Music Monday: June, Thanks!

There's nothing like an Elvis pig to brighten your day...

Vacations are awesome things. You see new sights, eat new food and see new people. Sometimes you also sweat like a pig, eat dinner at 1 am, drive the wrong way down a one way street and get pulled over by a bicycle cop, but, you know, such is life.

I've got one big Thank You for June, and that is that HUBS and I made enough cash to take a two day trip to Louisville, KY and Nashville, TN last week. It was fun and exhausting. We went out late at night and mingled with drunk, sweaty Nashvillians. We walked down dark, abandoned streets. On my way to the bathroom a clown covered in balloon animals told me to cheer up and I smiled at him even though I was thinking Fuck you, clown.

We partook of July 4th activities. Like when we stayed at home and the ghetto heathens of our neighborhood set off what must have been professional grade fireworks. They were pretty, but, really, I wish they would have stopped that shit by midnight instead of 2 am.

Saturday evening we took the train downtown to the last night of Fair St. Louis. We saw a free show by the Counting Crows, watched fireworks under the Arch, walked amongst the drunk, sweaty denizens of Laclede's Landing and ate an expensive snack at the Drunken Fish.

June's money got us there, people. And I am really thankful for that.

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #3

Well, we are finally at the end of our Philly food adventure, and the end of our trip all together. Sad, isn't it? Our Thursday was rounded out with a trip to The Franklin Fountain. Look at that photo up there. The staff all wear early 1900s soda fountain/ice cream shop uniforms, and the whole place is set up like a classic ice cream place. They even have a vintage cash register.



I don't remember what I got and I don't remember what HUBS ate. But! They were both amazing and refreshing and sweet and yummy! All their ice cream is made in-house, how can you beat that? Plus, our dishes were filled to the absolute brim. Don't you love getting your money's worth?



Our last stop, on Friday, was technically in Gettysburg. We'd visited the battleground and extremely thorough museum and after a few hours needed dinner. HUBS had pre-scoped a restaurant located in a building built in 1776, The Dobbin House Tavern.



We shared a bowl of revelatory French Onion Soup. I capitalized each word there because this was the best FOS I've ever had. Ever. EVER, PEOPLE!! I generally avoid such soups because they tend to be hellishly salty, to the point where it feels like my throat is going to close up. This? This was perfectly seasoned, cheesy, with bits of tooth tender beef and onion floating in there. Oh. My. God. So gooooooood.



In addition to the soup (which immediately made me want more when we finished the bowl), I got a club sandwich and HUBS got a burger smothered in mushrooms and onions. Everything was amazing. These folks know food! And, again, all the servers are in period costumes. This means the ladies are dressed like old tyme serving wenches. I know what you're thinking, cleavage and good soup? That's right, people. Everything you could ever want in one spot!



Now I'm starving! That's what I get for talking about food for three days straight, huh? Before I go stuff my face, here's a Friday Funny for you:



Happy Friday, friends!

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #2

When we hit Cape May on Tuesday, our first stop was The Sea Shanty, a tiny spot in a strip mall-esq spot right across from the beach. The food was simply amazing. We actually had so much that it was hard for either of us to finish. I barely managed to eat all my lobster roll, while HUBS had to donate some of his fried clams to the seagulls. We did box up our mountain of fries, though, and luckily they held up well as we explored Cape May and Atlantic City.





Our big meal on Wednesday took us to the corner of two rival Philly cheesesteak behemoths: Pat's King of Steaks on one side and Geno's Steaks on the other.





Geno's wins in the cheese sweeps; it was loaded to dripping wit whiz. But HUBS and I both thought Pat's had slightly better meat. Plus, the sweet peppers on his were the bomb (yeah, I know nobody says that anymore...). I apologize, but for the second time in just a few days my ravenous hunger prevented me from thinking clearly and snapping shots of the sandwiches. Suffice it to say, they both looked roughly like this:


Photo

Now, here comes something truly special. On Thursday we were determined to get up early and get some major museum-going out of the way. As a reward for getting our asses out of the hotel pre-noon, we picked a spot for a nice breakfast out. We decided on Honey's Sit-n-Eat.



I don't even know how to describe the amazing-fantabulousness of this food. It's so good that I immediately knew I needed more of it after taking one bite of my challah French toast. It's so good that we went back again on Friday, our last day in Philly. It's so good, people, that about two weeks after getting home I yelled out I WANT HONEY'S SIT-N-EAT!! one night when we were debating dinner options. It's so good that you'll have sweet, maple syrup scented dreams after seeing what we ate:











See? Awe inspiring! Tomorrow? Part 3 of our Philly food adventure and some Friday goodies. Yea!

Yes, I'm Still Talking About Philly

As of today we've been back from our vacation for exactly a month. What's happened in this past month? Well, we've:

-Gotten sick and gotten better
-Buried a cat
-Picked up a stray kitten
-Bought all our Christmas presents
-Switched to cheaper cell phone plans with spiffy new smart phones
-Run out of money
-Then, within a week, had an unexpected period of financial security



Plus, I've:

-Impressed a new editor at work with my story ideas
-Written lists of employment and networking goals
-Reached out to some folks who could help me toward those ends (it's been over a week, haven't heard from any of them)

Not a bad list of things done, though of course I'd planned to get more accomplished immediately post vacay.

My biggest issue for the past few weeks has been getting enough rest. I keep saying I'm going to get ready for bed by 10:30 and then be in the bed trying to sleep an hour later. You know what I've actually been doing? Going to bed past 1 a.m. then getting up by nine the next morning, staying up all day and being exhausted but still not going to bed at night. I was up until three this morning! Then got up at nine! I'm silly with sleepless irresponsibility! But the nice thing is that I saw two shooting stars that made me feel really happy!!

Alright, I still have pictures to share, so here we go!






Delaware River


Ben Franklin Bridge






Joan of Arc


Schuylkill River


Tiger fight!


Prairie dog fight!


Hippo eyes!

From Cape May To Atlantic City

HUBS and I made July 5 an all Jersey day. After leaving Cape May we drove a couple hours north to Atlantic City, hung out with a feral boardwalk cat, walked the boardwalk until our feet hurt while dodging numerous inconsiderate sea birds, got lost inside a casino, ate mediocre BBQ, saw downtown AC at night, did a lighthouse drive-by and headed back to our hotel exhausted. All in all? It made for a good and not totally sad day.