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!