Time, please stop flying by.

I had hoped to write some meaningful blog about how Kenya changed my life and blah blah blah but I know you all are tired of hearing me talk about my bacteria, the goat, the cute kids I loved, and the random animal encounters. It took me a while to process the whole experience and I discovered that reverse culture shock is real, people! So instead of dealing with my roller coaster emotions and lingering Kenya tummy issues, I threw myself into what was left of my summer. I did a little running around, as you might expect. Here are some highlights...

Peg and Mike came to Boston for 4th of July weekend. Here we are at my first Red Sox game, I slept through 2 innings because of my jet lag. But, the highlight was enjoying my first Fenway Frank! Delish! They did the usual touristy things like a duck boat tour (quack! quack!) and then we ended the weekend with the giant 4th of July fireworks extravaganza on the Charles River.  Neil Diamond was performing in the Half Shell along with the Boston Pops so there were some sweet tunes to accompany our freedom fireworks. 

Tanasia and her Chris came down from Portland for a quick visit that involved another Red Sox game because they are super fans. I love that they live so close by.

Reuniting with some of my fave UVA girls in Richmond. Ashley had a little BBQ at her house and highlights include inappropriate pie decorating, talking to her dad on the phone (wink wink), and celebrating early and late birthdays for Julia and Kimmy. Every time we get together we talk about the same 7 stories from college but we laugh just as much as when these things happened. I'm so proud of these ladies and the paths they've taken in life. We're trying to plan a crazy adventure next year to celebrate 30 years of awesomeness...(still bracing myself for 29 but whatev). So, there might be pics of us at a dude ranch coming to the blog in the near future!

Karen's bachelorette party in Charleston, SC. I can't really post many other photos from the weekend but just know that we had a hilarious time and much sweet tea vodka was consumed. I loved Charleston and wish we had some extra time to run around the city. Karen's getting hitched in October and she's going to be the purtiest bride! 

I swung by California to hang with my parents and the little bro. Mostly, we ate a lot of food and talked about upcoming Philippines adventures. I did some quality hanging with Roy that involved a taco truck and pinkberry, what more could you want? 

Chris and I went to his favorite vacation spot from childhood-Ogunquit, Maine. It's exactly what you expect of a New England beach town and we lucked out with some fabulous weather. Here we are relaxing along Marginal Way, a little path that takes you all long the rocky coastline. Clearly, I've just said something hilarious in the picture. Oh, I ate the best clam chowdah and lobstah roll of my life here and supposedly one of the President Bushes was dining at a nearby restaurant. Everyone ran off to take his picture but we couldn't bother to move for our former leader. 

I've got a few more days in Boston then heading out to the Philippines on Sunday. I thought about starting the packing process but I'm not really sure how to approach 5 months of stuff. Next blog will be from Manila! Ack!