Vinyasa with a View with the American Cancer Society

By Emily on November 22, 2016

There’s something about yoga that always makes me feel good. Since I started practicing regularly almost two years ago, I’ve taken advantage of the thriving yoga community in Boston by attending classes and yoga events. So when I was approached by the American Cancer Society to be a guest at their inaugural yoga fundraising event, Vinyasa With a View, I graciously accepted.

Vinyasa…with a view

Held at the distinctive 9OFS, a rooftop event space in Boston’s financial district, Vinyasa With a View was an evening rooftop yoga event with heart-warming cause behind it. The venue promised amazing views of the city of Boston and, despite the cold and rainy weather, did not disappoint. Due the weather however, the planned outdoor class was moved indoors.

Photo by Iam Nash NYC

Izzy VanHall, one of Boston’s most talented and spirited yoga and acroyoga instructors, led the practice. I had taken Izzy’s classes at YogaWorks Back Bay (fka Back Bay Yoga) and love her style of warm, relateable, and humorous style of teaching. Since this was a fundraising event, for many of the participants, it was their first time placing their feet on a yoga mat. Izzy led a practice geared toward beginners with sufficient room for more advanced poses, which I greatly appreciated.

The hour-long practice ended with a short mindful meditation and prizes for the top fundraisers. More than 85 participants raised over $8800 to benefit the American Cancer Society. Following the practice, we were treated to delicious pizza from Otto Portland, Freshii salads, Beacon Blend organic juice, Upstate Distilling vodka, and snacks from various vendors.

Participants all left with an Athleta reusable goodie bag filled with drinks, snacks, local discounts, and beautiful Hollis Hayes bracelets.

Vinyasa with a View was a wonderful event and I encourage any philanthropic yogi to sign up next year. Congratulations to the American Cancer Society for a fun and successful fundraiser and thank you for letting me be a part of this amazing cause.

Note: I attended this event for free in exchange for media coverage but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fall Day Trip from Boston: King Richard’s Faire

By Emily on October 10, 2016

Fall is the time of many great things in New England—from apple picking and haunted hayrides to leaf peeping and drinking at beer fests, there’s always something fun to do. This weekend my fiancé and I took part in another New England fall tradition—King Richard’s Faire.

For those unfamiliar, King Richard’s Faire is an annual Renaissance Faire held in Carver, Massachusetts. This year marked the 35th anniversary of the event that draws crowds from Boston and the surrounding areas. My fiancé and I attended the Faire last year and had a great time, so when the good ol’ King Richard himself offered us two tickets to attend this year, we jumped at the chance!

A big misconception about Renaissance Faires is that you have to dress up. While dressing up is fun and plenty of people do so, it’s certainly not required. That being said, last year I purchased a bodice from one of the vendors and was excited to have an excuse to wear it again. So, on Saturday morning my fiancé helped me tie myself into the surprisingly comfortable chest-emphasizing device and we headed out to the Faire.

The ride from Boston to Carver is around an hour, depending on traffic, and an easy ride. Despite the busy day and nice weather, there was ample parking and we found a spot near the entrance. With experience from last year under our belts, we arrived with cash on hand. While there are ATMs and many vendors take cards, food and drink tickets are cash only and service in the area is limited for credit card processing—do yourself a favor and hit up the ATM before you arrive.

Food and drink tickets in hand, we ate our way through the Faire—turkey legs, baked potatoes, bacon mac and cheese, friend dough, and all of the beer and mead you could ask for! After stuffing ourselves silly, we made our way to the stocks outside of the medieval torture house, which this big baby opted not to explore!

We walked past jousting shows, fire-breathing women, feats of strength, pony rides, a magical unicorn, and a kilt contest full of shirtless men. Everywhere you turn, there’s something to see.

Family friendly, there are activities, rides, and games for kids young and old. Last year Ronnie won an axe throwing contest so this year we tested our luck at archery. Despite the mini lesson we got from the attraction guide, neither one of us was a winner.

