dc

DC, the weekend of museums and monuments (and, as I'm looking back through our pictures, apparently the weekend of j+r/monument selfies). This typically wouldn't be my ideal weekend, but we had such a wonderful time. I was really excited for this trip because Ryan had never been before and I knew he would love this city. I think it exceeded all of his expectations! He loved all the history and getting to experience our nation's capital city. We also had some delicious meals thanks to several friends' recommendations. DC, we will definitely see you again soon.

msp

In September, we finally got around to visiting Kyle in Minneapolis (I can't believe he's been up there almost 2 years now). We had a juicy lucy (cheese stuffed burgers), fried cheese curds, and sampled some local beer! We saw a Twin's game, hiked at Minnehaha falls, and strolled around Loring Park and Lake Calhoun. We also got to see his apartment (with amazing view), fancy new car, office, and celebrate his promotion! MSP was beautiful, we can't wait to go back to see him again soon (in the spring/summer that is).

nola

For Labor Day this year we went down to NOLA to visit Alicia, Charlotte and beaus. We got in Friday night and went to Oscar's for some drinks and darts. On Saturday, we got up and had brunch at Elizabeth's, a great little place down on the Bywater. It was a rainy day, so after brunch we headed to the WWII museum which was huge and really cool. Our only complaint was that we ran out of time to see everything (which was really our own fault). We had a little happy hour at the museum bar and grill and then met up with Charlotte and Jared for dinner. Sunday, we got up and strolled around the French Quarter, looking at street art and enjoying the music. We had lunch at Cafe Pontalba (in the oldest apartment building in America) and then continued to wander around the FQ and Bourbon Street. Decadence festival was going on, so we got to see part of a parade and enjoyed some very interesting people watching. That evening, Austin's parents had us over for a delicious dinner, football and swimming.

Monday morning we got up and drove out to Marrero to take the Jean Lafitte Swamp Tour. It was so cool! We saw several alligators swimming around in the swamps. Our boat driver, Captain Dave, was very animated and knowledgeable about the swamps of Louisiana, and very cajun. He was hilarious and had lots of stories to share. He brought out a real turtle shell and alligator head for everyone to see. The third time he went back to his closet, Alicia said "I wonder what animal he'll bring out this time?" Much to our surprise/shock, we looked up and saw a live alligator writhing around in his hands. We jumped and flew black away from the very active gator. After a few minutes, he calmed down and Captain Dave taped its mouth shut and allowed us all to hold it. It was a baby, about a year and a half old, but it was still pretty intimidating. I was hesitant at first, but, I figured, how many chances do you get in your life to hold an alligator? This line of thinking did not convince Alicia, she would not accept the gator, even with a lot of coercing from Captain Dave and Ryan.

After all that excitement, we headed home to buy groceries for a quiet dinner in. (On our way we stopped for lunch at Pho Tau Bay for some delicious pho.) We made a very healthy dinner of knock-off chick-fil-a nuggets, baked fried pickles and sweet potato fries. It was really nice to spend the evening in and relax a little before our flight back the next morning. Definitely a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

grandma morrow

We said goodbye to Grandma Morrow, Ryan’s grandmother, in October. In August, she had her 79th birthday and we celebrated in style! It was a wonderful celebration where she was surrounded by friends, neighbors, and family. We all loved her very much and will miss her dearly!

july 2014

philly

We made it up north this summer to see Harrison! We loved Philly and had a blast eating our way through the city.

Wednesday, 7.23

After several flight delays/changes and two unplanned four hour layovers, we finally made it to Philly at 2:30 am. Oh well… we had a good time while we waited.

Thursday, 7.24
Thursday morning we took the opportunity to sleep in, Harrison had to run out of town for a little business trip, so we had the day to explore the city on our own. First, we met a client of Ryan’s at Oyster House for lunch. It was delicious – I had the soft-shell crab BLT and Ryan got a burger (with a fried oyster on top – that he tried!!!). I was trying to play it cool for our business lunch, so I unfortunately didn’t capture any of this meal or the monumental moment on camera. :/ He said it just tasted like “fried” but he wasn’t a huge fan of the texture.

After that we headed back to Independence Mall and waited in a very long line to see the Liberty Bell. It was cool and the crack was bigger than I expected it to be. We then headed over to the US Mint. It was a pretty quick (30-45 min) self-guided tour that was pretty interesting. Two interesting things happened to us on this tour (1) While waiting in line outside, this guy came up to us and said: “Want to make a quick $40 bucks?” Us: “No, thank you though.” Him: “I can go up to $60.” Us: “No, that’s ok.” What did he want?!? I am so curious now! I wish we had asked him... (2) This girl inside tried to get us to buy her two collector coins because apparently there is a limit of two per person and then she would pay us in cash. I was still creeped out by the guy from outside and said no. Maybe that was mean… it just seemed kind of sketch.

