Hiking in January

The day after New Years Brian and I decided to go for a “walk in the woods” which ended up meaning a hike up the Fire Tower Trail in Pawtuckaway State Park. It was a nice enough day a little windy which made it chilly but wonderful to get out and get some fresh air. There were lots of people out that day with their dogs etc. Starting their resolutions perhaps. It reminded Brian and I just how close and easy to get to that those trails were. And that we should be doing it more often. The fire tower is about a 3 mile trek to the top of South Mt. Pretty easy walk with a heart pumping steeper incline the last .5 mile or so. It was so great to get out and get moving that we decided that this past weekend we would do it again with the kids! With no snow on the ground yet and  it being about 50 degrees on Saturday, we were not about to stay inside the house. The kids had way to much energy that needed to be put to better use than annoying each other.

So we packed a lunch and some water and headed out. We stopped on the way to get the kids some sweatshirts that we saw advertised, so that they would not need their winter coats as it was a bit too warm for them, but too cool for just a couple of layers of long sleeve shirts. And as we all know in hiking you get warm and need to dress in layers. These sweatshirts were adult small so they were a bit big on them but made it all the more cute and they still did the trick keeping them warm. I am sure someday soon I am sure they will fit because these two just keep growing!

The first junction we came to we had a kind family behind us and asked them to take our photo at the sign. There are many other trails to explore in Pawtuckaway State Park and I can’t wait to try some new ones but for now the Mountain Trail is where we headed! There are also great Boulder Fields as well as lots of boulders around the trail we hiked. The kids wanted to climb each one, although that would have taken all day so we let them do quite a few and even joined them but we decided we would come back another day specifically to just go rock climbing around and without the goal of hiking to the top.

They are the cutest!

Colin in the sunlight!

Fun on the icy parts!

Beautiful view from the top.

ice crystals!

Our walk back up to the car. The road is shut off for the winter so after our hike we had to climb up a pretty big hill… someone wanted to race… I think I was the winner. What a fun way to spend a Saturday. I love my family.

Holiday Wrap-Up

So, I noticed today that I never posted anything about our Christmas/New Years. We had a great Christmas season in the new house this year with the kids. We went over to Warren Farm again this year to get our tree although this time instead of looking for a short fat one like we did last year when we were living in a low ceiling basement apartment. We were able to look for the taller ones they had so that we could place it in our high ceiling front room. The kids had fun decorating especially because they got to climb the ladder to reach the top. We had to remind them that the bottom of the tree needed ornaments too!

We also gathered some extra bows to make a wreath out of. Plus we decorated our outdoor Christmas tree in the yard with some bird seed ornaments and popcorn/cranberry garland as well as some lights. The birds really loved it and so did we in making them.

On Friday the 23rd we took the kids to the Palace Theater in Manchester to a production of A Christmas Carol. But not before stoping at Margaritas downtown for some dinner. It was a fantastic show with great dancing and singing and effects and props. Both the kids and Brian and I really enjoyed ourselves. A great way to start the Christmas weekend.

Image above taken from: Parenting NH

Christmas Eve was a blur of excitement. The kids couldn’t wait for Christmas morning. We baked Santa cookies and even wrote him some notes to leave out for him. We played an epic battle of RISK and then headed to bed to try to catch some sleep before an early morning of fun. Sure enough morning came early, presents were under the tree and stockings were filled. Santa had eaten cookies, drank milk and the carrots were nibbled by the reindeer. He also wrote a note back to the kids and this was very exciting and proof that he really does exist!

Mostly this Christmas I took video footage of the gift opening. However I am not going to post those as no one likes the sound of their own voice! But I did have a couple of photos. Colin got lots of legos including these ones here from Grandma.

He also was excited to get started building his new Kinex Roller Coaster.

Isabelle received lots of great things too. Among them was a sewing machine from Santa! Guess he knew that she always wanted to sew with me! Now we can do it together! And Christmas Day we made our first little project together that turned out great!

I received a beautiful handmade shawl from Ann and love the colors and how delicate it is. Very good work mom!

We were all also very excited about the family gift from Santa. A Kinect for our X-box. This will provide lots of active video gaming fun! No pictures of our silly jumping around in front of the TV though haha. Sorry. When all was said and done it was a great Christmas weekend.

