First day of spring was spent with my cousins in Philadelphia. Kevin and Janet’s son, Allen, turned 13 and daughter, Gabriela, turned 10. It just happened to be the prettiest weekend of 2010 so far. Just as we had an unusual amount of snow this past winter, our first day of spring, was unusually warm. El Nino is wreaking havoc this year. We have already set a lot of firsts in the mid eastern region this year and it’s only the third month!
We spent Friday evening watching Gabby play indoor soccer and the best part is THEY WON! On to the next playoff game. Then it was home to eat pizza and some leisure time to catch up. The pizza was within walking distance and was the BEST!
The next morning Kevin cooked us a great breakfast, Belgium waffles and scrapple.
Then it was out the door to run to the local specialty stores to pick up the food for the birthday party. First stop was to get the rye bread and Kevin just knew that Bill and I wanted to pick up some steak meat to take back home so we can make our own Philly Cheese steaks. So the first stop was Robert Lachowicz Quality Foods where we waited in line for our fresh cut meat. Lachowicz makes their own Kielbasa and people from all around (as far as Scranton, PA) put their orders in for their Easter dinner, that is if you are a Polish Catholic. If you don’t order it, you don’t get it……..
Next stop was Cacia’s Bakery. Can’t have meatball subs without their rolls. Their pizza looked so inviting, but we’re not much on pizza for breakfast. BUT we did pick, up Stromboli for later.
Then we headed to South Philly for authentic Philly hoagies. The two original Philly Cheesesteak restaurants are in South Philly, located practically across the street from one another. Pat’s and Gino’s.
There’s a great muriel located between the two restaurants. It depicts some of the famous stars who are from Philly.
Making our way back north to another bakery that specializes in cakes to get the best pound cake ever, we passed the trolley. These trollies were just put back into service about 4 or 5 years ago and are refurbished from the 1940s. What memories that brought back. When I was a kid, my brother and I used to jump on the trolley from my grandmother’s house and ride it all the way to the end and back. Little did we realize we were sent to ride the trolley to get us out of their hair.
We arrived back home just in time to start getting the food ready before everyone started arriving. Mom, dad, Linda, and Sarah were the first to arrive, followed by Dolores, Tom, and Savannah, Aunt Shirley, my cousin, Vicki, Bob, Lauren, and Bryan.
It’s hard to believe Kevin and Vicki are brother and sister. As you can see, Kevin got all the tall genes.
After cake and presents, it was outside for a nerf dart shootout. I don’t know who won, but I know that when I came outside, I was hit in the shoulder by Savannah!
What a great weekend. Nothing better than Philly cheesesteak, pizza, kielbasa, Stromboli, poundcake and fresh rolls. Hmmmm my mouth is watering again.
