Friends and Philly

No truer sign that spring is here than to see the Robins in my backyard.  They have been much more frequent lately, and that's just fine with me.  Today, the winds are strong and the temps have dropped back to the normal 50's for this time of year.  But last Friday's temp of 82 was awesome!

And speaking of awesome, my presence for jury duty was not required last Thursday!  Sweet!  With my DIY project behind me and no jury duty, I was able to prepare for some special guests this past weekend.

Two friends, 

Kate of Chronicles of a Country Girl and Daryl of Out and About in New York City,

traveled to Philly and we didn't waste a moment once they arrived.

We headed down to the Italian Market since it was an area none of us had explored.  

It did not disappoint. 

Even being a cold and rainy day, we had no problem finding things to capture our interest.  

Of course, I enjoyed capturing Kate & Daryl (and some young man's butt .... ha!).

Later, we happened upon Queen Village, 

one of the city's oldest residential neighborhoods ....

 and I continued capturing Kate and Daryl!

While there, we happened upon Mable, an English Bulldog, 

who was very delighted to have her photo taken.  

Isn't she just adorable!

Soon we were ready to leave the village and head towards 

Penn's Landing.

With the weather a bit nasty, we decided to take a break and have some tea on the Moshulu, one of Philly's finest restaurants.  She's a beautiful boat and here's a bit of her history from her website should you be interested:

"Since the launching of the Moshulu (pronounced Mo-shoe'-loo) in 1904, she has had a long and exciting career on the seas working the ports of Europe, South America, Australia, America and Africa. She was confiscated by the Americans in one war and by the Germans in the next. She has traveled around Cape Horn 54 times. She has hauled coal and coke, copper ore and nitrate, lumber and grain. In lesser days, she has served as a floating warehouse. In grander days, she won the last great grain race in 1939. Today, the Moshulu is the world’s largest four-masted sailing ship still afloat."

Just to give you an idea of how windy and nasty the weather was, 

we captured this window reflection of ourselves.  

Like our comb overs?!

Come Sunday, we had brunch down in Manayunk at Bourbon Blue and strolled around bit.  

When leaving, I captured these two walking by.  

Look at that pup's long face .... 

he didn't get a pit stop at that post!

~sigh~

Later that afternoon, Kate and Daryl headed home.

It was a great weekend to share with friends.

 

AND  

I got to take lots of pics, 

something that I had been missing

over the last two weeks due to that DIY project.

: : :

Hoping life gets back to being a bit more normal now

and I can make my visits more regular.

Hope your week is getting off to a great start!

(Oh, in case you're interested, all of these shots were edited in

Dynamic Light.)

Later friends,