Last Monday (the 11th), otherwise known as Columbus “holiday”, I didn’t have to work (and Brett didn’t want to work) so we decided to take advantage of the ‘free’ day by making a trip down to Atlantic City. It’s a quick hour drive from our house and we got to see some beautiful foliage along the way. When we first got there, we drove around for a bit just to see what the whole city was like(& to find as many Monopoly streets as we could) before heading to the Boardwalk for the afternoon.  One of the first things we did was walk out to the ocean, which was pretty awesome, and we realized we will definitely need to go back again in the summer when everything is really “in-season”.

After that we walked from one end of the Boardwalk to the other, grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, stopped into a few shops, & finally stopped for some rest at the Trump casino. Maybe we are just terribly inexperienced casino-goers, but holy cow was this place confusing…it took us 20 minutes just to find the desk to register for a card to play some slots! Next order of business was getting a few beers & joining the old ladies at the penny slot machines. Overall, we had a total blast and only spent $10 over the course of 2 hours

Before heading back to Philly, we had a quick plate of sushi for dinner at Souzai, which overlooks the entire shoreline and gave us a fantastic view of the sunset. Even though we forgot to buy any salt-water taffy(the only thing on my boardwalk to-do list!), we had a great little day vacation & loved seeing the real-life setting of our new obsession, Boardwalk Empire.

Already planning our next trip,
Brett and Kate

This past weekend Kate and I found another stellar hike – Ridley Creek State Park. They offer a total of 12 miles worth of trails – 4 hiking and 1 paved multi-use trail where bikes are allowed.

After decyphering the directions (or lack thereof) we found our way into the park and picked a trail. We settled on the white trail which looked to be the best loop for a first hike (ended up being 5.4 miles which was nice). The other hiking trails were either not loops or very short, so we may go back and combine some of them next time. The white trail was a moderate grade hike with constant rises and drops in elevation but nothing overwhelming. More-so, we are definitely looking forward to returning to check out the multi-use trail with our bikes.

And since our geekiness follows us everywhere we go you can see our path and stats here:

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.  http://maps.google.com/maps/msmsa=0&msid=201007725002188231133.00049001caec17c3aed4b

Getting out while we still can,
Brett and Kate

I admit, it’s been much more than a week since the first round-up was posted and here’s my rationale: now that we’re pretty settled in, things have slowed down a bit and I wanted to wait until there were enough news-worthy items to share…so there. Overall, Philly is treating us mighty well…we’ve already found some great restaurants, have finally figured out the grocery and alcohol buying(sort of), have visited several neighborhoods around the city, and are looking forward to checking out some of the touristy things soon. So far, working from home is going well for Brett, once we really turned the office into an office, although he might start going down to the co-working space once I start classes. Speaking of classes – I can’t wait! I’m doing my best to take advantage of this free time, but am very anxious to truly be a student again…just three weeks to go! Aside from that, here are the highlights from the past 2 weeks:

• We officially had our first visitor – Mike D! Mike happened to be coming to the East coast for a business mtg in Jersey, so he decided to fly into Philly and hang out with us for a few days. If you happened to catch the review for Hikari, Mike joined us for that amazing meal as well as venturing downtown with us for our first set of cheese steaks. Not only was it great to see him, but was tons of fun hosting in our new house!
• We traveled via bus for the first time, and to anyone in Chicago reading this: you are never allowed to complain about the CTA again…ever. We couldn’t help but compare the 2 systems and between terrible signage regarding our buses detoured route to not having screens inside the bus displaying the upcoming stops and especially a bus-tracking system that is still in an early test phase(2 routes), the buses here just aren’t the same. Luckily, Brett and I will be able to take the same bus to work/school that pretty much takes us both door-to-door during the cold months, but other than that, I’m glad I decided to get a bike!
• One of the things we were most looking forward to about Philly was how quickly we could leave it. Case in point, last weekend after driving about 40 minutes from our house we were in the middle of Valley Forge where we spent the afternoon hiking and checking out what used to be General Washington’s Headquarters during the Revolutionary War. The half-day trip was awesome and we’re really looking forward to trying out the several other hiking spots around…and in the winter, it’ll be all about skiing since we’re only 2 hours from the mountains – take that Midwest!

Of course we’re missing Chicago a little, and our friends a LOT, but this city is turning out to be a great place for us and we couldn’t be happier with the decision to move here. We’re having a blast and so glad to share it with you…but be on the look-out, we’ll be back to our respective hometowns and Chicago in no time!

Your urban explorers,
Brett and Kate

Moving to a city with less-congested streets than Chicago was incentive enough for Kate to get a new bike for the first time since childhood…yay! Besides, with campus only about a 15-minute ride from the house it’ll be a great way to save on bus fare. AND just a few minutes from us is the river that has some amazing bike paths/trails all along it…a great new way for us to get out and exercise together.