The next weekend for New Years Eve, Brian and I had some really fun plans as well. We travelled to Northampton, Mass for a NYE concert put on by one of our favorites Josh Ritter! Northampton was a fun town to explore so we got there early and did just that.

The first 200 people got this neat poster, of course we were sure to get ourselves one.

The show was AMAZING of course and we really really enjoyed ourselves. He even did a little rendition of Auld Lang Syne for us all. Heard here:

After the show let out at about 11:30 the street right outside of the theater was filling up with people as Northampton has their own Ball Raising to ring in the New Year. About 7,000 or so people were to come out to see it. Brian and I decided not to stay for the excitement however it was a little too much craziness so we caught our cab back to the hotel.

Here is someone’s photo I found online though for you to better see the festivities:

photo credit: http://littlebangtheory.wordpress.com/

What a fantastic way to start a New Year! I hope that 2012 is a great one for all of us.

Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving in our house turned out pretty well. Of course not without some hitches but I still hope everyone enjoyed themselves and I think that everyone including myself stuffed themselves on very yummy and colorful food. Including our farm’s blue potatoes, they were a first for most people. Brian and I had painted our dining room for the occasion and were excited to use the leaf in our new table to host 8 people for Thanksgiving. My Mother and Don as well as my Grandparents and my friend Lyn from work along with her son Griffin. Brian and I also decided to break out his grandmother’s china and crystal for the occasion. It was fun pretending to be fancy for a day. And what a beautiful day it was too! I am really enjoying this warm fall weather.

I am also thankful to everyone for coming and sharing our Thanksgiving with us. And hope that everyone else’s turned out wonderful too.

I wish I had more photos but it was a busy day and all I had was my phone camera unfortunately. But I know some of you wanted to see the new dining room and such so here is what I got.

Quick Fall Updates

As winter rapidly approaches Brian and I have been getting the house ready. We stocked up on our pellets and wood and sealed up our basement with an insulated door where the bulkhead is to hopefully keep us much more heat efficient this year, especially as we start the project of finishing off the basement.

The pool is officially closed, I painted the shed and Brian also built us a great arbor in the side yard. This will hopefully block off access to the trail behind our house from our neighbors and their snowmobiles this year. I didn’t like that when we first moved in they were using our side yard as their personal highway on-ramp. I hope this will deter them and also it was built so that in the spring we can grow grape vines up it!! I am so excited for that too! He did a really great job it was a big project.

The weekends have also been busy with soccer games for both of the kids and some fun events for Colin’s Cub Scouts which Brian has been very involved in helping out with. Colin is doing really well in soccer. It is actually very exciting and fun to watch. His coach has taught them some great skills. Isabelle is also doing well, but her age group still needs to learn to spread out, listen to their coach, pass and that playing with their hair isn’t as important as paying attention to the game. Still fun to watch though.

I am looking forward to having our first trick 0r treaters to the house this coming weekend. I made the mistake of opening up the bags of candy too early though I hope there will still be some left by the time sunday comes. All in all things are great here. Hope you all have a Happy Halloween.

Mid-Coast Maine Anniversary Weekend

One year already?! Wowzers time really does fly when you are having fun! What a wonderful first year of marriage it has been. Mostly due to my lovely and amazing husband. Thanks for being so awesome, everyday honey!

We decided to celebrate this occasion by driving up the coast of Maine to Rockland/Camden area for a few days. It was a very relaxing setting for a much needed getaway for us. Friday we drove up to Maine stopping in Wells for a quick lobster roll lunch and then stopping at a great little market with really amazing fine foods called The Market Basket in Rockport to pick up some essentials before checking into our cabin at Oakland Seashore Cabins right on the water. It was a lovely little place to shack up in for a few days of R&R.

Market Basket - Rockport ME

Oakland Seashore Cabins

Friday night we went out to dinner for Brian’s birthday in Rockland and took some quick peaks around town there before turning in for the night. Saturday we woke before sunrise for a quiet walk down on the beach together. The skys were too overcast for a good sunrise but it didn’t stop us from enjoying every second of it.

