GWAR

A couple weeks ago Kevin, Erika and I went to a GWAR concert at Irving Plaza.  We went purely for the entertainment factor... not the music... I just want to make that clear (I am not a heavy metal fan).

Who is GWAR you ask???  Well GWAR is a heavy metal band that got together in 1984... they dress up in elaborate sci-fi costumes and sing obscene lyrics... they often put on pretty graphic performances.

 I could not understand a single word that was said during the whole show... it just sounded like a bunch of screaming to me.  I guess it's probably good that I didn't understand any of the lyrics since they are supposed to be pretty inappropriate.  Wholesome right?

Well it was entertaining and a little scary, but being sprayed with fake blood was pretty cool.

Bottom line, the night was a blast and definitely a fun experience to have under my belt... I mean how many times do I get to pretend to be badass and get sprayed with fake blood???  But, once is enough for me.

Here is Kevin's shirt post concert... this was his undershirt.

apple picking

I love Fall, it is definitely my favorite season though it seems like we are currently being cheated out of fall here in NY.  We had a glimpse of fall weather and now its back to being 80 degrees outside, I'm over this.  I want a real fall... I want tights and boots weather!!!  Anyway, enough with my complaining.

One of the things I most look forward to in fall is apple picking.  A couple weekends ago Kevin, Will, Jenna, Alex, Max and I traveled to Chester, NJ to go apple picking.  Guess what, it was 80 freakin' degrees... booooo.  Even though it was way to warm it didn't stop us from having a good time.  I picked way too many apples as usual and was sweaty and hot from dragging my heavy bag of apples around with me.

Now I am making applesauce... lots and lots of applesauce!!!

the st. louis arch

Next stop after the zoo on that super hot day was the Arch.

 

Kevin is so small... can you see him? 

Did you know that the Arch is as wide at the base as it is tall?  Pretty cool.

We went all the way up to the top.  Getting up there isn't exactly comfortable and not for anyone who is at all claustrophobic!  You sit in a little egg that barely fits 5 people and take a bumpy ride up to the top... very slowly.  Apparently people got stuck in there a couple weeks before we went - thank goodness that didn't happen to us!  Oh look it's the Cardinals! 

the st. louis zoo

I have been asking to go to the St. Louis zoo ever since Kevin and I were in STL almost 3 years ago so when we made our trip in late July the zoo was at the top of my list of things to do. Of course the weekend we decide to head to STL it happens to be nearly 100 degrees every day but I wasn't going to let that stop our adventure.  Anyone who knows me well knows how much I LOVE zoos and aquariums.
 

Awww snuggling:)

Did you know that the STL zoo is the largest free zoo in the country? Isn't that awesome?  It did feel kinda weird walking into the zoo without buying a ticket.

The scariest bird we have ever seen.

Since it was soooooo HOT some of the animals were hiding... particularly the big cats.  We definitely got to see enough animals to make the trip totally worth it though.

On our little zoo adventure I realized I can zoom in even closer then I thought I could... extreme close-up!

I cannot wait to go back next time we are in St. Louis!

Superball IX

"We've got the biggest balls of them all." -Phish

Phew I know this is super late, like a month late but oh well life has been crazy over here okay.  This past July 4th weekend was definitely one of my top 5 weekends ever!  It was the first Phish festival I have ever been to.  I have been to music festivals before but never to a festival where only one band played.  It was awesome!!!  

Shippy picked up Kevin and I on Thursday evening, we loaded up his parent's Cadillac and hit the road for Watkins Glen, NY.  We made a stop at Walmart in Binghamton, NY to stock up on food, water, ice, beer - ya know the essentials.  We were anticipating crazy traffic trying to get into the festival because 60,000 people were expected to show up.  Lucky for us we didn't have to wait at all, they barely searched our car.  We drove through and started to set up our camp site amongst all the other people arriving.  Our neighbors just so happened to live in Saratoga Springs and one of them was from St. Louis, small world!  By the time we had our camp site set up and were relaxing/chatting over a couple of beers the sun was starting to come up.  So we did the responsible thing and just decided to stay up for the rest of the night, I mean you can't sleep in a tent once the sun comes up anyway. 

We spent our days lounging in our camp site hanging out with our neighbors, my brother Merrick and my cousin Will and wandering the festival grounds.  It was hot hot hot out but it felt so good to spend the whole day outside in the sun.  All together Phish played 8 sets over three days: 2 Friday night, 1 Saturday afternoon, 2 Saturday night, 1 at 2am on Sunday morning and 2 Sunday night.  By the end of the weekend I had seen my 21st show!!! 

It truly was one of the best weekends I have ever had.  Getting to spend that time with Merrick and Will was absolutely the best, I truly have been blessed with the best family in the whole world!  It makes me so happy that Kevin and I both share this love for Phish, we make the best team and I love him more than anything.  I cannot wait to marry him!  And Shippy, oh man Kevin and I love him, we have the best time together!  I am so lucky to be surrounded with the best friends and family anyone could ask for!!!

*I took all the photos from our awesome neighbor Ralph A. Dee*

Phish at Bethel Woods was EPIC!

