Every time I go back to Philadelphia, I feel like Philadelphia forever has a piece of my heart. Perhaps it’s because it was my first place I lived by myself, away from where I grew up. Of course I lived away from home for college, but it’s not the same as having your own apartment, job hunting, commuting by train and having the freedom to discover yourself. The Philadelphia chapter of my life was truly learning more about myself.
I’m thankful that I still have friends there that I stay in touch with. It was nice to go down for a weekend. We had the most perfect weather of 77 degrees but cloudy so you didn’t feel too hot.
We headed to the zoo Saturday. While we talked about going there, we didn’t buy tickets in advance so Saturday morning as we ate a late breakfast, I looked up the zoo and due to covid, we had to purchase tickets in advance. It was already about 10am and they only had 11-11:30 and 12-12:30 ticket slots open. I tried to go for the 12 but as I went to check out, it said sold out..so then I quickly did 11am tickets and purchased successfully as we scrambled to get ready and leave the house. Luckily my friends are only 20 minutes from the zoo and since the ticket time slot was through 11:30, we arrived just 5 minutes after 11:30 and got in fine. I look forward to more normalcy and hopefully not needing to reserve tickets for zoos soon.
Since the zoo is mainly outside, you are only required to wear a mask through the indoor exhibits. We spent a good 4 hours at the zoo, walking over 3 miles. My friend’s daughter is 3 years old and she didn’t get in the stroller once. She immediately went to sleep when we got in the car to go home.
On Sunday, I left my friend’s house around 9:15am and headed to Villanova suburb to do yoga at Stoneleigh Circle Garden. Considering that I used to live in the next town over in Bryn Mawr, I never knew about this secret garden on the other side of the university. It was another beautiful day and it felt amazing to do yoga in the grass, despite watching the bees on the clover flowers around me very closely.
After yoga, I caught up with my friend, who was the teacher and I did my original 200 hour YTT with her. We grabbed lunch, talked for an hour and then it was time for me to get back on the road back to Binghamton. Luckily the rain passed and it was a good 3 hour drive back. I was home just in time to change and head out to Sunday dinner with the family.
Then back to the work week. Honestly I felt so re energized after the weekend. It was so good staying with my friend. We would talk until 11pm each night (sooo late for me) and yet I would still be awake at 6:30am. As much as I am an introvert, I love talking one on one with people for some socialization. The past year has been pretty isolating for all of us. Even though I love to stay home and keep to myself, I still need some social time and this weekend helped a lot.
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I am so glad you got a weekend in Philly! It was so much fun reading about the zoo, and the yoga event in the park. I went to college there, and it’s where I lived for the first few years afterwards, too, and loved it. I think it tends to get a bad rap for an East coast city, and wish more people knew more about the really cool things it has to offer.
Hi Anne,
So cool that you went to college there. I loved Philly when I lived there and love going back to visit.