Early Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning

Brian on the Rocks

Good Morning Maine

Lobsterman

Rocky Coast

Tide

Tide 2

LoveBirds

Soaking it in

Later that morning we took a drive up the coast to go visit my Aunt Daryl and Uncle John who live in Orland Maine. It was a lovely drive and even took us past Fort Knox and over a fun new suspension bridge that crosses onto Verona Island. We found out from my uncle that you can go up inside the bridge’s concrete observatory tower to look out over where the Penobscot River meets the Ocean. (Maybe next time) It was great visiting my family’s place, I hadn’t been there in years and years. They have wonderful gardens as well as chickens and ducks! Brian and I were tickled pink to chat with them about growing and eating good food and being sustainable etc. It’s a lot of hard work but so worth it. They even sent us home with some homemade maple syrup! I can’t wait to try it. mmmmm  Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures from our stop there but their house will always be in my heart as I find it so comforting to be there.

Fort Knox

Bridge

Sunday morning we were up before sunrise again and went down to the rocks during what is called “Civil Twilight”. The clouds provided a heavenly pink sky for us to enjoy as the day began.

Civil Twilight

Heaven on Earth

"Hairy Rocks"

Sunrise Stillness

Sunday Morning

GREAT MORNING!

After that beautiful morning on the beach we went for the second day in a row to Home Kitchen Cafe in Rockland for breakfast. Friendly people and the most amazing breakfast I have had at a restaurant I think ever! Brian got the Lobster Benedict and I got the Lobster Omelet with Feta and Scallions. Sooo Yummy! After breakfast we geared up to go on a day hike through Camden State Park where there are fantastic views of the coast.

Although the peaks (Mt. Battie & Mt. Megunticook) are not very large in feet, we found ourselves hiking a bunch of different trails and spending most of the day climbing around through the woods. What a great way to spend a beautiful day. At one cliffside we stopped at we had our own private show as we watched about 8 hawks soaring around in the air currents, it was very entertaining.

Trailhead

Brian on Mt. Battie

Monument on Mt. Battie

Perfect Web

Ridge Trail to Mt. Megunticook

Happy Hikers

Coastal View

After our hike we cleaned up and headed downtown to Rockland again to walk around and visit more art galleries and shops before going out for our special Anniversary Dinner celebration at In Good Company. I highly recommend it. The company was GOOD and so was the FOOD. We must have sat there for hours just slowly eating and eating and taking in the nice atmosphere it was a wonderful last night to our little mini vacation and special first Anniversary getaway.

Art Museum - Rockland

In Good Company

Camping at Pawtuckaway State Park

Last weekend we took the kids for a campout adventure. I had just purchased a large tent for our “family” camp trips. It fits all really well. The weaather forecast was perfect, not like the last time we tried to take the kids camping two years ago and it thunder showered that night and they slept in the bus. This time was going to be their first outdoor tenting adventure and we were just as excited as they were.

Colin and Brian Setting up the Tent

We planned to take the kids on a little hike after we got to the site, set up and had lunch. In hopes to use this as a test to see how well they can do for future hiking trips. It is pretty convenient to have Pawtuckaway State Park right down the road from where we live. It is a beautiful park and the trail to the top of Mt. Pawtuckaway was actually a really nice little hike and included a “Fire Tower” at the top. That provided a nice goal to get to, and a fun climb up for the kids. They did great and had a lot more fun they expected I think !

The McGinty's Hiking Trip!

The Boys

Rock Climbers!

Izzy found a nice seat

Colin found a little cave under these amazing huge boulders

Isabelle climbs the tower

Colin on the fire tower

Enjoying the view over our towns, where's our house?

Brian cooling off at the top

Isabelle pretends to try out her hiking whistle that we got the kids in case we get separated

After the hike we went back to the campsite and straight into the lake to cool off. Our site was right on the lake and it was a really great little private spot to enjoy the water.

Kids in the lake

Refreshing and relaxing

Little fishes

Colin found a waterslide

Great day

Then it came time for making some dinner so the kids found their cooking sticks and they wanted to use them to cook both their hot dogs and marshmallows. Brian and I opted for putting our dogs right on the grill over the fire. But the kids had fun making there dogs perfect on there own. It was such a pleasant and beautiful evening.

Pretty evening light while kids cook their own hot dogs

Pretty sun on our campsite

After dinner we all took the time to head down to the lake’s edge and enjoy some quiet moments together and watch as the sun set over the water. It was so nice.