My favorite part of King Richard’s Faire was the Faerie Circle. Horticulture tells us that faerie circles are naturally occurring circles of mushrooms, but certain folklore explains that within these faerie circles are buried treasure that fairies are set to guard. Those who enter the ring are at the mercy of the fairies if they seek to uncover the bounty, but if you let the treasure be and tell no one of the location of the circle, a wish will be granted to you. At the risk of my wish not being granted, suffice it to say that there may be a faerie circle at King Richard’s Faire and in it you may find a centaur playing a flute and fairies granting wishes…

In addition to the attractions and shows, there are dozens of vendors at King Richard’s Faire. Nearly anything you can imagine, and some things you never knew existed, are sold at the Faire. From fairy wings and leather kilts to swords and family crests, you can get your fix of Renaissance Faire wares. We picked up an outfit for my niece and a flower crown for myself but could have easily bought more things that I never knew I always needed!

After much frolicking around the beautiful scenery, we headed back home to Boston where I wore my flower crown the rest of the night.

If you’re looking for something fun to do over the next couple of weekends, head to King Richard’s Faire!

Note: I received two tickets to King Richard’s Faire free of charge, but all opinions and love of fairies are my own.

Boston Wine Expo 2016 Review

By Emily on February 20, 2016

Last weekend I attended the 2016 Boston Wine Expo. Held on President’s Day weekend for the past 25 years, the Boston Wine Expo is the wine tasting event of the year for serious wine drinkers. After a great first experience with my boyfriend at the 2015 Boston Wine Expo, I was excited to attend the Silver 25th Anniversary this year.

The Expo took place on both Saturday and Sunday at the Seaport World Trade Center. We opted to go to the Grand Tasting which featured over 1,800 wines from 200 wineries. The Grand Tasting was held on Sunday, which was also Valentine’s Day. After a filling breakfast at home complete with Valentine’s chocolate, my boyfriend and I headed out to the Seaport in sub-zero temperatures. For some reason the weather gods seem to frown on the Expo—it fell on the coldest two days this year and during a blizzard last year.

Immediately upon entering the Expo, I noticed that the rows were wider and the tables were more spaced out. The 2015 Expo was very crowded, both due to it’s popularity and ticket trades on account of the blizzard. It was nice to see that the organizers took this into consideration. The increased spacing made it much easier to walk around without the fear of bumping into someone and spilling wine.

We worked our way up and down the rows, sipping everything under the sun. When attending tasting events, I try to focus on new-to-me brands. There were several that stood out to me this year, including Brooklyn Oenology’s Broken Land, Bodegas Taron’s 2014 Rosado, and nearly every Vinho Verde offered. I also enjoyed new favorites from some of my go-to’s including the Magic Door Cabernet Sauvignon by 90+ Cellars.

A sucker for photo booth fun, my boyfriend and I had a blast at the Infiniti gif-producing photo booth stationed between their beautiful cars.

There were a number of small businesses at the Expo this year, many of which were food or snacks which allowed me to graze while I sipped my wine. My favorite was McCrea’s Candies, a local Boston company with the best caramels ever. While all of the flavors are delicious, the Black Lava Sea Salt Caramel is to die for!

Wine wasn’t the only alcohol at the event—Jonathan Pogash, aka The Cocktail Guru, was in attendance with some tasty cocktails too!

Although the Boston Wine Expo is huge, it’s inevitable that you’ll run into someone you know and low and behold, I ran into my blogger friend Jodi at the event.

On our final round, my boyfriend and I found the Troublemaker Wine kissing booth, a delightfully fun addition to the Expo!

Once again, the Boston Wine Expo stands as the perfect Valentine’s Day event in Boston. What better way to celebrate the day than drinking wine with the one you love? See you again next year!

Beer Summit Harvest Fest: Beer Fest in Boston

By Emily on November 30, 2015

Boston is no stranger to craft beer and craft beer festivals. Home to brewing legends and the closest major city to famed New England breweries, in Boston you’re never more than a stone’s throw away from great beer. Boston is also a neighborhood city with a unique community feel which, when it comes to beer, is embodied by Beer Summit.

