Going home to Montana for Christmas gives me all the feels.
12 Bars of Christmas
On Saturday, Chris’ sister, Charity, and her friend, Rachael, came to Boston for a bar crawl titled, The 12 Bars of Christmas. The event was hosted by Team Velox Rota (Boston based cycling team and 501-c-3 registered non-profit raising money for MS) and the money raised by our drinking benefits the National MS Society. We had a blast strolling around Boston in our Christmas attire!
The Most Difficult Task
Picking a date and venue.
After this first task, Chris and I were about ready to just go down to the town hall to get hitched. However, in light of how our family and friends would feel about that, we finally settled on a date and time.
The first big question: New England or Montana? Montana would be cheaper for us, more expensive for Chris’ family, my extended family, and pretty much all of our high school and college friends. Accordingly, I acquiesced, and we chose New England.
We both like a rustic feel, and we both like the fall in New England (with the added benefit of cooler weather for the easily-perspiring Chris). Thus, we thought that October would be the perfect month, and a barn would be the perfect setting. We came up with a list of places, near and far:
Killington Brewfest
To celebrate our engagement, our friends, Liz and Max, took us to Killington Brewfest!
New England Parkinson’s Ride 2015
Last year Rachel and I wanted to take part in the New England Parkinson’s Ride but couldn’t due to a schedule conflict. This year, we had been thinking we wanted to sign up for a century ride soon after we finished our tour, and the timing worked out perfectly! We started the day with a large group of cyclists and despite my best efforts, I took my turn at the front of the pack several times. The group slowly dwindled, typically losing a few riders at every refuel station, but we (Rachel & I) always tried to get started again with everyone else. The time flew by and we were surprised to see we were already 65 miles in at a particular rest stop. After that point, though, the group disbanded almost completely and we carried on with only a small handful of people. At the end, it was Rachel, myself and another rider, named John, who remained loyal and helped us finish with a great average pace. We shared some great stories and got to know John a little bit during the ride, but never exchanged info afterwards because he rode back on the course to meet up with his girlfriend who was riding the 50mile route. Maybe we will meet up with him again next year 🙂
We lucked out with great weather, and really enjoyed the route. There were some beautiful sections along the coast, as well as through some nice little towns and quiet back roads. It was so great to be involved in such a successful fundraiser for a charity that we love to support.