Sunset on Pawtuckaway

Isabelle walking on water

Colin and Dad watching the sunset

Then we headed back up to the fire and cooked up some yummy s’mores for dessert. I must say here that s’mores may quite possibly be one of my all time favorite desserts ever!! I typically  like to crispify my marshmallow really well done, however I let Brian make me one of his “perfectly cooked” marshmallows and it was pretty tasty.

The perfect dessert

Before turning in for the night we sat up for while in the tent together playing a new card game that Brian and I had learned from Carl and Gerry (friends of Brian’s Mom, and ours too I suppose) while we were down in Ocean City over the fourth of July holiday. It’s called 99. And it is a lot of fun. The kids picked it up really well as they are such smart kids and game playing runs in their blood I think. We had lots of laughs until it was time to crash for the night.

Unfortunately, my first experience sleeping in the new tent didn’t go so well, I was right on top of a root and it made for uncomfortable sleeping conditions.  We are seriously considering doing an air mattress of some sort next time, I suppose we are just getting to old for sleeping on the hard ground. The kids slept perfectly of course. I was up with the sun at about 5 am. I decided to not fight it anymore and quietly headed down to the water and had a really nice hour or so alone just to be quiet and sit and observe the morning and all of nature’s stirrings. I had a chipmunk come check me out a few times, the first time I caught him running by me he had a big chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. Ha, he must love the campers and all their snacks. Then I saw a nice little mouse as well as some minnows and birds and some ducks. It was a very peaceful morning. Isabelle, was the next to wake and she came out to find me and we sat together a for a bit while I told her of all my morning visitors.

Hi Isabelle

All in all, it was a great time. We all wished we had longer than just one day and night to spend camping so I guess that means we will have to plan something else again soon. Until next time, take care everyone and we hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Four days after we got back from New Jersey and our music weekend of fun. We set out on the same trip again, but this time with a couple of cutie pie kids in tow, to celebrate a long fourth of July weekend with Grandma.

On Friday, Colin was finishing up his week long LEGO camp. Brian got to leave work early and go see the final products. I am so glad that he got to be there for Colin. Colin, if you don’t know, is an AMAZING builder. The kid is so smart. He loves legos and lots of other things to do with constructing, engineering and building. He is also very creative and sweet, such a great kid in general.

Afterwards, Brian and the kids came over to my office which was such a great surprise. While I had to finish up a couple of things before the long weekend, they stepped out back and got to see a Blue Heron fly off over the river behind my office.  Colin was very excited about his cool new sunglasses that dad bought him and Isabelle got a new hat.

The kids did really well considering it was a long 7 hour trip down and I was shocked that we only lost one to dreamland before we arrived. Colin was determined to stay awake until we got there. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite as late of an arrival as the last weekend and we made it there by 10:30. Grandma greeted us with big hugs and late night snacks before it was off to bed to rest up for a fun long weekend.

These two aren’t alike at all…

We relaxed in the morning sunshine on grandma’s deck and then decided to take the kayaks for a spin around the bay. I took each kid around the point and gave them little refresher lessons on turning and reversing etc. Isabelle was afraid of tipping over because she and mom did last time they were down there. But this trip it was actually Colin and Dad that flipped over and us girls got to have a good laugh.

Then the kids got so good, they took the kayak out themselves, well…with grandma following close behind in the other kayak of course. They were doing great though!

Before you knew it after swimming and kayaking all morning it was lunch time and we waited for the arrival of some more visitors to join us.

Dave’s Grandkids came over with his daughter and all the kids got to play together for a while. It was really great.

Then we took the kids on a late afternoon side trip to Cape May in order to visit with Brian’s friend Rick who I had the pleasure of meeting the weekend before. He was there with his two children and we thought it would be great to get them all together and spend more time catching up. It was fantastic. The kids both really got along well with Reed, Rick’s son, and Jasmine who was a little younger was such a cutie. They all played in the pool and then played Angry Birds on our phones while the adults chatted. We ate dinner with Rick and his family and it was all a really beautiful evening.

Grumpy Faces… hehe so cute

That night the kids were worn out. We had a busy and exhausting day. Colin was so worn out that he couldn’t wait for his sister to finish putting her pj’s on before plopping himself down for a nap in the hallway outside the bedroom door. haha So cute.

In the morning Brian found Colin snuggled up next to Grandma on the couch. Such a cute moment to catch a picture of. They love their Grandma!!

