Travel- Boston

Boston is one of my favorite places!  My best friend, Ashley, attended Boston College (BC) and every year on my Spring Break, I'd travel up to Boston to hang with her for the week.  Every single year when I landed, there was snow on the ground or it was currently snowing.  While others were in Daytona or on a tropical island, I was with my bestie in the snow!  Good thing I love her and I love Boston!  There was always fun to be had!

Have a few days to spend?  Here's my advice on how to explore Beantown.

Boston has the nickname of "America's Walking City" and it's so true!  Every time I visit, I walk EVERYWHERE!  If you're driving in, ditch your car and use Pat and Charlie.  If you're flying in, perfect!  Use the T (Boston's Metro) to get to your hotel and then hoof it!

Riding the T

Things to do:
Get your cardio on:
Start at Boston Public Garden.  Boston Commons is just beautiful!  Stroll or sit on a bench and enjoy.  The duck pond and duck statues are cute!

Take a peek at the Massachusetts State House with it's gorgeous golden dome as you walk toward Faneuil Hall.

The Quincy Market area behind Faneuil Hall has great shopping and restaurants and it's just a really neat area.

From there walk to the North End (The Italian district).  You have to check out Paul Revere's house in the North End and the church where he hung the lanterns (Old North Church- 193 Salem Street).

 

The North End is a great spot to have an Italian lunch and you MUST stop at Mike's Pastry for a cannoli before you leave! (300 Hanover Street).  In my humble opinion, they are THE BEST IN THE WORLD!  Every time I board a plane to leave Boston with my Mike's Pastry box, everyone is jealous!

If you're down for a history lesson, walk the Freedom Trail.  It takes you past many of the sites I've just mentioned.  It takes about 2-3 hours to walk it and shows you about 16 historical sites.  You end up on the water by the USS Constitution.  It's free, so you can't go wrong!

Top Museums:
Some of my favorite museums are The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA)- 465 Huntington Avenue.
It's also really close to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a private collection which I really love! The Aquarium is tons of fun!  I'm partial to the penguins!

I've never been to the Museum of Science, but it gets rave reviews!
For a discounted price on all of these, check into purchasing a City Pass.  They're available in most of the major US Cities and offer discounts to a number of sites.

Back to walking...
My favorite walk in Boston is along the Charles River.  Start at the "Salt and Pepper Bridge" (Longfellow Bridge)...you can take the T and get off at the Charles/MGH stop on the red line...and walk Southwest.  You can see MIT across the river and view the famous Citgo sign from above Fenway Park.  I always turn around when I reach Boston University.  It's beautiful during any season!  In the summer, you can enjoy watching folks participate in a number of activities on the water.

But don't just watch, get out there yourself!  You can kayak, canoe, wind surf or take one of the famous Duck Boat Tours!  Boston Duck Tours depart from three locations: Museum of Science, New England Aquarium and The Prudential Center.  I picked mine up from the Pru and really enjoyed the ride!  You get a bit of history and get to spend some great time cruising the Charles!  Do yourself a favor and make this a priority on your list!

If you do pick up from the Pru, you're in a perfect spot to visit the Boston Public Library and Trinity Church, both on Boylston Street.  And you can treat yourself to a meal at the Top of the Hub, a restaurant at the top of the Prudential Building.  It's pricey, but the views on a clear day are outstanding!

Trinity Church

Nothing says Boston like Sam Adams!  It's a short T ride from the Prudential Building on the Orange line (get off at Stony Brook).  They offer a tour of the brewery with tastings included.  Since you're already out that way, you must have a meal at Doyle's Cafe.  A party trolley will take you to Doyle's from the Sam Adam's Brewery.  Doyle's is the first restaurant ever to start serving Sam Adams and you can get your own Sam Adam's pint glass depending on what you order!

If you're into baseball, catch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park!  It opened in 1912 and is known as "America's Most Beloved Ballpark".  You MUST see Wally and the famous Green Monster!  Go early to walk down Yawkey Way and check out the madness!  If it's your first time, stop into one of the Fan Services booths to receive your "First Timers" fan items!  As an adult, this was still a highlight for me!  If it's cooler, there's always Celtics games or you can find the Bruins on the ice.

And then there's Cambridge...pop on over..."Pahk the cah in Hahvad Yahd." and visit Harvard!  Enjoy the quiet as you step through the gates of one of the countries most prestigious universities.  Duck into Memorial Church for some school history, and take a selfie to post to Facebook...Zuckerberg would be proud!

Wedged between Chinatown and Bay Village is the Theatre district.  If you're into the arts, you MUST check out this area!

I've seen my fair share of great shows in Boston.  The highlight was Bonnie Raitt and John Mayer live at the Orpheum.  We met Johnnie afterwards and it was fantastic!  Chinatown is also beautiful!  If you don't make time to grab a bite, just stroll on through!  The China Town Gate on the corner of Beach Street and Hudson Street is spectacular!

Where to Stay:
I've gotta be honest!  For my first 4 visits, I stayed in a dorm room on the campus of BC.  I'm going to guess that this isn't an option for you.

