Get outta town!

We did it - we finally made it out of State College (alive, I might add). Despite research and responsibility reaching out their long poisonous tentacles to hold us back, we escaped and made it on the road to Philadelphia last Friday at the early hour of .... noon
(hey, only 3 hours behind schedule).

We listened to a Sue Grafton book on the way - abridged though because the fabulous Judy Kaye narrates all of the abridged versions, and Andrew and I really just listen to these books so we can hear her voice - she's A.MAZ.ING.

We were soooo close to our hotel, obediently following the commands of our GPS when we ended up trapped on a straight path into New Jersey over the Benjamin Franklin bridge. There was much screaming in the car (and maybe some profanity) as we were forced to enter New Jersey and then turn around and pay the $4 toll to get back into PA....absolutely ridiculous. But we managed to escape without ticks, haha; although, there was a lovely arrest in progress by the tollbooths.

We finally made it to the hotel and
(after checking out the cheesy brochures in the lobby)decided to head to a nice area of downtown Philly called Rittenhouse Square. We lucked out with a free parking spot right off the square and decided to try a charming open-air French restaurant, Parc. It was one of the most incredible dining experiences I've ever had -
no exaggeration.

The atmosphere was perfect: just the right lighting, music, ambience.
Our waiter was incredibly friendly and helpful; everytime we ordered something, we'd ask him how to pronounce it and he was sooo nice about teaching us
(no snobbiness!)- although, he didn't seem to have any knack for photography
(see blurry pic of us at the end)

I had a spinach ravioli with a lemon-based sauce - yum!
and Andrew had trout amandine - also yum! -
and we enjoyed a bottle of simple ugni blanc wine.

Dessert was even better: strawberry glace profiteroles for me
(it came with its own little carafe of chocolate sauce!!) and pot de creme for Andrew- kind of like a chocolate mousse with a mint chocolate wafer and whipped cream. Ohh, and a deeeeelicious cafe au lait. We were in foodie heaven :)

It was so great to have a competely relaxed meal - no worries about getting home to let the dogs out/feed them/tend to their every need; no worrying about heading back to the lab to take readings; no worrying about laundry or dishes or vacuuming. It was fantastic. I think we spent over two hours at that meal.

Andrew and I just....talked, and it was so great to just feel like ourselves again. Those moments have been kind of few and far between lately with research pretty much consuming most of our time and the pets, the house and working out eating up the rest. It was honestly just one of those great moments in life -
funny how something as simple as a meal together can make you feel so close
and like all is right with the world :)

Stay tuned for the rest of the birthday weekend in Philly!