Travel – Rooted Gracefully

Weekend in NJ

On Friday morning, I headed out to Westfield State to pick up my brother before we headed to New Jersey for the weekend. We had big plans to visit my dad and visit NYC to try and scope out places for me to live come January.

We arrived to my dad’s house around 3:30PM and we were tired. They went out hunting for a few hours and I stayed at the house to catch up with Peggy. Chatting with some coffee, snacks, and wine – what more do you need? We ended up spending the rest of the night relaxing and watching Netflix. We planned to head to NY early on Saturday, so we all wanted to be well rested. Including Sadie…

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On Saturday morning, I woke up only to take my first ever motor cycle ride with my dad’s friend. It was pretty cool – though not something I would ever want to buy for myself! The area where they live is so beautiful, so that was a perfect way to explore.

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Around 10 o’clock, we started out journey towards NYC. I had a few places in mind that I wanted to visit and Hoboken, NJ was on that list. It’s super close to the city and I had heard a lot of good things about it, so we decided to check it out.

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I ended up loving it! There were tons of restaurants, shops, parks, and young people. I really think this is a place that I could see myself spending a lot of time in future. Everyone that we met was so kind and I loved the small-town atmosphere despite being so close to NYC.

We stopped at a small diner called “Stacks “for brunch where I had the most delicious eggs florentine.

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Then we just roamed around the little city before getting back in the car and heading to Carlo’s Bake Shop.

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This is the bakery from the popular show “Cake Boss.” We waited in line for about 20 minutes but it was well worth it. We felt obligated to stop since we were so close. 🙂

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We ordered lobster tails, a mini cheesecake, and a cannoli. Everything was delicious.

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Next, we left Hoboken and headed into the city. I had intentions of looking around the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and we tried our very best to do so. Unfortunately, it was super chaotic and there were people everywhere. I give my dad so much credit for driving through there.

It was still great to see everything! While I think that I can adjust to city life during the work week, I’m not sure that I can see myself living right in the heart of all the craziness. After we left the city, we headed back to the hotel and we all passed out. It was a long day that took a lot out of us! Around 8 PM, we rallied and headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings to grab some supper and finish off the day.

On Sunday morning, we headed back to Hoboken so that I could get one last look around before going home. We stopped at O’Bagel for (pumpkin spice) coffee and home-made bagels.

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They were so yummy. 🙂

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We all piled back in the car and were able to make it back to my dad’s house in time for the Pats game! I was trying to multitask by studying and watching the game, but Sadie didn’t seem to want that…

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Overall, it was a great weekend!

xo,

Jaclyn

Ogunquit, Maine

During the last week of August my mom, stepdad, brother, and I took a mini-vacation to Ogunquit, Maine! They knew how much I loved it when I went earlier in the summer and they wanted to see for themselves. We had a fantastic long weekend together.

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We stayed at the Meadowmere Resort and it had everything that we had hoped for- pool, hot tub, gym, bar, free continental breakfast, and it was in walking-distance of downtown Ogunquit and Perkins Cove.

Our first full day in Maine was spent in Perkins Cove. We walked down in the morning and spent a few hours poking around the shops. Naturally, we had to make a stop at the candy shop.

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That afternoon we went on a 3-hour sailboat ride around the cove! At first, there was not nearly enough wind and we were a little worried that we were just going to sit there the entire time, but eventually it picked up and ended up being a lot of fun.

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That night we went to dinner at The Front Porch in downtown Ogunquit. This was easily one of the best meals that I have ever had and I wish that I had taken photos of the food. We had calamari and a flatbread pizza as an appetizer, and I ordered a blueberry, walnut, and goat cheese salad for my meal. Everything was phenomenal and we were so stuffed by the time we left! My mom and I shared a carafe of sangria to go along with our meal. 🙂

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After dinner we headed back towards the hotel to see a comedian, whom I will leave unnamed. The entire audience was 60+ and we knew that this was not a show catered to young people- however, I have never been so bored and close to falling asleep during a show! Our entire family ended up leaving after a very long hour and forty-five minutes (and it wasn’t even close to over!). We all agreed that this was the worst part of our weekend.

