Eating Buffalo In The Mushroom Capital

Well, the summer day trips have officially begun. Of course, that means more pictures that I will be sharing some photos of the places that we see throughout the commonwealth. Well, at least this part of the state. For the first trip of the summer, we drove down to Kennett Square to spend a relaxing afternoon walking along the main street through town.

Having slept in to recover from the long short week, we got a bit of a late start on the drive so by the time we made it there (it is about an hour away on a less than smooth road) we were ready to find a quiet place to grab some lunch. With our first mission in mind we walked by a small breakfast place with a rather large cock outside…

 

…and a more reserved looking place with spring flowers hanging from the awning, nice lamps mounted to the brick, and metal tables and chairs on the sidewalk.

 

Finally, we remembered a place that we saw on the Travel Channel just a few nights prior. With a place in mind, we made our way to Half Moon Restaurant & Saloon where I could break down one of my wife’s food barriers with a buffalo burger (highly recommended for great food at good prices).  

After an excellent meal in a nearly empty dining room we just sat there for a few extra minutes looking out the front window. It is nice to get out sometimes, go to different places, and just people watch. It’s also nice to look around at all the old buildings that line the street and the balconies that overlook the constant flow of tourists and cars.

 

With bellies full of buffalo (and mushroom bisque), we walked up and down a few of the small side streets weaving in and out of shops. While we were unsuccessful finding some inexpensive Wizard of Oz books for my wife (one store didn’t have anything old and the other one was closed by 4:00pm (Really?)) we did manage to find a nice little tea shop, Mrs. Robinson's, with surprisingly reasonable prices (and, no, we did not run into Simon or Garfunkel).  

 

Not surprisingly, we walked out with a small sample of a few teas selected from the hundreds that lined the shelves (including Carrot cake tea which should be interesting). Small splurge in hand, we slowly made our way back to the parking garage but not before taking a few extra pictures. While most of the storefronts seemed to be thriving, there were a few beautiful buildings standing there, vacant, with balconies empty, waiting to be used.

There were also a few alleys that I could imaging being packed full of people every fall for the Mushroom Festival.

 

Just before turning down the brick path to the car, I had to take a final picture of Marilyn posing in the middle of the Mushroom capital of the world.

It was a great trip for the two of us and a nice easy way to get us back into the routine of our adventurous weekends. While some of the places will be repeats there will be a few new destinations like our trip to Kennett Square. Stay tuned for more travel blogs throughout the summer as we continue our explorations of Pennsylvania. There will also be a few surprises this year!

Teacoholics

I have always been a coffee drinker. Even in high school I remember having a cup of Folgers instant coffee every morning before leaving the house. In recent years my consumption of the caffeinated nectar has increased significantly to the point that our coffee pot just wasn’t enough to keep me satisfied in the morning and night. Keep in mind that my wife doesn’t drink coffee at all so all the drinking was my doing.

My wife on the other hand likes tea. However, there are few options which she likes to drink so, occasionally, she has gotten board of the herbal options that we have found in the stores. So her consumption varies but still has come nowhere near my partaking of the black bean water.

Things began to shift about a week ago when I gave my wife a little surprise winter gift to try and brighten up a dull day. Actually, it was a few gifts that I had gotten when I previously placed holiday orders for my boss and for my niece and had a little extra credit left. I could tell when she opened them that she didn’t really know how she felt about them and whether she would use them or not. The two infuser mugs and a few bags were her first experience with loose tea.

Admittedly, I had also already stored some tea in the cabinet that was more to my taste. I have occasionally had a cup of tea when the mood struck me but I had not been a regular drinker for over a decade. Seeing her hesitance I knew that the best way to really have her see the difference between fresh loose tea and dried out bags would be to start making it and drinking it myself. The result has led me to drinking more tea in the last week than I had for maybe the rest of the year combined.

The transition in my drinking habits was not lost on my wife and today we decided to head over to Teavana in the King of Prussia Mall after dinner tonight so she could pick out a few flavors of her own (obviously I was a little off in my original selections). While we spent a little bit of money at the store all of it was still less money per ounce than tea bags and completely customizable at home which is perfect for both our budget and our divergent taste preferences.

Within 15 minutes of walking back into the apartment, we each had a cup of tea steeping. My wife has now not just seen the difference but tasted it as well and I have rekindled my appreciation for the variety and flavor that tea has to offer. At this point, it is safe to say that we are both Teacoholics.

