Flying Trapeze Lessons

Yes, you read that right - I took flying trapeze lessons this week. I think I might quit med school and join the circus because I had so much fun! My friend from Baltimore invited me join her as she took a class before and had fun. I took her up on the opportunity and drove down to Baltimore and then she drove us to DC to the Trapeze School.

As a side note, this is another thing I love about Philly...its location! It's so close to so many other great East Coast cities. I am frequently able to take day and weekend trips to NYC, Baltimore, and DC. It's also close to the beach (Jersey) and mountains (Poconos) although I haven't traveled there yet. I couldn't ask for a better city in such a central location.

Ok back to the trapeze lessons. The lesson was 2 hours long and there were 3 other people in our class. The 3 other people were basically regulars and have been taking lessons for a few months. Everything is personalized and they give you safety tips and then basically send you to fly. Since we were in a small class my friend and I got to fly over and over and over and over again. It was so exhilarating! It was definitely a workout as my body was pretty tired at the end of 2 hours and I woke up this morning sore all over, but it was definitely worth it.

The 1st trick they help you learn is the knee hang. My 1st time I couldn't quite get it, but that's because I have short arms. They showed me an alternate way to hang and after that I got the hang of it. I was flying through the air, hanging from my knees and then dismounting by doing a back flip. Did I mention I had so much fun!

So if you're advanced enough, at the end they give you a chance to be caught by one of the staff members. There is a lot to think about and you have to have perfect timing but I went for it. Unfortunately, due to my height she was unable to catch me. We were literally about 2 inches from making the catch, but oh well maybe next time. They have a school in New York that I want to also visit.

Thank you to my friend for taking so many great pictures of me flying through the air!

Shameless Advertisement

I started a new blog!

My best friend and I have decided to document our travels, lives and journey of friendship. I also hope to get some recommendations for places to go for the locations we visit. It might not be much now, but hopefully it will slowly pick up. We are both trying to get into photography and documenting more things, so I'm sure photography will be an element.

I know everyone and their mama has a blog these days, but I think this blog is more for us to follow our friendship and travels, but hopefully other people will be interested and/or inspired.

I need to dig out old photographs to add and talk about our memories, but until then feel free to check it out!

Thinking Outside Our Box

Italian Market

As the weather has begun to get warmer I'm reminded of the fun I had this summer spending time walking around for hours to different Philadelphia neighborhoods to explore. That's one thing that I love about Philadelphia, the diversity and various neighborhoods throughout the city and out into the suburbs.

I heard about the Italian Market, but one afternoon I just so happened to find it. It's located at S. 9th Street in the city. It has a rich history and I enjoyed just walking around and taking in all the sites. You can get everything under the sun throughout the Italian market. There are several stores that sell fresh cut pasta and fresh sauces that I want to pick up for dinner one day. I loved looking at all of the Italian products and listening to the Italian accents.












I ran across these pictures in the window of a store front. I'm not sure when they were taken, but they definitely caught my eye. While I was standing there a man probably in his 40s came up with his daughter. He pointed at this picture and said this is your grandmother and she used to live right around the corner. He didn't go into much detail other than that, but I thought what a special moment. I wanted to go into interviewer mode and ask him some questions, but I refrained.









Grocery shopping carts are a must in the city. Unfortunately ours has been in hibernation during the winter as we have driven to the grocery store, but I think it's about time for it to make it's reappearance.









So if you have time, along with Reading Terminal Market, you should check out the Italian Market. It's a unique area in the city that I can't wait to get back to soon.

Twenty Manning

J and I are still eating our way through Philadelphia. We can't get enough of all the wonderful food options. From inexpensive to very pricey there are so many options. This sometimes poses a problem for us because the amount of choices is overwhelming. I can literally eat anything at any time, but J is a little more picky. He likes to figure out what he's in the mood for and then go from there. He always has to look up the restaurant's menu before we go so he doesn't take forever deciding what he wants to order once we get there. Like I mentioned in a previous post, Yelp is a great resource to search for restaurants in your city or on vacation.

So after about 30 minutes of searching on Yelp and looking up restaurant menus we decided to head to Twenty Manning. It's located on S. 20th street at the intersection of 20th and Manning street. All of the reviews were great and it has been described as a "lively neighborhood bistro that serves up New American food with Asian influences that appeals to all palates." Another plus is that their food is local and organic wherever possible.

The decor was simple, bright and fresh. It's a small restaurant and it was crowded on a Friday night, but we luckily didn't have to wait to be seated.

J and I really enjoyed the restaurant because it was very flavorful. Even from the 1st taste of bread and butter. The butter had a little darker tint to it and was spiced up with the flavors of jalapenos. Although I generally don't like food that's too hot, the flavor was just right and complimented the bread well.


I'm still trying decide if my favorite part of the meal were the cocktails or my entree. They were both so delicious and full of flavor. I ordered a mango margarita that included fresh mango puree. I probably could have ordered 3 more, but I wanted to leave room for the rest of the food. I definitely want to go back for their cocktails. J also enjoyed his flavorful cocktail.


I wanted to order the vegetable spring rolls, but we couldn't pass up the calamari. It's our favorite and we are still trying to find which place serves it the best. Just like the bread and butter, the calamari was kicked up a notch with jalapenos. It was very light, crisp, and flavorful. It's definitely in the running for one of my favorite calamari spots.

J ordered the Grilled Bison Burger, which came with gorgonzola cheese, grilled vegetables and french fries. He said it was very good and he would definitely come back for it.

I ordered the Green Curry Vegetable Stir Fry. This is probably one of my favorite entrees I've ordered since we've been living here. It was a flavorful medley of silken tofu, baby bok choy, snow peas, guy lan, baby carrots, Japanese eggplant with a side of white rice. I wanted to order another one to take home for lunch the next day. It was really filling, but not too heavy. I would definitely come back for this meal.

Since all the other food was so good we couldn't pass up dessert. We ordered the chocolate flourless mini cake with mocha ice cream and fresh strawberries. Like the rest of the food it was flavorful and light.

Since J and I are trying to visit new restaurants we probably won't be back to Twenty Manning for awhile, but I definitely want to return sometime in the future. I would definitely recommend checking it out, even only if just for the cocktails.