Fall is here!

The temperatures have definitely dropped here in Philly. Early last week it was record high temps in the high 80's, and then one day the temperatures were in the low 60's. We're still waiting for the leaves to turn, but I have a feeling it won't be too long until that comes. We tried fresh apple cider donuts yesterday for the first time. We didn't think they tasted a whole lot like apple cider, but Alex ate one while drinking apple cider and he said it was the perfect combination!

On Friday night we made our first visit to the Museum of Art. We ate dinner at the museum restaurant, in which we were surrounded by a lot of "older" people (I think we were the youngest ones there by about 50 years). And then we enjoyed some jazz by a New Orleans style band. It was a great atmosphere! We visited the Japanese tea room in the Asian art wing where they have authentic Japanese buildings, and live plants growing. Very cool!

Saturday we had a ward mission temple trip. We went to Manhattan, and had a great experience. It's so hard to go to Manhattan and not stay to see or do anything! Alex and I keep saying we need to just take a weekend and head to Manhattan to go to a nice restaurant and see a show. And, of course, maybe stop at Canal Street and do some bargain shopping!

I put up all of my Halloween decorations, and now I'm just ready for some trick-or-treaters! I have a feeling I won't be getting any, but I can always hope! Every year since we've been married I've bought bags of candy in hopes of handing them out, and every year we don't get any trick-or-treaters. Maybe we're living in the wrong places, or maybe times are changing. It's so sad because I remember going out to trick-or-treat with my friends, and there were always loads of other kids out. Now when you drive around on Halloween night, you're lucky to see any. So sad.

Taste of Philly

This week was restaurant week in Philadelphia so we got to try out a few different restaurants. Our first night we went to Valanni, a mediterranean/latin tapas restaurant. It was fabulous! The baked brie we got was the best I've ever tasted. It had pears and cherries in it, and was the perfect consistency. Alex said that while he was eating it he was having fireworks going off in his head (those of you who've seen Ratatouille will know what he's talking about).

We also ate at Jake's, a restaurant close to our home that "unofficially" participates in restaurant week. And last night we hit the City Tavern with Natalie, Marc, MaryAnn and Sam. The atmosphere is kind of fun because everyone is dressed in period clothing, and we had a man come around and speak with us a little and then he sang us a song. I have to say that the company was the best part about the evening, though.

I'm excited to say that I will be starting my new job on Monday! I'll be working at SAP, a business software company that's headquartered in Germany. I'll be at the Americas headquarters in the global HR department. It's funny because I was having such a hard time pinning down exactly what it was I wanted to do, and then when this job appeared I knew it was perfect for me. I get to do the global aspect (which is what I loved the most about my job at the Church), the HR aspect, and I will be doing it at a well-known, respected company. The other great thing about the company is that they are all about social responsibility, and they're building a LEED certified campus (which basically means that everything will be environmentally friendly).

My official title is Global Mobility Process Advisor, and I'll be working on relocations of employees all around the world. I'm excited because I get to work on VISAs, taxes, logistics, and everything in between when it comes to relocating somebody. Wish me luck!

Philly MOA

As of today we are officially members of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (you know, where Rocky ran up the stairs). We get free admission to the museum for a year, and free admission to various events they have - all for a small donation, of course. It's nice to be supporting the arts now that we're out of school. We almost feel like contributing members of society! Anyway, I guess every Friday night they showcase a local jazz band at the MOA, so Alex is pretty excited about that.

We went to the Washington DC Temple for a Stake temple trip last weekend. The DC temple is the largest temple in the world, and there's a big visitors center which is nice to take new members to. After the session we were starving, so we headed into Silver Spring and ate at a Chinese restaurant. It was fun to be in Maryland, and I was telling Alex stories of my time living there with Dan and Ashley. We found a farmer's market on the side of the road near the temple and stopped to buy some tomatoes and peaches. I love that there are farmer's markets everywhere out here!

We decided to stop in Baltimore on the way back to Philly and drove around trying to find a German bakery that Alex read about on the internet. Amazingly we found it - Alex's directions were that it was on a street that started with a B and it was a diagonal road...Anyway, we bought a peach cake and a schmearkase, which apparently translates to cottage cheese in German, but it was more like a cheesecake. They were both great, but the schmearkase was amazing!

One entry at a time

Well, I'm averaging about one post a month here. Let's see if I can start to do a little better. I'm sitting here chatting with a friend back in Utah while Alex plays the Wii. Ahh, the life of "responsible adults."

Alex and I have been doing a vegetarian week. We ran out of meat, and then just never bought any more, so that resulted in us being vegetarian. It's actually been kind of fun. We've had some great meals like vegetable lasagna, black bean and corn stew, and tofu thai curry. Alex actually told me last night that he's decided he's not vegetarian, he's Mormon (i.e. eat meat sparingly...). We're going on 8 days and counting.

On Labor day we went to an arts and crafts show in Lancaster. Alex actually saw a few ceramicists that he was impressed by. I loved looking at the photography and getting ideas for how I can improve my own photography. In the end we commented on how nice it will be when we have a lot of money and can afford to buy things that we find at arts and crafts shows. There are some amazingly talented people out there and it's nice to appreciate their work.

Restaurant Week is coming up in Philly, and we're pretty excited. We haven't had a chance to try very many restaurants downtown, so this will be an adventure. I'm thinking of making a reservation for every night. We'll see if I actually do! There's nothing like trying good food at discounted prices...

Philly!

Um, so we never finished writing about our adventures in Europe. In a nutshell, the trip was awesome and we are so happy we did it. The only problem is that now I just want to live there. Maybe one day...

