Phantastic Philly

Somewhere in all the craziness that has been my vacation at home, I managed to do something I had been really looking forward to. I bought a BIKE!

I sold my rusty bike before we moved and now I am sad that I had no bike to ride around. So, I wanted a selection, not here is the one women's bike, hope you like it. So I went to a big bike store (Princeton Sports ) and told them what I was looking for and where I would be riding. This was the bike that I bought. Yes, I shipped it. It was a lot cheaper than you would think, don't worry, I am not CRAZY.

I also could not resist HIS and HERS loofahs. They were on sale!

I had planned on buying a lot of clothing, but it seems I bought a lot of heavy food products instead. I bought tons of "gourmet" dog food and cat food so it was heavy. I boxed it up in an APO flat rate shipping box and off it went this morning.

To keep everyone up to date on my travels, I went to Philly earlier this week. But before I left Tuesday I went to dinner with my dad at Sushi Hana .
Gotta have some miso soup and a salad.
This was my dad's plate of sushi.
I am not a huge sushi fan. I just reall do not like seaweed. It tastes funny to me. I like when I can get sushi that is made using soy paper in place of seasweed. But, I do like this...
My main meal was shrimp teriyaki. This was sizzling shrimp and the sauce was on the side, which I was not expecting, but it turned out to be good as it was not swomming in sauce.

See, sauce on the side...
Then it was time to hit the road. I wanted to make sure my friend and old roomie Carolyn was going to be home from work, but I did not want to get stuck in rush hour traffic. I spotted a Starbucks at the Chesapeake House rest stop.

Not sure why or how this happened, but I find myself drinking a lot of lattes these days.

Since I was stopped for a break I decided to eat my snack too. My aunt gave me this before I left New York. It was really good. Not only did I get some omega action, but I got fiber too!

Dinner was awesome. I met up with all my Philly friends, which meant I was mixing my groups. I met up with 2 camp friends, my college roommate Amanda, and my roomie from my during my internship (Carolyn). It was great to catch up with Naomi, my camp friend who I have not seen in a rediculously long time. It was awesome to see Laura again, who visited me in Vegas in December but it was only a short trip. Amanda is always so much fin to hang out with since you never know what kind of "trouble" we will get in to. Then there is Carolyn who iss a super friend and I could not imagine not having in my life.

Dinner was at a little Middle Eastern place, but I was so caught up with catching up that I didn't take any pictures. I had a yummy falafel and hummus pita sandwich.

After dinner we headed to Tria . This is a wine bar in Philly. I spotted a Nutella panini on the menu and thought it was too funny not to try it out. Nothing like warm toasty bread with Nutella.

Yes, I said it was a wine bar, but thinking about wine made me sleepy, so I went with a beer. It was pretty good, not the best, but it was drinkable. Just a tad on the dark side.

This is why Carolyn is so super. When we lived together she would make us banana bread and I really don't like nutrs in my baked goods. She always made a loaf- half with nuts and half without and labelled the sides. That is why Carolyn rocks (among other reasons of course)! So she made a whole nutless banana bread for us when I came to visit.

YUM! We had this for breakfast on Wednesday.

Oh, and I had my first cup of coffee. Well, it was more like some half and half and sugar with a splash of coffee! I drank it though.

After walking around and shopping a little in Manayunk (where Carolyn lives) we stopped at Machismo Burrito Bar .

Look at how great this burrito looks. I would recommend this place. They do vegetarian and vegan too, cheap and big portions. I had a burrito with Boca "meat" on a whole wheat tortilla.

Super good, if you are in the area, go try it.

Again, I feel like all I did was eat this trip, but I promise you we actually went back to her house and watched the Phillies game before heading out for happy hour at Cooper's . I wanted something to eat before I got on the road again back to Baltimore.

Carolyn and I decided to split a few things. It is always nice to have friends who will go veggie for the night. Also good to have a friend that likes olives as much as you do!

We also had parmesean fries.

Tomato and mozzarella salad, olive oil and basalmic with white anchovy on top.

Last but not least, corn mac and cheese. We discovered the corn was referring to the corn meal baked on top.So that is it for my vacation within a vacation. I am so glad I was able to see so many family and friends and do a lot of fun activities and experience great food. I am looking forward to a fun day of shopping just me and my sister. My trip is really starting to wind down after 2 weeks of fun state side.

QUESTIONS: What is you favorite kind of sushi? Have you been to Philly, and if yes what is your favorite part?