Longwood Gardens, the first in a hopefully on-going saga

When I moved to Philadelphia, I was reunited with my amazing friend, Peter, who I met at the Jerusalem Center during college.  The last time I saw him, we were both commiserating about applying for graduate schools on the other side of the country and -surprisingly enough- we wound up in the same little corner of the world, years later!

 I will love my Jerusalem Center friends FOREVER and any time I encounter one, it is an event worthy of a celebration.  Plus, it was even more of a red letter day when I realized I would once again have the opportunity to eavesdrop on Peter's excellent singing skills during church :)

Anyway, Peter and I went to Longwood Gardens and now I AM HOOKED!  I even bought a membership to the Gardens!  We went because I wanted to catch this super artsy light installation at the Gardens by Bruce Munro.  I am so thankful that Peter humored me while I flit around looking at all the plants and goofy light set-ups.

It was a very interesting installation and the more we saw, the more I liked it.  Very creative.  It was like Alice in Wonderland meets Fern Gully.

Here's some photos we took:

 One of my favorite aspects was that much of the lighting pieces were made from recycled/re-fabricated materials.  And you know how I feel about recycling! (If you don't know how I feel about it, then here is an example...)

We LOVED the Gardens' own special hybrid water lily plant that just so happened to be in bloom- what luck!  The lily pads are HUGE & rimmed & spiky & crazy and while we were admiring them, a stray cat was walking around on one of the lily pads!  It was HILARIOUS! 

A seriously beautiful place that I cannot wait to see in the daytime.

A Three-Hour Tour (echo: a three hour tour...)

My adventure buddy, Ian, and I went on a fabulous dinner cruise down the Delaware River this week!  We started at Penn's Landing and cruised all around- it was such a beautiful way to view the city at sunset and at night.  We even got a glimpse of the nighttime laser show they've been doing downtown recently.  It included dinner, dessert, and dancing- seriously FANCY!

Here's a photo log of the highlights:

Bon voyage!