Penn is on fire!!

Well, Cosi is. After walking into my office today to a power outage and Internet failure things died down for a few minutes. But then the sirens started, followed by the helicopters, and then there was the smokey smell. I headed outside to take a look. By now it's pretty well under control. Lots of smoke but no visible flames. The farmers market outside Cosi is still in full swing.

Eventful day and it's not even 10 AM yet!

Brooklyn Heights on the Fourth of July

Brooklyn Heights was one of our favorite neighborhoods. We really weren't considering the Heights before our walking tour, but it really stuck out to us. Lots of cute brownstones, patios, backyards. This was a beautiful park looking on to Manhattan. 

 

Lady Liberty in the distance

 

 

 

Neighborhood Shopping in Brooklyn

We spent our Fourth of July wandering around Brooklyn shopping for neighborhoods. That's right, we are leaving Philly behind sometime soon and moving to New York!

Monster Litter

Mmmm, a pork store

This place had a gorgeous turtle and koi pond in the front yard

A moss farm

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I had to post this. I just loved this little moss farm. So creative! I'd like to try making a living wall with succulents and moss. I think shadow box frames would be handy for a project like that. Maybe once we get settled. It's all I can do to force myself outside to water our flowers now!  

Adorable little old fashioned soda fountain

 We had a nice lunch at this soda fountain and I had my first egg cream! Egg creams are kind of a fizzy chocolate milk (no egg involved). My grandfather, Adam, always told me about egg creams but I'd never seen one on a menu until now. I love when little reminders of him pop up and surprise me. I think that's one of the reason I'm so excited for our move. Even though my grandparents lived in New Jersey and raised their family there, my grandpa spent a lot of time in New York and would always tell me stories about his adventures there. Maybe I can retrace some more of his steps!

Interesting sculptures outside of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House 

  

Julius, the Ultra-Flexible Laundry Monster

Every weekend when I go to do our laundry I face this dreadful beast, the Laundry Monster.


He inhabits caves made from sundresses and attacks when you least expect it. 

 

When he isn't terrorizing the laundry pile, he can be found showcasing his contortionist abilities.   

 

Phair, Pink Lemonade Flowers, and Mounted Police

Last weekend we took a long walk along the Schuylkill River and ended up at Phair, a small flea market with a few food trucks on the river banks. It was too hot to stay for very long but we made sure to sample some pork belly bao buns and korean tacos on our way out.

Phair on the Schuylkill Banks

On our way home we passed on of my favorite gardens in Philly, a teeny strip of land near the Boy Scouts of America Headquarters at Van Pelt and Winter Streets.  

I call it the pink lemonade garden because of the gorgeous yellow and hot pink flowers. 

These bloom s replaced some lovely royal purple spring flowers. I hope I can learn to garden this well! At a recent library book sale I picked up a guide to container gardening but haven't had a chance to read it yet.  

That evening we met up with a few friends in Old City for a drink. On our way there we passed these horse cops patrolling the NEIGH-borhood (sorry, I had to).