Fall Fun Day!

As you may or may not know, fall is our favorite season! It is finally becoming cool - the perfect temperature really; leaves are changing colors; pumpkin flavored foods and beverages are everywhere; and happiness fills the air.

While it is still somewhat warm here, last week marked the beginning of more fallish weather here in Philly and we are starting to see some leaves changing colors. Therefore, I had the urge to do something fun and fall related. I had been to an apple orchard with friends in the past and found it was a good time, so I suggested to Rory that we find an apple orchard here - especially because apple season in Pennsylvania is upon us. A quick internet search, and confirmation by some friends, led us to Linvilla Orchards where it was Apple Festival weekend. Rory had never been apple picking so I was excited to show him how to do it!

We picked a box of apples (of which I used half to make delicious crock pot applesauce) from a variety of different apple trees. Then, we headed to the market and explored the pumpkin patch, the food stands, and bought delicious apple cider. We didn't have time to do a hay ride (we had lots of other errands to run that day) but we did have a good time looking at all of the fun fall items around the grounds. We also found two really deliciously scented candles and have been enjoying their aroma ever since.

Catching Up

Hello Friends!

It has been such a very long time. I've definitely missed writing to you all.

I hope you all had a good end of summer and that your autumns are starting out splendidly! It is finally starting to cool down in Philly and Rory and I are getting very excited to start doing fall activities!

I can't believe that I am already into my 5th week of my second year of law school. The addage told to us starting out law school has thus far proven true: "First year they scare you to death. Second year they work you to death. And, third year they bore you to death." I am definitely feeling worked to death already and ready for a vacation. It's not just me either - I swear! All of my classmates seem to agree. But, enough of my whining - let's get caught up!

First of all, I finished up my summer internship on August 3rd and flew back to MN that evening so I could make it back in time to attend my friend Channa's beautiful wedding. Rory met me two days later (he drove straight through by himself!) and we had two beautiful weeks in MN visiting family, soaking up the sun, attending another wedding for my friend Kelly, and just generally having a good, relaxing time. It was back to Philly on August 18/19 (we got in at like midnight exactly) so that I could start school on the 20th.

Since starting school it has been full force ahead. I have 5 very interesting classes, I am on the leadership boards of 3 student groups, and agreed to be the Chair of the end of the year auction to raise money for public interest grants. Rory has been very busy with work - even having to work on the weekends to finish up a big project!

On top of all that, we had a very exciting, yet difficult, change - we moved apartments! We spent almost 2 whole days over labor day packing up and moving all of the many, many boxes from one apartment to the other. The move, as every move since we've been married has been, was full of problems. And they were made all the worst by having to move into a steep 3rd floor walk up on a 90+ degree day! But, it was all worth it when we were officially unpacked this past Sunday - that means everything out of the boxes and all things hung up on the wall! It looks great and is such a better fit for us. (Pictures from move day are below.)

We also managed to fit in a celebration of our one year anniversary - by going to a Cirque du Soleil show in Atlantic City! It was a great get-away/mini-vacation just a train ride away from Philly. See the pictures below!

Well, it's been great catching up. Hope you are all also doing well!

Love,
Danielle (and Rory)

Moving Days Pictures:

Corrections

Recently I have gotten schooled by our friend Aubrie regarding two of my assertions in two separate posts, so I have two corrections to humbly admit to our blogregation (if you are on Facebook, you may have seen me feebly defend my pride when faced with these errors):

1) APPARENTLY you cannot ORDER scrapple fried from end-to-end; it only comes mushy, just the way it was served to me. In my defense, I was under the impression that you CAN fry it if you slice it really thinly, but you must have to buy it and prepare it yourself to get it in such a manner. My bad.

2) Probably more flagrantly, in the most recent post I called the sandy expanse in New Jersey adjacent the ocean "the beach." It is most definitely called "the shore" (e.g. Jersey Shore), and I apologize to anyone who was offended or otherwise upset by my ignorance. The mistake has been corrected in the post, but we are still working to set up a hotline for you to call if you need to speak with someone. '

Thank you for your time, and please return to your regularly scheduled activities. 

-Rory

  

Feeling-Swell-Phia

Hullo! I hope this post finds all of our readers well and in good spirits, despite the oppressive heat of July 2012. Danielle and I have forgone our frugality and now run our A/C daily in order to maintain our lifestyle, and it feels good. As I write this, in fact, I am sitting directly in front of the window unit and drinking hot coffee, gazing smugly out the window at Mr. Sun, who is a bugger.

