Hey friends..turns out I’m a really bad blogger. I do a bunch of stuff and then when I’m home, I’m super lazy. Sorry about that… I actually don’t even know why I decided to write tonight considering it’s one of my busiest weeks of the year (I think it’s called procrastination?).

Back in the spring, I convinced my old college roomie to go see James Taylor with me at Wrigley Field. After we bought the tickets, I also had this random thought that we should go to Boston the following weekend. So fast forward to the end of June…I take off the entire week for a little stay-cation (side note…bachelorette party and this amazing photo happened:

Are we awkward or what? Also I drove that massive van and I’m extremely proud of it.)

…and Thursday is finally here when I can once again see my boy James Taylor (I had already seen him in Peoria at the end of May). I drove up to Ali’s house and rode with her parents into the city. I’m obsessed with Ali’s mom, Betsy.

First I’ll start by saying that I was super thrown off by the metal detectors and the bag searches that forced us to miss seeing/hearing Jackson Brown..I don’t even know why I’m mentioning that since I literally have no idea who Jackson Brown is. I was just waiting for James to play.

Ali and I had an amazing time hearing James Taylor. He is incredible. I can’t express how obsessed with him I am, so I’m just going to share some random photos that we took throughout the night. Unfortunately I don’t have a ton of photos of JT…for several reasons: 1. We were kind of far away and 2. I was pretty drunk by the time he came on stage and didn’t think to document it with my phone.

(This is a pic of James singing Angels of Fenway… one of my current faves. Download it. Asshole Cubs fans booed during the song.)

So here you go with a couple photos…

I basically died seeing this..

Thoughts on my samurai bun?

Any who, fast forward to the next morning and our 7am flight out of O’Hare to Boston Logan. Our flight was on time and we were happy campers. When we got to Boston, we immediately purchased T passes so we wouldn’t look like such tourists and navigated our way around the city on the T like we were back in London and using the Underground.

Our first day in Boston was spent walking the Freedom Trail. There were so many really cool sites to see. I wouldn’t recommend paying the $3 to see Paul Revere’s house.. It was weird that it was air conditioned. They had air conditioning in 1760?

I think my favorite part of our first day in Boston was discovering the North End which had a bunch of really cool Italian places.. we ended up going to this amazing place for dinner that night…La Famiglia Giorgio. The BEST Italian food I have ever had…which is saying bunch since I’m Italian and my mom makes some of the best gravy out there (and I am 100% obsessed with Mama D’s in Newport Beach…literally ate there once a week for a year). Then I had a really rough time figuring out how Uber works in Boston. Now that I’m writing that, I feel like a huge idiot.

The next day we went to Cambridge to visit Harvard and did a bit of shopping. The best shopping was on Charles Street in Beacon Hill. There’s a T stop right at the beginning/end of the street. So many cute shops…you have to check it out if you are in Boston.

I was the most excited about this day because it was the day that we were going to Fenway to watch the Red Sox. So I’m just going to fast forward to that part and share a bunch of super random pics.

I’m pretty sure you can see the excitement on my face just from purely standing on Yawkey Way.

Freaking Cubs fans. So annoying. Ali is cute though.

The game was SO BAD… we snapped through most of it.

The Angels were kicking the Sox ass all night long… so I just constantly had two beers in my hands. Not sure what the ending score was…but I think it was something like 21 to 1. I’m trying to block it out. Whatever… I was at Fenway, seeing my Red Sox, drinking beer with my best friend… never been happier.

Once we left Fenway, we headed back to our hotel and stopped off in a random bar near our place and became friends with these guys from Texas. They were just the best and I loved hanging out with them for a few hours. Don’t we look like we’ve been friends forever?

The next day was a travel day for us…but since our flight didn’t leave until the late in the afternoon, we took this time to pick up some stuff that we wanted to bring home… like Mike’s Pastry. Since it was Harborfest, we walked through a really cute open market and came across a lot of really cool vendors…didn’t buy anything, but sure loved their stuff (mostly because I had ZERO room in my luggage).

While we were only in Boston for 3 days, it was such a great trip and the highlight of my summer. Ali and I both found decently priced tickets from Chicago to Boston… and I just drove up from Peoria and parked at her house. Although I know that this isn’t about Peoria, but as I’ve said before… we are still super accessible to really great places and I’m all about going out and exploring and taking weekend trips. So hit me up if you want a visitor or a travel companion.

I’ll try to do a better job of writing about more to do in Peoria.. I have a few things in the queue, but I can’t  guarantee that I’ll be writing about any of it super soon. I’ll try though, promise! I guess I’ll get back to watching the DNC and drinking my captain and diet. XO

tp

Internet friends–I’m back again for the summer!

Today I’m going to tell you about something I’ve been doing for a few months now–adult tumbling class through the Fon du lac Park District. As I was trolling around on Instagram, I noticed a video of my friend Brittany tumbling at the gym and immediately texted her and asked her for more info. The following week, I started tumbling with Brittany and a small crew of adults of all ages.

Every Friday night at 5:00pm, you can find me at the Fon du lac Recreational Courts and Skate Park…there’s a huge tumbling and cheer gym right next door.

Jon Williams is the man in charge and probably my favorite person. He used to teach me tumbling when I was 4 years old at the Gingerbread House in Peoria Heights.

I was a little nervous to go my first time, but it was nothing to be scared of! I am probably one of the youngest in the class of 15 to 30 students. The class is for all skill levels–it seems like there are two types of students: those who want to learn how to tumble (cartwheel, backflip, etc.) and those who are reliving their glory days (and relying heavily on muscle memory).

