A Few More Philly Photos

Before heading back to Big Sky, we had one more night on the town at a casual eatery called Brick & Brew.

With all the trees in the exurbs of Philadelphia, it is easy to think you're out in the uncrowded countryside, but on Wednesday evening when we arrived at 7:30 PM, we found an overflow crowd of hip urbanites waiting for tables.

Rather than searching for another place, we carried on a conversation outside while waiting for a table.

The time went by quickly and maybe a half hour or 45 minutes later, we were led to our table in the quirky restaurant with jungle shrubs seeming to overtake brick arches.  It comes across as a very hip place, with whiskey flights and draft beers with funny names to go along with the pub menu that branched considerably from simply brick oven-cooked pizzas.  

Julie went with a traditional peperoni pizza, and I ordered the B&B Burger, and then we split the two.  Laszlo opted for Pork Belly Burnt Ends with southern grits, while Gina had brussel sprouts off the appetizer menu, so we had a good cross-section of their delicious offerings, none of which came up lacking.

We still had one last day in greater Philly, in which I finally succeeded in changing an old deadbolt that had me baffled for a few days with exactly what I could do to replace it, finally determining the best approach was to simply take it off and get it re-keyed rather than matching the new hardware for the doorknob.  I think I must have put that lock on and off twenty times before it worked.  In retrospect, I should have just had a locksmith re-key it in place.

On our last evening, we had a final happy hour at Gina's home, with the ladies sipping wine while Laszlo and I drinking Yeungling Black and Tan.

Yeungling is a Pennsylvania brewer that claims to operate the oldest brewery in America.  I think that is because Sam Adams uses an old recipe that dates back to before the revolutionary war rather than actually having been in continuous operation in Boston.  Yeungling sounds Chinese, but Laszlo said it is German for youngling, which now is rather ironic for the oldest American brewery. It's a decent beer, though not as good as the creamy draft nitro stout I had at Brick & Brew.

I should note that Laszlo is ever the responsible family man, never imbibing excessively when he will drive, so he had water at B&B.  In fact, I've never seen him have more than one beer in an evening at home.

As for happy hour entertainment at their place, we of course went to the Waldo search page to find more photos of Emma at camp.  We also had letters from camp that had arrived that same day.  She's having a great time, and we're all proud of how she fits right into new situations and embaces the moment.  I wish I had her self-confidence and poise at that age...or now!

These healthy kids being forced to wear masks for group gatherings indoors is a sad statement of the times.

Spotted!  The water bottle sent in a care package by mom and dad.

Emma seems to be laughing out loud about something.

My nemesis after I figured out that caps covered the hex screws.