interested buyers and to talk to them about the pieces. Although we as students could walk around and look at everything the reps were not very eager to talk to us (since it is an industry event and we wouldn't be placing orders or giving them business). It was still an interesting experience though I feel like I wish I learned more.

After walking around the show for a couple of hours my friend and I decided to grab some lunch. The area of NYC we were in was very industrial as it is an area for conventions and our professors told us the best option for food was actually in the convention center. We came across a "food court" area (not quite a food court but I'm not sure what else to call it), it had a couple different stations for things such as pasta, pizza, and burgers. I ran into some of my professors and they mentioned that they got delicious pizza and so my friend and I decided to go for that option and we were definitely not disappointed. The pizza was amazing! It had mozzarella, basil, feta, prosciutto, balsamic and it was sooooo good! I would eat it everyday if I could! Okay Emily, enough about the food - back to the main topic.

After we ate we had a little more time to walk around before 3:30 when we had to board the buses to go home. I ended up coming across the booth for the brand that I work part time for. They had some new items on display and I was able to meet some of the people that work in the brand's NY office as I work in the MA one. They informed me about the new shoe line that will be out soon and it's exciting as the brand has never done shoes before, only apparel. Then it was time to meet everyone in the convention center's lobby and to head on home.

The Journey Back Home

Although it wasn't even 4pm yet the professors, other students, and I all were a bit worn out from the long day since we had been up and about for about 10 hours. We were all ready to sit and relax -well as much as one can while on a bus. The traffic leaving the city was horrible. It took at least an hour to get out of the city itself and took so much longer to get to Connecticut than we hoped it would. Once we had been on the road for a few hours we stopped at a rest stop and got dinner. I was not very hungry and had a couple granola bars in my bag so I did not get any food at the rest stop. It was then time to get on the buses again and continue our journey home. Luckily the bus had tvs and so we voted on a movie to watch which ended up being La La Land. This helped to pass the time and I really like the soundtrack from that movie! When we finally got back to campus around 10:30pm everyone departed and most people headed for their dorms. At this point I was hungry and knew it'd be wise to eat something. The dining hall on campus itself was closed but the late night grill area was open and my friend and I decided to stop by there to grab some food before going back to our dorms.

Ending Thoughts

All in all it was a pretty jam packed day with lots to take in and was a bit overwhelming at times. However I feel like it would have been more beneficial if my professors gave us more information and direction rather than have us just walk around the trade show somewhat aimlessly. It was also a little disappointing that we were not allowed to take many photos. This is understandable as the collections were not out yet and brands did not want to risk their designs or anything being copied. I also would have liked to be able to talk to people in the booths more and learn from them but as I mentioned they were not really interested in talking to students.  I do understand that though, I did not want to bother them or take up their time that could be spent with buyers. But if a booth was empty of buyers I don't know why the reps were still so standoffish to students.  Overall there were many more pros than cons to the trip and I am glad that I went on it and got to experience it!

Thanks for reading!

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A Day in Rockport

Rockport is such a quaint and cute place to explore. Most people go to the Cape (what us New Englanders call Cape Cod) but the northshore of MA has some great places to visit during the summer too! Including Gloucester and of course Rockport!

My friends and I actually took the commuter rail there since there were 6 of us and we didn't want to have to take 2 cars. The train ride was pretty pleasant and it took about an hour to get to Rockport from Boston. 🚉

We went on a Monday and that meant that there weren't many tourists around. It was kind of nice since it was so quiet and relaxing. We first did some window shopping and checked out this little book store.

I loved the views between these buildings and shops!

The sign outside this shop was so cute!

Below is the cafe where a couple of my friends and I stopped to get lunch before taking it to eat on benches near the beach!

 You can see part of one of my friends in this pic lol, Hi Rosie 👋

It got cut off a little but the writing at the top of the picture says: Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love... -Turkish Proverb

The next picture was my view while I ate lunch ⛵

I love signs like that with the names of a bunch of different cities on them! Probably because it reminds me of traveling! ✈️

The little place we stopped at for dessert, although it's called The Ice Cream Store I actually shockingly got sherbet since I was in the mood for something more fruity and refreshing. However I am not usually one to choose another type of frozen dessert over ice cream! (shout out to my friend for this pic of the store since I was still working on finishing my sherbet!)