My 5th visit we stayed at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.  It's connected to the Prudential Center which is pretty much a mall.  Great stores and shops and the room was fantastic!

Any hotels downtown near Boylston Street are in a great location to visit the city.  Boston hotels are pretty pricey, so look around.  Staying farther away from the city is obviously cheaper and you can always take the T in.

Also check out Airbnb.  This is a service where you can rent out rooms or entire residences from local hosts.  Some are around to pick you up from the airport, others include breakfast in the stay.  Overall, they give you an entirely new outlook on a city.  You're staying where the people live.  Pretty cool!

So, what are you waiting for?  Book your tickets to Boston today and let me know if you have any questions!

Essential Oils

I've recently discovered Essentials Oils thanks to my Chiropractor, who knows that I prefer homeopathic over prescription and who uses the oils himself.

They have changed my life!!

What are essential oils?
If you've been wondering what oils are or how to use them, you've stumbled on the right place.  Oils are found in nature.  They are the volatile aromatic compounds gathered from plants through distillation.  They are what give plants their smell and the natural elements that protect the plant.  I use a brand that I can now not name because of heat from the FDA, but it's (Latin for "Gift of the Earth").  I didn't choose this brand.  It was the brand my chiropractor was using and it fell in my lap.  I'm so glad I got the "right" brand.  There are many other brands out there with probably good reasons to pick them all, but here's why this brand is right for me.

With the brand I use, you're getting a 100% certified pure oils that are also therapeutic-grade oils.  (There's a much easier way to say this, but the FDA won't allow it.)  The lavender oil comes from France...because that's where God placed lavender on the earth in abundance and it has the best climate and soil and everything else for the ideal lavender plant.  Instead of growing lavender in a greenhouse and then using that crop for oil, my brand partners with the farmers in France, who have grown lavender for years, to grow the crop and then harvest it at the correct time to get the oil from it.  You can get oil in two different ways: heat distillation or cold press (mainly used with the citrus fruits).  With my brand, once a batch of plant has run through the process, it's done.  It can be used again and again for perfume grade smells on other markets, but as far as oils go, it's done.

My brand doesn't just go in, take over, and start production.  They really partner with the people of the country and teach them.  They also provide for their families or work to make living conditions better and pay a fair wage.  That makes me really happy when I'm spending my hard earned dollars to purchase oils!

The other thing I like about my brand is they have 3rd party testing (which is very expensive) at three different times during the process.  The first test begins immediately after distillation, where oils are reviewed for their chemical composition.  The second round of testing happens at the production facility to make sure what was distilled and tested, is what is now in the facility.  The third round happens as the oils are bottled to confirm that the oil is free of contaminants and potential alterations during production.  This ensures that a bottle of lemon oil I buy in 5 months has exactly the same composition and quality as a bottle of lemon oil I bought today.  And they will gladly give you the specs on any of their products.  There is no mystery with my brand.  If you call today and want to know information on a batch of oils, you can get it!

So what if a crop goes bad?  My brand pulls the oil.  They have the integrity not to sell oil from a bad crop.  There are some oils I recently received as a promotional item, that haven't been available for 2 years.  They weren't available because they couldn't be produced for wide consumption based on the crop.  So, they held them until running the promotion.

So, what do you use oils for?
I'm so glad you asked!  They've been used for many, many years for psychological and physical benefits, healing and managing ailments.  They're of the earth and are natural, so why would we use a prescription over something from nature?  You can rub them on your body.  You can inhale them.  And you can ingest them (if it's safe to).  If you go to any store, you can find 100% Tea Tree Oil, but it may say, not for internal use.  With my brand, you can ingest melaleuca oil (Tea Tree).  Why?  The other brand says it's 100% too.  The other brand may have 100% Tea Tree oil in it, but if it says you can't ingest it, it probably has other ingredients that you can't take internally as well.  So, it's not as pure as my brand's melaleuca oil.

I've been medicine-free for 2 months now.  That may not be huge to anyone else, but I have lots of headaches, so even if I tough them out and try not to take meds, I typically find myself taking some sort of pain relief at least once a month.  If my headache is really bad and I take pain relief, I have to wait for it to digest and get into my blood before it touches my headache.  And then there are chemicals in my body that can affect other things like my stomach or liver.  With oils, I can rub peppermint oil on the back of my neck and behind my ears and the cooling sensation is immediate.  If that doesn't work, I can rub some frankincense oil mixed with a carrier oil on the roof of my mouth and that takes my headache away.

