Summer Vacation - Days 1 and 2 - Las Vegas

Jul 24,

This summer, for vacation, we are roaming around the west part of the country for about a week. Sofia is moving from her apartment to a house with four other girls the first weekend of August, and we are helping with the move, so Lionel created an itinerary around here.

As our first stop we flew from Cincinnati to Las Vegas. This was definitely a Lionel-themed stop. Bella and I are not Vegas fans, but he likes playing in poker tournaments. So we did a couple of days here and tried to make the most of it. We don’t love the crowds, the crazy people, or the overstimulation of the slots machines and the casinos. And it was also ridiculously hot. But at least in Vegas you eat well. Among other restaurants, we tried a place Bella wanted to check out called Din Tai Fung. Lionel had made a reservation somewhere else but changed it for her. And even though it was a TikTok recommendation, it was actually pretty good.

We stayed at Paris but it was actually super disappointing. Documenting it here so we remember and never stay there again. The room was outdated, which I was ready to forgive. But the gym was small, dingy, there were zero wipes to clean the equipment, and the only bottle of hand sanitizer was fully empty.  Extremely disappointing. I couldn’t wait to wash my hands 3 times in a row when I came back to the room. 

Bella and I walked around the first day for a while, especially since we couldn’t check in early, but spent a good amount of time in the room on day 2. The walk to and from dinner was about 30 minutes, so we still got our steps in.

Pottery Painting

Jul 18,

Bella invited me to paint pottery and of course I said yes. It had been forever since we last went, and as it turns out the place we used to go to in Anderson is still there.

Bella painted a fruit themed plate. She knew right away what she wanted to do.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to paint but I settled on a round plate. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to paint in it, but I saw that one of the sample plates had a lobster painted in it and decided to copy the design. At least the lobster part. Bella seemed sad that I chose that, so I made a point to make it a Rockport and not a Boston plate. 

It usually takes a week to be able to pick them up, so we will get them after vacation. But even without being finished, they both looked cute.

Harvest

Jul 17,

While we no longer have a garden per se,  I did plant a small garden in containers. I have strawberries, tomatoes, zucchini, jalapeños, and sweet potatoes. And I have already harvested a bit of everything except for the sweet potatoes. This was my biggest tomato harvest so far.

Unpreocupied

Jul 11,

The girl completely relaxed.

World Cup Game

Jul 9,

While Lionel was not able to secure a world cup ticket for Philadelphia, he did secure two tickets for him and Bella to go see the France-Morocco game in Boston. So on Tuesday afternoon I flew back to Cincinnati but Bella stayed. Lionel then flew to Boston on Wednesday. The game was on Thursday afternoon.

They went to the game together with Cheryl and while their seats were not together, they “upgraded” themselves to better seats and sat together the entire time. For their happiness, France also secured the win. 

Getting there and back was a whole day affair, but Lionel said it was well organized. They came back around dinner time and Lionel and Bella had dinner at Nebo, down the street from the apartment, before getting back.

Cloud 9

Jul 6,

On Monday night, after work, Bella and I walked to TD Garden for the Megan Moroney Cloud 9 concert, the reason that brought her back to Boston after almost a year. She was really excited about the concert and had bought and decorated a pair of cowgirl boots. Putting light pink ribbons on your boots seemed like just the thing to do.

Bella was really excited about the concert but had a moment of anxiety as she saw some of the mean girls from her old school. It made me really sad and annoyed for her because that was really bad luck. We went inside and took our seats, and she felt better knowing we were now away from them.

The concert was fun and Bella enjoyed it a lot. Megan is still a relatively new artist but she put on a good show. Afterward we got to walk back as well, as it was only a 15-20 min walk. And while it was supposed to rain, we managed to get back on time to not get any rain on us.

4th of July Weekend

Jul 5,

For the 4th of July weekend Bella and I went to Boston. Lionel was still planning to maybe go to a World cup game in Pennsylvania, so he stayed behind. It was Bella’s first time going back to Boston since we moved, so she was a bit nervous about the trip, but she really wanted to go see a concert at TD Garden on Monday night.  

Since Boston was hosting some world cup games, there were no available rental cars. But my friend Mario let me borrow one of his cars so Bella and I could drive around. We were able to just park it at work, and walk to and from my in-laws’s house. We arrived on Friday evening and went straight to get the car keys, since he had left them inside the car and it made me nervous to leave them there overnight.

On Saturday morning we walked to the Commons and by Newbury street before taking an Uber to have lunch at Lincoln Tavern, a classic and Bella’s choice this time around. There we saw Cheryl for a hot second, as she had other friends in town. After that we walked back to work to get the car. We drove around our old stomping grounds and went to check out our old house. That was probably the only time that Bella appeared sad. We also tried to go to our old coffee shop but it was closed. We did go to our fave TJ Maxx and went to get a chair massage at the Chesnut Hill mall, also by Bella’s request. For dinner we walked to and back from Fuji, the one by the office.

On Sunday we drove to Rockport - always my favorite. We had our lobster roll, walked by the giant rocks, went into the stores, had our gelato, took our photo with Motif #1, and sat at the beach. All the must do stops. I was so grateful to have Mario’s car to be able to go there. Rockport has always been a good memory - no mean kids associated with it.

We got back from Rockport on time to have dinner at this French restaurant Monique and Philippe like,  called Batifol, located in Cambridge.  We took the T there and back, like total Bostonians.

On Monday I went to work at the office, just like the good old times, and Bella roamed around Seaport and came to have lunch with me. We went to Bon Me, which gave me a good break during the day. It was a nice walk there and back.