Moving on: Welcome to our first post of July! It is hard to believe that as of next month this blog will be one year old; they grow up so fast. Maybe we can throw an online first blogday/house-warming party in September once we move. In the meantime we have some new adventures to tell you about! Over the Independence Day Weekend Danielle's parents and her brother Jordan came to visit us here in Philly. After they arrived on the 4th of July we all spent the evening on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where the city's main festivities take place including myriad vendors and a concert, this year featuring the Roots, one of the Jonas Brothers (dunno which), Kommon, and Daryl Hall. The night capped off with a decent fireworks display. The next day I and Danielle both had to work, but in the evening we took the family to Pat's and Geno's respective cheesesteak joints in South Philadelphia! We ordered a variety of topping combinations and shared them to determine which was best, and more or less the overall favorite (at least for both me and Danielle) was Geno's cheesesteak with whiz. I would definitely order it again. We brought the steaks back to our apartment for supper, so after a few drinks to wash down the excess hot sauce we used, we took a walk around the neighborhood and showed them where our new apartment will be. Finally, we ended our day at "The Amazing Spider-man," which I liked. It is a tough comparison to the Toby Maguire Spidey; I enjoy them both. I like this new guy, though, whatever his name is. And Emma Stone is like a thousand times better than Kirsten Dunst. 

On Friday I worked again:( but Danielle had the day off. She and her family went into Center City, where they spent the day touring Independence Park, the U.S. Mint, Penn's Landing, and Reading Terminal Market. After I was done working they came back to our apartment and I drove us down to their hotel near the airport, where we enjoyed a few beers before catching a taxi to the Phillies vs. Braves game at Citizens Bank Park. True to form, the Phillies got womped something like 5-0 after keeping the game scoreless through 7 innings. Ugh. But the beer flowed, and Danielle and I ate some delicious Chickie's and Pete's Crabfries. Plus we had really good seats (picture on the left). We stayed at the hotel that night to get an early start on Saturday (also we were not in shape to drive...). And what did we need an early start for on Saturday? The shore!! 

We had decided a while back, after seeing Ocean City, NJ, to try out the Wildwoods (also in NJ), and it did not disappoint. Although the entire weekend was ridonculously hot, and Saturday most of all, the boardwalk was a lot of fun and there were plenty of air-conditioned shops to pop into as we walked around, and after checking out the boardwalk the water kept us cool. Nevertheless we were exhausted and sufficiently hot by the afternoon so we headed back home, showered off as much salt and sand as possible, and spent a nice, family-oriented evening at Penrose Restaurant, again in South Philadelphia. The great thing about diners like Penrose Restaurant is that there is something for everyone, and this place was also easy to look at and (importantly for D) has its own bakery! It was a nice, relaxing, vacationy day. Check out a couple shore pics below:

On Sunday we all went up to Valley Forge; the weather cooled slightly from Saturday, but it was a muggy, overcast day. And so, after watching the park's video introduction and spending as much time as possible in the visitor's center, we took a guided trolley tour around the park. I particularly enjoyed the park's scenery: green hills with a few small camps of re-creation log huts from the Revolutionary War, and narrow roads and pedestrian paths winding all around and between the hills. We stopped at one of the camps along a ridge, and then again at the farmhouse George Washington rented for the winter he spent at Valley Forge. If Danielle wants to talk about the history of the place, she can write that post. For me, the day was about family time and some light sightseeing. After our tour we went to the King of Prussia Mall to eat at the food court, and then on our way out we stopped to shop for some souvenir Phillies shirts for the family. Before heading to our apartment we parked near the art museum, where the "Rocky steps" are, to get some more photos and end our tour of Philadelphia with one last "must-see." Sunday night we ate at Copabanana near our apartment; I think we may have written about it last fall, but as a refresher: it is just a beach-themed bar near Penn's campus with what I think are delicious burgers, among other treats. Below are some Valley Forge pics:  

The Visitor's Center at Valley Forge

Danielle's Parents on the Valley Forge Trolley Tour

Me and Jordan, also on the Valley Forge Trolley Tour

The Memorial Arch at Valley Forge

The Rocky Statue

So that was pretty much our past few days. Since Copabanana it has been back to work for us, and Danielle has begun preparing her submission to join the Moot Court team at the law school, which is due in a few weeks. The writing competition will supposedly take up most of her free time this month as she also winds down the remaining four weeks of her summer internship at VIP. I, as always, work, eat, take care of as much domestic work as I can so Danielle can return to comfort and cleanliness each night, and write posts, or (more commonly) something else less social. Unfortunately we have no big plans for the immediate future, so the next post or two might be even more of a stretch than usual! BUT that gives me a chance to flex my creative muscle (just the one), so look forward to that. Okay, that is all from me, for now. 

