It does snow in Philly!

The past 3 days have proven that it does snow in Philly! We've gotten more snow this week than all of last winter. Sunday was a surprise for us as we were heading back from NYC (more on that later - fun!). Today Mike got a "snow day" as the whole office worked from home instead of braving the horrible roads. I realize it's not as substantial as MN, but considering the hilly and congested roads and lack of plows out here, we can respect staying off the roads!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! 

View from the apartment!

Our entrance to the apartment

Center City Thanksgiving Weekend

Mike and I took advantage of the long weekend and booked a hotel in Center City Philly for the weekend. It was great - we used credit card miles so we got a fabulous hotel in a great location that we hadn't been to much. We were able to do lots of exploring - and even some shopping!

We finally made our way to the art museum...wow! I was so impressed with the collection! We spent about 2 hours just wandering around and could barely leave (well, me at least...imagine that...) We walked into one room and it was ALL Monet. Yup. Heaven! There were even completely reconstructed rooms from all ages from around the world - 14th century Chinese to 18th century NYC, and even a French cloister.

In art heaven...Van Gogh's sunflowers were across the room...

We'd been looking forward to dinner for a few weeks because we got reservations at an Israeli restaurant that we'd heard so much about...and all the hype was right! We had no clue what we were getting into, but sure enjoyed every bite! Any place that can make a cauliflower dish that we fight over the last bite for is definitely something!

Saturday we finally made it down to South Philly and the Italian Market. It was a great experience - so much amazing food and amazing imported Italian specialties! The fish and cheeses weren't going to make it home, but we picked up some pizzelle!

At the Italian Market. They were burning trash in the buckets just like in Rocky.

After a few successful historical tours with one group out here, we ended up signing up for a pub tour of Philly, and had our trusty tour guide Chris show us around some pretty cool places as we learned about the more recent history of the city. He even recommended a burger joint for dinner featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. Definitely a "dive" and so much fun!

We caught a couple Christmas "shows" at the stores downtown too. The Comcast Center had their giant TV (no joke: it's 2000 sq feet) with a Christmas special, and Macy's had both a light show and a Dickens Christmas Carol display - just like Minneapolis' 8th Floor! It definitely got us in the holiday spirit.

Mom & Dad come to visit!

On Halloween weekend Mom and Dad came out for a visit! We had a fabulous time showing them around the city.  We checked out a new restaurant in Conshohocken, plus our standbys - our favorite cheesesteak and Thai places in town. We went up to Valley Forge, and it was still beautiful with autumn colors on the trees!

We spent two days in the city and explored a lot. It was fabulous weather, so we could walk all over...and we did! We started walking through the theater district, then down across South street which has a completely different flavor than anywhere else in town! We got lunch at a local Greek restaurant, and took it to go so we could walk through Society Hill. When Mike are in the city, we never see anyone we know (since we know so few people!) but lo and behold, we ran into Mike's co-worker and her boyfriend, who live in the area!

We also happened across the Physick house, an old old home of Dr. Physick who was groundbreaking in surgery. My parents loved it because some of the dental tools they use were invented by this guy!

Walking tour in Old City

Mike and I had such a good history walking tour of the city back in April that we did it again with mom and dad. I'm so glad - we can't remember our facts that well after a few months! We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: Amada. Mom and Dad's first tapas dinner! So amazing.

We also explored Boathouse row, and walked by the Penitentiary all the way to the LOVE statue. Luckily mom had ready about the cathedral, so we stopped in and it was incredible.

Exploring Boathouse Row and the Waterworks

At the top of the "Rocky" stairs outside the art museum

It was so special to visit and show off our new city, plus, it's good to have some dominoes competition in town! Thanks for a very special weekend Mom and Dad!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's just the two of us this year, and so we get to make turkey dinner for the first time! Turned out pretty well. Happy Thanksgiving from Philadelphia!

It's official: I live in a construction zone

Here's the view from my desk today...the construction is hard at work for the new boat house. It'll be nice for the town, but I miss my backyard!

Movember!

This November, Mike is growing out a moustache for "Movember" to support men's health! Oh yeah - we'll be giving updated pictures week by week. :)

 Here's what 1 week of growth looks like. He's threatening to keep it through Christmas to show it off in MN...

NYC weekend

As promised, more details from our weekend in NYC for the Food and Wine Festival...We had a wonderful time in the city. After driving through this summer, we promised ourselves we'd never drive in Manhattan again, so we took the train in from New Jersey. It's so much fun to actually know our way around the city after visiting in April with Mom and Dad. We're really looking forward to another long weekend in December because this one was all dedicated to the festival.

GM had a couple booths at the show and Mike and I worked one booth with co-workers on Friday. It was pretty busy - about 5,000 people is what we heard. The festival is hosted by Food Network, so it's geared toward foodies in the north east. I couldn't believe how many booths there were from vineyards around the world, and restaurants from all over the city. One big perk was that Haagen Dazs was right around the corner from us. An ice cream break is always welcome!

Mike ready for festival-goers!

For dinner we found a cool old diner a few blocks from our hotel. We were wiped that night so got back to the hotel early...just in time for the dance club below our hotel room to start up. The dancing kept going until 4 in the morning! I felt very old and crotchety at 2 AM cursing the bass thumping from our hotel room floor, but I guess that's an adventure in the city for you!

Luckily Saturday we visited the festival as tourists only. We had a blast! we saw a bunch of famous chefs - the best was Martha Stewart giving a cake decorating class! (We didn't stay for the class, but pretty cool nonetheless!)

Not the greatest shot, but here's Martha at her cake class!