A quick trip to Philly

With all the stress of home buying going on I decided on a whim about a month ago (I love that  this counts and on a whim for me) that I wanted to go “home” to Philadelphia to see my two best friends Kate and Sarah. As you might recall, Kate’s wedding was this July. We went up to Philly for the first time together and Mr. A got to experience the full force that is Philadelphia. Note as a reminder is as effing 121 with heat index in the church where Kate got married. NOT COOL, literally…

So this trip was much lower key. I wanted to meet Sarah’s new little baby Brycen and I wanted to spend some good quality time with both of them before I was going to bogged down with house projects this summer. I knew that spending money on a ticket up there with all the expenses of home buying was going to seem nuts. So I just bought a ticket before I owned a home officially!

Friday I spent the day hanging out with Sarah and baby Bryce in their home. We walked to Main Street in Manyunk and had lunch and then made dinner with her husband and drank wine on their porch overlooking the city. We talked about their move to the Boston area they will be making later this summer (I can’t believe they will not be in Philly anymore) and all the home choices they have to make. The weather dinner and company were just what I needed to relax and enjoy. It was perfect start to the trip.

Yummy salad Sarah made for dinner. I must make this.

 Saturday we got up and had breakfast at their house and chatted more about all of the house stuff going on with them and Mr. A and I. Sarah also gave me a whole run down on the whole birth process, which BTW, I want to give birth just like she did now. We then walked down to Main Street again to get a mani/pedi. This was the first one Sarah had had since getting pregnant! It was so great to see her relaxing and getting to have some fun girl time with her. He husband, Gian, took the baby and headed to a sports bar with the baby bijorn in tow. It was so cute. Here is a picture of the two of them!

Sorry I know this is sideways... So cute though.

I will figure out how to rote tate this. But this is Sarah and Gian walking back to their house in the city. So pretty.

Shortly after coming back from mani/pedi time Kate arrived at Sarah’s house and the three of us headed to dinner. We went to this super cute Italian place that serves you olives and cheese when you sit down. Yes. I know. Amazing. Sarah is a rock star mommy and brought baby Bryce with her. It was so cool to see how much she has grown into a wonderful mom! She just chatted and hung out with us while Bryce hung out. The three of us caught up over a glass of wine. I can’t believe that we have known each other for a decade now! It was just a perfect night.

Proof about the olives and cheese. So yummy.

I got my WAWA run in while in Philly. This is a necessary stop on every trip back home.

After dinner, Kate and I headed to her house. Note: when Kate and I are left alone things tend to get very out of control quickly. Kate and I started the night with a glass of red wine and a chat and me saying, “I am pretty tired”. Before I knew it we had gone through 3 bottles of wine!!! I know… we are awesome, you are jealous. Her husband, the state trooper, left for work at 5 am. We were still sitting on her back porch chatting. He told us to go to bed and that we looked like a hot mess. We did not turn in until 6am. Hey, when you only get a little time together you have to make the most of it.  And we really did!

Sunday we woke up and headed over to a local bar to watch the Flyers game. I know nothing about hockey so I chose to instead nurse my hangover with more beer. Because you know, that is how you get rid of a hangover right? After the game was over we headed home and watched game of thrones and chatted. I loved just getting to “hang out” at their house. Usually when I am in town we are always doing something special so we never get to just relax and spend time together. It was really a perfect end to a super fun mini vacation to Philly.

Sunday funday at the bar in Philly. Watching the Flyers!

Italy Trip - Day 10 - The day I had dinner with Robert Downy Jr.

Well not really. But he and Marrissa Tome totally stayed at the hotel we went to for our last night in the movie that inspired this whole trip!

This what what we woke up to every morning...

Third day, still an unreal view!

This day we did nothing, seriously, nothing. We went out to the sun deck and laid around, read our books and drank. It was awesome. Notice that I did not say "lay out" because we for sure did not lay in any sun. This was what it looked like from the chairs we were in all day.

All day sun protection... you know it!

Hubs hiding from the sun. We dare not have another episode of sun poising on our hands.

But look at this view!

And every once in a  while we would get in the pool and float around. It was awesome.

Mr. A in the infinity pool.

Perfect day doing nothing.

That night we headed to Le Sirinuse hotel. It is by far the nicest hotel in town and where many many celebrities have stayed and movies have been made. Kim K actually had her honeymoon there... yea that ended well.

We started off with drinks at their champagne bar. I had their signature drink and i must say I may have been drunk after one sip. Best drink ever. Mr. A hated his but he ordered James Bond's drink because apparently this is where Peirce stays. He looked good while drinking it none the less.

Then we moved to dinner at the main restaurant. Again, I will be blogging about all the food later but let me just say this. It was THE MOST expensive meal we have ever had, and it was freaking worth every penny.

