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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

New York, New York.

So obviously I tried to be good and stay updated on our whereabouts while we were away on our road trip, but once we got to New York... all bets were off. We flipped our normal schedule completely and stayed up til 2am every night, not waking up until around 10 or 11. For as much fun as we had... it felt pretty darn awesome to go to bed last night at 10:30 haha we're so happy being old married people. So where did I leave off?

Last I updated we were in Philadelphia spending time with Dan and Aly Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So then Tuesday morning bright and early we packed everything up in the car and drove north to New York City. Usually when we go to the city we take the bus because traffic is the worst, but that plan didn't make sense this time around, and I had a very fussy husband by the time we made it to Robert and Andi's apartment haha. NYC traffic doesn't mess around. Once we got to town I don't think Andi and I stopped talking for like the next 5 hours, Keith was so patience with our chattiness. We brought our stuff into their place and then hopped on the subway to Manhattan to visit our friend Peter who works at Serendipity. I had never been there before, so of course we had to have their famous frozen hot chocolate. Verdict? It's pretty awesome, even though that restaurant is a total tourist hot spot. Regardless it was awesome to see Peter for a bit, and it gave Andi and I a chance to talk and talk some more :) Afterwards we walked over to Magnolia Bakery (where Andi works) and we picked out all kinds of tasty treats to be enjoyed later. We then headed back to their apartment and waited for my brother, Robert and Paul to get off work and come by with beers. Once we were all together we hung out and caught up a bit before heading to one of their favorite local sushi restaurants and meeting up with Sara B and Peter. Dinner was fabulous and followed up by two for one drinks at a bar down the street. The best part of the night though was when we got back to Robert and Andi's to go to bed and remembered that we had tons of tasty desserts to indulge in before sleeping :) so terrible, yet so amazing!

Leaving Philadelphia.

Driving through New Jersey... not our fav.

Serendipity.

Frrrrozen hot chocolate. Mmm.

Hanging at Magnolia.

Tastiest treats!

Bros embracing.

Bert and Andi

Dinner crowd.

Candlelight Jake.

Subway riders.

Wednesday we slept in and spent the morning relaxing with Andi after getting some bagels from around the corner. Later, we met up with my brother at the MoMA to check out the Cindy Sherman Retrospective... SO RIDICULOUS. I've never been one for Contemporary Art, but she's absolutely amazing. If you're in the area before June 11th I recommend it. After quickly walking through the exhibit the 3 of us wandered down to Chelsea to get lunch at The Grey Dog (delicious) and when Jake had to get back to work Keith and I made our way to the Highline for a beautiful afternoon stroll. Oddly neither of us had ever been over there before on our various recent trips to the city and we couldn't have been more grateful that the weather took a turn for the better during our visit. What a beautiful and lush place in the city! Again, I highly recommend. After our little touch of exercise for the day Keith and I were able to visit one of the management companies he works with and got a chance to introduce ourselves to the artist Bearcat whose tour Keith is currently booking. It was pretty funny that Keith happened to end up doing work on vacation, but we were way too close not to stop by. When we were done it was time for Keith to head north to the Bronx to meet Peter for his first Yankees game! He had some issues getting there and finding Peter, but once that was all settled they had a really great time together. While they were at the baseball game I trekked over to Brooklyn to meet up with Nickie and her boyfriend Andy (who we hadn't seen since our WEDDING! too stinking long). We had an awesome mexican dinner and caught up on life and then walked down to a bar in the area and waited for the baseball fans to leave the game. Once Peter and Keith found us it was mentioned that the bar across the street (the same one we went to the night before) had karaoke and there were no questions about where we were going next. Metal karaoke night meant that anyone who sang a metal song got a free shot of whisky... I'm sure you can use your imagination but it was a pretty ridiculous night. So much love for all those friends.

Underground

Lunch

Matching... awkward.

Highline.

City love.
Baseball!

Andy/Keith. Karaoke champions.

Nickie clearly earned her shot.

Peter and the Beastie Boys.

