But let me just back up a bit. My dad was able to get all of our plane tickets for free using sky miles (which rocked!!), but it was because these flights included 2 hour lay overs. That part wasn't so fun. And the flight on the way there was a red eye flight and I didn't sleep during the day so I was flippin' tired. (I can't sleep on planes, fyi.) Brit and Elise however, conked the entire way there, including in the airports during our lay overs. I tried in the JFK airport, but it didn't work so well because the fire alarm went off, it was a test mind you, but it still went off for a good 20 minutes or so. haha!
Finally we arrived in Boston and headed to get our rental car so we could drive another hour to Newport. I was kind of hoping to get a little shut eye during the car ride, but no go. My mom ended up missing her turn on the freeway, so I had to pull out my GPS and navigate us the rest of the way there. Then by the time we arrived in Newport, Brit and Elise were well rested and ready to go. So me and my mom didn't get any sleep (just changed our clothes), we decided to hit the town. Our hotel was so cute by the way. All of the architecture is still old colonial style out there. It was right on Newport beach too, very cool.
The old town of Newport was so fun. We spent an hour or so just walking around looking at everything. We had to take a picture in front of their Starbucks because it was awesome. Then we decided to eat. We stopped in this Lobster restaurant which was pretty dang good. We ordered fried calamari (yum!) and it was the best I've ever had I must say. I love this picture of Brit and Elise. They served it as whole squid, not just the rings that a lot a restaurants do.
After that we hit the hot tub and relaxed our muscles, then we went back to the room, attempted to watch a movie but really we all ended up falling asleep, even though it was only like 7:30 pm. Haha! We were beat. The next day we woke up a little early after going to bed so early so we went to the gym and worked out. Then got ready for the day. Brit did my hair soo cute. (Side note: notice how in every picture during this day how my hair gets more and more flat and frizzy. haha. It was soo humid and slightly rainy that day that my hair didn't last longer than an hour or so. So sad.) On this day we decided to tour the Newport Mansions. Those were amazing. I wouldn't mind living in one of those! :) These mansions used to belong to the old Vanderbelt families, etc. The families that used to have all the money back then. Very cool. We went through the Marble house, The Breakers, saw the Rosecliff, but the wait was too long for a tour, and The Elms, which was my favorite. I really wish I could have taken pictures of the inside, but they wouldn't let me. Check out this scenery though! These mansions were all along the coast too. How awesome would that be. We ended up eating lunch at the Elms too, it was fun.
(the only proof of our cute hair haha)
(Marble House)
(This was at the back of the Marble House, no clue what it was for but it was cool!)
(You can see some of the other mansions lining the coast.)
(Rosecliff Mansion)
(The Breakers Mansion)
(Me and Brit on the tour of the Breakers Mansion)
(The Elms Mansion--My favorite, you should see the inside! Wow!)
(Me and Brit loved this bench, but it was all wet so we didn't want to actually sit on it haha.)
(Eating lunch at the Elms)
(A cool area of the Elms.)
That night, we asked around the locals what the best seafood restaurant in the area was. They led us to a place called Scales and Shells. It was by far the best seafood. Well, next to West Coast seafood. :) Seafood on either coast is just good because it still has that salt water taste to it. Mmmmm! haha Anyway, I ordered a wood grilled lobster with a kabob of veggies on the side. It was fantastic. It wasn't just a tail or half a lobster, it was the whole thing. It was awesome. They gave me a bib to wear too so I had to get a picture of it. We all loved what we got there. It was the best.
After dinner we walked over to a really yummy ice cream and chocolates place. It was so good, my mouth was watering just being in there with all those smells. We got ice cream and chocolate covered pretzels, then headed down to the harbor to get pictures of all of their sailboats. It was so fun.
(Notice my hair is now flat. ha!)
The next morning we woke up and it was time to head back to Boston to spend the day. On our drive over a bridge leaving Newport, we got a great shot of all of the sailboats again. So pretty.
We had a heck of a time navigating our way through the Boston freeway system. All of their freeways overlap and on a GPS it's hard to see where you want to be. It was hilarious. We ended up going the wrong way and crossing the Mystic River (ever seen the movie? haha) over to a city called Chelsea, that looked a little scary I might add. It was a fun adventure though. Once we got back to Boston, we headed over to the Boston Aquarium. Me and Jordan had just watched a show about the most popular aquariums across the US and the Boston one was one of them. So we wanted to go see it while we were there! It was a really fun aquarium, we had a good time seeing all the neat animals.
(Downtown Boston)
(There is a huge tank going up the middle of the aquarium, very unique and gorgeous.)
(I made a friend.)
(The biggest puffer fish I've ever seen.)
(I called these the Wedding jelly fish because they had white polka dots on them and really frilly tentacles, etc. they were really pretty! and all white!)
(We love the penguins)
(Not sure what I'm touching here, but it was fun!)
(Meet 500 lb, 75 year old Myrtle. I saw her on the TV program I watched so I was super excited to see her in person!)
(Sitting outside the aquarium, giving my feet a rest before heading to lunch and the shops.)
They have this huge market place in Boston where every restaurant possible is there, in the middle of all of the shopping. We decided on the Cheers restaurant! It was yummy. I loved the mugs they gave us our drinks in so we ended up buying them!
(A view of the shopping area from our restaurant. It was packed.)
After shopping for a couple of hours, we went back to our Hilton hotel in Boston and had dinner and then went to the hot tub. We had to get to bed a little early because we had to be up at 4:00 am to catch our 6:00 am flight. We all just rolled out of bed, we were so exhausted. Here is a picture of us on the flight home. I am wearing my super cool Boston sweatshirt. :)
It was such a fun four day weekend!! The flights were long and tiring since I can never sleep, but the trip was a blast. We just had so much fun hanging out just us girls and doing whatever we wanted. We can't wait for our trip next year. We're already starting to plan it! :) I love my mom and sisters!