Our table.

Inside the restaurant.

We ate at one of those little tables by the water.

The city lights from our table.

There are no words to describe how life changing this night was for me. I will go back to Positano one day. I have to. It is officially my favorite place on the planet. I have to be honest there were moments of complete panic when I realized I had to come home. Seriously, there were tears. For some reason I feel totally at peace in this little town. I just can't belive how lucky I was to be able to go there! Thank you to my sweet husband who made it all happen and believed we could do it. I love you.

Next up, our last days in Italy. More about food, and where we are heading next!

Italy Trip - Day 9 - I'm On A Boat!

On our second day in heaven we decided to explore the coast a little bit. We had several options. One was to take a scooter down the highway to see the other towns, and one was to rent a boat for the day. We opted for the boat, and damn was it awesome.

First, this was out view from our balcony that morning. I just had to brag a bit more... 

Me relaxing and taking in the views

Yea, I could totally live here.

Now on to the rest of our day. In Italy you do not need a license to drive a boat, so we just rented a boat from a local company, they gave us a five minute tutorial in broken English and we were off. These are some fun pictures from throughout or exploration of the coast. We stopped and dropped anchor a few times, ate lunch and drank wine and dipped our feet in the water. It was really a perfect way to see the Amalfi Coast.

The song, "I'm On a Boat" should be playing in the background as you look through these pictures...

Me on the boat

Me driving the boat

I am on a boat, and driving it bitches...

Positano is way back there...

This is how I roll

This is how Mr. A rolls

Gorgeous views of the coast and the famous highway

One of the other towns along the coast

So pretty. It was perfect.

End of the day we we heading back in to the city. Yes, no one is driving the boat right now...

This is what Positano looks like from the water. It looks fake right!?

Sun set on a perfect day on the water. This picture was taken from our balcony as well.

Next up the saddest day ever, our last full day in heaven.

Italy Trip - Day 8 - When I discovered heaven is a place on earth

There are several things that I should remind you all about this trip. One, it was kinda, sorta, our Honeymoon. Two I have wanted to go to the Amalfi Coast since I was about 8. Three, Positano is the shit.

All of these factors lead to our consious decision to go all out for the last three days fo our trip. Up until then we stayed in fairly inexpensive hotels, and took the bus and not caps most places. And we tried to keep all food spending to around 75 euro a day, including drinking!

After taking the hour bus ride from Sorrento to Positano along the terrifying coastal highway all thrifty-ness when right out the window. The hotel we stayed at was ranked #1 on trip advisor and then we upgraded our room to a honeymoon suite. Walking from the bus stop to the hotel only took about two minutes and within these two minutes I knew I had been right all my life and that I was going to love this town.

Hotel Marincanto and Positano welcomed us wish such kindness. Everyone was so nice and everything was so pretty. We had a bit of a wait to get into our room so we decided to walk out onto the sun deck. Kid you not this was about five minutes after arriving:

Mr. A took a picture of my face as I saw our view and Positano for the first time.

A nice couple took our picture for us on the sun deck. They had just gotten engaged.

Helloooooo LOVER. This is the view we had from our amazeballs hotel.

The water was so unreal.

Yes. This is a real place. I know.

The beaches are mostly private, and rocky, and the hike down to the beach was a lot so we stayed up on the sun decks a lot. But the water was unreal when we did finally make it down there.

Right here is about when Mr. A said he had never seen a more beautiful place. Oh and that we needed a drink.

I totally agreed.

We ordered a drink and hid in the shade because we dared not get sun burned. This a reoccurring theme throughout our time in Positano.

Our first drinks in Positano.

Love

After checking into our room and changing we walked around the town and found lunch at a local shop. Our hotel is next to the red hotel in this picture.

Can you tell how pumped I was. This whole thing was a trip that I will never forget but getting to this spot was literally a life long fantasy of mine.

SOOO Happy.

That night we walked around and decided to have dinner down on the water front. We both liked our meal and then of course had lots to drink. We strolled back to our hotel to get some rest after a long day.

View from our table at dinner. the water was so relaxing to listen to.

Here is where I start bragging (because before I was not) about how freaking awesome our hotel room was. We had a special suite with hot tub... on the balcony... overlooking the city. Yea it was awesome.

Hot tub for two, check

View of the city from the hot tub check.

This picture shows the lights a little more from the city.

While I took pictures my husband washed his manties, sexy I know...

The hotel sent up a bottle of wine for us to enjoy on our first night. So sweet.

View back towards the hot tub on our balcony.

That night we relaxed and went to bed early. We had a long day ahead of us and wanted to enjoy as much as we could! Actually that is not totally true, we sat on the balcony for about two more hours drinking wine and talking about how lucky we were to be there.

Next up more of how much I loved Positano... get used to it!