Sunday looked as though it might bring rain and not be the best beach day, which was what we had planned on doing. But it did give Dad and Colin the opportunity to have a father-son date and go up to Atlantic City to see Transformers 3 in IMAX 3D together. Which was something they had been wanting to do, since Colin and Brian both love transformers. It didn’t end up raining, it was just very hot, humid and cloudy. So, while they were away that afternoon, Dave was kind enough to take Isabelle, Ann and I out on the boat to try to do a little fishing! We didn’t catch anything really though, just one flounder that was too small to keep. But it was still a great trip out on the boat.

That evening was another beautiful one spent on the back deck with Ann, her friend Sue, Dave, as well as Rick and his family who came over to join us for dinner as well. It was just nice to relax, chat, eat and enjoy the pretty evening.

The next day was July 4 and we spent it as a family down on the Boardwalk. Brian and I had been promising the kids that we would go down there and go on the amusement rides and such. So although it was a very hot day, we went down early and explored the boardwalk shops and ate lunch at a really yummy pizza place where they were tossing dough in the air for all to see.

Did I mention it was hot?

Once the amusement parks opened we were the first ones in line for rides. We all got to have a little fun and it was so fun to watch the kids faces on some of the rides. They were much more daring and tall enough for a little bigger rides this time around which made it really great fun.

First ride of the day – The BIG feris wheel! Colin was excited a bit!

Colin decided to ignore the “NO head on Collisions” Sign and go the wrong direction in order to get his sister good!! Haha I loved it!! Of course our kids would be the ones to get kicked out of bumper cars for horsing around haha. Just kidding.

We all had a great day on the Boardwalk and ended it with some ice cream cones as we waited to get picked up to go back to the house. Once there we had dinner and said goodbye to Dave who had to uniform the boat and head out with one of his Coast Guard friends to go patrol the waters in Atlantic City during the fireworks celebration. So we saw them off and I snapped some photos of the boat in all it’s regalia.

We then got ready to go to Ann’s friend, Sue’s house to watch some fireworks and have a smorgasbord of desserts. What a great Fourth of July Weekend!

DMB Caravan- AC: Day 3

Day 3 and we are still standing. And miraculously not sunburnt too bad. But the dirt, oh the dirt, so hard to scrub off seems like it will live with us forever as a symbolic reminder of our fun weekend of music.  This day we find street parking a little closer to the show than Phil’s house was and ride our bikes over. As we ride we decide that today we will at some point take a ride on the feris wheel and see the view from above. We found out that the rides were going for 5 dollars a pop. Madness the amount of money that this event must have made.

The line up for the day looked like we would need to stay on our feet and roam around more than we had the past couple of days. In doing so we got to see some great acts. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals rocked out. She reminded me of a Joan Jett or Pat Benatar who I used to love and admire when my dreams of growing up to be a rock star were still realistic in my mind. She put on a great show.

photo courtesy of Breathless Conni via Flickr

photo courtesy of Jeremy Gordon via Flickr

We also met up with Brian’s friends again which was nice to spend some time with them. I snapped a shot of the boys, loved Phil’s shirt.

Phil, Rick & Brian

We also got to see a little of the Fit’s and the Tantrums and some Dr. Dog. But the best act of the day and possibly of the whole weekend that we saw was Michael Franti and Spearhead. He was simply awesome. I loved the graphic banner he had behind him with the imagery saying “Listen to your Heart” His lyrics are amazing he is an all around great guy and has an amazing story to tell as well. He even came out into the crowd (video link) and sang his way around everyone. I got to touch his sweaty back as he ran by us. He then invited up a bunch of people on stage with him for his final song (video link) and it was just so much fun and happiness to watch this show. Good memories for sure.

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Michael Franti just as he passed by us

Michael Franti in crowd photo courtesy of Jeremy Gordon via Flickr

Sunday evening was had such beautiful skies the even better to see them from a feris wheel ride. So, just as DMB was starting to play and the sun was setting low my love and I decided to go, up, up, up and around.

Feris Wheel

Feris Wheel

View from the Top

 

Alina and Atlantic City

Sunset

Alina and DMB

Feris Wheel- photo courtesy of Jeremy Gordon via Flickr

Then we watched DMB Rock out for the last and final night and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we said goodbye to our Music Festival Weekend of Fun. He even busted out an awesome cover of Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith. Here is the video of the performance.

