saturday night at a4cade.

Two Boston-area restaurants recently joined forces to create a new experience in Cambridge’s Central Square. A4cade was born out of a collaboration between the pizza mavens of Area Four and the sandwich connoisseurs at Roxy’s Grilled Cheese. The new venue is a 21+ arcade/restaurant/bar that I had the pleasure of visiting over the weekend. A4cade opens at 5pm and gets a line outside pretty much right away (at least on a Saturday). You have to walk through the regular Roxy’s restaurant to get to the arcade and there’s no sign outside letting you know it’s there – which is a little confusing but also gives it kind of a cool speakeasy feeling.

Once inside, there are two full bars and a bunch of servers for ordering food and drinks. And of course, there are a lot of games. I didn’t grow up in a video game household and I’m not great at the more screen-based classics like Pac-Man and NBA Jam. I am a big fan though of the more active games like skee ball, foosball, and hoop fever.

We spent a couple hours and had a great time and some really delicious food and drinks. Of course I took a few photos – check them out below!

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diana: her fashion story.

“There are loads of movie stars and celebrities but there will be only one Diana.”
– Elizabeth Emanuel

As mentioned in my last post, I spent the last weekend of March visiting a friend in London. Our one museum-y outing was a visit to Kensington Palace to see the current exhibit of Princess Diana’s most famous couture. The curators did a great job of detailing Diana’s style evolution and her relationship with the designers whose work she championed. The exhibit was really crowded, even during a week day, but I was able to get a few photos while I was there. Enjoy!

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quick visit to london.

“Paris is a woman but London is an independent man puffing his pipe in a pub.”
― Jack Kerouac

Just got back from spending a few days in London and wanted to share some photos from a great trip. A good friend of mine has been living there for about 2 years and I finally made it over to visit her. I’ve travelled to London before and have had a lot of the typical touristy experiences – all of which are great. This time though I felt like I got a little more of the local experience by travelling with my friend and staying in her flat in St. John’s Wood. The one museum experience of the trip was an exhibit of Princess Diana’s most famous dresses at Kensington Palace and I’ll be sure to share photos from that exhibit in a later post. Here I’m sharing some photos I took as we explored the city over the past couple of days – including a couple from the most beautiful restaurant I’ve ever seen. Enjoy!

Views from Sky Garden on an overcast day.
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..and the equally impressive interior viewIMG_0003IMG_0004


Mourad Mazouz’s sketch is a truly remarkable restaurant experience. 
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even the bathrooms are amazing.IMG_0019


Saturday night on Carnaby Street.
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London’s Borough Market on Saturday morning. I would have taken more photos here because everything looked incredible but it was just too crowded to have my phone out all the time. Lot’s of delicious food and drinks here though and I definitely recommend visiting.
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atlantic spice co. – truro, ma.

Visited the Atlantic Spice Co. shop in Truro, Massachusetts for the first time this past weekend. Somehow in over 20 years of visiting the outer cape, I had never made it to this gem. The shop sells every spice imaginable, along with loose-leaf teas, nuts, seeds, botanicals, essential oils, and much more – all at wholesale prices. I would have bought more but their products tend to be sold in pretty large quantities since they are a wholesale retailer. Their prices are really reasonable and they have a great selection. I highly recommend stopping by their store if you find yourself in Truro. And if you can’t make the trip, you can shop their inventory online at their website. Check out some of my photos from the shop below.

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Processed with Snapseed.

labor day weekend in mystic, ct.

“To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?”
– Walt Whitman

Sharing some photos from a lovely long weekend spent in Mystic, Connecticut. The forecast looked pretty dismal going into the weekend due to the impending tropical storm, Hermine. We had some overcast moments but overall the weather was great and I loved spending time in another seaside town. Lots of eating, drinking, shopping and recreating iconic scenes from Titanic – a perfect Labor Day weekend.

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long weekend in north conway.

“I prefer winter and Fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape–the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show. ”
–Andrew Wyeth

Over the long weekend my family celebrated my mom’s 60th birthday in North Conway, New Hampshire. Growing up, my mom’s family used to rent houses in New Hampshire and Vermont for ski getaways at least once every winter. As we’ve all grown up and kids have become adults, this tradition became a lot more difficult to keep up and we probably haven’t all been away together in about 15 years. I took on the planning of this weekend and I was so happy that everyone was on board. I had heard a lot of good things about North Conway and the town did not disappoint. The town’s center has a lot of little shops and restaurants that I wish we could have had more time to spend exploring.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was snowshoeing for the first time at Peaked Mountain. It was snowing the whole time we hiked and really looked like a winter wonderland. On Sunday I went skiing at Cranmore Mountain but the conditions were pretty icy since there hasn’t been a ton of snow this winter. Luckily there’s always the lodge! Here are some photos I took throughout the weekend. Enjoy!

Here are a couple photos of the house we rented. This home was perfectly situated between the mountain and the town. Super cozy with two fireplaces. It was a great place to stay with a large group.
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This was the house next door but I had to get a picture because of loved its retro chalet vibe.
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Start of the hike
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Here was Jared’s favorite of North Conway’s shops
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Icy day on the mountain
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But the view was still beautiful.
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