The next morning we woke up and headed out to spend the morning in Kennebunkport. I loved it just as much as the first time I went. I hope that I get a chance to visit during the Holidays because I hear it is beautiful then as well! We headed back to Perkins Cove in the early afternoon and went for a walk along the Marginal Way.

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By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and starving. We went back to downtown Ogunquit and my mom picked up some cinnamon butter rolls (so delicious!) at Bread and Roses.

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I am definitely visiting this little bakery again next time I am in town. Everything smelled and looked fantastic.

We finished off the weekend in the best possible way – with ice cream 🙂

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I am so grateful for all of the laughs and fun that we shared during this weekend! I already can’t wait for the next time time we visit.

xo,

Jaclyn

Last Day

I can’t believe that IQP is finally over and today is my last day in Australia! Yesterday, we finished up project presentations and wrapped up everything at the office. It was definitely a sad goodbye, but I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of people.

After final presentations, we came back to the apartments to pack before heading over to an old WPI Professor’s house for pizza and drinks in celebration of being done! He rented out the rooftop of his building and we had a blast.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for New Zealand at 9AM. We will be spending 5 days traveling from Wellington to Auckland before heading off to Hawaii for 5 more days. I will try to update when I can!

xo,

Jaclyn

Minor Mishap

Last week on Thursday I left my cellphone in the back of a cab on my way home to my apartment. I usually do most of my posts on there because the internet is generally unable to connect with my laptop, so there may be a lack of posts over the next couple of weeks. 🙁

We spent the last few days in Sydney so I will definitely do a post about that within the next day or two once I upload all of my pictures. We are also getting very busy finishing up our projects since we are in the home stretch!

xo,

Jaclyn

21st Birthday

I could not have imagined having such a great birthday away from home, but it was perfect. I am blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. The only thing that could have made it better was if my family was here.

On Monday (the night before my birthday) we went to the escape room that I wrote about.It was a lot of fun and basically like being in a puzzle. We weren’t very good at it though and didn’t get out of the room. After we finished up it was around 10:30pm and they wanted to bring me to a pub in the city to wait until midnight. When we got there the rest of the group was there hanging out. We didn’t actually end up staying until midnight, but I was happy everyone came out for my birthday. I didn’t expect everyone to come out on a Monday night.

The next morning, on my actual birthday, I woke up and went to the gym as usual before showering and heading to work. When I walked into the office, this is what I saw!

They decorated my entire area in balloons and streamers and everyone was there waiting and singing happy birthday. They got me a nice card and a pin to wear – Queen For A Day.

Then they took it a step further and had a party pie lunch for the entire office and a cake complete with 21 birthday candles. My group helped them plan the whole thing, I couldn’t believe they kept it a secret from me.

As the work day died down, my group told me that they wanted to take me to pub to buy me a drink for my birthday. We left work around 5:30 and headed over to a place called ABC.

When we walked in everyone else that we are here in Australia with was waiting to surprise me!

I had no idea that everyone was coming and they actually told me that they had been planning it since last week. We stayed there for about four hours and had a blast 😊

Shannon surprised me with a chocolate covered waffle from a little cafe that we had been talking about and my group members bought me dinner.

Of course, everyone else just kept buying me drinks that we all ended up sharing. One of my group members tried to one up everyone and came back to the table with an entire bottle of moscato on ice with only one glass.

It was really funny!

Everyone was very very sweet and we joked that it was like a group 21st birthday… It actually was though. I will definitely remember this birthday for a very long time!

I can’t express how grateful I am to be in such a beautiful place surrounded by amazing people. I’m so sad that my time here is coming to an end in only two weeks, because it truly has been the time of my life so far.

xo,

Jaclyn