Dave Day 3 - photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

It was an amazing weekend of music. The End.

The End - photo courtesy of dmbcaravan via facebook

DMB Caravan- AC: Day 2

Day two starts out a little quiet and slow. Well, that is how we felt anyway. We drove over to Brian’s friend Phil’s place and met up with his friends again for a little bit of catching up. Then we parted ways and rode our bikes to the show, the rest of the group would be along to the show a little later in the afternoon. This ride was quite longer than the ride we had for day 1 but it was still pleasant. Except that my whole body was a little achy from the long day of dancing and fun the day before. The first act of the day we were interested in seeing was back on the Main Stage again so we decided we would go back to the same general area we were in the day before. We were very entertained by Punch Brothers. Who I had seen open up for Josh Ritter before and thought they were great. I love how they are a bluegrass band fully equipped with fiddle and banjo and yet they all dress in suits and ties. Very classy. Here is a video of them preforming “Rye Whisky“.

photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

Brian and I were a less worried about keeping our spot this day and went exploring. We found  that there were much better food vendors in other areas of the grounds than where we had visited the day before. We got some really good burgers for lunch. Brian thought it necessary to document this.

Lunch

After lunch we saw an amazing band called Thievery Corporation. They were really diverse and had so many different people in their band. All were very entertaining to watch and listen to. It was a lot of fun. Here is a video of them preforming Lebanese Blonde.

Thievery Corporation

photo courtesy of breathlessconni on Flickr

As we watched this amazing act we noticed the crowd up front was a lot different from the day before. It was more hostile and more people in general, who all seemed to be planning, fighting and trying to save their spots for the Dave show later on. Brian and I decided that with the way we felt and the fact that we had our chance the night before being close with a good crowd around us, we would move further back and enjoy the scene from afar this time. This was the best decision we made that day. It was a much more relaxing atmosphere back near the “chair line” and we were able spread out a bit, take a little nap, dance and enjoy the scenery of just how many people there were all in one place. It was pretty amazing.

Alina at the new spot for the day

photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

Next we watched Damian Marley and had fun dancing to some reggae beats. Here is some video coverage of a pretty awesome little rant he went off on about food,  I am glad someone recorded this. Damian Marley

photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

Alina Dancing

Beautiful evening

Dirty Feet

Tired Brian

Then it came time for another amazing night of Dave Matthews Band. This second night he invited up lots of guests, like Warren Haynes and Tim Reynolds who did a super long amazing dueling guitar jam during the song #41. He also had Vusi Mahlasela up to sing as well as one of the African Drummers that played with Damian Marley. It was all really amazing.

Dave Matthews Band- Day 2

Dave Matthews Band- Day 2

DMB Caravan – Atlantic City, Bader Field: Day One

To sum the weekend up in one word: Awesomeness!

We drove down to Ocean City, NJ on Thursday night in Brian’s pickup truck. We arrived to an empty shore house at 2 in the morning. Brian’s Mom let us stay while she was away in Canada for the weekend. We got a few hours of sleep and were filled with excitement on Friday morning for our fun filled weekend to begin. We packed our backpack with all the essentials: sunscreen, blanket, empty water bottles, earplugs etc and headed out. We brought Ann and Dave’s Beach Cruiser Bicycles with us as well as a discount parking card to park at Caesars Casino Garage, where we would park and then head over to Bader Field by bike.

I’ve never been to Atlantic City before and I must say it was… interesting. The juxtaposition of the Casinos, Beach,Boardwalk and the slummy areas outside the Downtown glitter was rather strange. We stopped into a Casino to use the bathroom before going over to the music festival and I couldn’t believe how dark and noisy and icky it felt inside and yet there were so many people in there just wasting away the beautiful day and their money. It was rather sad actually. Obviously, I wont be going to casinos for vacation anytime soon.

However, it was fun to bike ride the streets of the city and check it all out.

Brian took this photo and at the time didn't even realize that it said Atlantic City behind me! What luck!

As we got closer to the field we could see more and more people walking and driving over there. The excitement was building even more! Brian and I got there early because, well we were excited and (he has a thing for being early). We got there and parked our bikes with the other bikers and then waited in line with other early birds to get our 3 day bracelets, go through security and finally get in to have some fun.

