It started with an impromptu first class seat from Chicago, IL to Philadelphia, PA. I decided to run to the restroom prior to catching our flight. In my absence my fiancé Dan volunteered us for what he thought were exit row seats. Surprisingly, as we boarded the plane we realized the flight attendant bumped us to first class. These are the moments when I realize that being kind to others really does matter. Dan is quite the comedian and I imagine these seats had something to do with how kind, funny and charming he can be :). Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the warmed nuts and hot chocolate chip cookies in first class. We landed around midnight and rushed to grab our rental car and headed to what he calls home.

It was a relatively short drive (<2 hours) North of Philly to his family. We proceeded to fall into bed exhausted around 2:30 am and slept for a few hours. The next few days we spent catching up and playing with Melina and Maddie.

We met them at school for lunch and took them out for Melina’s birthday. We really enjoyed playing softball and seeing Melina pitch (pretty awesome for a 9 year old!). Maddie  did a great job fielding the ball and we gave her a lot of hitting practice. It was a perfect spring day and even Mickey (their dog) raced after the ball with us.

We went to see Dan’s sister in law Megan and his niece Adriana while we were home. We spent the afternoon with them at the park and enjoyed playing ball and “blazing badminton” as Adriana calls it. She has such a lively and hilarious personality. She is such an active kid and kept us running while playing ball. She was so sweet and even picked us some beautiful flowers (or colorful weeds depending on who you ask :). You can tell Dan definitely misses her!

After chasing her around the play ground we went to have dinner with Dan’s close friends John and Megan. Dan and John caught up on life while Megan and I hit it off. We had so much in common and it was so nice to finally meet her in person. We celebrated both of our engagements with copious amounts of homemade wine. I can’t wait to go back and try next years batch of wine 😉.We laughed more than we talked and also tried their amazing signature cocktails…something along the lines of champagne, grapefruit liquor and blood orange juice.

We spent our last night in America in downtown Philadelphia with some old friends of Dan’s. We stayed with Jimmy and Sara in their gorgeous home in Philly. We had a blast out that night. We literally ran in heels to catch the train to dinner and danced until we were exhausted. Surprisingly, this was the only picture we took that night. 

The next morning we said goodbye to Jimmy and Sara with cinnamon rolls and warm hugs. We were really sad to leave. Luckily we will see them in a few short months in Paris! On our way to the airport we snapped a quick picture in their neighborhood with these beautiful cherry blossoms.

As we flew back to the land of the castles with our bellies full (of Chick fil A) we were excited about returning home in a few years. Hopefully we will be moving somewhere closer to our families and good friends!

When in Philly…Don’t forget to grab a cheesesteak!

Love,

Jenny