Cheers,

Rory

Weekend at French Creek

Danielle and I are writing this post to celebrate another successful PA camping trip over the past weekend! We have a jam-packed summer calendar and will not be having a lot of time to camp for another few weeks, so we decided to brave a little rain last Friday and had a great time exploring some local sites near French Creek State Park in Elverson, PA. Fortunately, Elverson is much closer to Philadelphia than Dover (where we camped the previous weekend), so we even had the time to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Sunday evening after getting home, thereby doubling the weekend's magic. We also wrangled our friends Jenny and Patrick into joining us (for camping, not HP); in fact, it was Patrick who suggested the French Creek since he and Jenny both hail from the area.

So on Friday night Danielle and I set out for the campground and thankfully arrived before dark, and just barely ahead of the rain. We stopped at a Walmart on the way to pick up a tripod grill for campfires, too, which turned out to be a clutch purchase. I want to set that thing up over our stove at home, but it doesn't fit. Hopefully it will work in our new apartment. Anyway, we made it to the site and got set up, bought firewood from some locals' driveway, and then Patrick and Jenny met us at the site just before dark. Patrick had a travel canopy deal that we set up, but of course by that time the rain was basically done for the weekend! We still hung a lantern in it, though, so it was a great place to make our suppers. So that was pretty much Friday.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to breakfast at Ridge Restaurant, right across the street from Patrick and Jenny's high school (Owen J. Roberts HS) near Pottstown, PA. You can see a great picture above of Danielle and Patrick at the restaurant. The place was pretty cheap and had good breakfast, but the highlight of the experience was our first (and possibly last) scrapple tasting! It was not that bad, really, but considering what it is, I will not be going out of my way to buy or prepare it. You can see me on the right with my slab, and below that I am about to take my first bite! Danielle actually nibbled a tiny corner, and she did not even die. You can look up scrapple yourself for more information, but my understanding is that it is all sorts of left-over meat with a bunch of spices. It starts out mushy and speckled grayish, but once fried it looks as it does in the pictures. Unfortunately, at the Ridge they served it fried on the outside but still mushy on the inside: if I ever order it again, I will request it fried throughout...

After breakfast we drove to a nature preserve-type area, apparently run by a land trust(?), to see THE MAGIC TREE!!! Below you can see a couple pictures of Danielle and Patrick at the tree, with Jenny wandering off somewhere; the magic tree does strange things to people, hence its name. In reality it is some kind of willow, and is something like a couple hundred years old. As you can see from the paint and maybe some carvings, it is a popular hoodlum destination, but the land and the tree were beautiful and the weather cooperative. Danielle also made friends with a lady who was having lunch on the grounds with her "red hat society." I always tell D that the elderly are her demographic. 

After our brief stop at the Magic Tree we headed to St. Peter, a small village situated almost entirely on one stretch of road between two hills; above the road is an old quarry with beautiful blue/green water which we thought could be a pool at a park like Disney World's Animal Kingdom. Behind the inns, ice cream shops, and bakeries of the village is a stream where all the boulders were dumped once they were removed from the quarry. Now the stream has done a beautiful job of rerouting around the boulders, and serves as a beautiful hiking and swimming destination. The area was pretty busy, but we were still easily able to hop around on the rocks and wade in the stream. We actually had so much fun we forgot to take ANY pictures, so I apologize for that. From St. Peter we drove to Hay Creek near Birdsboro, PA, and spent the rest of our day exploring there.

The area is apparently also called "Old 82," since most of the path from the road is actually an old, closed off section of Route 82. From the gates at the dead end the path follows Hay Creek for a couple miles and ends at another abandoned quarry. Along the way we moved down to walk next to the creek, where I got stung by a bee on my ankle, but we also got to try (and consistently fail) to catch frogs and newts, which was some pure, innocent fun! A little way on from the gates a dirt road connects to the pavement, leading up a hill to the Birdsboro reservoir. The small lake is completely surrounded by tall pine trees, and the path around the water is covered in red pine needles. The scene is very reminiscent (to me, at least) of Rainy Lake back home. With literally no one else but us up there, it was a great time to reflect and appreciate, well, everything. I might even dub that place the Magic Lake. Below is a picture of me, Jenny, and Patrick at the Magic Lake.

After walking the loop we headed back down to the road, past an active quarry, and finally ended up at the bottom of the old quarry, with steep rock faces rising up all around us. The area is basically a circular pit, with the road entering on the bottom at the only open end. There are two or three tiered ledges running around the outside, presumably left from the mining operation, and the Birdsboro municipality has installed climbing bolts on the rock faces throughout the area, making it a popular rock climbing hangout. As we walked along the ledges, in fact, we walked through several camps of climbers. It is too bad we did not take pictures there, either, because to me it really was stunning. It ALMOST made me want to get into rock climbing, but not quite. We ended the hike on the way back by taking a brief detour to cross the creek via two cables: one of which you walked on, the other you held at about eye level. The old road continues on after that, but we turned around, crossed the cables again, and headed back to the car. That night the weather stayed nice so that we could enjoy a relaxing (and darn well earned) supper and campfire. Sunday morning we headed home, and that was the weekend! Below I have posted one last picture of the Magic Lake.

