Day of from work!

Like most people in America, Eric and I had off work on Monday. We had thrown around the idea of going swimming, and we were excited when Adam called us to see if we wanted to go to Devil's Pool.
None of us had been there, but we had heard about it. It's a swimming hole located in Wissahickon Valley. Eric and I actually went hiking there a few weeks ago, and had been wanting to go back.

Eric and I hopped on our bikes and rode over to Adam's were we were greeted with a few friends. It was about 23 miles roundtrip to Devil's Pool, kind of far, but it was a lot easier to ride bikes then drive.



We rode on the Kelly drive path for most of the way.






Then we hopped on the Wissahickon Trail, which took us to Forbidden Drive, then we rode that the entire way. Part of the trail is paved, the other part isn't, which sucked.





We weren't too sure of where we were going, but figured we could figure it out. Eventually we stumbled upon a bunch of people and we were in the right spot.

They had a small cliff you could climb up and jump off of. Of course I slipped while climbing up and have giant scrapes all over my body.





The guys we were with were a lot braver with jumping off.


It was great to find a swimming hole not too far from the city.


Eric and I rode home, quickly changed, then rode our bikes to South Philly for dinner. We were too lazy to go to the grocery store and figured heading to Royal Tavern was a better option.
This definitely made riding 23 miles worth it.

Monthly Wrap up, some cooling off, and some eats.

June seems to have been a busy month. Last month was one year for the blog, one year for being in Philadelphia, and one year of living together in our apartment, let alone in the same zip code! Anyways its been great and only getting better.

I have wanted to start giving monthly run downs of miles run/biked and upcoming goals/goals met, in order to keep on track. It seems once you put your goals out there for others to read, its a lot harder to shy away from them. This month was much more relaxed for Lauren (even though she works out every morning at 5am somehow…) since she wasn't training for anything after her last half marathon. But in July there are a few runs coming up and this means longer runs are coming back into her repertoire.

As for me, I'm glad to be feeling better. I ran into some achilles issues after the hell fest that was Crush the Common Wealth which took me off training rides and even made me carpool rather than the normal bike commute. I am happy to say I commuted well over 500 miles this month to work and my goal next month is to commute to work 600+ miles, lets hope for the best.

Talking about riding, being that its been hot and REALLY humid here lately, we cruised up to Wissahickon Park in order to cool off in the river. They have a paved pedestrian trail that runs throughout the park as well as hiking trails throughout. Its such a nice change of pacing being able to ride ~6-8miles out of the city and be surrounded by lush scenery and cleanish air.

Have I ever said I loved the Schuylkill River Trail before? Because I do. Its so very convenient.



Sweet swim trunks are always a plus.



Cruising through Wissahickon Park.



Even a rope swing!



We had the ladies test the water first, to make sure it wasn't too cold!



Anyways dinner last night was a hodgepodge since I worked late and wasn't able to get to anything too fancy. I whipped up Gena’s Peanut Noodles dressing, which if you haven't tried you need to. Its that good. I had some left over whole wheat pasta, cut up some CSA zucchini, beets, spring onions, as well as some jalapenos, red pepper, carrots. I topped it with some roasted chickpeas and of course nooch. It was a quick and delicious meal.

Vegan Treats = Food Pron.

So I have the phone number of delivery guys for Vegan Treats (aka bad news). I'm not usually around for a pick up, but I was able to the other day. There was also a birthday so I figured what the heck. Any-who, do I really need a reason to buy desserts from Vegan Treats??!? The answer is no! So after almost a week we finished off the last of the treats tonight.

Verdict from this bounty = love the glazed sprinkle donuts, love the sticky buns with caramelized pecans, and of course the classic cinnamon buns. I'm glad we got them and I'm glad they're gone since its hard just to have one bite. Anyways on to the pron, enjoy.


Cinnamon bun to the left, sticky bun to the right.



Wow thought caramelized pecans are goooood!




Starting from the left top and going down. Red doughnut w/ sprinkles, chocolate w/ sprinkles. glazed w/ sprinkles, cookies and cream w/ cream filling.
From the right top down. Chocolate glazed w/ filling, jelly filled, coconut custard.






So the question is, do you call them sprinkles or jimmies or something else??!

Photos from the Weekend

I mentioned last week that we had some pretty special people coming to visit this past weekend...Eric's parents!



They got in Friday afternoon and hung out with Eric while I was at work. After work we walked around our neighborhood, ate dinner, and watched the Flyers game.

Saturday morning Eric and I headed over to their hotel. The entire weekend called for thunderstorms, but we lucked out with nice weather.
We walked around Chinatown to take in the sights and sounds (and smells) of Philadelphia.



Then we headed to Reading Terminal Market to pick up some food. We found an awesome kitchen store that had every sort of gadget you would never need.
Case in point:




I was mesmerized by the wall of cookie cutters.


I was pretty excited when I saw a pickling stand in Reading Terminal Market. I settled on a hot pickle...in honor of my friend Morgan.
You might not know this about me, but I am a hot pickle eating champion. Morgan and I used to take long breaks during our design class and eat hot pickles.



The pickle was delicious and I need to go back to buy a few more.

Eric's parents had other things to do that afternoon/evening, so Eric and I headed back to our neighborhood.
I really like the neighborhood we live in for the little things. Like coming across this while walking down the street.






Eric and I scarfed down lunch then headed over to Josh and Kelly's. It's not always fun and games with them, and they put Eric to work.




Luckily Eric did a good job at making a few cocktails for us to enjoy.




Philly Beer Week just started, so we set out to a bar in the neighborhood hoping to get a taste of the new Summer Love Ale, a craft beer from Victory Brewing Company and With Love Philadelphia, XOXO.
Sadly it wasn't released yet at this bar, so I settled on a different beer.


Later in the afternoon we walked over to our neighborhood park for some kind of festival that was going on.








We bought some vegan goodies at the park too. A snickerdoodle cookie, a cranberry cashew cookie, and a cinnamon bun. I am going to try to find out the name of the company, because this stuff was amazing!


After some park hanging Eric and I headed to El Camino Real, which used to be our main bingo joint. Sadly bingo has ended so we hadn't been in a while.


I tried to stay up till atleast 10pm, but I don't think I made it. Waking up early during the week is really throwing off my staying up with the cool kids schedule.
But Eric and I had a big Sunday planned, so getting good sleep was probably better than drinking more beer.
Eric's parents came over in the morning and we walked around the neighborhood some more. We walked by some gardens and I was really jealous of the kale in this garden.


After lunch we headed into center city for some sightseeing.
We started at City Hall




and worked our way over to Love Park


then to Rittenhouse to meet up with Emily, Eric's cousin. Emily brought her dog Samson, who was quite the character.






And after hanging out at Rittenhouse we continued walking to the Schuylkill River.


Took some lovely pictures of the family.






Then we headed back into center city for dinner. We decided on Monk's which has the most impressive beer list ever, and quite a few vegan options.




Eric took some pictures of the food, but sadly none came out. I ordered the vegan burger, Eric ordered the seitan meatballs and his mom ordered the seitan cheesesteak.

After eating Eric's parents dropped us back off at the hotel and they are now on their way back to Texas.
It was a lot of fun having them up here and I am glad they finally got to see our apartment and our neighborhood!