happy – Jaclyn Grace

First Weekend Visitors!

So I’m a little behind here (per usual) but I wanted to fill you all in on the fantastic past weekend that I had with my mom and brother.

Before they arrived on Saturday morning, I woke up early and took a walk downtown to a cute little coffee shop called “bwe kafe.” I heard about this place through Instagram and I am so glad that I decided to go check it out.

They had the cutest little set up and I loved the atmosphere. I’m hoping to spent a few hours here this weekend catching up on some studying!

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I ordered a dirty chai latte, which was essentially a chai latte with a shot of espresso. It was so perfect and I have been craving one ever since. Though next time I do think that I’ll go with 2 shots of espresso!

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When I got home from the coffee shop, Anthony and my mom were here! We brought up all of the stuff that didn’t make it into my car during the first move and spent a few hours unpacking and chatting.

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By the time we finished, we were starving and decided to head over to Mom’s favorite deli – Fiore’s. We got roast beef and mozzarella subs and they were just as great as we remembered from last time that we visited there.

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We spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch watching movies and napping. Around 7 o’clock, Anthony was starving so we ordered pizza and wings to snack on during the football game.

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On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed into the city for a fun and touristy day, starting with Times Square!

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We went into the M&M store and the Hershey store, both of which were absolutely packed for so early in the morning. We had enough of the huge crowds after that, so we decided to head over to Rockefeller Center.

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On our way we stopped into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was just recently renovated. It was beautiful inside. I wish we could have stayed for mass!

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We spent the rest of our day walking down 5th avenue, visiting Madison Square Garden, and getting an awesome lunch at “The Counter.” We had huge cheeseburgers with french fries, which pretty much put us into food induced comas immediately.

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We headed back to Hoboken and spent the rest of the afternoon napping and hanging out.

Even after our fun weekend, I think my favorite part was coming home from work on Monday night to dinner on the table and all of my grocery shopping done for the week. I am so lucky and already can’t wait for their next visit!

I have a fun post coming up regarding some of the things that I’m loving lately, so keep an eye out! 🙂

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

Fri-YAY

It’s finally Friday night, which means that the weekend is officially here!

Last night I went bowling with a bunch of my friends. On Thursdays one of the bowling alleys near us has $11 unlimited bowling for college students. We went around 9PM and ended up staying until almost midnight. It was a blast!

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This was one of my first times bowling non- candlepin and I was absolutely horrible. Everybody had a good laugh over the fact that across my first three turns I did not score a single point.

Today was a pretty easy day for me. David delivered a surprise coffee (along with my homework that I accidentally left in the copier at home) to my doorstep at 8AM, which was a great way to start my day! After that I went to class for a bit and then ended up spending two full hours at the gym. I ran on the treadmill for 45 minutes and spent the rest of my time using free weights and doing a combined biceps and back circuit. All followed by a short stretch of course.

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I did not intend on working out for that long but once I got on a roll I just could not stop. I love the feeling of accomplishment after a solid workout.

I showered and ran a few errands in the afternoon before heading home to cook dinner. I had the leftovers of some veggie chili that I made recently, and also made a delicious side of sautéed mushrooms and kale sprinkled with some grated parmesan cheese.

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I plan on spending the rest of my night watching Netflix, reading, and enjoying a nice big mug of hot chocolate.

Enjoy your weekends!

xo,

Jaclyn

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a great one – filled with lots of friends and fun! On Friday night, I went out for appetizers and drinks with my fellow dance team seniors.

12376468_10207998723074779_575735984478278012_n — Don’t mind the bad picture quality!

We have been trying to get together more often lately and we had a blast. We went over to a delicious Mexican restaurant nearby called Mezcal. We got four pitchers of margaritas to split. After much debate, we decided on coconut raspberry, blood orange, mai tai, and guava flavors. They were all phenomenal.

We also split two large orders of guacamole! My favorite was the “tropical” flavor. It was regular guac combined with pecans, mango, and coconut. I know it sounds kind of strange, but trust me when I say that it was delicious.

On Saturday morning, I got up bright and early to head into Boston for an ugly sweater christmas bar crawl that a few of my friends and I had bought tickets for. Three of us left on the 8:50 train so that we could get brunch in Boston before hand.

After walking all over creation trying to find somewhere that wasn’t packed, we ended up at the Trophy Room. We started off our day right with mimosas, easily one of the best ones that I have ever had.

I ordered eggs benedict for my meal. It came with seasoned homefries and was topped with bacon, mushrooms, and sautéed spinach.

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I ate every single bite and was in heaven. I will definitely be back here next time I find myself around the Back Bay of Boston!

After brunch, we headed over to the Faneuil Hall area to register for the bar crawl. We met up with the rest of our group on the way over. I was so excited to be reunited with my IQP group again!

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We spent the rest of our day sipping on drinks, socializing, and taking in some of the ugliest christmas sweaters I have ever seen. This day was exactly what I needed to start getting in the holiday spirit (even though Christmas is less than two weeks away!).

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12369157_10207998722074754_5513783454102466660_n — This tree was beautiful!

Now, I am back to studying for finals and finishing up the last few reports that I have to do before break.

xo,

Jaclyn

Meeting Our Sponsor

Today we went to the company that we will be working with for the next 7 weeks and it was awesome. It was about a 35 minute commute by tram, train, and then walking. It wasn’t too bad though since it is beautiful outside. It will probably also be quicker when we actually know where we are going.

We got some nice little perks upon our arrival – including our own locker and the use of a full gym onsite! We also have access to the showers there. My group plans on taking full advantage of the facility since there are no other cheap gyms in the area. It may be a little strange though just because it is used mainly by firefighters…

We also got fitted for our firefighting gear just incase there is an incident while we are here.

After work my group had a light lunch at a little outdoor cafe. All the boys had beer, but I had a vanilla caramel latte instead. It was delicious. Everyone keeps telling us that Melbourne is known for the coffee, and now I believe it. There was also a live street performer singing right by our table who was very talented. I almost bought his CD I enjoyed it so much.

After lunch we wondered around the city a bit more and picked up some groceries. Along the way we came across the cutest area. It was a little alleyway filled with small restaurants, bakeries, cafes, etc. There was a band playing and the whole atmosphere was awesome. I took a picture but unfortunately the internet at our apartment complex isn’t great and I can’t upload it from my phone. 🙁 I am going to try to put it on here soon though.

xo,

Jaclyn