Last Monday, Emmy, our mom and I flew to Philadelphia, PA to help her get moved in to her new apartment. It was a bittersweet trip. She will be there all summer, so it was nice to have the week to see Philly and spend some time with her.
Our flight there was through Atlanta, so we used our 1 hour layover to get bagels, coffee and tea from Starbucks. Have you ever noticed how much fun it is to people watch when you’re running on about three hours of sleep? You should try it some time.
We got there around lunch time, so we got settled in at my cousin’s apartment and then went to The Gold Standard. I had the black bean burger and it was ridiculously good –
After we ate, we walked back to the apartment to rest up. Then we took the trolley into town and got groceries at Trader Joe’s (which is amazing!) and made dinner
After dinner, we sat out on the front porch of the apartment and picked fresh strawberries from the garden.
On Tuesday, my mom wasn’t feeling well so we stuck close to home and spent lots of time outside and exploring around our block.
I came across this Martha Stewart entertainment book at the apartment and found something interesting inside…
On Wednesday, my mom was still feeling pretty crummy so Emmy and I went into center city and explored around. We had a picnic at a park in Rittenhouse Square and then walked around for a while.
We went looking for the movie crew for Dead Man Down that our cab driver on Tuesday pointed out. We found it and also found Dominic Cooper running down the street being shot at – it was very exciting!
There he is in the tan jacket – I had no idea I was standing this close to him until I walked across the street and realized that was him!
Since the movie is set in NY, everywhere you looked there were New York taxis, street signs, business signs and licence plates on parked cars. We didn’t get to see Colin Ferrall, who is the star of the film, but they’ll be there all month so Emmy might get to see him!
Emmy and I walked a couple blocks and went to H&M, JCrew and Anthropologie!
Then we came home and ate a really good tofu stir-fry and sat on the porch watching the rain.
On Thursday, my mom was feeling so awful and was having symptoms of a heart attack. We had to call 911 and rush her to the ER. This was very scary, not only because of her symptoms, but also because Emmy and I really had to take charge and do things we’ve never done before. After an exhausting 6 hours, they ruled out any serious conditions and thought that she was probably just coming down with something on top of dehydration and exhaustion from traveling. While she was having many different test done, Emmy and I ran errands and drank lots of Starbucks. About an hour after we got back to the apartment, our cousins, Kristen and Nate (whose apartment we’d been staying at) got back home. We ate salad from the garden with homemade honey mustard dressing (dijon mustard from France, honey from our front yard) and tofu hoggies from a small Chinese grocery store a couple blocks away and then went to get gelato and sorbetto from a place pretty close by.
grape and pineapple mint sorbetto
After we went out, we moved Emmy into her adorable apartment – we all love it!!
On Friday morning, we walked around the block one more time, packed up are suitcase and the hardest part, said goodbye to Emmy. There were minimal tears (a miracle in itself) and lots of hugs. We’re going back to see her in July, so it really won’t be that long, but it’ll feel much longer.
The plane ride home was quick and easy and it was good to be home. This was a very exciting trip (with the exception of the ER visit) and I’m counting down the days until our next trip.