So Alex and I are in Philly. It's beautiful out here - when we first got here and were driving around to find an apartment, we were amazed at how green it was and how many trees there are! We live in the city, but it actually feels more like a suburb. It takes Alex about 25 minutes on the train to get to work. Alex is enjoying his job, and is keeping very busy. Our church callings keep us busy on Sundays and in the evenings. We get to work a lot with the missionaries, which is great because I always wanted to serve a mission and now I am!

We're loving how close we are to great day-trips! We went up to Manhattan with some new members and went to the temple (see picture below). And last weekend Alex and I went to Ocean City and enjoyed the boardwalk and beach. It's crazy how much there is to do out here.


Early this morning we heard a loud crash, and Alex jumped out of bed to see what was going on. He came back into the bedroom chuckling because the crash was a large tree falling down in the back and hitting our back door. Luckily it was just a tree and nothing else!

That's all for now.

Abenteuerland

Kristin, Megan, and I went to Germany on Monday morning. Most of our time was spent in Megan's mission borders, so she was our tour guide/interpreter. We flew into Friedrichshafen airport, which is right down near the Austrian/Swiss/German border. Our first night we tried to go to a small town the black forest, Triberg, to get a cuckoo clock, but all the shops were closed. We think it was a holiday or something, since even the grocery stores were closed at 5:00. That night we got lost trying to find our hotel B&B thingy, just over the border into Austria, but finally got checked in and checked out right afterward.

The first two days in Germany it rained. And rained. I've lived in Washington, so I've seen rain, and this was an impressive, never-ending rain. No breaks or let ups, just rain. The clouds were low and mist was floating all about, so we didn't have much of an idea that we were smack-dab in the middle of some really cool mountains.

We started to figure out the mountains were something neat when we went to Neuschwanstein and saw the base of the mountains under the cloud cover. There was a hit of snow on the hills above the fairy-tale castle. The castle was cool and sort of creepy at the same time. It was like a 19th century Neverland, Micheal Jackson's ranch in California. I imagine that it's cool, but still creepy.

The best part of our day was our trip up to some castle ruins above Reute in Austria. This was later in the day, and by then the rain was starting to soak through our jackets. We climbed up to the first castle in 15 minutes although the signposts said it would take a half an hour. We figured it was quick and we were already wet and cold so it wouldn't hurt anything to keep going up to the second castle, also posted at 30 minutes away. If we'd come so far, why not?

As we started on the trail up, we realized that gravity functions differently in the Alps. The Rockies are cool mountains, but this mountain was straight up! After struggling up to the top of the mountain to an impressive view of the surrounding valleys we realized that it had started to snow. Kristin was ready to kill me when I was unsure of the best way to get back down the mountain and the snow and wind had picked up. I like to think her love for me kept her warm. The castle was worth the hike, and we were the only tourists tough enough to hike for an hour up a vertical mountain in a snowstorm to see it. It was a nice change from the Disneyland feel of Neuschwanstein.

We spent the next day in Munich. We walked a lot and saw the sights. We stopped at a market downtown and got some crazy fresh juice and some yummy strawberries. I got a passionfruit, pineapple, mint drink. It was wiggity-wacky, but kinda good. The strawberries were super fresh and perfectly ripe. The city was pedestrian friendly and cool looking. We went to the Hofbraus (there's an umlaut on the a--but I'm too lazy to figure out how to do that. Pretend with me) a big beer garden. The food was very German, and we sat with some German tourists at our table. The polka band played some songs off of the German beer drinking album I bought in high school, which was funny.



The next day we drove back through the alps, on our way to the airport. We were heading to London, or so we thought. The nightmare of our England trip was about to start. Stay tuned for that . . .

The West Coast

We made our way up the west coast of Ireland. Our first stop was the Cliffs of Moher, also known as the Cliffs of Insanity, and lucky for us it was a sunny day (the last time we were there it was pouring horizontal rain). We wanted to get away from the touristy side, so we headed to some other cliffs. There was a huge sign that said, "Do not go past this point," so of course we did! We walked along this dirt path right along the edge of the cliffs. Alex and Megan would lie down on their stomach's every once in awhile and look over the edge - they're the tallest cliffs in all of Europe if that gives you any idea of how high they are!



Then we headed to the Burren, which is a windblown limestone wasteland. The landscape is completely different than the rest of Ireland. We saw the Poulnabrone Dolmen, which is a portal tomb that looks just like a big stone table. Pretty fun! After the Burren, we drove to Gort which is Ireland's little Brazil. We stopped in at a grocery store and Alex was having so much fun buying up all sorts of food that he used to get in Brazil. Alex said that if he were to live in Ireland, he would live there because there are a ton of Brazilians!

We stayed in Galway for a couple of nights, and made a day trip out to the Aran Islands. On our way there we drove by the "Quiet Man" bridge. Then we took a ferry out to the biggest island, Inishmore. We had so much fun there! We rented bikes and rode around the whole island. We rode up to the highest point on the mountain, did some rugged mountain biking through some rocky terrain, and saw a stone fortress that's over 2,000 years old! An added bonus was that we saw some seals playing in the bay. Biking the island is definitely the way to go!

We then made our way up to County Mayo. We went to Cong, which is where the "Quiet Man" cottage is. We did a lot of driving through the country, and it was so beautiful! There are wild rhododendrons growing everywhere. We saw a few memorials dedicated to the people who died from the potato famine, which was kind of somber. We also saw Croagh Patrick, which is the mountain on which St. Patrick cast out snakes from the island. Then we took a slog in the bog! We walked out onto the boglands and played around. You can stand 20 feet away from someone else and if they jump, you can feel the ground shake. Pretty neat!

We'll post soon about our trip to Germany and London!