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