Trip Up-Date #3

So I left a bunch of cool things out of previous posts, it is so hard to summarize entire days of new stuff.

While in Philadelphia with N&L we walked by a church and just happened to catch eyes with the monk who lived there as he was crossing the door. He invited us in and gave us a tour of the church with lots of personal stories. He took our pictures and I got one of him. It was an amazing experience. He has had a rich life that started in Ireland and now had him in Philadelphia with a hundred points in between.

In Providence, RI Ashley and I ate a great brewery called Trinity (I think). We had their sample tray of beer and yummy food. In New Hampshire we ate at the Red Hook brewery, awesome food and a beer sampler, their beer wasn't really our style. We only spent the morning wandering around Maine, we had breakfast at a coffee roasters. The coffee was SO good.

Our reroute. As I said last time, we had to leave our liquor behind at the border crossing and come back through that one to pick it up. We decided to skip Buffalo/Niagra Falls to head back through the border and get our stuff, then go back to Philadelphia to visit with our family some more. Unfortunately, all the signs in Canada were in French and we weren't entirely sure where we were heading. We went through the wrong crossing and had to leave our liquor behind. We then proceeded to drive ALL of New York, which was pretty but L.O.N.G. on our way to Nadja and Lorien's.

We, of course, had a great time with them again and stayed a couple nights. We intended to stay one and then go of to Pittsburgh, but we just had too much fun. We got in late on Saturday and just hung out. Sunday we went to Nadja's championship kickball game (she is in the league). They were short a player at one point, so Ashley jumped in to play! It was a lot of fun, but, alas, we lost. The other team was terrible, personality wise. One guy was a real douche and there were a couple confrontations with him (go Lorien and Katie!). After the game, as is their team's tradition, we headed to Tattooed Moms (the awesome bar) and hung out. One of Nadja's team mates bought the first round and we just had a fun time hanging out with a bunch of new people. At some point during that night (whilst still sober on at least my part) we went to Infinity on South Street and I got my nose repierced!!! It looks great and the piercer was AMAZING. There was a group that went with me and we all just had a good time. Then we all headed back to Tattooed Moms where we drank the night away.

The next morning, Nadja went off to work and we spent the day hanging out with Lorien. We made a trip to Whole Foods, but other than that we hung around their apt. Two of their kitties weren't feeling well, so Lorien was keeping an eye on them. It was nice to have some down time. Ashley spent the whole day on the computer. Its how she rolls. We made dinner and ate all together then watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The next morning we got up in time to see Nadja off to work and then we got our stuff together and headed out.

We are at Tuesday at this point, for those of you trying to keep up. Ashley and I decided to head to Pittsburgh and stay the night in a hotel. On our way there we stopped of at Hershey!!! We went in their chocolate world and got some hot chocolate and wandered around. We got a chocolate bar that had our picture on it! FUN.

We got into Pittsburgh and we to eat at Primanti Brothers - the 'almost famous' restaurant that serves fries and coleslaw ON their sandwiches. It was delicious!!! We ate at the one in Market Square and walked around that area. We drove around the city a lot and then headed to the hotel. The next morning we decided to drive around more because we really like the city, we at Lebanese for lunch and then got back on the road. I really like Pittsburgh, so does Ashley. Our potential places to live list now has" Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and DC with the first two at a tie.

The drive to Louisville was LONG but we got to go through Ohio and see Cincinnati. We got to our hotel late and just crashed in for the night. Oh, side story. So we were supposed to be staying at a friend's uncle's unoccupied house while in Louisville. Turns out none of his utilities were turned on, so he instead 'took the liberty' of booking us 4 nights at an extended stay hotel. Yep, you read correctly. He paid and everything. Isn't that really nice? Of course it is. He has only met me once, briefly, and has never met Ashley.

Originally, Louisville was the top of my list for places to move...but it has been cut. Don't get me wrong, it is a REALLY nice place and I like it a lot, but our wants have shifted. Suzie's mom described it as a bigger Winston-Salem and it really is exactly that. At one point we were renaming the streets after their Winston version. We have decided that we want to live in a city where we can just take the metro everywhere, and Louisville only had a bus service but most people drive.

Anyways, yesterday we spent most of the day in the hotel just puttering around and unwinding (we are both glad this is the last leg of our trip). We finally left around 2:30 and went to eat at the BEST RESTAURANT EVER. It is called Lynn's Paradise Cafe. There is a gift shop full of odd items and fun stuff and the cafe itself is just a burst of color and quirk. Everything is painted or decoupaged there is a fake tree in the middle with trinkets on it, including fish. The tables have toys on them and mad gab cards. It is just super fun and the food was amazing. Love, love, love this place. We then tried to find a farmer's market, but it didn't happen because of the snow.

Oh yeah, we have had LOTS of snow the last few days. Driving through PA and in Pittsburgh there was tons of it and there have been lots of flurries here and there in Ohio and Kentucky.

Instead of the farmer's market, we went to the visitors' center where I stocked up on literature (one of my loves in life). We drove around to get the feel of the city and scope out where we might want to go - it was just too damn cold for Ashley to walk around. We decided to spend another night in, so we went to Whole Foods and got dinner then had a nice dinner in the room and talked a lot about the cities we visited and their pros and cons.

Today we are going to explore more of Louisville and maybe go back to Cincinnati as a day trip tomorrow.

Whew!

Hope you all are doing well!