tandem bike

This weekend was B’s birthday! I just love when birthday’s fall on the weekend, don’t you? It’s so much more fun to celebrate on your actual day (AND of course the whole weekend long).

Anyway, since it was B’s birthday, the weekend included anything he wanted – which meant pizza, wine, steak, beer, biking and the Indians. Not too bad!

Some photo highlights from the weekend: (linking up with Her Heartland Soul)

Friday night dinner – B chose Vincenza’s pizza and we also had some red wine (not pictured).

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We also watched Terminator 2. I’d never seen it before and B had been wanting to watch it with me. He says it’s the best out of the Terminator series.

Saturday morning, B had to volunteer at NEOcycle so I baked some cinnamon scones, ran errands, hit up the West Side Market and got in a quick workout.

cinnamon scones!

We also had plans to rent a tandem bike so that I could participate in NEOcycle with B. I don’t know how to ride a bike, but a tandem? Of course I could try that out. We’d ridden a tandem a few years ago and I remember not hating it.

tandem

Sadly, the weather had other plans. It POURED and was super windy all afternoon and into the evening, so the Night Ride was cancelled.

The weather Saturday night

Instead, we spent the evening celebrating B’s birthday out! We started with steak and wine at Hyde Park (they even gave us a birthday dessert!) and then after dinner drinks at Parnell’s.

a candle for his birthday!

my “steak” (okay it was sea bass)

after dinner drinks

Sunday morning the weather was finally nice so we took the tandem out for a ride around Cleveland! We rode the bike to Ohio City, Tremont, the Flats and to the lake downtown. We stopped at Rising Star for coffee and scones and Cleveland Tea Revival for their watermelon kombucha.

watermelon kombucha!

B @ Rising Star

Believe it or not, after I got over my fear, I started to enjoy the ride! Also, I don’t know what it is, but every time we passed people they couldn’t help but smile. Apparently tandem bikes make people smile?

tandem selfie!

great view from our ride

After our ride, it was time for the Indians game! They were playing a double header but we were only able to stay for the first game. And we won!

Indians game

For dinner, we enjoyed spaghetti and meatballs with B’s family. Another one of B’s favorite meals. All in all, a successful birthday weekend!

Some questions for you:

Have you seen any of the Terminator movies? Which is your fave?
What would be your birthday meal?

(continued from A Week Off … Part One) Wednesday we woke up to some clouds and sprinkles and decided that it may be a good day to check our email and see what other non-beach related activities we could do, pending the weather. We hit up Dunkin Donuts near town and plugged in for a few hours – yes, I know it was vacation but I’m glad I was at least able to check a few emails, send out a few tweets and Facebook updates for clients, and delete some (maybe about 400 or so. Not joking) emails. After Dunkin, we hit up our favorite French bakery for another delicious Parisian sandwich, some olive bread and Croque Monsiour. Yum!

I heart bread (PB Boulangerie)

After the bakery, the weather was still looking iffy (cloudy with some sprinkles) so B convinced me to join him at a bike rental place. I was petrified. I don’t ride bikes. I know, it sounds so simple, right? I run (or at least I was before my boot) but riding bikes? Never. So naturally, the thought of riding along Cape Cod’s bike path (the Rail Trail) frightened me. B had found a bike shop just off the trail that had tandem bikes. The guy who worked at the shop probably thought I was crazy as I told him I didn’t know how to ride a bike and didn’t want to die that day. As we tried out the bike around the parking lot (probably going 2-3 mph) I was screaming nearly the whole time. “You’ll love it!” the guy assured us as B signed the paperwork. And with that, we were off on the trail. For the first 10 miles or so I was so scared of falling off. B was doing all the steering but still – what if we hit a bump? What if my hands stopped holding the handlebars and I went flying? Surprisingly, nothing happened. I don’t recall when I stopped feeling scared and when I started having fun, but at one point B started timing our miles which went down from 5 min per mile to 4 min per mile to even quicker at the end. All in all, we ended up biking about 35 miles! Not bad for someone who hasn’t ridden a bike, right?

Smiling now .. much better than my look of fear beforehand

Wednesday night, B and I enjoyed some old-fashioned fun and headed to Wellfeet’s Drive In Movie Theater for a double feature – Men In Black III and 21 Jump Street. I hadn’t ben to a drive-in in ages, and it was B’s first time – both movies were fun and perfect summer entertainment. Plus, who doesn’t love a drive-in?

: Wellfleet Drive-In

Thursday the weather was gorgeous and we spent most of the day relaxing at the beach and finishing our books. That evening, we invited an old friend from college to visit – he lives less than an hour from the Cape and we hadn’t seen him since our wedding! Our original plan had been to go to the infamous Beachcomber – but it was closed! We ended up hitting the Pearl (which wasn’t bad – I had lobster quesadillas) for our last night’s meal and then returned to PJ’s for dessert.

Friday and Saturday we were off early to head to Boston for our Boston College reunion! Well, not without another stop at our new favorite French bakery for some breakfast. After that, we drove to Boston and checked into reunion. While we were only around for about 24 hours (before heading to a wedding in Boston Sat. night), our time was fun and included re-living many BC memories, including:

Staying in Edmonds, my junior year dorm!
A lobster bake (yes, more lobster. I don’t know my total lobster consumption, I lost count after the 3 full ones, 2+ lobster rolls and ) – the same way our freshman year started off!
Walking around the Reservoir, the place where B and I first held hands and then later got engaged
Taking a walk into Cleveland Circle, grabbing Pino’s for lunch, a stop at Mary Ann’s, a Reservoir run, and walking by Roggies (with a quick stop in)
Walking up the Million Dollar Staircase to Main Campus
A stop in Hillside to smell the fresh Starbucks brewing, paninis grilling and homemade chips (Yes, even after living in the real world and experiencing real food, I still love BC Dining)
And of course seeing so many great faces, friends and wonderful people from college

my beautiful alma mater at night

3 outta 6 ‘aint bad – half of Mod 25B! (plus a photobomber)

The weekend ended with a college wedding which featured not only a ceremony in BC’s signature church but a reception downtown with rooftop dancing and gorgeous Boston views (congrats Matt and Kim!) and a high school graduation (congrats Ignatius grads!). And now we’re back in the grind … until my next trip – Ireland!