We need a weekend from our weekend! My edition of Weekend In Pictures will highlight my bestie Chris's Bachelor Party / Guys Golf Weekend, some quality time with my family, plus absolutely delicious food and craft beer. Our weekend started Friday morning at 3:15am. Awesome Girlfriend Megan drove the hour from Hackettstown, meeting me in Vernon so we could drive up in her car together. We knew this weekend was going to be featuring several relationship tests. Meg and I had a nice, mostly uneventful drive from Jersey to Boston. This was very important due to timing issues, the Ferry for Martha's Vineyard was leaving New Bedford at 11am. Our deadline to meet my besties at Matt's house was 10am. When you're driving from Jersey to Boston or vice-versa, it only takes traffic from one bad car accident to throw everything off course. Sometimes I have done this drive in just under 4 hours, other times it's taken me upwards of 7 hours. We have had this weekend planned for 14 months. My family knew they would get custody of Awesome Girlfriend Megan this weekend, and were so excited to spend quality time with her. Meg is part of our amazing family.
Friday morning, I drove us from Jersey to Boston. Meg then took her car back and went back to visit my family. Even though Meg and I have been together for two years (26 months tomorrow not that I'm counting,) we have never been apart during one of my Boston weekends. I have always been able to be her tour guide / planner, and Meg would be hanging with my family all weekend. Friday afternoon, Meg was able to bond and hang with Padre. They went to one of our favorite nearby restaurants for a craft beer and a couple of appetizers. Then Friday afternoon, Meg was able to do one of our very favorite activities -- going to a local brewery with Padre and my sister Suzanne. Most Friday afternoons, my Dad and sister frequent this small brewery in Norton, Ma called "Bog Iron Brewery." Their craft beers are strong, and quite tasty.
We even brought Padre a great craft beer from Jersey! Meg and I loved this Asbury Park Brewery Sea Dragon, their Stout, and the XPA. Padre thought the XPA was decent, hopefully we can impress him finally with the Sea Dragon --- which after a couple of weeks we may have finally acquired. Meg does not play to lose, LOL.
While they were having fun back home, my boys and I ventured out to Martha's Vineyard for our guy Nudd's Bachelor Party / Guys Golf Weekend. Before golf, we all relaxed with some rum punch drinks, at a patio bar right on the Atlantic Ocean. Wild! Even though they accidentally put cheese on my hamburger, that white melted stuff I just drowned out and drenched with copious amounts of ketchup. I wolfed it down in like 4 bites so I couldn't taste it. Friday late afternoon we golfed at Farm Neck Golf Club, right on the Atlantic Ocean! Whenever you see President's vacationing on Martha's Vineyard and playing golf, this is apparently where they go. I'm NOT WORTHY!!! I lost a few balls, but none of them ended up in the ocean. Of course I couldn't look call and lose balls in the Atlantic Ocean, instead losing them in the nearby woods. We had a lot of laughs and memories. My game was absolutely atrocious and painful, but at least I made some putts that helped our team.
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Friday night after golf, we went to downtown Oaks Bluffs in Martha's Vineyard looking for some family friendly bachelor party fun. The bars everywhere were packed! Makes sense, gorgeous summer weekend on the Vineyard is where everyone wants to be. We did dinner at a nice italian place where I got a terrific lobster roll. When in Rome, right? The first bar we went to after dinner was packed and loud. At times I can be okay with that, but we were there at least 10 minutes without getting a drink. I pushed / made the executive decision for us to leave the bars on those street areas, moving us back to the water wharf. This ended up being a great decision, as we found a beautiful sand bar near the water that we somehow had all to ourselves. We enjoyed a tasty drink there, but most of the party was all tuckered out from golf so the guys made our decision to Uber back to our rental house.
Saturday morning, we teamed up and made the decision to relax on a beach. Perfect, right? My bestie MattE brought with him this Spike Ball Game that's apparently sweeping the nation. Spike Ball is basically like beach volleyball but in reverse. I ended up liking that game much more than beach volleyball. Great times. Team Rob must've won 8 or 80 in a row (details are sketchy under that bright sun,) then MattE and I ended on a high note winning the last two games. The public bus ride probably totaled 45 minutes from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown, but it was still tons of fun with our bros. I put my toes in the water a few times, never more than that. The water was way too cold for my wimpy feet lol. By the way, on the ferry ride my bros kept making fun of me for bringing a beach bag since I'm known to be the lightest packer, ever. They ended up utilizing it for our beach trip, imagine that!!!
Saturday afternoon, time for our motley crew to explore a nice brewery on Martha's Vineyard. Bad Martha was EXCELLENT! The owner saw our bachelor party playing corn hole (also known as bag toss,) and then volunteered to give Chris, the bachelor a free shirt! Nice! We enjoyed ourselves with tasty craft beers. There was a bachelorette party having fun at the same time we were. While bachelorette parties may not excite me as much as they used to (ie before Awesome Girlfriend Megan,) it was still fun to meet new people who were there to celebrate just like us.
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Saturday night we went to a random bar. It was okay. Then we had the long 45 minute ride back to the house we rented. Great Times. Since the guys all picked a Taco Restaurant and I don't do tacos, that gave us some entertainment. They kept busting on me to nearby patrons because I don't like tacos. I did one small taco that was just weird plain chicken, and drenched hot sauce on it. The lack of eating definitely hurt me for sure Sunday morning! Fortunately, I rested easier knowing that Awesome Girlfriend Megan was in great hands with my Mommy and Sister. They took her out for New England Clam Chowdah (Meg's new favorite food thanks to me,) and then the duck boat tour was fun. Now even Awesome Girlfriend Megan knows some tidbits about Boston that I don't, lol. They then wrapped up their Saturday night with Meg's Christmas present, Aladdin! They all LOVED it and had a great time.
Another example of Awesome Girlfriend Megan being amazing. She knew this weekend would be very tough for me, not only us being apart, but also me going home and not being able to see my family. Meg made sure that we were able to relax with my parents and sister, enjoy a couple of delicious beers, and share some laughs. My family got to see Rob, who has always been one of my very best friends. Even though he's in LA now, whenever we catch up it's like we never ever miss a beat. Meg and I then hit the road much later than usual, and decided to take a pit stop. We stopped at Frank Pepe's pizza near Hartford, and their pepperoni pizza was great. It was greasier than we preferred, but still good. One of those bucket list items, Meg and I drive by their signs so many times on our treks from Jersey to Boston, it was nice to finally achieve that goal. Meg had me in bed by 8:30 last night, immediately after we got home. I don't think I slept much last night despite being worn out, one of those too tired to sleep nights. Sounds like Meg and I are more than ready for another one of our remote yoga dates tonight!