My sherbet and the view from the window near my table in the little ice cream place.

I also got some salt water taffy to take home to share with my family, can you tell I have a sweet tooth?! - I promise I don't just eat junk though 🙊

I thought that the design on the taffy box was so pretty!

A little overview I took while we were right by the water!
WARNING- The music is a bit too loud. 🙈 I will know to have it much lower in the future,  I don't have much experience with making videos though lol

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my day in Rockport. I definitely recommend visiting it if you have the chance, there are so many cute shops, pieces of art for sale by local artists, and there is of course great seafood too!

Is there anywhere special you are hoping to visit this summer?

Thanks for reading!

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A Day at the MFA

Hi everyone!

        My mom, sister, and  I have been attempting to be tourists in our own city this summer! There are so many things to do and see in and around the Boston area and New England in general. It is a place filled with so much history and culture. So many things have happened here and it is still an area so bustling and full of life. Although Boston can be an expensive city (it is listed in the top 10 of many travel websites as being one of the most expensive in the U.S.) there are a good amount of cheap or even free things to do though so don't worry! Many museums are free at certain times on specific days. There is also a program called Free Fridays which lists when many venues in the city and other parts of Massachusetts have no cost admission.

Here is a link to the site: 
 http://highlandstreet.org/programs/free-fun-fridays

       My mom, sister and I went to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts)  this past Friday. It is one of my all time
favorite museums. I love that is has such a diverse collection and I love wandering through the exhibit halls and coming across new pieces and paintings. They have things from ancient Egypt and China, pieces from Europe dating back to the Middle Ages, Rembrandt masterpieces, paintings by Monet, contemporary art, and everything in between. They also always have really great feature exhibits such as the recent #techstyle one I was very excited about seeing.

       This exhibit was all about the relationship between fashion and technology. There were some really great concepts behind the pieces and showed a lot of ingenuity. There were 3D printed shoes, a Ralph Lauren purse with a built in charger for electronic devices, a few garments showing off their laser cut details. A jacket with solar panels, a dress from a Victor & Rolf collection that had a frame and could be hung up on the wall as a legitimate piece of art when not being worn, as well as countless other fascinating pieces utilizing technology in new ways.

The dress on the right is the Victor & Rolf one I mentioned

This designer made pieces that could fold up flat. The square on the left unfolds into a dress like the one on the right

This dress was made out of plastic and based off of a slow motion picture of water

There were 1000s of LED lights sewn into this dress which can light up different colors and make different shapes and patterns

       We also visited other galleries. Here are a few pieces I thought were cool, I didn't get to take too many pictures but I thought I'd show you some that I did get to take.

     We spent a good number of hours explore and there's so much more we didn't even get to see. I'm sure I'll be back again. I highly recommend visiting this museum if you have the chance. It is also very easy to get to and has its own stop on the Green Line.

Thanks for reading!
-Emily

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London, Paris & Amsterdam-Oh My! Part 3

Hi everyone,

        This is the final post recapping my 2016 spring break trip! After our time in England and France we went to Amsterdam for a couple days. I had never been to the Netherlands before and so I was extra excited for this portion of the trip. We traveled by train from Paris to Amsterdam and I think it took about 5 hours. The time went by pretty quickly though so it wasn't that bad even though the journey seems long at first. It did take us forever to get to the right car of the train when we were trying to board though, the train was very long and our group of thirty Americans lugging our suitcases and rushing down the platform must have looked pretty funny! Also it was a bit of a struggle lifting suitcases onto the train and then on the racks once inside the train, I managed though and we were lucky that there were some very strong people in our group to assist those who needed it. 
          Once we got to Amsterdam and left the train station we were immediately almost run over by a tram and then by people riding bikes. We had thought we were on a sidewalk/pedestrian area but boy were we wrong. And if you need to know one thing about Amsterdam apart from it's lovely canals, tulips, and wooden shoes it is that they have some very serious bikers there (and I'm talking bikers as in bicyclists, not motorcyclist bikers although they are just as tough). 

