My First Connecticut Visitors!

This weekend was as lovely as my Friday (as expected).  We have had visitors to our CT apartment, but none have come further than NY, and most (truth be told), are more of Dan's friends.  It's been a long and lonely winter, and I'm thrilled that Spring is on it's way.  I'm also thrilled that I have two friends who refused to wait for winter to die before coming up to visit me.

This past weekend happened to be right around my 6 month anniversary of moving up to Connecticut, and I got to see two of my dearest friends.  Mr. Don Boots drove all the way from Ohio to Pennsylvania where he met up with the lovely Adina and they headed all the way up to little old me in Connecticut (making RECORD time, by the way - go, speed racer!).  I hadn't seen Don since my going away shindig in August and hadn't seen Adina since Emmy and Jello's (amazing) wedding in October.  When I sat and thought about how long it had been, I was surprised.  It didn't feel nearly as long since Adina and I speak daily and Boots and I keep close tabs on each other and call each other whenever something new is going on or just to make sure all is well (as friends do), but I was still over the moon to see them in person.

Just when I think my eyes are blue,
here's Boots to kill that theory.

It was so fun to make a (loose) plan for the weekend to decide where I wanted to take my new-to-CT visitors.  I've had half a year to find a few hidden gems and knew right away where a few of our destinations would be.  As soon as they arrived, we scooped them up, put them into Dan's car and took them to Eli Cannon's Tap Room.  We love this place for the amazing selections of microbrews on tap.  One thing New England has going for it is it's delightful breweries in the area.  They keep their beer menu on chalkboards because of how frequently they change out the beers.  Delicious.  They also have great taste in music.  I always find myself singing along to some 90's song I haven't thought about in years and reminiscing about my old CD collection.  We had great food (boots loved his maple marshmallow dipping sauce for his sweet potato fries), great beer and wonderful conversation (after Boots finally was allowed in after forgetting his ID at home).  We came home and went to bed after making a pact that we would try our hardest to sleep in until 12pm (we kept it...  Or at least Don and I did.  Dan and Adina kindly kept quiet so we could be lazy).

GLOW PIRATE MINI GOLF!!

The only other solid plans I had were for dinner on Saturday night and brunch on Sunday.  We collectively decided to head to a local diner to grab some lunch which is where we decided on our next activity.  Glow in the dark-indoor-Pirate themed-mini golf.  I didn't even know this existed in the world, much less 10 minutes away.  It was pretty fun.  I learned that I am very bad at mini golf.  As Dan put it at the end of all 18 holes, "I won, Adina and Don tied for a close second place and Rachael...  got a little less than the rest of us."  Nicely put.



Then the REAL fun began.  The part I was maybe looking forward to the most-- getting ready to go out!!  I rarely get "dolled up" anymore and when I do, it's just to impress Dan, not really for the fun of being a complete and utter girly girl.  Adina and I tried on our outfits for one another, gave advice on what to wear, did our make up and hair and chatted away while the boys played Rock Band.

Then it was off to BAR in New Haven.  If you know me well, you know I'm not a big fan of pizza.  I'd rather have pasta.  I'd rather have a salad.  I'd rather have a calzone.  EXCEPT when it comes to BAR's pizza.  Holy god.  It's the thinnest crust, the freshest ingredients and the yummiest beer.  I love the actual bar itself, too.  Reminds me a lot of the Red Star in Baltimore.  It's big with high ceilings and 2 full bars and tables scattered across the place.  The front of the restaurant has massive windows from top to bottom, so you can watch the "whore parades" late night and all the Yale students running about.  Anyhoo, we all had a great time and headed to a small little bar down the street with live music for a nightcap, then headed back home.  Dan and I sang Violent Femmes all the way home.  It was wonderful.

That's where Adina broke out Just Dance 2 (Wii game) and this happened:

Yeah.  This is when I found out I'm also bad at dance video games.  Just awful.

Brunch was lovely the next day at Huxley's, the library-themed diner close to our house, then we sent off our first visitors with big hugs and much love to head back to their shitty states (we live in the trifecta of shitty states, we decided).

Really made me feel loved to have friends come and see me.  It was just what I needed to kick into this amazing mood I've been in since Friday.  I'm a lucky gal.

xo,
Rachael