Our North Loop Apartment

We've been here for almost 2 months(!), and we're loving our new home. I have promised some pics to friends and family who haven't been able to visit yet. Last weekend, I finally got around to taking some pictures of our apartment now that we're fully unpacked!

Our unit is long and narrow...here's looking back at the entryway - all rooms are to the right

Living room - and you can kind of see our patio to the right outside the window - our favorite spot!

Our kitchen - notice the 3/4 walls that don't quite reach the ceiling

Our bar and Salvation Army table

Master bedroom

Den/second bedroom/office/laundry/storage (basically the Jack of all Trades room!

Green guest bath

NYC...One More Time!

I realize I'm a bit delinquent on posting. Getting used to a new schedule here has been an adjustment, but we're loving it! Coming soon: pictures of our apartment now that we're fully moved in.

But before that, I have one last post about our time out east that I want to share. Once we found out we were moving back, we realized we had one last bucket list item...visiting Yankees Stadium! Luckily we were able to coordinate one free weekend with a home game, and as usual, visiting New York was an incredible adventure. It was the first time we visited with truly excellent weather, so we felt very lucky as we sat in the bleachers at the game! The game itself was really fun. Mike got tickets right in the midst of the "Bleacher Creatures" and what fabulous fans! Every player and occurrence in the game had a different reaction or tradition they followed. This was especially true for Jeter during his final season. It was noisy and full of heart - exactly like the city!

Ready to go in!

The view from some very expensive seats...we did not sit here!

On the subway ride home, we had a surprise show. Three guys turned on their music and started break dancing in the moving car. Truly talented and entertaining!

Enjoying a perfect night in Bryant Park after the game

Two of our favorite meals were this trip too. A friend recommended Peruvian restaurant Pio Pio for dinner and it did not disappoint! Also we tried a local pizzeria...seriously some of the best pizza I've had. Fantastically appropriate! The best part about these meals is they were two blocks from our space age hotel, Yotel. I think our favorite in the city, it was modern and high efficiency - for example, the bed was recline-able and acted as a couch too!

Pizza!

 One of the other fabulous aspects of great weather in New York was being able to wander through Central Park in the sunshine. Every 5 feet there was a different language being spoken, and people enjoying the glorious weather. We're going to miss our quick weekends in this city!

Enjoying Central Park!

Catch up in Minneapolis

I've been a bit delinquent in my posting because we've been very busy unpacking this week. We're nearing completion, so here's a few pics from the last week!

Mike unpacking the kitchen.  Yes, just as much paper was used this time around. Whoever recommended flattening the paper and repacking the empty boxes was a genius!

View from the kitchen...you can't tell, but our patio is the only place set up. Thank goodness because we can eat dinner there in peace!

Master closet/bath

Oh, and because it's not all work, we've been trying out the local restaurant scene a bit! Smack Shack is already a favorite!

Now, today I get to take advantage of the plethora of local Targets and a new to us SUV with lots of space!

Packing for MN

So, this happened today! Packing up the van tomorrow, and flying back on Friday!

Gladiator at the Mann

One of our Philly bucket list items has been to go to the Mann Theater in Fairmont Park. It's an outdoor amphitheater in the Philly city limits and the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. We got tickets with some friends from work and went to see a screening of Gladiator that had the orchestra playing the full score in the background (think karaoke for any soundtrack - all voices were still the actors). So cool! We got lawn tickets and everyone brought picnic chairs/blankets and food and wine to enjoy the film. Fantastic! So great in fact that we went back to see Star Trek last Thursday! 

Hiking!

For the last few weekends, we've been enjoying beautiful weather and the abundance of great hiking trails in the area! A few trails have been close by, but our biggest hiking adventure was a few weekends ago about an hour away. We started off aiming for a 5 mile loop, then decided to continue onto the 10 mile loop, which would have been intense on its own. But, somehow, we missed a turn and instead of back int he parking lot, we found ourselves 2 miles up the Appalachian trail! Thank goodness for cell phones with GPS to get us back to the car safely, albeit very tired after an unexpected half marathon distance hike!

First, an interesting stop the day before our infamous hike: Indian Echo Caves just outside of Hershey, PA

Halfway!

Mike is 5 feet from a rattlesnake right now! Yikes! From this vantage point, we could see hawks soaring below us - so cool!

Water Reservoir...this means we've almost made it back to the parking lot!

Morris Arboretum

A few pictures from my visit to the arboretum a couple weeks ago.

Annapolis

A couple weekends ago we drove to Annapolis for a night. Always my favorite state capitol due to our similar names, it was even better in person. It's an adorable historic harbor town right on the Chesapeake Bay. We had a fabulous time watching all the boats go by!

Pretty nice lunch view!

Our Inn was built in the 1700 and 1800's and shared a fence with the Naval Academy - we couldn't have chosen a better spot!

Our inn

Our two favorites were the crabcakes (thank you Chesapeake Bay!) and touring the Naval Academy.

Visiting the Naval Academy - Grandpa, this one's for you!

The city is so small and adorable, you forget it's a state capitol. Here's a view of the Maryland State House between the shops on Main Street

Swan!

Possibly the most surprising wildlife I've seen in Conshohocken yet...a swan went by the window today!

Finger Lakes, Take 2

We loved the Finger Lakes so much...we went back! The other weekend we decided to try the Baseball Hall of Fame again (this time, success!) and head back to our favorite B&B in Penn Yan, NY.