Picture of me (in the yellow coat) at the letters feat. random people

Took this while on the bus

       We met our coach near the train station and it brought us to our hotel a little ways away from the city. We were to have a bit of time to unwind, settle into our rooms, and get ready before heading into the city. Not all of the rooms for our tour group were ready once we got to the hotel though. All of the boys' and adults' rooms were ready but not all of the girls' yet. Some people were able to bring their luggage up to their rooms and chill for a little while the rest of us waited in the lobby. Our only entertainment was watching people trying to take the temperamental elevators which would sometimes bring them to their floor and other times just open the door again on the bottom floor. So at least we knew which one not to use when we finally had a room. My friends and I of course ended up being the very last ones to be given a room after waiting over an hour. The majority of our group had been done doing what they had to in their rooms and were coming back down to the lobby when we were just bringing our luggage upstairs. At least not everyone was ready yet and we had a little time before we had to leave.  

       Our coach brought us into the city and our guide met our bus to begin our tour. Our driver was named Daniel and we thought that was funny so people started saying Amsterdam Daniel ( I'm sure you get the reference but it was because of "Damn Daniel, back at it again with the white Vans" vine). On our coach tour we traveled through the newer part of the city and saw all of the developments that were happening and how the city was expanding. The tour around the older part of the city was very round about and I mean that literally also because many of the streets are semicircular since they followed the shape of the canals and that is how the city is set up. As well as it being much more of a pedestrian and bike friendly city rather than one made for cars and other vehicles. Due to this, our bus could not drive directly from point A to point B but did have to go around quite a bit. It is not much of a driving city but that is not a problem at all since it is so walk-able. I much more prefer exploring new cities and places by walking rather than driving anyway so it worked out great for me! You have so much more freedom and can just go where you please, maybe turn down that cute street there, pop in to that shop right there, or wander in to a park. You can't really do that if you're in a car. Also parking in Amsterdam does not seem fun, we were amazed by how close to the edge people have to park and there was not always even a fence along the canals. 

      After our bus tour was done, as a group we had a little walking tour around the older part of the

city and the Red Light District. Many of you probably know what this is known for but it was the afternoon so it was not awkward to be walking around that area with faculty and professors from my school. Just do beware that coffee shops are not where you go to buy a cup of coffee, go to a cafe if you want some caffeine. We had some free time after our tour before we were to meet up with the whole group to have dinner at a well known restaurant. It was a nice restaurant and I liked the atmosphere, very old fashioned and quaint, I am not a fan of sausage so I can not comment about the main part of the meal but I liked the mashed potatoes and the desserts (yes, you read that right, desserts-plural, we were given multiple so that was very cool!)

One of the desserts, it was soooo good!

         My friends and I wanted to get souvenirs and found some very nice shops right in Dam Square. We ended up going to the same shop at least 3 times in the 2 days that we were in Amsterdam, we kept thinking of other things to by for our friends and family. We found another nice gift shop and I bought this towel for my mom. I thought it was very cute and a useful gift that also represented the city. (My mom is hard to buy gifts for, she doesn't really wear jewelry that often, or makeup, doesn't use perfume or lotion much or really wear accessories in general actually, she doesn't use candles etc. so I think you get the picture. I was very happy when I saw the towel and I thought it would be perfect to give to her). 

 

These are a well known Dutch sweet called Stroopwafels, they are super sweet and I also like the tin they came in

Key chains I got for my mom and sister

 

The towel I got for my mom (this is not the best lighting though)

I also liked picking up some magnets and postcards from different places throughout the trip as mementos.

