On Valentine’s Day, a bunch of my high school girlfriends and I drove up to Philadelphia for a day trip to visit our dear friend Debbie! (Dan was a great sport about watching the girls while I got to spend time with my friends, and we had already had our own Valentine’s celebrations in the days prior.) Jen, Mimi, and I headed out in the morning, and got to Philly in time to enjoy soup dumplings for lunch with Debbie! Juli flew in to join us afterwards for post-lunch dessert at Audabon Bakeshop!
Audabon Bakeshop with the ladies
Mimi and I at lunch right before.
Neat signage at Audabon Bakeshop
Delicious macarons from Audabon Bakeshop
Strawberry brick toast at Audabon Bakeshop
It was so amazing that it necessitates posting another angle of it.
Walking to The Barnes Foundation museum as the flurries fell around us.
Lovely Mimi!
Us at the Barnes Foundation
The snow made everything look so romantic!
Cool crystals hanging from the ceiling of the museum.
Juli, Debbie, and Jen at dinner
We enjoyed dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Kanella. We didn’t realize that we’d be dining off of their Valentine’s menu, so it ended up being quite a meal!
shepherd’s pie
lamb chops
Lobster from Kanella
Chocolate cake with lavender ice cream. My favorite dessert there!
This was also delicious.
Our day trip to Philly was quite eventful! It was a fun and memorable day, and it was so enjoyable getting to spend Valentine’s Day with these amazing ladies!
We got caught in a bit of a blizzard on the way so it took us a while to get home, but thankfully we made it back in one piece around 2 in the morning. Can’t wait until we are all reunited again!
My best friend Debbie moved up to Philadelphia earlier this year for her postdoc, and I’ve been wanting to visit her for a while now. Dan assured me that he could watch Mio for a weekend while I took the bus up from DC to go hang out with her, so I was able to finally make the trip this past weekend! As much as I missed Mio and Dan while I was away, it was so nice and relaxing to take a break from motherhood for a couple days and enjoy some girlfriend time. I’ve known Debbie since we were freshmen in high school, and my fondest memories are of us hanging out in college together, being roommates and watching movies and just chatting and pigging out on delicious eats. Last weekend felt almost like those good old college days all over again!
I woke up at dark o’clock to go into DC and take the bus from Union Station up to Philly, and got there in the late morning. We promptly headed over to Chinatown to get some dim sum!
Dim sum at Ocean Harbor. We ordered a lot more on top of this, but the dumplings are always my favorites!
After brunch, we got us some bubble teas and walked around some of the parks in Philadelphia and UPenn’s campus.
Domino sculptures in Philly
Giant gamepieces
In the city of brotherly love!
Cool structure in the middle of UPenn’s campus
Later in the afternoon, we went to the movie theater and watched Sofia Coppola’s latest film The Bling Ring. It was really interesting, especially because it’s based on true events and how accurate its portrayal is.
Stopping by Magpie for some delicious pie!
The menu at Magpie. So hard to choose!
We settled on Berry Lavender Crumb.
Digging in!
For dinner, we had gourmet banh mi with slow-cooked chicken and duck confit. So amazing!
We stayed up late chatting and watching criminal documentary shows like 48 Hours, and reminiscing about high school and college days! It felt like we were in our old dorm room 251 Slusher all over again (except Debbie’s apartment is much much nicer!). We got to sleep in until almost 11am the following morning (unheard of these days as Mio is usually sure to wake me by at latest 8am), and then we went out to get some lunch before I had to catch the bus to go back down to DC.
Eating shabazzi fried chicken from Federal Donuts at Rittenhouse Square.
Goodbye Philly, it’s been a fun (and delicious) weekend!
Many thanks to Debbie for her awesome hospitality and taking me around to eat so many delicious things and see such cool sights in Philadelphia! I felt like we ate so much in a short weekend — my tummy, heart and soul returned to DC full and happy. ♥ Thank you so much bestest!
