Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

Last Tuesday, on the hottest day of the year to date, we had a date day. I now have Tuesdays off because I'm supposed to work either long days or Saturdays.  But that's not important. And I'll probably get to that in a later post.  The important thing is: we got out and did something! We finally got over to South Street and visited the Philadelphia Magic Gardens. We also went to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch and found a little storefront that has really good donuts. Finally. I guess Philadelphia isn't so bad, after all.

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It was pretty impressive.  I highly recommend it if anyone ever visits Philadelphia. 

Surprise Visitor

A couple of weeks ago a good friend of ours dropped by.  He was visiting a friend in NYC and they were awesome enough to come down and spend a night with us.   Brandon is second from left, Kai is on the far left.  It was Brandon's wedding last November that Clark attended in Hawaii.  Clark met Kai in Hawaii as well.

These guys like to have fun, so we tried to find them some bars in the city where they could sip on some tasty brews.  Afterwards, we went and ran the steps at the Art Museum.

We had a ton of fun with these guys! Thanks for the visit and for getting us to go out on a work night!

Gems

Sorry, I just had to post these phone photos from our most recent trip that I've already blogged about.  I promise I'll get over the trip soon.

First day in Ireland, after not sleeping all night on the flight.

                                               First Meal: Bangers and Mash

 Tour of an old church (our second day, not the first.  We barely made it through that first meal with Ivan and Joanne)

 

Shepard's Pie and three other sides with non-alcoholic wine....YES! And some very lively gift shop shopping

 Even President Obama wanted us to have a pasty












 Touring around, eating, taking pictures of and with castles.

A beautiful thatched roof home in Adare

 

Just stunning

 A creepy mannequin at the potato famine cottage...begging Clark for some potatoes, I'm guessing

The Slea Head loop was beautiful but incredibly windy!

 Missed walking through the Blarney Castle by just a few minutes. 

 But the Cahir Castle made up for our misfortune

From a gas station.  Yes, it was AMAZING

 Dinner at a covered outdoor food court in London.

 The financial district and some fun art in our hotel

 

Indian food on Brick Lane...we might have gotten way too much...luckily Clark's appetite is that of three people so not much went to waste

Peaceful protesting

Walking through some streets of London on our Jack the Ripper Tour.  It's on this tour we found out that Hiltler did not bomb this white church during WWII because he liked the architecture too much. 

Gotta love Paris' CDG airport. Reclining seats so you can watch planes come and go.  

Or just take a nap.