Our quick and glorious trip to Philly

When it worked out that Mr Renn is trying to get his fellowship in the AGD with inordinate speed, and their convention this year was in Philadelphia..... the stars begin to align.  And so we found ourselves able to take a quick child-less trip to a place that still feels rather like home.  Certainly the closest thing to a babymoon we're ever going to manage.

And without kids, I tell you, all kinds of possibilities open up.  Even if you are there during a crazy heat wave.  So I finally got to peruse Philly's fabric row (in 100 degree heat) and I bought the fabric below to recover a chair with.  I also had an extensive chat with the proprietor's at Jack B Fabrics, and they were so delightful that I had to buy some upholstery linen from them too.



(All this while Mr Renn was busy learning to be a better dentist.)  I then went to Chestnut Hill to visit my friend Jenni Love and see her at work and continue to fawn over her awesome business model.  "A petite urban flower farm, and (self sourced) full service floral studio."  It makes my head buzz with awesomeness.  I also had the most perfect lunch in my recent memory at CAKE.



That first night, after cheesesteaks,  we met up with friends at Zwahlens and loaded up on strudel apples to bring back to Utah for other people homesick for them.  (Any bag full of caramel apples will get searched in airport security, fyi).

The next day I quite naturally crashed, but did manage a nice lunch date.  Once Renn finished his 2nd day of conferencing we headed to heaven Longwood for dinner and to see their new light/art exhibit.  We managed to be there during a thunderstorm, which made it memorable, and led to lots of extra walking when we were instructed to take cover in safe buildings a few times.  Just what my pregnant body needed, right? But the lights were impressive - millions of them.





Our last morning we even snuck in a trip to Mr Renn's favorite place before we had to head back to the airport.  I won't tell you how much bacon he ate; but I'm pretty sure he got his money's worth.

In the meanwhile, Renn's cousin courageously watched our kids and kept them so busy having fun that they were genuinely disappointed when we came back home.  Sir O even told us he was sad to see us because it meant he was going to be bored again.  Such a welcome!