Laura's 29th Birthday Weekend

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and pressies and celebrations! I had a great birthday weekend. On Friday, 97 of my closest friends showed up for a joint birthday party thrown by Tanyika and me. We started at the Field Pub in Cambridge, a great Irish pub complete with darts, pool tables, crazy accents, and fantastic beers. Then, after a few hours, we moved over to The Middlesex, a minimalist urban lounge with the best dancing in the city. DJ Knife spun Fresh Produce all night and we "dropped it and popped it like its hot" (direct quote from our party invitation). It was incredible to see so many of my friends from different times in my life over the past 6 years...all in the same room!

On Sunday, Brad and I opted for a relaxing, quiet day. Brad packed a picnic, blanket, soccer ball, and birthday chocolate cupcakes and we went to the best beach I've been to in Boston. For you Bostonians, its the Nantasket Beach in Hull, South of Boston. We read, played soccer, ate cheese and fruit, dipped our toes in the freezing water... We left the beach to visit World's End, a natural reservation in Hingham. Here is the description of it from a website:
"World's End comprises four coastal drumlins -- Pine Hill, Planter's Hill, and the double drumlins of World's End proper -- all connected by over four miles of walking paths that offer dramatic views of the Weir River, Hingham Harbor, and the Boston skyline. The Reservation's hills are traversed by tree-lined roads and dotted with tree groves. In between are broad grassy fields that attract butterflies and are managed to provide habitat for grassland-nesting birds."
This description does nothing to capture the beauty of this place. I guess Olmsted (who designed a bunch of parks in Boston and Central Park in New York) was hired to design a development at World's End so he put in cart paths and trees...however, buildings were never built, for whatever reason. Brad and I hiked until it was dark, changed into fancy clothes, and headed to Tosca, a modern American-Italian restaurant in town, for dynamite salmon, mussels, and beef. Yum.