In two months, here's what we've tackled in my house with just the oils:
1. Kevin burned his arm on an iron.  Rubbed lavender oil on one time and the red, puffy burn was gone.  Now, it's still healing, but we haven't put anything else on it.  It was a one time treatment and took the red hot pain away.
2. I got eaten up by mosquitoes and had bites all over my legs. (I should have used the repellent blend oil to keep the bugs away, but didn't think about it)  Typically I itch them all day long.  I rubbed lavender oil with a carrier oil on them once for two consecutive mornings and they quit itching and went away.
3. I got a bit of sunburn on the backs of my legs behind my knees.  Just a bit of lavender oil applied once on two days took it away.  I had no pain.
4. We had ants in the house.  I bought a glass spray bottle (you must ALWAYS use the oils in glass), added lavender oil and water, and sprayed a few times at the source.  They went away.
5. Kevin felt like he was coming down with a sore throat.  He was horse and just knew he was going to wake up sick.  He gargled with the protective blend oil and swallowed it.  No more sickness.
6. We've put the respiratory blend oil in the diffuser at night to help open up our passage ways and help us sleep better.  It has a relaxing smell, spa smell!
7. I was blowing out some nasty nasal stuff every morning...just out of one nostril, but I had no other symptoms.  I boiled a pot of water on the stove and added lemon oil, peppermint oil and melaleuca oil as I breathed in the steam.  The next morning I had a HORRIBLE sinus headache...most likely because what I breathed in was attacking my infection.  I took a q-tip and rubbed frankincense oil and melaleuca oil up in my nostrils and also rubbed frankincense oil with a carrier oil on the roof of my mouth.  Headache went away and congestion is gone.  I should have done a neti pot with frankincense oil and melaleuca oil, but I don't have a neti pot and I've never used one, so I did the next best thing.
8. Kevin had razor burn on his neck: lavender oil with a carrier oil.
9. Headaches- peppermint oil on the back of my neck
10. I had bad cramps one day.  So bad that I thought I had food poisoning because I felt horrible and my stomach felt like it was in knots.  I rubbed the "monthly blend for women" oil on my lower abdomen and within seconds, the pain was gone.
11. The soothing blend oil helps on sore muscles after I've seen the Chiropractor.  If you're using BioFreeze.  Stop NOW!  Look at all of the chemicals in that and then tell me if you'd rather have something that works better and has natural ingredients.
12. Cleaned paint stains out of a sink with one drop of lemon oil.
13. Added lemon oil to my water as an internal cleanser and to lift my mood.
14. Put lemon oil, lavender oil and peppermint oil in the diffuser as an "allergy bomb" when Kevin thought he was getting sick and once when I didn't feel well.
15. Kevin had an upset stomach and I had him rub the digestive blend oil on his stomach.  Upset stomach went away.

My next task is to use some oregano oil on a q-tip to get rid of some skin tags.  Maybe I'll add some to a spaghetti sauce for a great dinner too. :)  The oils can be used for a variety of things!

I have to order more oils soon because somehow I wind up giving mine away or selling them to people in need.  All it takes is one time to see the benefits of oils!  I'm so blown away by their healing powers that I deplete my supply to help others!

If you want to learn more about oils and what they can do for you, please let me know!  I'm not a great salesperson, but I'm really passionate about what these have already done for me.  If you have kids, I don't know how you're not already on board.  If you could put the protective blend oil on your kids feet each morning to keep them from picking up bugs each day, think of how many doctors visits you'd miss.
You can order from my website at anytime here.
However, I'd love to sit down with you and talk about what oils can do for you!  If you have chronic pain or a disease, we might not be able to cure it, but I bet we can find an oil that will help you find relief!  And I'd love to host a class for you.  It's not a party.  It is truly a learning experience and it will exhaust you and blow your mind at the same time!

Are you ready to change your life?  Let me know how I can help!

Stracke/Wagner Wedding

Memorial Day Weekend we had the BEST time in the mountains!  We went up to Camp Pinnacle for Kelly and Ariel's wedding festivities.

The drive up included some really fun stops in Winston Salem to see a Shell gas station shaped like a shell.  And a large tea pot.

We got up to the mountains and had lunch before visiting Pisgah Forest to see Looking Glass Falls and Sliding Rock.  Kevin went down the rock a handful of times, but I couldn't brave the ice cold water.

After our adventures, we headed over to Camp Pinnacle to check in and start our weekend at camp.  Our evening started off with a taco bar.  Followed by some games and fun by the lake.

It got cool that night, like really cool (40 degrees) and none of us expected it.  It was a little miserable in the bunks!

The view from my bed!

Saturday morning, Kevin and I took off early for Brevard and the annual White Squirrel Festival.  We really wanted to see a White Squirrel and Pisgah Pete was about to appear to the crowds, but we had to get back to camp.

I spent the next few hours helping to set up for the ceremony and reception while Kevin played in the sun with his friends.

How gorgeous are those African prints?

Then it was time to get cleaned up for the ceremony.

And time to eat, drink and be merry!

I was exhausted, so it was an early night for me for sure!

Sunday was FUNDAY!  We played in the lake.. paddle-boarding and swimming.  There was cornhole and I took a 2 hour nap in a hammock.  It was THE BEST!

Dinner was from a food truck and was DELICIOUS!!

Monday morning came too soon, but we managed to pack up camp and get on the road home after a quick stop at the Flat Rock Playhouse (we snuck in).

We also stopped to see the abandoned village near Hickory where they filmed District 12 in the Hunger Games.

What an awesome weekend and a great time with friends!  Congrats Kelly and Ariel!