we were definitely thinking ahead when we purchased our condo with a "spare" bedroom.  for a couple who doesn't plan to have kids for at least a few years, it seemed a bit excessive considering the area we live in.  however, it's certainly been put to good use since we moved in and got the bed set up!  we've hosted hung's friends from high school, my friends from high school, my parents, our friend who lives in brooklyn (and stayed over past the point of ridiculous nightly train schedules), and most recently my friends from college.

my friend from college texted me sometime last week and asked if we would be in town the upcoming weekend.  the conversation went something like this

"no, we won't be home, but you can stay in our apartment if you need to."
"we have 4 box seats for the yankees game, and wanted to invite you."
"well in THAT case, we'll stay home friday night then!"

with the added bonus of seeing their just-under-3-month-old baby, we were definitely glad we stayed home for another night!  hung was able to cook dinner for them, make egg sammiches for breakfast, and make scones the next morning for them too, so he was a happy man too (and, obviously, we got to see another yankees game with great seats and free food.  who can say no to that?)























the next morning we headed out for long beach island to see our jersey city friends who have a house down there.  gosh is that a cool area! nearly every home has waterfront access, with little canal-like waterways reaching through the neighborhoods in finger-like patterns.  while the weather didn't fare well on saturday, we still enjoyed staying in our cozy clothes on the porch eating junk food, reading trash magazines, and talking wedding talk.  it was like a girls weekend away, except the boys participated too (you guys are troopers with all the wedding talk :P). dinner at old causeway steak and oyster didn't disappoint, i learned that my new favorite drink is gin and grapefruit juice, and we still got to catch a few breezy hours on the beach on sunday before heading back to jersey city.







(see, i said "cozy clothes". i didn't say they were cute)










(we tried REALLY hard... but... i think we need more practice :P  next time we'll get more than 2 packs of sparklers, especially if we're going to insist on doing this after a few drinks!)







hung and i drove up through some of the beach towns on the way home.  those houses are amazing.  i could do that drive everyday!

i can't be thankful enough that we have such great friends.  for some, we might not keep in touch as much as we would like, but we can always pick up again when we do see each other.  and for others, a weekend away together is the perfect way to relax and get to know each other better.

cheers, friends!
jenn