The North End

5.29.16

Boston, MA | The North End | 42.3601° N, 71.0589° W

Sunday morning started with dragging ourselves out of bed and making breakfast. Coffee and egg sandwiches are an adventure morning must, especially when they involve avocado.

After breakfast we hopped in the car, blasted the radio, and drove one and a half hours up I-95 to Boston. The day had many things in store, and the first was for Leah and I to pick our friend Meg up from the train station. Finding the entrance to a train station is easy. Finding the entrance to a train station under construction, connected to TD garden, and in the middle of Boston, is a completely different story. After 10 minutes of circling, making illegal u-turns, and having Google Maps yell at us, we found Meg. Meg is my sidekick in nursing school, the reason Leah and I are together and, lucky us, our tour guide for the day. So with Meg in the car we're off with a mission: Cannoli's. Anyone who knows me understands my love for sweets, including cannoli's, especially cannoli's, and most definitely when they're from Mike's Pastry. The next thirty minutes were spent catching up and drooling over the twenty million cannoli's waiting for our choosing. We left with three boxes full of cupcakes and cannoli's and started heading toward the North End Park. As we walked the cobblestone streets and got closer to the park we slowly started to hear music blasting through the streets. It turns out that the same day we decided to go to the 617 was the same day as Boston Calling music festival. So, instead of sitting eating our sweets in the park we sat behind the main stage in a business park and listened to the concerts for free.

The music had our ears ringing, the bass echoing through our chests but there was a city to explore. We left the concert, walked around the freedom trail, and were quickly surrounded by groups of street performers- a magic show, a group of dancers, someone juggling and others drawing the attention of the crowd. Leaving the chaos we walked past all the shops and down to the water where we were greeted by seagulls and dogs making a chorus of noise.

The seagulls started to be too loud and our stomachs were grumbling so we left the pier and headed to get food.

"Do you guys want Italian? Meg, do you want take out? How about we go get pizza!"

We were back and forth on what to get and then Meg chimed in

"Let's go to Faneuil Hall!

Faneuil Hall is every possible food item you could ever want in one, very large, building. I'd compare it to a mall food court on steroids filled with food that you actually want to eat. Lobster Rolls, Candy, Taco's, Ice-Cream, Chinese, and Mexican. Literally anything. We all decided on Chinese and weaved our way through the masses of people to find seating with a glorious amount of food in our hands. Faneuil Hall not only has some of the best food, it has a random Uniqlo, and best of all a free piano. Leah spotted the piano from across the room and quickly took the opportunity.

After Leah serenaded the 100+ people dining we left Faneuil Hall and had an hour to left before Meg had to catch her train back home. We walked past all the restaurants and singers, and I made Leah and Meg pose for pictures (they secretly loved it)

The last thing we did was get lost in the biggest Urban Outfitters I have ever seen. It was two stories, spanned three buildings and a literal maze. We spent the next 45 minutes exploring every nook and cranny of the store and almost made Meg miss her train. We hustled back to the car, weaved in and out of Boston traffic, said our goodbye's and sent Meg on her way.

The weekends are meant for adventure's and good times. Surround yourself with good people, the best of people. Ensure you have no bad days and

#livefulllivehard