Thursday we woke up late once again and had coffee and breakfast on the couch with Andi.  We packed up our stuff and drove to downtown Brooklyn to meet up with Robert for lunch at Shake Shack (favorite) and to say goodbye to them since we were spending the rest of the evening with Jake and Peter at their place. We certainly got our fill of Shack sauce, and I even got my first shake thanks to Andi (the coffee is deeeeeelicious!) Our original plan for the day was to drive down to Coney Island and check out the classic New York beach, but with the torrential downpour we decided to change our plans a bit. I won't write too much about it because I'm planning a separate post for tomorrow... but we ended up meeting with Amanda for a trip to the American Museum of Natural History. Such a good idea! After we had our fill of taxidermy and old bones we took the train back to Amanda's to get our car and drove to Queens for a home cooked meal thanks to Peter and his girlfriend Emily. Jake had to go to band practice, but we had plenty of great hangouts in his absence, before driving over to the bar duck duck to meet back up with Jake and Nathan and Sara. GREAT last night in town! Lots of great cheap drinks, many games of darts and some amazing people watching.

Andi/Bruiser the Bruin.

Robert and Andi at Shake Shack.

Bros at the bar.
New York was SUCH a crazy whirlwind of a three day trip, but when isn't it? We always have such a great time visiting my brother and all of our friends up there but as soon as we leave, it always feels like such a nice relief. City life really isn't for us longterm. Regardless of our readiness to get back to our quiet and sleepy life, I'm SO happy we were able to visit and get to see so many of our favorite people.

Next up... a recap of our day at the Museum, then photos and stories from our weekend in DC!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Philadelphia Adventures

Richards Roadtrip 2012 stop #2 was Philadelphia, our former home and one of our all time favorite cities. In November when we visited we stayed with our friends Tim and Gillian, but since we were in town for their wedding we got the chance to stay with our friends Dan and Aly. Can I just say... these past 3 days here have just been SO refreshing! We've had a really good mix of staying in and kicking back on the couch or the porch, and going out to explore. There is just so much love in this city that I can't help but be extremely happy anytime were visiting :)

Saturday night when we arrived in town we spent the evening catching up, enjoying a fire in the fire pit and watching the boys grill us up some delicious dinner. Dan and Aly are expecting their first child in August so many exciting things to chat about! (enter: baby fever) Sunday we started our day with a nostaltic Wawa breakfast and then spent the entire day in New Jersey for Tim and Gill's wedding. When we finally got home we settled into a movie and couple cuddles on the couch. Monday we indulged once again in Wawa breakfast sandwiches and then made our way over to our old neighborhood, Manayunk to have a light lunch at Winnie's, which just so happens to be the first place we ever ate in Philadelphia when we first visited with my parents. It seems so strange to go back to places that we've been so many times before because it really feels like we never left. Kinda just makes me miss it more :/ we drove past the old apartment which still looks the same, and we soaked up as much neighborhood air as possible before we had to head out. Our next stop was the Victory Brewing Company's brewpub for some yummy local beers and more time for hanging out and catching up. After the boys picked up a couple souvenirs we got on our way again for a hysterical car ride back into the city. Us ladies in the back seat just couldn't seem to stop nagging Keith about his driving, to which he was super gracious and by the end of the drive we couldn't stop laughing at all of our ridiculousness haha. I write about Sketch on this blog all the time, but in case you're new here... it's our absolute favorite burger place in Philly and we can't go to town without having that for dinner and having at least pints worth of their amazing aioli sauce. We had some very happy tummys on the way home :) Then as a little endcap on our stay with the Meloche's we partook in one more fire pit night and the boys smoked some cigars together. Overall... such a great trip back to one of our favorite "homes". I do wish that we could have stayed a little longer so we could have seen our Epic Church friends, and Meg and Mike (who are basically our Philly parents). The good thing is, we can't stay away from here for TOO long, way too many good people and good memories! 




Dan and Aly's awesome puppy Dante

Aly's BEAUTIFUL roses!

Keith serenading us post wedding on Sunday
Victory Brews


Sketch dinner

Late night fires

I Thee Wed

The whole reason that we headed out of Nashville for Richards Roadtrip 2012 was so that we could celebrate the wedding of our good Philadelphia friends Tim and Gillian. Back in November, Dan and Aly got married and we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Tim and Gill, and we were incredibly happy to be able to see them again so soon! Weddings make Keith and I so sentimental for our own wedding and this one was no exception. It was very quaint and family oriented with lots of cute little details, Gillian did such a great job! All of the food and drinks were awesome, which is obviously what keeps up the happiest haha. Here are some photos from our day in Mt. Holly, New Jersey!

