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Tag, You're It with PBR

Wow, I haven't posted in awhile. Ive been busy and tired. Busy with my friend Jake visiting and binge watching Game of Thrones with my housemates/co-workers.

So, I want to mention some highlights of my friend, Jakes Visit.

We spent a lot of time in the city seeing all the touristy things like Independence Hall and the Liberty bell, Art museum and Reading Market. Jakes a great person to travel with cause we like to do a lot of the same things, he's so chill and we don't have to constantly be talking. Just walking down the street, exploring a neighborhood and looking at our surroundings is fun.

It rained most of the time that he was here. There were a few days that we got lucky with just some overcast skies. One afternoon after work, we went for a bike ride. First we stopped for some "healthy" fast food/smoothies, then continued to bike to a local park. It turned out to be a perfect evening so we stopped at the playground for some swinging. Theres something so relaxing and happy-inducing about swinging and feeling the wind through your hair. It brings me back to my childhood where swinging could entertain me for hours. We both attempted and in some cases, succeeded at various swing "tricks" such as doing a flip, jumping off and becoming superman. Then, being old and stuff, I can only swing for a little bit. I decided to explore the jungle gym. We climbed up the fake rock wall and went down the slide and somehow it turned into a game of tag. I am really bad at tag... but Jake was nice and gave me some lee-way. I remember playing tag for hours with my cousins. Maybe it was easier because they were younger than I and at that point could easily out-climb and out-run them! Running around that playground put a huge smile on my face even as I was horribly losing and noting how out of breath I was quickly becoming. Some families walked past us and I giggled at how silly we must have looked as grown humans jumping about a child's playground.

After we both agreed we were out of shape, we hopped back on our bikes and went our separate ways to explore the park for a bit. I followed some geese and a white duck around the pond while Jake went over a bridge and lapped circles around some court, tennis maybe? In any case, we caught back up again and raced back home.

I love biking. You move fast, dont need to talk to anyone, just listen to the wind whizz past your ears and watch the world move quickly around you. Its great.

Another day worth mentioning was Jakes last Friday in Philly. We were able to stay with one of his friends in the city so we didnt have to worry about trains or anything. I got off of work that afternoon absolutely exhausted. The thought of going  into the city and staying up late was the opposite of what I wanted to do. I went up to my room to check my e-mail and Facebook and immediately passed out with the lights on. For two hours. I woke up dazed and confused, again hoping Jake might want to stay in, but realizing, I should suck it up and at least try to have a good last night with him. So I got dressed, had a snack and by the time we got on the train I was feeling great! That nap had energized me!

We ate dinner that this tiny sushi place. There were 8 seats at the bar and one 4 top table! We got seats immediately at the bar and the food came out fast. The sushi was delicious and the atmosphere was cool. We got to watch the su (sus? sushi...) chefs make all the sushi in front of us and they were good.

After dinner we wandered around a bit in the rain. We wanted to find the "cool" parts of Philly. We followed a group of young people for a bit and did some Yelp searching. We finally ended up at Bob and Barbaras which was a dive bar what had live jazz music and old PBR decor. It was the coolest place ever and reminded us a lot of the bars we go to in Milwaukee! With the PBR decor everywhere, we decided that we should probably have a PBR and ours came to us in a can with frozen bits still in it.

Because I was so refreshed from my 2 hour nap earlier, Jake and I had lively conversation and enjoyed the music and then decided to explore more of the city. We stumbled upon another dive bar that was close to his friends place and had one last PBR around midnight before heading back to sleep. It was a late night for me and I normally don't have more than one or two drinks a night...

The next day was a little rough. We woke up around 10 and got out of the apartment around 1130. I was feeling only slightly meh. We stopped at Reading Terminal Market to grab some donuts and speed walked to Independence Hall. Half-way through our tour, I started to feel like absolute death. All I wanted to do was lay down on the ground and close my eyes. But I stuck with it. I didnt hear anything that the person was telling us. Finally the tour was over and I high-tailed it out of there and found a bench where I layer down and zoned-out for about 45 minutes while Jake looked around at everything else. Food now, was the next thing on my mind. That donut was the worst decision of my life and I needed to make a better life decision. So we went to the closest food place where I purchased a 12 dollar salad and only ate the romaine lettuce. Slowly I came back to life. When we first sat down, I wouldn't talk to Jake but at the end of my meal, I was talking again and agreed to let Jake take me to get cheesesteaks. I had successfully pulled it together. We walked forever before we got to this motorcycle infested street corner with leather and greasy food everywhere. The cheesesteak was okay, according to Jake and the motorcycles raped my ears as they went by. It was an experience.

After food was a street fair! Music and vendors for about a mile on South St. It was pretty fun, but also packed. We walked the full length of the fair, both ways and then it was time for me to catch the train. It was sad saying goodbye to my good friend but I was also kinda happy to have some chill time to myself cause we had been busy doing things all week!! That the best kind of vacation, one in which you had such a good time, are exhausted and ready to vegg for a bit.

Cant wait for another vacation at the end of this month when my parents and dude come to visit!

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