A Weekend in Philly

Jason's been to Philadelphia a couple of times and has been telling me how great it is and how much I would like it.  In November he had a conference in there and I joined him for the weekend.  It turned out to be an extra special time!

Jason drove up for his conference on Thursday;  Friday I took the train up from Fredericksburg, and on Sunday we drove back home together. 

There was something very romantic about waiting
in the early morning for a train, especially one
that was taking me to my sweetie.

The trains really blow their whistle when they
approach a station!  It added to the ambiance
of the whole time.

When I got to Philly Jason had some conference things to do, so I headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It is huge and wonderful!

Remember Rocky running up all the stairs?
These are the stairs!  They lead to the
 Philadelphia Museum of Art.

After I took the picture of the stairs I started
walking up, then saw Rocky himself!!  Of
course I knew it couldn't really be Sylvester Stallone,
but I had to look a couple of times because it
looked SO much like him.  It turned out to
just be a guy on his cell phone.

And here is the Rocky statue!  According to a bus
driver, the statue used to be at the top of the stairs
but it caused major traffic jams, so they moved it
to the bottom of the stairs where it still caused major
traffic jams, so now it is at the bottom 
but far over to the side.  
The bus driver said it still causes traffic jams. 

One of my favorite places to be is art museums, and the Philadelphia
Museum of Art did not disappoint!

Saturday Jason and I explored Philly together.  First, we headed to the Reading Terminal Market for breakfast.  This is a huge indoor market.  For breakfast, we chose a creperie with seating at a bar where we got to watch them cook our food right in front of us.

After Reading Terminal Market we went to explore two more art galleries:  the Rodin Museum and the Barnes Museum.  The Rodin Museum has several works by Rodin, and it was great to see that many pieces in one place.

Rodin's Gates of Hell.

Rodin's The Thinker.

The Barnes Museum is pretty incredible.  It has hundreds of works collected by one individual, Mr. Barnes, for his private collection.  I have never seen so many works by Renoir.  It is an incredible museum and I highly recommend it!  (No photos allowed at the Barnes.)

After the art museums we headed to the big historical sites.

On the way we went through Love Park

Liberty Bell

Freedom Hall

We also saw the area where Benjamin Franklin lived and worked, and had dinner at City Tavern, which was around in colonial times and was a place where the founders met and ate.  Some of the items on their menu are from colonial-era recipes.

Though this looks like some kind of terrible
gruel, it was a delicious potato leek soup.

The weekend was fantastic, and became more so when Jason proposed (!) near the end of our visit.  I thought Philly was pretty great before that, but now it has an extra special place in my heart.

I'm getting married!

Fall Fun

Our yard is heavily wooded, which is wonderful.  Except in the fall, when we end up with a foot-deep carpet of leaves on every inch of our yard.  Fall clean-up is a huge job for the adults.  For the kids, it is great fun.

Here's the work that creates all the fun for the girls.
The adults rake up the leaves and put them on
a tarp and drag the leaves into the woods,
where we dump them.  This creates a HUGE
pile of leaves...

which the girls play in.

Anja Lost Her First Tooth!

For years, Anja has been waiting to lose her first tooth and it has finally happened!  When she visited the dentist in September he told her that her two bottom teeth were starting to loosen and the tooth fairy could be visiting by Christmas.  Well, it happened sooner than that!  Those two bottom teeth were super loose and ready to come out at the end of October, but Anja was scared to do what it would take to get them all the way out.  We continued to wait and finally they were so loose they were about ready to fall out on their own.  With some persuasion from her sister, she let me pull them out!

You Know You're in the South When

You know you're in the South when fall leaf clean-up runs November to January.

Last week we received a letter from the folks who pick up our garbage, telling us that now that we have hit the season when leaves are falling, they will begin picking up leaves more frequently.  This schedule began November 17 and will run through January 9.  This blows my mind!  First of all, the fact that the height of leaf removal begins in November.  Where I come from, leaves have to be picked up by October or you run the risk of them being covered by snow.  And here they will still be picking up leaves in January?!  January is WINTER!  I am used to January being the height of snow removal season, not leaf removal! Things are definitely different here.  My mom and dad recently bought a house, and have hired someone to come and do leaf removal at their house.  He is scheduled to be there in December. December.  A guy is coming to do fall leaf clean-up in December.  That just seems wrong.

Hiking Pratt Park

Autumn in Virginia is a long, glorious season.  We enjoyed one beautiful afternoon with a hike in one of the local parks, which is in the middle of a residential area but feels like it is out and secluded in the woods.  The girls were so fun to watch as they hiked and climbed and explored with freedom.

I don't know what they found,
but it looks interesting!

Funky fungus

There's always cool stuff to be found in a creek!

My favorite spot in this park

Giving a helping hand

More funky fungus

And more funky fungus

There was a tiny "waterfall" at the top that intrigued the girls,
so up they went!

Climb, baby, climb!

Halloween Happenings

We extended Halloween celebrations this year over a few days and events.

First, early in the week we took in a trunk or treat at a local church.  We'd never been to one of these before and it was much more than I was expecting.  Each car had a theme, with a game and people at that car dressed up to go along with the theme.  

Getting dressed for Trunk or Treat!

Mummy car in the background.

Trunk or treat games

Arm wrestling a super hero!

Halloween is a fun holiday to work at a public library, especially in the Youth Services Department, and it was fun to have an excuse to dress up.  Can you find me in this picture?

Part of the Salem Church Library gang.

Halloween night the girls dressed up and we did trick or treating around our neighborhood, where they gave awesome treats!  More than one house handed out full-size candy bars.   We forgot to take a picture until the end of the night, when Anja had shed her wings, but here are the girls!

Anja thought the best way to investigate
her candy at the end of the night was to just
stick her head in the bag.