15th Wedding Anniversary

July 11 was our 15th wedding anniversary.  15 years!  Wow.  For months we tossed around ideas of what to do from nothing to throwing a big party.  In the end we got tickets for Wicked playing at the Academy of Music in the city and then decided to turn it into a weekend getaway for just the two of us.

We took the train down on Friday afternoon and checked in around 330.  We had wine and a cheese plate delivered as a treat.

We went to a Steven Starr restaurant called El Vez for dinner on Friday night.  Delicious, the best blood orange margarita ever.  Then we walked around and went to Love Park.

Saturday we were up and out early being tourists.  We got on the hop on/hop off bus tour and did the entire loop ride of an hour and a half seeing pretty much all we would want to see on the surface without exploring in detail.  Had we had more time we could have gotten off the bus anywhere it stopped and grabbed another one back when we were done. Next time maybe.  Got to see Independence Hall finally though after living here for 5 years!

Onto the famouse City Tavern for lunch, even more delicious than El Vez and a quick walk over to Betsy Ross house before it closed.  Tried to get to the Liberty Bell but it closed at 5pm.

That night we went to the Academy of Music to see Wicked.  Such a grand theater and a great show!  Glad we went for sure.

Sunday we got up early and went to see the Liberty Bell, at my request, we made it there before it even opened so we were in and out very quickly!

Then we checked out of our hotel, grabbed the train back home and were home in time for Parker to take the girls to the pool while I did the laundry and got some food in the house!

One Direction at Hershey Park

I *think* I finally got my hearing back from going to the One Direction concert at Hershey Park last weekend.  Did you know pretween/tween/teenage girls can reach a decibel pitch in their screams that will make your ears bleed?  Wow was it loud.  I actually put cotton in my ears - *dork*  The girls had a great time at their first concert though and that's what counts.  We stayed for the weekend and did the park all day on Saturday.  My June board friend Tracy and her daughter Amanda came with us and went to the concert with us too.  Our seats were right next to each other and our hotel rooms were right across from each other.  It worked out great!  The park was super crowded on Saturday though which made it tough to see alot because you spent a lot of time in lines but everyone still had a good time.