American Adventure Part 3: The City of Brotherly Love and Even More Weddings

After the family day bbq Andrew and I headed back to Woodstock with Mom and Dad to do some of our own wedding fun. Monday and Tuesday passed quickly and uneventfully and soon Andrew and I were on the road again headed for Philly. We spent Wednesday night at Aunt Deb's in New Jersey to relax for a bit.

We saw a wild turkey while we were driving around. Yummy turkey

Thursday we drove into Philly around lunch time so we grabbed my old college roommate Jackie and headed to Pat's for Andrew to have a traditional Philly cheesesteak. From there we hopped the train into the city to wander a bit before meeting our old professor Morna Livingston for a drink. It was so great to catch up with her, she was our design 2 professor freshmen year and stayed my adviser throughout college. She was an inspiration to me because she is incredibly intelligent and a photographer to boot.

Mmmhhhhh Pat's

Me and Jackie

Jackie, Me and Abbey

After grabbing dinner at a brewery downtown we called it an early evening and crashed out. Friday Jackie and I gave Andrew a tour of Philly U before heading downtown for pizza at Lorenzo's (this trip was really all about food). After that we walked around Independence Mall so Andrew could get a bit of history before going over to Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential street in the US. Morna happens to live there and she had invited us to stop by and see her house. It was incredible to see inside because I've always wondered what those houses look at inside, it was awesome.

The pizza is as big as my face

On South Street all the trash cans are painted up all funky, love it

Independence Mall

The Liberty Bell as seen from outside, we were too lazy to wait in the epic line to get in

Elfreth's Alley

The Rocky statue

View of Philly from the Art Museum steps

The Philadelphia Art Museum, one of my favourite places in Philly

That evening I left Andrew with Jackie's boyfriend Kyle and his friend Dan at our local bar from college while I went for Chinese food at our old favourite place, not quite the same as I remember it to be. After dinner we met back up the boys for a few drinks before meeting some of my other friends at a bar in Manayunk. We didn't manage any photos that night because we it was one of those times where pulling out a camera would have ruined the moment. It was a great evening out and made me miss being home.

When we woke up Saturday we met Jackie and Allison for a quick breakfast before hitting the road. This road was not taking us towards my parents house though but to Mystic, CT instead. There we met up with my parents, Jess and PJ, plus the whole Morris gang. After dinner we all convoyed to the Shaw house, the parents of Ken Shaw, the man who married Sarah Manz (the second wedding we were attending in the states, getting confusing enough yet?). The Shaw's were having everyone over homemade ice cream to say hi the night before the wedding.

Jackie, me and Al

Sunday was the other big day so we drove back to Mystic and headed to the wedding. It was raining hard all day until about an hour before the wedding and it managed to dry out and the sun shone brightly all afternoon. The wedding was held on the lawn facing down to the ocean, absolutely beautiful. After the wedding cocktails were held outside so we mingled on the porch looking out to the ocean, it was great relaxing in the sun with everyone.

There were many touching moments during the wedding that got us crying, I'm so glad that we were able to get over to the states for at least one of the Manz family weddings. Our table was all Swenson and Morris kids which provide for a great evening of conversation and laughing, as it always does. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone knowing that we were leaving for the next few months, luckily there was a brunch the next morning at the Shaw's that most of us were able to attend. We didn't bring our camera with us so once Dad has written his blog I'll post that link with all the photos.

And that wraps us up our amazing and busy American Adventure. We are slowly getting back to normal at home but it's going to be a bit of an adjustment, look out for some boring blogs in the next few weeks until the next adventure.