Thanks for listening to our tale! Talk to you all again soon.

-Rory

Call Off the Search!

Our typical blogging pattern is that we write and post pictures whenever we go somewhere, do something fun around town, or Danielle gets the crafting bug. Proceeding in that spirit: earlier this past week we signed a lease on a new apartment! As of September 1 we will be in a two-bedroom a few blocks from our current residence, and in a small rental rather than a high rise. We have been searching for a two-bedroom for a while, I guess...I could not say exactly since when. But it is so nice to finally be able to relax and only worry about how we are going to afford this new place! Initially we were looking outside of Philadelphia, in the suburbs, where apartments tend to be a little cheaper. We did not know if it would be possible to find an affordable and liveable place in our neighborhood with two bedrooms so that I could finally have an office (right now our living room is in a constant state of messiness).

After a few weekends and even weeknights traveling out to the surrounding areas for viewings, we realized that if we left our neighborhood: 1) poor Danielle would have a crappy commute every day for school; 2) we would be away from our friends, and what little social life we do have now would be choked out; 3) the extra cost of a monthly transit pass for Danielle would darn near cancel out what little savings we found in suburban apartments; and 4) we would actually miss University City, and we did not move all the way out to Philly to move away less than a year later! All was not lost during our suburban search, though: we met one landlord from New Jersey who actually called us "you's guys!" I found it to be hilarious and fun. Anyway, we received a real blessing: after just a week of beginning to look at Craigslist postings in University City and West Philadelphia, we found our new home. The kitchen is beautiful (at least compared to our current one), there are no slow elevators to deal with (or, in fact, any elevators at all), and it is even our understanding that it has no cockroaches (at least for now)! At least there will be no more searching; only laying awake at night crunching numbers in our heads, planning for the future. We will update everyone on the apartment's exciting details more when we actually move in. That is not a promise--we just will not be able to help ourselves.

Thanks for listening, and have a wonderful day,

Rory

P.S. Look for another camping post coming soon...

P.P.S. We saw Rock of Ages last week and really enjoyed it, but I am even more excited to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter this week! Both are exciting, genuine adventures into the history of America.

Hea' Dover Heels for Camping

Last weekend we had the awesome chance to take our first camping trip together as a married couple! We bought a tent earlier in the spring and have been gradually stocking up on gear, so last Friday the time finally came to book a site. We chose Cedar Lake Campground in Dover, PA (hence the title of this post). Unfortunately, the trip did not start out great--at least for me. The traffic getting out of Philadelphia was awful, and a trip that should have taken us a little over two hours took four or better. We left home around 4pm, and after a stop at Walmart and a fine beverage vendor we were able to set up camp by just after 9pm, in the dark. We bought some firewood but were expecting to be able to also purchase a fire starter (we did not have any paper). But it was so late that the camp store was closed, so we were SOL. Thankfully, after making a fool of myself for awhile a neighbor took pity and started our fire for us! So we could finally turn off the headlights, finish setting up, and make supper (after 10pm at this point)! The weather was mercifully beautiful and cool, and the bugs did not bother us that night.

The next day, Saturday, we were able to completely turn around the misery of the drive to Dover: the weather remained sunny and warm, but not hot, the bugs stayed away, and relaxation came easily. We spent the day walking around the campground and gawking at the seasonal trailer residences, reading (for fun--first time for me in a dog's age), cooking over the fire, and watching fishermen; our site was on the edge of a private pond where campers can fish, and they do pretty well! On Sunday we cleaned and packed up our gear and were out of the campground before noon, to give Danielle enough time to write a paper that was due Sunday afternoon.  

I think that is everything I want to write about our trip. Danielle might have a better memory and want to add some things, but for now at least here are a bunch of pictures with descriptions:

Our site from the pond's edge, complete with our adorable "His and Hers" chairs (they are not actually a set)

Right across the lake from us was a "petting zoo," complete with two awesome goats! I think the gray one noticed Danielle snooping.

Our tent with our sandals in front, proving we were there I guess. 

Another picture of the petting zoo across the lake, but zoomed out for better context: isn't the campground beautiful!?

This is the view from our site looking the opposite direction of the petting zoo: the fountain provided great ambient noise for sleeping.

These birds were frequent visitors to our site, and there is a third one not in this shot. They were a little too bold for my tastes, but neat: plus the two white ones wiggled their tails in a pretty awesome way.

This is a view of ALMOST the full lake from the bridge to the petting zoo; our site is just visible on the right.

Obviously: me with the goats. 

A pond across the road from the "lake" had huge patches of what I guess were lily pads, with these beautiful flowers.

Danielle had to lay on her belly to get this cool shot of the patch, encompassing the full spectrum of bloom.