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.

Fans

Last Saturday night Keith and I had the pleasure of cheering on our favorite team from Philly... the Flyers! Long story short, our Georgia friends Chris and Jordan got tickets to see a handful of Predators hockey games because their favorite Atlanta team lost their franchise, but they weren't able to make the drive for last weekends game so they passed along the tickets to us. We were more than happy to watch the Preds play but got even MORE excited when Jordan emailed the tickets and we saw that they were playing the Flyers so we could ditch the home team and cheer for our favorites! We had such a great time at the game, but unfortunately the Flyers did not do us proud :/ Regardless, we were excited to see how many people in Nashville were also sporting orange... we weren't the only crazy people there cheering against the home team haha

Click here and here to see pictures from our other hockey game adventures here in Nashville!

Philadelphia Home

Words cannot describe how awesome our Philadelphia trip was last weekend. I prepped Keith ahead of time and let him know that I was going to be super nostalgic and sappy the whole time, but instead of feeling nostalgic about all the people and the sights it just felt like we had never left. Taking the train to Manayunk felt like we were going home... Sitting in traffic on 76 felt totally normal and walking up the hill past our old apartment felt like we were just retracing steps. We have been gone an entire year but if you had given me a key to that apartment it would have been like nothing had ever changed... like we had never moved at all. It was very surreal but definitely in a good way. I can say that I have a whole new appreciation and love for that city, and even though the "grass is always greener on the other side" it was great to be back in the city where we got our start. Thankfully when Keith booked our trip he gave us Monday as an extra day so that we wouldn't feel rushed just being there for the weekend. It was SO nice to feel like we could explore where ever we wanted and not have to worry about "missing" anything. I wanted to make the most of every second we got to spend there, but I also secretly knew that I was never going to have enough time to take in everything I wanted to do and see. As much as I love Nashville and I know that it is the right home for us right now, it was strange knowing that we don't like in Philadelphia anymore and any time that we spend there from now on will be limited. I guess that means we just need to take more trips...

Here are some photos from our time in our favorite city:

Henry: my favorite 30 lb cat :)

City Hall! 

Ordering up some Wawa hoagies.. sometime we SEVERELY miss 

Eating said hoagies

Our awesome hosts Tim and Gill

Market East Train Station

Headed to Manayunk

Main Street <3

Football at Meg and Mikes

Creepily sitting on our old stoop... looks the same.

Headed down the hill to take a walk on the tow path

Always love main street at night

Manayunk train station

Henry cuddles!

Monday lunch at Reading Terminal Market... why can't we have this in Nashville!!

The most amazing Heath Bar cookies ever!

The Ben Franklin Bridge

At the end of the Race Street Pier

Our view of the skyline from the Delaware river

Local brews

Sunset skyline

hahahahaha

Our favorite burgers in Philly... SKETCH!

Cannot get enough. 

All I can say is that I can't wait to go back and visit again and again and again. It may be a smelly old city, but it's my favorite and so full of amazing memories :)