 

Bye Bye Uncle Buck

Having finally finished all the wrapping and with a cup of tasty tea steeping beside me, my wife and I were watching the tail end of “Uncle Buck” on HBO before my wife headed to bed and I was to finish up a few things on the computer. The day was ending just how we would like it to when the night over took the apartment. Around 10:30 all the lights dimmed for a second or two, flashed, and then completely shut down. So long Uncle Buck.

 

At that point we didn’t have many options so we decided to head over to the front desk and try to offer whatever assistance we could. As soon as we manually slid open the front door we could hear the complaints filling the shadow filled entryway. Unfortunately, the weather had just turned colder in the past 24 hours and residents were returning to their apartments from unusually late dinners.

Not helping the situation was the fact that we could all see that the lights were on in every building around us. Simply put, this was not a power grid problem, this was a major building malfunction which seems to have only gotten worse over the past year. The piercing alarm resonating from the basement seemed to confirm the severity of the issue and did not lend an air of confidence that this particular problem would be fixed in a timely manner.

I know what it is like to be behind the desk during those moments and I knew that the situation was beyond his control so my wife and I began helping in any way that we could to make the situation at least a little easier to deal with for everyone. While my wife assisted residents up the stair well and to their apartments (not an easy task given the ages of many of the people) I was doing my best to relay messages, keep track of both entrances, and keep the other dark dwellers occupied by talking about anything but the electric.

After about an hour of walking all around the ground floor, entertaining residents, coordinating with the local police department, and getting updates from PECO and our in house maintenance people the power finally came back on. While there has been the occasional humming traveling through the walls and into our apartment, the power remains on. So, with the rooms again full of light, it was time to turn them off and try to rest before travelling all day tomorrow. Essentially, everything is back to normal at least until the next time the building falters or the grid fails.

Date Night

About halfway through the day I had enough and needed to take a break from the work, the cleaning, and sitting around the apartment in general. While I was being productive and getting plenty of things done, some long overdue, I was feeling a little bit of Jack Nicholson rattling around in there. Once I found a good place to stop I knew it was time for us to get up and out. There were a few things we had to get done, a few last minute gifts to pick up, and a few items to return so there was a productive motive to our trip but that was by no means the major motivator.

First stop… Wal-Mart. I know, such an exciting and exotic place to visit. After returning a few purchases from our Black Friday trip (we picked up/out too many DVD’s) we walked around store and picked up a few essentials (windshield wiper blades) and a gift. We were going to pick up a second gift at the ammo counter but there are two major problems in trying to do that. First, ammo is still in limited supply and, second, no one is ever at the ammo counter to help and employees seem to get lost on their way there when you request assistance (a third common problem is the fact that no one at Wal-Mart knows what you’re talking about beyond pointing at specific boxes).

Second Stop… Staples. I know, calm down, don’t be jealous of our exciting life. While we found an extra gift in the clearance section, along with a few other items, the main objective was to pick up ink for our photo printer (we’re only about two months behind in picking this up). The nice thing with Staples which I have mentioned before, I can utilize coupons and other discounts. After handing in all the coupons and taking off a little bit with some rewards dollars, the total cost was the equivalent of us simply coming in and buying the ink cartridge as full price. Not a bad trip.

With the handful of errands now completed, it was time to just be together and have a little bit of a date night so we headed off to do something that we haven’t done in a long time (probably about a year and a half), we went to watch a movie at the AMC in Plymouth Meeting. It was an optimal time to head to the movies as many factors were working in our favor: we had a Fandango gift card to cover the tickets, we both needed to take a break, there was a movie out we could agree on, and we have been long overdue for a date night. Sodas and popcorn in hand, we climbed the stairs and got settled in for the next two plus hours.
 

While “The Book Thief” is an excellent movie and I highly recommend watching, be prepared to be a little depressed. There is a deep sadness throughout the film (no surprise for a story that takes place in Nazi Germany) which can catch you off guard at times. Wonderful performances all around and a pace that is perfect for the subject matter and the mood of the film. It is a movie that you should allow yourself to get lost in and a story that should be wrapped around you like a new and slightly uncomfortable and unfamiliar blanket. It is for these reasons that I will not go into the details of the film and let you explore it for yourself.

 

After the afternoon movie, we stopped by the mall for a quick sit down dinner (a lighter meal after all the popcorn and soda) and soon after headed back to the apartment and back to work. Now that I have gotten a few more things taken care of I am now sitting down, talking to you, and drinking some fresh tea in an infuser cup I gave to my wife at the beginning of the day. Nothing like fresh, loose tea to end the day and calm you down from a work filled weekend. Time to head off to bed to rest up for a short work week but hectic week overall.