I'll try to catch you up with the interesting things. So prepare for a long post, but I promise, lots of photos/videos!
We had a good Valentine's Day... Ian went to Duke, I worked a 10 hour shift, then we came home and made Hamburger Helper together. Not the most romantic, but still exciting. Our first married V-Day!
We went to the Italian market that following Saturday, and discovered this place with amazing mozzarella cheese knots. If you come here, we'll take you. Wow! And there was this guy selling baby turtles (tiny and SO adorable... you know me, atypical female, I fall for reptiles and amphibians), with turtle food, which just reminded me of Rocky. Fox came that evening, by Amtrak. We went to Chickie & Pete's to catch the K-State game. The next day, we went to church, then showed Fox all of the city we'd previously explored.
And some new places like the River Walk, and we took regional rail (our first regional rail ride) to Manayunk to see Mark.
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| This is a fun drawing on the menu board at Bucks Co. Coffee Co., where we met Mark. |
The next Thursday, I made my first pie, and it wasn't a disaster. Probably because it was vanilla pudding pie. But I still got a sense of accomplishment from it. That Friday, we went over to our new friend's place, Fred and Laura, and had dinner with them and Rob and Jen, also from Tenth (our church here). It was so good to hang out with people. They are so friendly and welcoming!
Saturday, we went up to Manayunk again, to watch the game with Mark at a fun bar named The Bayou. After the game, *sigh*, we had to catch a bus back home, because regional rail was done for the night. And funny story. So Manayunk is famous for its steep hills, and hosts a world famous (apparently) bike race. The giant hill they have to bike up for that is what we had to scale to get to the bus stop. I thought I was going to die. But we made it home safe! Thanks Mark, for your hospitality, and taking care of us, and making sure we got home safe!
The next Monday, we thought we'd try Pennsylvania-famous 5 Guys Burger, to see how it stacked up against In-N-Out and So Long Saloon. It didn't. A bit overpriced for how good it was, but it was quality. And it was large. We were full.
Wednesday (we ate out a lot this week), I was craving pizza, we both got off work late (I was working late because the market was open late for the flower show... more on that later). We discovered this tasty pizza place, called Top Tomato Pizza Kitchen, right across from Jefferson University. We had the Philly Steak pizza, and boy was it good. We also had fun while we were waiting for the food.... as you will discover from the videos below.
Saturday we watched U2 3D. It was a great concert film, them in South America. 3D has come a long way since we were kids. And seeing a U2 concert is always a bonus.
Sunday was the world-famous Philadelphia Flower Show. We weren't going to go, but Ian won tickets at work. When we arrived, Ian had second thoughts, since he was reminded of flower shows and the flower section of Hobby Lobby, both of which he experienced full-force during his childhood.
But we managed to have fun, and Ian bought plumeria sticks for me. You plant them in pots and they grow into plumeria plants (tropical island flowering plants with a distinct and enchanting scent, most often associated with Hawai'i), God willing. I've actually been praying for them... I haven't done so well with planting new plants, so we'll see. I really want the yellow one to go!
Here are some other flower show images.
The next week was rather uneventful, until the weekend (which finally brings me up to this past weekend!) Friday, we visited Chinatown.
We saw Ben Franklin's grave.
And we also wandered around Old City. (Meg, this is where we were when we were on the phone with you!)
After our wanderings, we ate at an Italian restaurant called Spasso, which means stroll in Italian. It was pretty tasty, especially for the price!
Saturday, we took the shuttle to IKEA and bought a coffee table, and also ran into the Indian students, which was great. We got invited to their apartment that night at midnight, because it was Ahmed's birthday. We were introduced to the Indian custom (men only) of birthday bums, they called it, where you beat up the birthday boy so he regrets the day he was born. I'd take a pinata, personally. :) Before that, though, we shopped a little more, to finish out registry things, and stopped by Barnes & Noble, where we picked up a New York Times Crosswords for Two book. Yay! When we got home, we worked on the puzzle we got from the Troutt family as part of a game-themed wedding present. That was finished Sunday.
Well, that is a month's worth of events in the life of us. I hope you enjoy, and I'll try to make sure it's not more than two weeks until the next post... :)