Beer Summit hosts beer fests in Boston with the mission of bringing together the best beer, hearty food, and live music to Boston beer lovers. I had the opportunity to attend Beer Summit’s 6th annual Harvest Fest in November at the Castle at Park Plaza. Curated by founders Mike Munnelly, Conor Brennan and Shawn Rich, Beer Summit’s Harvest Fest hosted some of the most celebrated and talked about breweries in the country. The event boasted three sessions on November 20th and 21st featuring 56 different breweries, and over 200 beers.

Photo by Fest Pics

Carb-loaded and adorned with pretzel necklaces, my boyfriend and I enjoyed the Saturday evening session of Harvest Fest. I had attended Beer Summit’s Winter Jubilee in 2014 but this was my first time at the November event. While 60 breweries in one place sounds like a lot, Harvest Fest was surprisingly easy to navigate thanks to the spacious floor plan and set up.

I enjoyed tasting the beers from some of my favorite local breweries like Backlash Beer and Two Roads, non-local favorites like Anderson Valley Brewing Company, and new-to-me brews from the craft beer curating 3 Beards Beer Company. A big supporter of drinking local, I was pleased to read 50 percent of the breweries in attendance were local breweries from Massachusetts and New England.

We stayed until the end of the night, tasting our way through the breweries, dancing to tunes from the two-man band CHOPVILLE, and snacking on the newly-launched and delicious Kalahari Biltong, a seasoned dried beef from South Africa.

If you’re looking for an affordable and easy to navigate beer fest in Boston, check out Beer Summit. The next event, Winter Jubilee, takes place in January so keep an eye out for tickets to go on sale at www.beersummit.com.

Note: Tickets to Harvest Fest were provided courtesy of Beer Summit, but all opinions and love of beer are my own.

Kickstarting Holiday Fitness with Flywheel Back Bay

By Emily on November 25, 2015

The past few months have been super busy. I haven’t been as active as I’d like to be and believe it or not, all of the travel and food and Thursday night Shake Shack has caught up with me. Feeling sluggish and lazy, I was excited to hear that Blog and Tweet Boston, a local blogger group, was having a sponsored event at Flywheel in Back Bay. Usually I’m more comfortable attending blogger meetups with a fellow blog friend, but over the weekend I attended the #BlogandFLY event solo and am so happy I went!

For those not in the know, Flywheel Sports in Back Bay offers both Flywheel stadium cycling classes and Flybarre barre classes. I had been to one Flywheel class previously and was impressed with the of the class. As a former Spinning instructor, I’m a purist when it comes to cycling classes, opting out of those known for incorporating calisthenics and other dangerous-to-me moves on the bike. Although Flywheel’s cycling class has an arm workout component to the routine, I found it to be a safe class that offers a great workout.

Our #BlogandFLY class was taught by Catie Macken, an instructor whose teaching style I love! Catie taught the one other Flywheel class I had taken in July and her yoga-inspired class enabled me to clear my mind and focus on having a great workout.

The best and worst thing about Flywheel is the data reporting. Each bike is equipped with an on-bike computer “tech-pack” that registers your resistance (Torq), RPMs, and power that you can opt to have posted on a Leaderboard during class. I say that it’s the worst because as someone who doesn’t cycle often, the computer can be discouraging or distracting when you’re pushing hard during class only to discover that you’re moving at a snail’s pace. For people like me who get psyched out by knowing their speed or the duration of a workout, I recommend ignoring it except for when the instructor gives you a torque number to adjust.

The data however is also the best part about Flywheel because even if you opt out of posting your power on the Leaderboard and ignore it during class, all of the stats are recorded in your Flywheel account. Data geeks like me will delight in seeing and tracking their progress and PRs online.

After our awesome ride was over, we enjoyed salads from sweetgreen, the delicious locally-sourced organic food destination that’s opening up at The Shops in the Prudential Center in Boston.

Thanks Flywheel Sports and sweetgreen for an awesome #BlogandFLY!

Sassy in Sequins

Boston Lifestyle & Travel Blog