Thursday night, we hit the road to Cooperstown, stopping just outside Scranton for dinner. Being The Office fans that we are, it was pretty fun to be there and drive through Lackawanna County. We stayed at our first real motel! It was a drive up motel right on a beautiful lake - we could see some amazing stars!

Friday morning we started the day at the Baseball HOF, and it was worth coming back to see. It's a baseball museum too and we had a great time seeing artifacts and reading about the beginnings of the sport. Of course we sought out all Twins paraphernalia that we could. We had lunch in Cooperstown too and it's an adorable small town, with beautiful old Victorian homes and lots of baseball themed shops.

Once we got to the Finger Lakes we were immediately reminded why we had to go back...it's just such a beautiful and relaxing place, and we were lucky to have great weather this time around. We tried some new wineries and went back to a few favorites from before. We had an incredible dinner thanks to a recommendation from the B&B - this time we got reservations in advance! There was another couple at the B&B that we really hit it off with and ended up spending our evening together on our second night. On our departure day, we stayed and chatted with the B&B owners for nearly 4 hours - we had a great time! We even convinced them to show off the classic cars in the garage and got a ride in the '70s Citroen!
 

Birthday in AC!

Mike had a golf event for work in Atlantic City on my birthday...so I tagged along! We'll likely not be back while we're out here so it was a great chance to check it out and we had a great time there! I was able to work remotely and join Mike and his colleagues for an incredible dinner at Amada - one of our favorite Philly restaurants that has another location in AC. Plus I got to see the ocean! Not many birthdays have I been able to claim that. :)

June weekends

This June, we've spent our weekends staying local. And we've had a great time!

We finally got back to Center City for the First Friday Gallery hop...since our first one last February when we first moved. 75 degrees and sunny was definitely preferable! There were a ton of people out and about shopping and viewing the art at the many galleries. Really fun to see everyone out for the event! We had dinner at a new restaurant for us, Fork. It was spectacular! It never ceases to amaze us the fabulous dining options we have in Philly.

We also spent a day driving up to New Hope - upriver on the Delaware River on the PA/NJ border. Its this charming little river town. Such fun! On the way we stopped at a huge antiques market that we just stumbled upon. We even managed to find some treasures we now call our own.

We also went to the Philadelphia Zoo with friends and their two year old son. We had always heard that the zoo here was top notch, and it really did live up to it. We had a great time and ended up spending nearly 5 hours there. Some highlights were the hippos, the roaming peacocks, and the monkeys. Especially interesting was a new feature of the zoo which is basically sky ways for the animals to roam around the zoo above our heads. Never had a lion walk above me before!

Petting zoo with the toddler...pretty fun!

Grrr!

Hippos!!

It's been a beautiful June for weekend weather, so one of our other favorite things to do is enjoy the fabulous pool at our apartment. It is nearly always packed, and its been fun to catch up with some of our neighbors we haven't seen in a while and to meet new ones too!

Birthday Weekend at the Finger Lakes

I officially commandeered Memorial Day weekend to celebrate my birthday...considering that equates to going on a long weekend vacation, Mike's not complaining! This year, we took off a few days early and went to the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. Wow - what an amazing place! So amazing, in fact, that we're going to head back next weekend. :)

Part of the reason for the return is because our day #1 was a little bit of a bust. We took a couple hour detour to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame - one of Mike's bucket list items. We had lunch at a local brewery, Ommegang, and while we were finishing up we overheard some locals chatting about how busy it was in town. We had to ask what was going on...President Obama was in town to give a speech. You guessed it: at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Apparently the protesters had gotten out of hand, so the museum was closed all day. Unfortunately, the speech wasn't announced until just a few days prior, so we didn't have any clue about it. Ironically, the speech was supposed to support tourism. As we were driving away, we noticed 5 military helicopters flying directly toward Cooperstown in formation...it had to have been the President flying to his speech! So, we're going to try again in about a week.

We arrived at our B&B in the Finger Lakes that night and the B&B is the other reason we're heading back. We stayed at just the most beautiful Victorian home, and the owners were just fabulous! We had an incredible stay the whole time. In fact, Mike already blogged about it HERE.

As a special birthday treat, Mike got us a driver to take us around to the wineries on our first fully day. It was so luxurious! And also so nice to have - we could try out 7 wineries on our first day! We didn't travel too far around the Finger Lakes over the weekend.  We stayed around our one lake and the one immediately next to it because there was so much to do. Penn Yan was the little city we stayed in - and it's just beautiful! We could walk everywhere in town which was just perfect for us, and on Memorial Day they even had a parade that went right by our B&B's front door!

We did get to many wineries and even a local brewery (they're apparently on the rise there too!), but also we were able to explore some really amazing small towns. One of the favorite things we did was go for a hike at Watkins Glen. There's a gorge there that is just stunningly beautiful! Apparently we weren't the only ones looking for a good hike - there was a line up to park, and apparently a VERY large touring group all got let off at the same time. Luckily we went the opposite way and could enjoy and take lots of pictures once they passed. And I've now learned, nothing is quite as refreshing after a long hike as a nice chilled glass of Riesling!

On our way home we did the detour thing again, but this time it worked! We stopped in Corning to view the glass museum there (thanks for the tip Mom and Dad!). It was incredible to see to much history and art - all glass - in one place. It was an incredibly memorable weekend...can't wait to go back!
 

Our haul from a fabulous weekend!