Melanie

following Mel home from the beach.
Amelia Island, Florida

on the rocks

The rocks by the lighthouse. The place I take all of my Montauk visitors. I absolutely love being out there.. watching the waves crash mere feet away, the smell of the ocean surrounding us. It doesn't get much better. Even when it's cold and we need gloves, hats, and scarves.

Also, if you were wondering.. you can feel totally free to go surfing out by the lighthouse.. but only in the dead of winter. We enjoyed that sign.

Cold Days in Montauk

I know we still have most of fall ahead of us, but I'm really looking forward to a cold winter weekend in Montauk with some friends (and again with Matthew.) The town is so sleepy and peaceful during the colder months- such a stark contrast to the summer when all of New York City vacations in the Hamptons each weekend.

I'm picturing cozy sweaters and flickering fire places, glasses of wine and frosty windows, freshly caught fish and good friends that live far away all in one room.

If it must get cold then we might as well enjoy it.

You make it sound like a theme park

But in reality, it's better than a theme park. Except maybe "the Wizarding World of Harry Potter" which I am confident is amazing even though I have yet to visit. Wegmans and Harry Potter are tied in my book.

(Mel is crazy.. it was so cold. Notice that I am wearing every bit of clothing I had left in my suitcase that was clean.)

While we were traveling down in Richmond and DC, Mel and I stopped at 2 different Wegmans locations. Neither of us have a store near us at the moment. The closest one to me is near Philadelphia.. so ridiculous. We both went to school at RIT up in Rochester, NY where Wegmans originated. Thank you Danny Wegman. Since it's opening in Rochester it has expanded along a lot of the east coast, but jumped over lower New York! What the heck?!
So sad.

Being the completely obsessed Wegmans shoppers that we are we had to stop at all the Wegmans we passed even though one of them was at 7am. No matter, Wegmans serves breakfast of course, so we got our egg white sandwiches and coffee and perused the aisles for treasures, such as Cheerwine- the best cherry soda ever that cannot be found up north.

While we were walking around Wegmans we felt very much at home. We half expected to leave the store and be back in Rochester.. getting ready to drive back to our little apartment on campus and study (who am I kidding?) or watch a movie with all of our roommates.

I miss school and Wegmans and my friends that lived with me and next door. Ugh. College was great.

Anyone else completely and utterly obsessed with Wegmans? If you've never been you should seek one out and go immediately.

Do you work at the mall?

I was so excited to see some friends while we were in DC on Friday. Mel and I met up with Katy, Cait and Adam for dinner in Georgetown and it was so great to see them.

Adam has a job that lead me to believe he might work in the mall.. as in where the White House and Washington Monument are.. not a shopping mall, but when I asked him if he worked in the mall it opened this silly conversation where he told me "yes, Sarah, I'm the mall security guard." It might be one of those "you had to be there" types of things, but I really enjoyed that conversation, even though the humor was at my expense. I feel like that happens to me a lot.. good thing I'm such a good sport!

Earlier that same day, but after we enjoyed delicious cupcakes in Georgetown, Mel and I got to explore the mall.. the one with the White House and Obama. It was pretty amazing to walk around and admire all the monuments. The security is a lot tighter there now than I remember. You can't exactly walk wherever you want, but that's ok. It's understandable.

Friday was one of the longest days ever...waking up at 4:20am, the 5 hour drive to DC, walking around and shopping in Georgetown, checking out the national monuments, meeting friends for dinner, and then meeting some of Mel's friends for a drink and accidentally staying out till last call. It actually sounds like and felt like multiple days. By the time we got back to our hotel room I would have been happy to go to sleep on a concrete floor. Luckily Mel picked a lovely hotel with the best beds ever because we stayed in them until noon the next day.

I'd do it again though- so much fun. And I just realized.. when I get together with friends that I don't get to see that often we either stay up until 4am or wake up at 4am. Ha that's funny to me.

Let them eat cake

That's probably one of the most used blog post titles in the history of blog posts. I think cupcakes might be taking over the world.

I just got back from a trip down to Washington DC and Richmond, VA with one of my best friends, Mel. We left Richmond at 5am this morning and I am pretty much about to pass out. Mel dropped me off in NY and she is still on the road to Boston. I'm hoping she'll arrive in the next few minutes. As soon as she gets in I am going to pass out.

I have not been this tired since.. Friday.. when we woke up at 4:20am to head down to DC. Does anyone else think my blog post title is hilarious? No? I really need to go to bed. 5am is a really obnoxious hour and I'd rather not see it for a while.

Other than running on little sleep, we had the best time. One of the highlights were these cupcakes, so I figured I'd share them first. We got the little masterpieces at Baked and Wired in Georgetown... wow.

I also think I might be in love with DC. I don't know if it's just the exhaustion speaking, but I'd like to move there.. just not tomorrow at 5am.

100 Things: No. 16

#16: Snowboard in Utah: Alexi and I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah in April 2009 to go hiking and snowboarding all over the state. We stayed with her friend, Eric, who was an awesome host and tour guide. We hiked and camped in Moab and then spent 2 days snowboarding at Snowbird. It was amazing- the entire trip.

We went snowboarding on Easter Sunday in gorgeous 70 degree weather. The snow was light and powdery and the sky was the most gorgeous shade of blue. The view from the summit was, for lack of a more fitting word, epic. We could see for miles and it was perhaps the most awe-inspiring view I've ever had. (It even made up for the absurd goggle tan lines my face was left with- and by "tan" I mean blistering sunburn.)

I hope I get some snowboarding in this season. Preferably out west because it  is so icy on the east coast and I fall- a LOT. Seriously, a lot. Alexi filmed some of my runs and I wish she'd kept the camera on for my falls because they were pretty awesome from what I remember.

Welcome, September

Happy September! It's September 2nd and that means it's not too early to be excited for things like outdoor fairs with tons of food and scary rides (and big chairs,) long hikes below red leaves, cozy sweaters, light scarves and brown boots, and no mosquitos or humidity!

There are still 19 days left of summer and I plan on enjoying them, but the idea of brisk autumn air sounds pretty nice.

^I'm kind of obsessed with this photo- I didn't take it.. I always borrow it from my friend Cait. It makes me sooo happy. It's from a great hike we did 2 Novembers ago in the Catskills <3.

sometimes we stay up till 4am

When your best friend lives over 100 miles away and comes to visit for the weekend you just have to stay up till 4am talking. It's an unwritten rule.

Alexi came to visit last weekend and we certainly stayed up late. We also had lobster rolls on the beach and went to breakfast and dinner at her favorite restaurants that she used to frequent when she lived down here. We went bike riding and walked along the beach. We drank ice wine from Shenandoah and laughed for hours. I miss having her around all the time, but I'm thankful for weekends like this past one.

This weekend I get to catch up with friends from school and I can't wait! Driving north in a few short hours... after I finish a ton of work. (yay.)