Eagles

Our last full day in Jersey/Philly was spent getting ready for the Eagles game. Bagels for breakfast, went to the nursery turned Christmas shop, watched some odd children's shows and hung out with the family. About an hour before leaving for the game I started to get nervous for the weather. I knew it would be chilly but they were saying at kick off it would be 45 degrees, with a wind chill that would drop it even more. Hmmm... I was excited because this was my first night game (well... not really a night game, but it was late enough that it was dark) and a chilly game. I should have brought a hat and gloves, but I ended up buying gloves at the game because I couldn't handle the cold :)

Of course I had to get a family photo... Fred, me, Jim, Gilat, Kai and Keith

Walking to the game... Jim and Keith in the background


In our seats at the game. Fred, Keith and the crew were 2 sections over from us.

E - A - G - L - E - S!!!

Lucky us... we even had front row seats to a fight. It was more of a pushing match and was really pretty stupid. Eventually the guys shook hands and let it go

The sunset was gorgeous! I wish the stadium wasn't in the way, but I at the time I wasn't willing to walk to the other side of the stadium for a picture because the game was pretty good. This was around the 3rd Quarter. I gave up and just tied my scarf around my head... Jim said I looked like a grandma, but I didn't care. I was warm!

There was some game drama that kept us on our feet during the last half of the 4th quarter. Some stupid plays, bad calls by the umps, and 2 teams that really wanted to win had us slightly worried about the outcome of the game.

In the end the Eagles won by 2 points.... Eagles 26 Colts 24

Jim was doing his happy dance after the Eagles won the game. I'm glad that some of the fans didn't beat him up after doing this dance in the stands :) We left the next morning around 6:30am. The Philly airport was easy to navigate and didn't have any wait times.

As always.... we had a wonderful time on vacation. Now to plan the next one :)

Family Time in Jersey

Friday night we flew to Philly to spend time with my side of the family for the weekend. We didn't do anything on Friday night except get sandwiches from Wawa for dinner. Wawa, for those of you that don't know, is a convenience store on steroids. They have at least 8 different choices of coffee, along with flavored creamers, they have a sandwich stand where they will make you sandwiches, and all sorts of goodies. I love this place. If I had the money I would totally open on up in Austin.

Saturday morning Keith, Gilat and Kai drove down to Freds house to spend the weekend there. Fred was working so we all took a walk down to the Delaware river to get some fresh air and to let Kai run around.

Jim, Gilat, Keith and Kai. Enjoying the park and watching the ducks and geese swim around. We did have to watch out for green duck/geese pooh.... it was really green and kind of freaky.

1...2...3... UP!

Gilat and Keith... love this picture of these two. We tried to get Kai in the photo, but he wasn't having it.

Jim and I

The trees still has plenty of color foliage on them, very pretty!

Oh mama! This is why I would weigh 400 pounds if I lived on the East coast. This was a very tasty cheesesteak, but it had a twist. There was a garlic sauce on it that gave it a hint of a piece of garlic bread was hiding out in my cheese steak.

We visited Peddlers Village on Saturday afternoon because they were having an Apple Festival. They had little booths that sold Apple Dumplings, Cider, Apple Fritters, Bushels of Apples, face painting for the kids and music. It was a festive little environment!

2 guys crushing apples for the cider using an old fashioned machine.

I'm not usually one to enjoy cider, but this was pretty good! It was warmed and had a slight spice to it.

Fred and Kai watching the pond and the fish

MMMMmmmmm! Apple Dumplings with a vanilla sauce. The apple was perfectly cooked, the pastry was delicate and the sauce added a little sweet to the dumpling. YUM

There was a little kiddy play area that Kai enjoyed.

Jim, Fred, Keith and Gilat

Kai dancing to the music

As we were walking along the shops, I noticed this Santa hanging out and I thought "Helloooo! Photo Op!" :) But Kai took one look at this guy and took off running.

I got a little closer and noticed that his eyes were almost glowing.... so he was deemed the Santa Troll and we all quickly walked away.

After Peddlers Village we headed to dinner at a local diner for dinner. It was nice to sit down and get some food into our bellies!