This is the outside of the expensive (and very nice) department store

      During our trip I was on the lookout for a new handbag and one of my friends wanted to get a Starbucks city mug from each of the places we traveled to. This meant that we located and visited many Starbucks over the course of our journey and quite a few stores as well. As part of the quest for a bag my friends and I wanted to check out a local mall. We though it would be like what a regular mall was to us but we were wrong. First of all, for the life of us we could not find it! We kept walking around and although we knew it should be right near Dam Square we couldn't get there. Then finally we found it and yup it was right there. It was in a gorgeous old building but had been mostly hidden by another large old building so we didn't feel too bad that it was such a struggle to find since it was covered by that other building. It was a pretty nice shopping center but was much smaller than we initially though it would be. I did not find a bag that I liked but we bought some chocolate so in my eyes I'd say it was still a successful shopping excursion! We also checked out a famous department store and looked for more Starbucks. I loved all of the visual merchandising I was seeing in the windows.  It was too bad that most of the shops were closing so early though, and I'm talking 7 or 8pm. 

Visual merchandising I thought was cool

This one says "Too much of a good thing is a better thing"

This is the Rijksmuseum

      My friends and I were not able to take a canal ride although we had wanted to, (and my mom really wanted me to as well) we just didn't have the time. We weren't able to go in the Van Gogh museum or the Rijksmuseum either. We were also disappointed that we missed out on a market going on. It only happens once a month and we happened to be there on the right day but hadn't known about it. We found out later once we met up with other people from our group who had stumbled upon it. 

             We did visit the Anne Frank house and it was such an experience. Only a certain number of people can go in at a time and while we were waiting outside it started to rain, this time I did have my umbrella in my big bag and I was glad I did, if you read the part one post you'd know why this was significant lol. (My bag was a large nylon one that I had my purse inside, I had a sweater, umbrella, water bottle, snacks, regular items like my wallet etc. and having it all in that big nylon one protected my things from the elements and made me less worried about being pick pocketed).  Once we were in the building there was a bit of a lobby area, going in though the most surreal part was stepping through the hidden doorway in to where the Frank family lived. We were not allowed to take pictures and the pace going through the house was pretty slow. There were photographs and books to look at at well as a few short videos and also plaques to read. One of the videos was of Otto Frank, Anne's father and in it he was talking about Anne's diary. There was one thing he said that stood out to me the most, I can't remember it word for word but it was about him reading the for the first time and how he learned so much about Anne from it, how even though you live with your child/family members and see them everyday there are still things you don't know about them and you will never know everything about them. This resonated with me because it really is true, in some ways that is very sad but it also means that you can be surprised when you discover new facets of a person and keep learning about them.

    As a side trip our coach drove a little bit out of the city so we could visit a cheese farm. Part of the road we were  on had been blocked off due to a race on the river we were driving along but the cop, seeing our tour bus and knowing where we were headed let us by. On the way to the farm we also stopped at windmill. This was a great photo opp, we didn't have too long though (we had to get to the farm at a certain time) and the people that took care of the windmill actually lived in it and we didn't want to be too disruptive although I'm sure they're used to the tourists.

          At the cheese farm we learned how they made Gouda cheese. The person showing us how was very animated and funny and our guide had warned us beforehand about the crazy cheese man and she was not wrong. And of course we were able to taste the cheese and it was very, very good. At the same farm they also make wooden shoes and we were told about that process as well and this time by an even crazier guy. He saw someone from our group taking a picture and then went over to them, took them by the shoulders and instructed someone else how to take the picture of them. Then he proceeded to say how he took the same picture with Whoopi Goldberg and once we were all in the gift shop, showed us said picture with Whoopi. 

         We went back into the city when our time at the farm came to an end and had some free time. After walking around for some time my friends and I were hungry, we found a little sweet shop that sold ice cream and other treats and I had a waffle with Nutella and it was amazing!

        Our coach picked us up at a meeting spot each night to bring the whole group back to the hotel. If people wanted to stay in the city longer they could have but they would have needed to take a tram. No one was feeling that adventurous and so both nights we were in Amsterdam everyone was diligent about meeting on time where the coach would pick us up.         

            This trip was so fun, it was the second time I had left the U.S. And I feel much more comfortable exploring and navigating cities now, (when we had free time my friends had put me in charge of getting us places such as to a certain part of the city or a sight we wanted to see and I also had to get us back to the hotel or meeting spot each day). I love traveling and certainly want to do more in the future. I really encourage you to travel and if you never have before don't be scared to try it. There's a great big world out there to see.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my recap
-Emily

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