After our interesting mint tour experience, I wanted to be outside for a while and there was a nice little café in the middle of Independence Mall. So we enjoyed some Yuengling in the garden. We then headed to Independence Hall (originally called the Pennsylvania State House) to learn about all the cool stuff that went down there (i.e.: the Declaration of Independence and Constitution).

That evening we went on a date night to L’angolo, a quaint little BYOB Italian place in South Philly. Holy moly, that food was so dang good. I mean seriously, I can’t explain accurately how delicious it was. We ordered the two salad specials to start. They were 1) huge 2) amazing 3) like 75% cheese (that is my kind of salad). I was too hungry and impressed to remember to take photos, so I will just describe the deliciousness. Ryan’s was a grilled heart of romaine with cherry tomatoes, a SLAB of gorgonzola cheese and a balsamic reduction drizzled on top. Delicious! Mine was a ball of mozzarella the size of my fist on a bed of risotto and arugula. Also, yum! For the main course, I had the Orecchiette ("little ears” pasta with shredded duck, thyme, shaved grans) and Ryan got the Ricotta Gnocchi (in asiago thyme sauce). Both again were amazing. After all that goodness, we were stuffed, but we had to at least try a cannoli for dessert. After that decadent meal, we decided to walk north on Broad street for a bit and just catch a cab when one came by. This took longer than we thought, but it was a nice evening and we were enjoying walking off some of the many calories we had just consumed. We topped the evening off with some conversation and a glass of wine with Eli, Harry’s roommate. It was a lovely first day in Philly.

Friday, 7.25
Harrison's apartment is in center city close to a lot of this historical sites and Independence Mall, so it was really the perfect place to stay! Friday morning, we got up and went to the Betsy Ross House (literally it is next door to Harry's apartment - his bedroom window looks into hers) to take the tour. It was tiny and a quick tour, but really cool to see how people lived back then. Harrison got back into town and we walked down to Reading Terminal Market to explore and get some lunch. There we had DiNic's roast pork sandwich with all the fixins: sharp provolone, broccoli rabe and hot peppers (the best sandwich in the nation according to the Travel Channel's Adam Richman). We also had to try the brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, which were all amazing! After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves, we explored Reading Terminal for a while longer. There were so many stands with delicious looking sweets, baked goods, fresh produce and meat and any kind of food you could want from traditional Amish to Chinese.

We needed to do a lot more walking to burn off lunch, so we strolled over to JFK Plaza to see the iconic LOVE statue. From there we headed down Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Rocky steps. I loved all the flags on the parkway, of course we had to stop for a picture with the Spanish flag. From there we headed south to walk through Rittenhouse Square and grab a soft pretzel. Then we headed east to Graffiti Bar (this cool little patio bar in the alley behind Sampan) for some drinks and to rest our feet.

Friday, 7.26
Of course, we had to try a classic Philly Cheesesteak. We had gotten several recommendations, but the one we heard over and over was "the best" was Jim's on South Street. We walked down to try it out, and it was delicious! "Whiz wit" was definitely the way to go! Later that afternoon we went to pick up Liz and tried a second cheesesteak from Dalessandro's (Harrison's other favorite). It was also excellent!

That evening we got to go to the Phillie's game with Liz and Harry. We had beer and crab fries - so tasty. It was a great night for baseball!

As I'm writing this, I can't believe how much we had already eaten that day, but after the game apparently we weren't quite stuffed enough so we headed to Chinatown to have some dim sum. This was the second time Ryan had eaten dim sum (first was in San Fran) and he was skeptical. Thankfully, we had great tour guides who ordered for us and helped Ryan fall in love. The soup dumplings won him over!

Sunday, 7.27
We got up Sunday morning and walked down the street for bagels. They say it is the water in this area that makes the bread better. I dont know if that is true, but those bagels were so. dang. good.

We layzed around a bit with the pups (Vince is the little nugget below) and then walked to brunch. Yes, more food, are you seeing a trend?

That evening we strolled around Old City and had ice cream while we walked along the docks. It was a cool, beautiful evening.

Monday, 7.28
That morning we had to go back to Reading Terminal Market for one more DiNic's sandwich and a cookie. We walked around the city a bit more and then met Harrison for a last lunch at Han Dynasty. It was spicy and so tasty. We discovered and fell in love with Dan Dan noodles. This may have been my favorite meal of the trip.

After that, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Texas. Harrison, we loved your city and will definitely be visiting again!