All the way from Okinawa!

My brother and sister-in-law, Mark and Cat, came for a visit last weekend. They brought their two little boys, Matt and Ethan. It's always so fun to see how the boys grow up - they live in Japan so we don't see them that often. For their visit we played some Wii, rode the train to Center City, ate cheesesteaks at Geno's, toured Independence Hall, saw the Liberty Bell, and ate some handmade Pennsylvania Dutch pretzels at the Reading Terminal Market. Lots of fun! They're our first family visitors, and ironically they live the farthest from us!





NOTE: I amend myself - My sister Megan, all the way from Ireland, was the first family visitor we had. She helped me drive our car across the country to my empty apartment in Philadelphia. :)

Fire Safety

So last night Alex was going to teach his scouts about fire safety. As an object lesson, he took one of our smoke detectors so he could show them what it should sound like.

About a half an hour after he left, I was jolted out of my chair by an ear-splitting beeping sound and flashing lights. I honestly thought I was going to die. I ran outside and saw that the whole building was experiencing the same thing. I frantically tried to figure out how to “fix” our missing smoke detector, to no avail. I even had a neighbor come in to try to help me, but he assured me that it wasn’t because of the missing smoke detector.

I finally evacuated the building along with everyone else for a half an hour until the fire department and police came and determined that everything was ok.

I kept thinking how ironic it was that Alex was out teaching his scouts about fire safety while the fire department was at our house. Was it just a coincidence that it happened while our smoke detector was missing? Guess we’ll never know…

I (heart) NY

Feeling spontaneous? Alex and I were last week. In fact, that's what happens a lot of the time when we take short trips to fun destinations - we (mostly I) suddenly decide that it sounds fun to go to Seattle, or San Francisco, or New York. And then, thanks to Priceline, Southwest, and travel boards (and a wonderful husband who humors my passion for travel), we successfully get a little vacation lined up in no time, and for little money! Sometimes it pays to do last-minute traveling!

I've had the hankering for awhile to get up to New York to enjoy the sites. And, in my opinion, there's nothing better than NY during the holiday season! So on Wednesday I put in a bid for a hotel room for Friday night, and got it. It was right across the street from Ground Zero, and this was our view from our hotel room. It's a pretty humbling experience to look out across the remains there, especially when I have stood in the World Trade Center once before.


We walked over to Rockefeller Center and looked at the grand Christmas tree - along with thousands of other tourists.


We feasted on "authentic" Brazilian cuisine, and then had some fun at the m&m store in Times Square. I think there were 4 floors of m&m paraphernalia. Who knew that there was such an m&m craze?!


Saturday morning we did something totally fun. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. It's actually pretty amazing to stand in the middle of the bridge and look out in all directions. And the bridge itself is pretty neat. Highly recommended!


And for our final destination on this whirlwind of a trip, Canal Street, aka the place to go for knockoff goods. I've heard stories about going there and being ushered into hidden rooms to look at the knockoffs, so I was a little intimidated. It was definitely an experience! I've decided that I'm just not decisive enough to do that kind of shopping. I like to look at things and deliberate over them. I'm notorious for buying things, looking at them every day for a week, and then deciding to take them back. I have serious buyer's remorse. I did have fun, and ended up getting a couple of things, but Canal Street is probably something I'll save for when my mom or sisters-in-law come out. And now that I know the ropes, I'm happy to go with any of you! :)