Kai got to try jello for the first time at dinner.... I'm pretty sure by the pictures you can see that he clearly enjoyed jello! :)

Diner

Boston- Day 2

Our day started off a little slow... our long travel day combined with our drinking that night caused us to crash hard. But once we were up and around we checked out of the hotel, got in the car and went in search for breakfast. We used the Yelp app and found a place near the hotel with great reviews, but we couldn't find parking so we went on to the next place. We got a bit lost which was frustrating because it was hard to navigate around the one way streets. I found another restaurant to eat at, but we drove around for 20 minutes looking for parking. We decided to give up and head over to the Samuel Adams brewery when we finally found parking. We had to walk about 6 blocks but I was happy to. I love walking around areas that I am unfamiliar with.

We found Mike and Patty's which is a little corner bistro with 6 chairs and 2 tables to sit at while eating. This place was TINY. After eating at the little diner yesterday and the small Italian restaurant the night before, I think we were destined to only eat at tiny places while visiting Boston :)
There were 4 employees working behind that little counter, and both Mike and Patty were in attendance. Mike worked the stove top while the others took orders, worked on cold sandwiches and served people. Most people that came in, got their order to go. They had a little table outside, but it was to chilly to sit out there. We were lucky and scored one of the tables.

I totally regret the food that I ordered, not that what I ordered tasted bad but that there were way more interesting things on the menu. I blame a slight hangover and being frustrated from not being able to find parking.

I should have ordered:

green madame.* an open-faced croque with gruyere, collard greens and dijon crème fraîche, broiled. on pain de mie. topped with a fried egg and served with a small green salad. $9.25. add ham, plus $1.

I ordered:

two eggs.* with bacon, home fries and toast. $8

The eggs were cooked perfectly (over medium) and the bacon was crispy! I really enjoyed my breakfast, I just wish I was a little more adventurous that morning. The OJ that we got was fresh and so delicious.

They had an odd assortment of condiments. They had 4 different types of hot sauces and a bottle of HP. We eyed the bottle of HP sauce and tried to figure it out, but we gave up and asked the crew behind the counter (at this point we were the only people in there). Mike said it was a British brown sauce that was similar to A1 sauce. I searched the Internet and found that people use it like a ketchup sauce. I tried a little with my eggs and potato's and it wasn't a life altering experience but it was different.

Internet Definition:

HP Sauce is a condiment: a popular brown sauce by HP Foods but now produced by H.J. Heinz in Elst, the Netherlands. It has a malt vinegar base blended with fruit and spices, and is usually eaten as an adjunct to hot or cold food, or used as an ingredient in soups or stews. ...

After our breakfast we walked around a bit before we headed back to the car. We came across this little door which had steep stairs down to the walkway. Can you imagine having to use it every day?

After our little walk, we headed to Samuel Adams to do the Brewery tour. The tour is free, but they do have limited space.

During our tour we got to try barley. The barley below is what they use for their Chocolate Bock (which we didn't get to try). But the barley kind of tastes like Grape Nuts.

We also got to smell the hops and learn about where they come from and the different types across the world.

As we were talking through, we saw this guy and recognized him from the commercials.

This particular brewery is used for creating new beers, supplying some of Boston as well as for the tour tastings. They have two other breweries, one was in Pa and I can't remember where the other is.

This is Jamie, she was our guide. She was knowledgeable and quite funny. While tasting the beer, she went over the 5 steps that they use to determine if a beer is good. Do I remember the 5 steps? No but I remember the basics... different ways to drink the beer to reach all areas of your pallet, smelling the beer and what to look for in a beer (the finger test).

This is the Boston Brick Red beer which is described as a traditional European style ale with a distinctive caramel flavor from pale and caramel malts. It was a really tasty beer but it will probably be the last time I taste it... it is only available on draft in Boston.

After the tour we took a trolly over to Doyles Bar for a beer and some food. The driver was crazy, cranked up the music, and would stop and accelerate quickly which got the trolly rocking.

We were told that this bar has been in a few movies, one of them is Mystic River.

We ordered clam chowder and fish and chips. I'm not a big connoisseur of clam chowder, but this chowder was quite tasty.

I was a big fan of the fish and chips. I don't know what type of fish they used, but it was delicate and flaky.

Good Bye Boston.... We had a wonderful time! On to Philly!