January Updates

We've had a pretty normal January - getting back into the swing of things after the holidays. We've especially enjoyed trying to see as many Oscar nominated movies as possible before the awards. We've seen every "best film" nominee for a few years in a row and weren't sure if we'd be able to this year, so we're loving being able to see so many this month.

The last two weekends have been really fun. Last weekend, we had free tickets to the Philly home show. While we aren't exactly the target audience (um, we don't own a home...) we did have a fun time wandering. We met a wonderful gentleman from India who was selling textiles, so I had to stop to purchase a runner. He had an incredible story about how his shop in lower Manhattan had been completely destroyed by Sandy. His insurance still has not paid him anything, and he's lost his shop. It was a sobering reminder that not everyone out here is back to normal after that storm. We were so happy to make a purchase from him!

Afterward, we wanted to enjoy the city a bit, so we walked over to the Reading Terminal Market for a crepe snack (we love that place!), and then onward to a favorite spot in town for an early appetizer dinner.

This past week, we got a last minute invite to a Super Bowl party on Friday night in New York through Mike's team at work. We took the train and were able to find a cheap hotel for the night. The event was a Boomer Esiason's restaurant right off Times Square, and it was pretty cool to be able to meet him, as well as see a few other celebrities while we chatted with some co-workers. We were reminded again that the city doesn't ever sleep as we walked back to our hotel after midnight and saw hundreds of other people out enjoying a beautiful Friday night.

Hangin' with Evander Holyfield!

Mike with Boomer

Saturday was the warmest day we've had out here in a while, so we walked up to Central Park. It was filled with so many others enjoying the day. We found a Turkish restaurant for lunch and I'm not sure if we'll ever be the same - the food was so delicious! We're just loving being able to go up to the city and check out new neighborhoods, and are looking forward to our next time in New York.

Strawberry Fields - the John Lennon tribute in Central Park

Happy Super Bowl Sunday - and to the Zitzmans: Go Seahawks!

New Art

We could only spend about a week in town before we finally made it down to Soft Illusions, our favorite art gallery in town. We've been waiting for a few months to buy a piece of our own. 

Which required a little art shuffling, so we updated the bathroom art!

And with spring hopefully around the corner, I had a little garden/art project to welcome in a little sunshine this week. Looking forward to some daffodils!

Christmas in Minnesota

Our second half of December was spent in Minnesota with so many of you. We had an amazing trip and it was so special to spend time with everyone! After navigating changing flight schedules (a snowstorm hit Philly on our departure date), we were able to celebrate Dad's 60th (!) birthday with a surprise dinner at Dakota Jazz Club. Tower of Power was playing that night and wow was it memorable!

We spent our first week with Mary and Steve in Anoka (special "thank you" for the hospitality!) while getting to see so many friends and family and co-workers in Minneapolis. Another special thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for the car rental!

Christmas with the Fuchs family was on Sunday - and what fun! The special surprise was Mary's gift. Steve got her a framed piece of art that she fell in love with when they came out to visit. We got to be special elves getting the gorgeous painting from Manayunk to Minneapolis!

We were up in Hibbing for a fabulous Christmas! Brie was our amazing chauffeur and it was so fun to get chat time to and from. We missed cutting down the tree in the woods, but we got to enjoy it all dressed up! After a busy week in Minneapolis the week before, it was fun to relax with books and games and some amazing food for the holiday. We even got in a sauna to help us cope with the frigid weather. We're not used to the cold anymore!

We were even able to swing by Grand Rapids for one night to spend the night with Megan, Matt, and Elsa!

We had so much fun that we were bad about taking pictures, but we had an incredible trip seeing everyone!

Snowpocalypse!

We survived Hercules! 7.5" of snow and plenty of news coverage later, there were some very happy people on a snow day...Mike and all the children of the Philly school districts. :)

It really was crazy seeing the preparation and then watching the highway out our window last night. There was a huge accident where a car caught fire and we saw a small explosion! We're just hoping that all passengers involved were safe.

Stay warm everyone!

Christmas In New York!

Mike and I have had a wonderful whirlwind December...and I can't believe it's over already! Our Christmas gift to each other this year was a long weekend in New York. What a gift it was! The city is so incredible, and we could spend days just walking through one neighborhood. The first night there was the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, so we stayed away (the NYPD was setting up blockades blocks away due to the crowds!) and instead walked to a fabulous little French bistro, Matisse.

 

We did get to see the tree later into the trip!

Thursday was the only day we had a plan. We booked a walking history/food tour of the Lower East Side. We were the only ones that signed up, so we had a really personal tour with our guide. We learned a lot about the immigration into NY (and therefore the whole country - really interesting!), and also the culture and foods that are in these awesome neighborhoods. We stopped for dumplings in Chinatown, Dutch waffles, Yonah Schimmel Knishes, a deli in Little Italy, the Essex Street Market, Katz's Deli, and ended with pretzels and beer at a German beer garden. We were so into the immigrant history that after the tour we went to the Tenement Museum where we were able to walk through a preserved tenement building and learn about two immigrant families who lived there in the 1870s and 1930s.

Mike had posted on Facebook that we were in the city, and through that we found out that his cousin, Erin, and her family were in town from Boston as well. We were able to meet up and spent the evening with their beautiful family. Many thanks to the gracious hosts for inviting us up to their apartment for a glass of wine! We're going back for more gyros next time we're in the city!

Dinner at the Halal Guys - the best food truck in town!

On our rainy Friday we went up through Central Park to the Frick museum - a personal home and art collection that is now an incredible museum. It's not a huge museum, but has one of the best collections of art I've ever seen! We also got tickets that day to go to Phantom of the Opera - amazing! It really solidified itself as one of my favorite shows. We also ended up with souvenirs: Mike went to get us a glass of wine before the show, and $45 later showed up with 2 glasses of wine in the theater required souvenir "sippy cups". Only in NY can you get away with charging that much for vino!

Our tour guide had recommended a fun walk, so we tried that on Saturday. Starting downtown we took the Staten Island ferry on a scenic round trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. What views! We then hiked northbound to Greenwich Village. During lunch we reserved tickets for a midnight comedy show, so we had the whole night to enjoy ourselves before that (we knew we couldn't go back to the hotel, or we were going to fall asleep!) We ended up having dinner at a small restaurant and befriended the bartender. She suggested we go up to a place in Times Square where her boyfriend worked: Jekyll & Hyde. What a crazy/kooky place! It's "haunted" and has all sorts of special effects - like bar stools on hydraulics that move up and down, and a "hidden" bathroom. We had fun waiting for the comedy show...and it was worth the wait too - 5 hilarious comedians - and one we recognized from The Daily Show.

At Jekyll & Hyde - the front entrance/exit included this library full of...odds & ends.

Sunday we spent walking the Highline Park before taking the train back home again.  Even with all that touring, we have so much more we want to see in NY. What an amazing city!

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.