When I first get to the gym, we all stretch on our own until class begins..which is when conditioning starts.

Conditioning consists of running around the gym, stretching, partner stretching, pushups,  ab work out (including 100 v-ups…kill me) and handstands. As I’m writing that out, it doesn’t sound so bad…but it’s about 45 minutes of conditioning and it sucks. But then the fun part starts–we get to tumble!

The class gets divided in two.. Jon and another coach work with the crew learning to flip and the rest of us work primarily on the tumble track. I’m not a REALLY good tumbler… I tumbled when I cheered back in high school and a little in college just for fun. My first day I had to get back into my groove…but now that I’ve been going for a few months, I have seen huge improvement with my skill level. I can land my back tuck..which I have NEVER been able to do.

I wish I had more photos to share…but I was busy tumbling.

I definitely recommend checking out tumbling with Jon Williams.. whether you want to get more limber or see if you can still bust out a full. You can register for classes here. Click on the ReCpro button at the bottom of the page. If you aren’t ready to commit to a 6 week class, I think you can just show up and try out the class for $20-ish. Don’t be shy..you can always count on me being there (except this coming Friday.)

Thanks for swinging by! I have great intentions of updating as much as I can over the summer so stay tuned!!

tp

 

After taking a week off from the ice cream tour, Melissa and I were back at it! This time was a little bit different because we decided to take a little bike ride first!

We started at Melissa’s house and biked through a few neighborhoods.

  Look mom! No hands!

We biked for awhile before heading to Frozen Spoon, which is located inside Michael’s Italian Feast in Germantown Hills.


The selection isn’t huge, but Melissa and I found something we both liked. I got Heaps of Love which was a combination of cookie dough, brownies, caramel and other things of the sort. Melissa went with Superman which looked so gross in my opinion..but she says its a mix of vanilla, cherry and blue moon (not the beer, the ice cream flavor).

Here is the usual pic of us with our treats.

  Once we finished up, we rode our bikes over to my parents house where I dropped mine off because I was tired of carrying it around in the back of my car and we headed back to Melissa’s house…Melissa on her bike and me walking. It took us forever. 🙂

Anyway, while I did enjoy ice cream for dinner again, Melissa and I were a smidge disappointed by the selection. It was still a great little evening and a nice ice cream place in Germantown Hills.

I’m not sure what will be coming up next…but stay tuned because I’m sure it’ll be great! (I hope it’ll be great!)

tp

Costs: 2 ice cream cones cost me $6.24… So $3.12 each if you get one scoop in a sugar cone.

This is coming at ya a week late…sorry! I was out of town part of last week. 

Before I headed to Memphis, I checked out the Sculpture Walk in downtown Peoria. It kicked off with a 3 hour showing with the artists. From 3pm to 6:30pm last Saturday, I had the opportunity to check out the sculptures and chat with the artists.

  
It starts on the corner of Washington St and Harrison St…if you’re a moron with maps like I am, just google the Maxam building in Peoria and start there. 

  

These sculptures will be on display for a full year in downtown, so it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re near the riverfront! 

Here are some photos of my faves:

This one was especially special because the artist is married to my friend Sally! My mom and I both voted for this one as the People’s Choice!  
 I also really liked this one because the artist was super cool. Also I love ceramic animals and this looks like some that I have at my apartment (except a million times bigger).  
  

  

So I don’t think that this one is actually on the walk…but I included it anyway 🙂

  

This one was also special to my mom and I because my mom knows the artist, Fischer Stolz, AND he works at Bradley. Plus it was nice that he took a lot of time to talk to us about his inspiration for this piece. 

  

  

  

Obviously Linda and I had to get a quick selfie. 

  

This one was also a lot of fun because tons of people were climbing on it like it was a jungle gym. I did not climb it mostly because I was wearing a dress. #missedopportunity

 

Please take some time to check out the Sculpture Walk in downtown Peoria. It’s really cool and it’s really FREE!! Text me and I’ll go with you…mostly so I can climb up that red one. 

If you want more info, check out their website: http://www.sculpturewalkpeoria.org/

I’m hoping to be back again tomorrow with an ice cream post!

TP

**BONUS MATERIAL**

It’s not worth writing an additional post on this, so I’m just going to tell you about two things I checked out last week.. One was an amazing experience but has nothing to do with Peoria and the other was a total bust..

1. FedEx St. Jude Classic Danny Thomas ProAm: I had the opportunity to host a few amazing donors in Memphis last week and while I understand that not everyone would get this chance, I still wanted to share a few photos and prove why I was MIA for a week so are you ready for a photo dump?

   
     

2. Tremont Turkey Festival: My pal, Allison, had written about the Turkey Fest on my blog a few years ago, so I was going to check it out with my parents, sister, brother in law and niece… Just get a few turkey sandwiches, some pie and call it a night. Well I guess we got there too late because they literally ran out of turkey. What? Yes. You heard me correctly. The Turkey Festival ran out of turkey. All they had were turkey livers and gizzards. Uh no thanks. We left and went to Bernardis. And I got this one photo: 

Sorry Tremont, I’m over you.  
In other news, I did go see Spy and Jurassic World and both are worth the $13. I also went to a really fun St. Jude event in Yates City which I’ll hopefully tell you about next year because I didn’t take many photos mostly because my hands were always full with two beers. 

  
Ok bonus material over. 🙂