This Memorial Day weekend Kevin and I headed to Bethel, NY for 3 nights of Phish at Bethel Woods (the site of the original Woodstock).

We stayed at the most hilarious "country club" I have ever seen - Kutchers Country Club.  It was seriously straight out of the Shining.  I am pretty sure the place has not been touched/updated since maybe the 70s.  It smelled moldy and everything seemed a little damp - kinda gross I know.  They even have a "night club" called The Deep End where they have disco parties after midnight... hilarious.  We will definitely stay there again if Phish decides to play at Bethel Woods in the future!

The first night we met up with Merrick (my little brother for those of you that don't know him).  We headed into the venue with the massive crowd of people and picked a spot on the top right.  Bethel Woods is an incredible venue, almost like a SPAC on steroids.  

 (so many people!)

 It was such an amazing opening night and it makes me soooo happy that Merrick got to be there too (I love him so very much!)!!!

The second night we got to meet up with Ciccone and Kristen (YAY!!!!!!!)... oh man I love raging with these two.  

 Hightlight of the second night was definitely, without a doubt the Harry Hood and David Bowie they played in the second set.  They were only one song apart.  I about died.  My two favorite Phish songs of all time, in the same set, only one song apart... someone pinch me! 

On the third night we were joined my Merrick again and our two cousins Will and Will... bloodcouch!  I love seeing shows with my family, it is the best:)  We even did a little synchronized dancing, yay!  

 Third night highlight was the whole second set, it was out of control.  Phew every single song was amazing, love love loved it all.  Thank you Phish for giving us such a great three night run!!!

I know some people don't understand why we go see the same band so many times, but I absolutely love that Kevin and I get to do this together.  We love Phish so much and sharing that passion is the best.  We are really looking forward to our first Phish festival, Super Ball IX, on 4th of July weekend.  We will be joined by Shippy, YAY!!!  I will hit my 20th show in the middle of the festival, I can't wait for many many more shows to come!!! 

saratoga for the weekend

This past weekend Kevin and I headed up to Saratoga Springs for the weekend.  The purpose of our trip was to do a walk through at the Sagamore of the spaces we will be using for our wedding and to meet with our day-of-wedding coordinator.  

Friday we left the city and started our drive to the Sagamore.  We HAD to stop in Saratoga for Italian subs from Romas!  

We ate them in the car because we didn't have much time before we had to get to the Sagamore.  Oh my goodness they were sooooo good!!!  I seriously could eat one every day, hehe.  I'll admit that Kevin and I split another one on Saturday, we couldn't help ourselves.

Then we drove to the Sagamore and had a great walk through.  It definitely made me feel as though I have a much better grasp on all the decisions need to be made.  There is definitely a lot of work to be done but I am so excited about everything.  It was also really wonderful to meet Katelyn, our day-of-wedding coordintor, in person for the first time.  She is going to make our wedding come together so smoothly!  I cannot wait to start visiting fabric stores and crafting up a store, yay!!

Friday night Kevin and I had a 7:30 pm reservation at the Mouzon House.  Oh man was I ever excited for this!  Kevin and I discovered this restaurant after we graduated (*tear*).  It is a french creole restaurant that uses many local ingredients.  Their crawfish bignets are to die for!  We had a great bottle of red wine and ate honestly the most amazing food I have ever had at the most romantic table.  

After dinner we decided that we would do our own little drinking tour of all the old places we used to hang out.  We started at the Parting Glass (an Irish Pub) for a couple pints.  There was a great Irish band playing.

Second stop was Gaffneys.  We had some beer, chatted up with some locals.  

Our next stop was going to be Peabody's for a long island ice tea (I always used to have them there during the Saturday night dance parties) but they were closed, boo.  So then we headed to Desperate Annie's.  Our whole gang used to go to DA's every weekend.  It was our favorite bar.  We knew everyone that worked there.  Kevin and I were really hoping that everyone we used to know would still be working there and wouldn't you know it they still do!  They were all so happy to hear that we are getting married.  We ended our tour back at Gaffneys for one last beer and a royal flush shot.  After that we stopped at Esperantos for a late night slice of pizza, yummy yummy.  The whole night was a great success, we just wish we could have had a big group of our Skidmore friends there to join us.

Saturday (and night) our plan was to hang our with Merrick, my cousins Will and Will, and Tom at Will and Tom's house on Avery Street.  We went over to their house around 4:15pm to see everyone.  Kevin and I had made plans to take Merrick out for a belated birthday dinner so while the rest of the group headed out to dinner we headed to Hibachi.  After Hibachi we went back to Will and Tom's house to play some beirut.  Of course I didn't take any photos because I can be such a camera loser sometimes.  We had so much fun!  There was lots of synchronized dance moves!  It was seriously the best time.

Sunday we all went to The Kettle Restaurant for breakfast.  Kevin and I didn't know the Kettle existed while we went to school at Skidmore, such a bummer.  It is a great diner about 10 minutes outside of downtown Saratoga, a hidden gem.  It was such a great trip and I am anxiously awaiting our next excuse to head up there:)