For our first ride Monday night, we took one of the riverside paths up to Manayunk and back, about 10 miles total, in about an hour. Tthe path is pretty nice the whole way, just a little narrow at a few points, but still easily navigable. Hopefully we can keep this up and get a ride in at least every other day:)

Rolling right along,
Brett and Kate

Here it is – our new home! So far it’s treating us well (despite not having A/C for a few days) and we’re about 96% settled into the place. We definitely still have some updates to make to the bathroom and office, mostly cosmetic things to organize a bit and make it feel a little cozier, but the downstairs is pretty much done. We love, love, love our kitchen!! I mean, the whole house is great, but the kitchen is just perfect for us – lots of counter space (we both get to use our own knife sets) and tons of storage…what that means  is that we’ve been all-out cooking every meal since we’ve been here. It’s pretty awesome Next up, besides the bathroom and office, will be getting some paintings made to help with the several big, blank walls we have.

Making a house a home,

Brett and Kate

Now that we, and our stuff, have been living here for a full week, we thought we’d share some of the key things we’ve learned:

1) Neighborhoods here change even quicker than in Chicago. We were told not to park on the cross-street north of our house because it’s not so great, but at the cross-street to the south, there are kids playing outside at 9pm with their parents completely care-free! Needless to say, we’re learning our boundaries quickly and are tremendously grateful for the built-in GPS navigation on our phones

2) Not everyone in Philly is rude. Within 30 minutes of arriving the first day, while we were brining in the few items we had in the car with us, both our next door neighbors (a young married couple), and a woman from across the street came outside to introduce themselves to us and welcome us to the neighborhood – I never even got that in Chicago! Since then we’ve met several other people on our block, and one guy (whose family has owned his house for 3 generations) is trying to put together a block party for later in the fall, which we love!

3) You have to plan ahead to buy alcohol. Liquor laws here in PA are a bit tricky because there is no private enterprise within the alcohol industry. In other words, there are no Mom ‘n Pop stores nor can grocery stores (e.g.) have any part in selling alcohol. That means that to get beer, you must buy it directly from a distributor, which are of course few and far between and keep regular business hours for the most part. (There are a FEW bars which hold a special license allowing them to sell 6-packs to go, but it’s a little strange) Wine and hard liquor, on the other hand, are only sold at state-run facilities (also not greatly accessible), with hours of 9am-9pm and security guards all around. So, to sum it up, it’s not impossible, but will definitely take some getting used to!

Much more to come – now that we’re pretty settled into the house, we’ll be venturing out some more and will be sharing all the fun stuff we’re doing!

Loving Philly so far,

Brett and Kate

Some homemade pasta primavera, wine, top chef and some homemade peanut butter cookies. Yum!

Slowly adjusting to our new life and home,

Brett and Kate

Slowly but surely we are unpacking and settling in.  Unfortunately, we have had a few breakages that are starting to add up.  Its impressive there are not more things damaged considering the condition of some of the boxes and the way the movers carried things in.  Yikes.  I guess I need to look up the definition of fragile and this end up cause apparently they mean different things here in PA.

If you can’t duck it, chuck it,
Brett and Kate

Short story: we got to Philadelphia Monday evening, picked up the keys to our house, and finally got to see our new home!

Long story: After not hearing from the moving company all weekend, we decided we were going to call them first thing Monday morning to see what the status of our move was. While spending Sunday evening with our good friends Justin & Hedda, we get a call around 9pm from the driver of our moving truck saying we are to meet him in Philadelphia the next afternoon. I’m sure you’re thinking “what?!”, and so were we. We told him we wouldn’t be able to leave until the morning & with the 6 hr drive, wouldn’t make it until early evening at best, so we agreed to meet at 6. We were pretty disappointed to have to leave NY so quickly, but I must say, the drive from NY to Philly was absolutely beautiful. After driving all day we get a call from the driver around 430pm saying that he’s not able to make the delivery that is scheduled before ours (and packed in front of ours) so he won’t be able to deliver our stuff until Tuesday morning. So, as it turns out, the day, weekend, month, etc all led to a very anti-climactic end when we spent the 1st night in our new home/city on the floor with nothing

Tuesday we got up, got ready, & started cleaning before our things arrived. When the driver showed up, he informed us that he was going to need a shuttle to move our stuff because our street is so narrow, but that his shuttle was full with the other delivery so he needed to drop that off before he could switch our stuff & be back with it around 230pm. (Side-note - I never want to hear the word shuttle again…grr.) So, we go run a few errands then come home at 2, just to get a call from Carlos that his shuttle is broken & he’ll be here in a few hours after it’s fixed. Double Grr. We ran a few more errands (groceries, yay!) & was home for Carlos & his Bostonian sidekick to arrive at 630. They finished after 3 hours of moving, 6 bottles of water & lemonade (I’m a good host!), and 2 short breaks to tell us ridiculous stories.

We decided to stay up and start unpacking & made it until 1am before we crashed…but at least this time we had a bed! Brett was back to work today, from home, while I worked ON the home, getting rid of boxes & making this place ours. Much more on the house to come, but so far, we absolutely love it! Thanks for checking up on us

Finally home sweet home,

Brett and Kate

Both the sky and the water were on fire hanging with Justin and Hedda in NY waiting for the Movers to call.

Getting lit ourselves,

Brett and Kate