Here is the map of how it was all laid out…

Yes, that’s right there was a ferris wheel,  prior to going seeing this made me very excited… but more about that later.

It definitely felt like we were early and the place was a pretty large area. First thing to do was to wait in the already super duper long line for the Free Brita Filtered Water for our bottles and then check out the bathroom facilities. We also passed by a Free Sunscreen station which had a plethora of SPF choices. I didn’t even know they made 100 SPF haha I went with 50 though. I thought it was great that they provided these types of things, the event was very well thought out.

Brian in front of Atlantic Stage

We also passed by a promotion for Jeep. They had a bunch of new Jeep Compasses, which we happen to have one ourselves but a 2007. They were set up in an off road driving course and apparently they were letting folks come in and test them out, which I thought was a bit nuts considering that people would be drinking amongst other things at this event. I am sure there was some paperwork to sign in order to drive around in there, but I didn’t feel like finding out.

Jeep Test Course

Our first show of the day was on the Boardwalk Stage (Main Stage) and was a band that we have been excited about for a while now and very happy to be seeing play live: Carolina Chocolate Drops. And they were fantastic!

Carolina Chocolate Drops

photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

We decided that since we had great front seats and the lineup on the Main Stage (Boardwalk) looked fantastic for the whole day we decided to stay put. We teamed up with a nice couple in front of us that held our spot while we did venture off once to see Delta Spirit.

The next act was G.Love and the Special Sauce. And they were super awesome as well, I credit my co-worker Stacy for getting me into these guys a while back and it was awesome to see them live. They had the most catchy tune of the day… Cold Beverage! Here is a video of them doing “My Baby’s Got Sauce”

Brian and G.Love

G.Love and the Special Sauce

photo courtesy of dmbcaravan.com

Alina enjoying day one

We then listened to the smooth sounds of Ray Lamontagne. He was amazing I would totally go see him again for a relaxing evening outing with my love. Plus, he’s from Maine so I am a little bias. Here is a video of him performing “Trouble”.

Ray Lamontagne - Photo Courtesy of Flickr

Then it came time for the first big night of DMB. They were amazing like all the other 8 times I have seen them but I had never seen them from this close to the stage before. Tim Reynolds was up there with them and they rocked out. We were so packed in with people we couldn’t have gotten out to go to the bathroom if we had to. It was quite amazing how many people there were and this was just the first day, little did we know that Saturday would be even more!

Boardwalk Stage

Alina & Brian

Dave Matthews Band

Brian enjoying DMB

Dave Matthews Band

Alina Enjoying DMB

Dave Matthews Band

Ahhh! We were so close I could feel every song beat pound in my chest it was awesome! The last song he played was a cover of Led Zepplin’s- Good Times, Bad Times. Brian was super excited because it was probably the first song of the night that he knew.

After the show it was madness in the streets of Atlantic City. They shut down the roads and floods of people walking and biking out of there it was quite a site to behold.

After Streets

Brian and I got an invite to go join up with his friends who didn’t make it to the first day’s show but had tickets to go see O.A.R. at the House of Blues which started at midnight. Brian and I still being very excited from our first day decided what the hay we will ride our bikes all the way across Atlantic City with crazy drivers everywhere late at night and meet up with them.

We finally find the place and realized that tickets to this thing might be more than we wanted to pay for. As this was already an expensive weekend. But Brian really wanted me to meet his friends. Which by the way sounded crazy to me because I am totally covered in dirt from all the dust that sticks to your sun screened body at the festival. When we came into a nice lit venue I decided I needed to clean up a bit before meeting his friends. I went into the bathroom and literally bathed at the sink. haha It would have to do.  Anyways, as we were waiting for his friends to show up, some guy comes over to us and says, “Hey, you guys want tickets?” And hands us two FREE tickets to the show. Wow! Must be fate, I was so relieved because after that crazy bike ride to get there I was hoping it would be worth it and we wouldn’t just meet his friends and then leave. So, we went to the OAR after party show, I got to meet some more of Brian’s friends and it was a lot of fun. Then we biked down the boardwalk all the way back to our parking garage and finally made it home at 4 AM. Needless to say, we would be a little more tired and laid back for Day 2 …