Keith pregamed the wedding with a little lager.
Exchanging vows. They had such a cute little ceremony!


First kiss.

Dan and Aly (plus little "lumpy" on the way)

Looking classy.
Getting all lovey dovey :)

Aly and I

The bride and I

Bridal Party

Dan and Keith
Cutting the cake.

Keith dancing at me from the bar haha 

The sweet couple dancing :)

Best Philly friends!
Keith is full of jokes.


Saturday, May 19, 2012

UVA

Richards Roadtrip 2012 is in full swing!! For the next 10 days I'll be blogging from the car as we travel up the east coast and back visiting some of our favorite cities and best friends. On the agenda is Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, DC but before that, we made a quick pit stop in Charlottesville, Virginia to see Jonathan and Erin in their new city. I've never thought much about Virginia and certainly haven't seen much of the state but after the 24 hours we just spent here I can say that it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been! I love the quaint little historic towns and the beyond gorgeous mountain views!

Last night we arrived in Charlottesville in time for a late dinner and a stroll down the historic downtown mall and this morning we had a late local breakfast and a brief tour of the University of Virginia's incredible campus. While I was getting my Art History degree I studied Thomas Jeffersons architecture in lots of books but seeing it in the flesh is a whole other story. I'm not even an architecture person and I was fascinated! Definitely puts any of my college campuses to shame haha. It was great to catch up with Jonathan and Erin even though it was so short and from what we saw of Charlottesville we will DEFINITELY be coming back for a longer visit soon!

For now were on our way to Philly to see Dan and Aly, watch Tim and Gillian get married and love our old city just a bit! If you want to keep up with our adventures you can follow us on instagram (drich, or richards_k) or search the tag #richardsroadtrip2012


Friday, May 18, 2012

Wise

This post will NOT include any photos but I felt that it was significant enough of a life event to document that I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out this past week. Since I don't have dental insurance I had it done at the local dental school which also meant no fancy anesthesia... so don't ask me to recount any of that absolute terror of a morning. Yes, I have the pleasure of remembering every second of that nightmare, ickkkkkk. Recovery has been slow and steady, and I'm feeling MUCH better. The actual day of was a little scary and made me so thankful for my amazing and selfless husband. He really has seen me and taken care of me at my worst, such a trooper. One thing that I can't get over though is my extreme paranoia that I'm going to develop dry sockets! We just left on a 10 road trip this afternoon so I won't have access to the dentists office if that were to happen but I'm pretty sure I google the symptoms, causes and precautions at least twice a day. In any event, I can feel my scars healing and I've already managed to start eating some real food so let's hope these are good signs!

To any friends that I've seen this week: thank you for being so kind and telling me my face doesn't look THAT huge ;-) my students were not so gracious (Ms Richards why is your face so weird right now?!) also- thanks for sharing your own experiences, but your personal horror stories are only making me more paranoid haha good vibes only please!

No more oral surgery for a while now please? This seems to be a summer trend for me that I don't appreciate. Also, I think I'm starting to smell like peas from icing my face constantly haha

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Wedding Day

Here are the rest of the photos I have from Trent and Jordie's wedding weekend! Their wedding day was perfect, so many great people, food and drinks. We worked hard in the morning to get everything put together, but we certainly partied hard all evening long. Keith and I can never say no to a good ole fashion dance party!

Jamie and I were on balloon patrol

The ushers

Cutest baby ever :)

Checking out the goodies

Trent watching his bride approach

Exchanging vows

<3

The kiss!

confetti!!!

Keith and Ives

They kept taking pictures of themselves instead of us, ugh

Team DJ!

Steven

Friends!

more friends!

Festive

First dance

The babes and the bride

Photo booth moments

Meyer family

double glasses, brow, nose and stache

Cake cutting: balcony view

Bennett and Steven

Sage being terrified of the bouquet toss haha

Jordie and Ashley!

Bennett and Sage slow dancing

Renee and Chelsey dancing up a storm

Janelle and Christian, he finally got up to dance!