We LOVE Philadelphia! Jeff served his LDS mission here, so it holds a special place in his heart. We visited Philly and the surrounding area the first summer we were married - it was our first family vacation! We went back another time with Jeff's family when his brother got married here. Since moving out here we have been to Philly 5 times - yeah, we enjoy it. :) Here are some pictures of our most recent visit, which was back in February. We counted it as our Valentine's Date - only fitting to go to the city of brotherly love.Our first stop was to the Italian market to pick up some delicious sesame bread. It is amazing! It comes in a long french bread-type loaf and is scrumptious. And it doesn't hurt that it's less than $2 a loaf. After that we walked a little ways to get a cheesesteak from the famous Pat's.
Here I am with my cheesesteak. It was okay, but Jeff and I couldn't help feeling like we were getting ripped off, considering that this cheesesteak was about twice the price of the ones we normally get (and quadruple the price of the $2 cheesesteaks Jeff got in the ghetto on his mission). However, it's one of those Philly things I had never done, so I'm glad I can check that off the list. After that we hopped in the car to go to our next activity.
Although there are definitely some gorgeous places in Philly, it definitely has the nickname "Filthadelphia" for a reason. Look at all that trash!
Okay, here we go - much prettier. The beautiful city skyline.
Here we are at the destination - the Philadelphia Masonic Temple. Jeff had been there before but I hadn't. They had some amazingly ornate and beautiful rooms.
After the Masonic temple we walked over to one of my all time favorite stores - Anthropologie! They are based out of Philadelphia, so I was very excited to see their flagship store and witness the clever, quirky, and beautiful decor they come up with.
Look at that clever cascade of, well, any guesses on what they are?
Straws!
I also very much enjoyed these hanging lamp shade things made out of magazine pages folded into fortune teller things (please tell me you know what I'm talking about).Jeff was so nice - he walked around the store with me and even let me buy something. After that we walked over to Paper Source, one of my other favorite stores. And after that it was off to the Philadelphia Art Museum, one of the other classic Philly sites I've never been to, other than running up the Rocky steps. :)
They had all sorts of neat displays in the museum. I really liked these tiles - they reminded me of the Minton tiles from the Capitol that I love so much.
I thought this light shade of aqua was lovely.
Jeff's favorite part of the museum is the armory. They have all sorts of armor for humans and animals. So fascinating! I can't believe people could actually walk around and fight in that heavy, heavy stuff.
This is a special helmet for soldiers with mullets. I mean, if you've taken the time to grow a mullet it's an investment you should protect, right? Just kidding, I made it up. But it would come in handy for those brave mullet wearers.
*Sigh* My own knight in shining armor. :)
This picture reminded us of the tree farm around Jerome in Idaho. I love seeing it on that drive, so I thought I'd post it here as a reminder of how much we love Idaho.After the art museum we drove to Reading Terminal Market and got some sweets from a little Amish sweet shop there. After that we drove to meet up with our friends Jared and Chelsea so we could go out to dinner.
On the way there we saw this funny man on his bicycle. You'll notice a blue balloon under his right arm. He was waving it in the air to signal to his friend, also on a bicycle but a ways behind him. It was just so random and funny. We just continued driving on to Jared and Chelsea's place. As we were leaving, to make it even more random, we saw this guy and his friend ride right by their apartment! We got a kick out of it - there are some interesting people in the city.
After that we went out to dinner at an AMAZING Mexican restaurant called Distrito. Such a funky yet hip restaurant. They have a lucha libre theme, and it is painted bright pink inside! The food was yummy - honestly the best nachos I've ever had in my life! They have two types of Nachos, one is called "Ignacio" and the other is "Encarnacion,"referencing Nacho Libre for those of you who haven't seen it. We got the Encarnadion, and believe you me it definitely had us singing like Jack Black - incredible! You can believe we'll be getting those again!
After that is was back home again. It was such an amazing day! We definitely went "Ehlers style" as we call it, meaning we crammed tons of stuff in. Some people wouldn't call it vacation, but that's the way we roll and we love it.
One of my absolute favorite parts was simply holding hands with Jeff as we walked around. I loved our date and had so much fun spending a day in the city with him. :)
