Rainy day

I have never seen as much rain in my life as I did the week I was in Philadelphia. At times it was a fun adventure, and there was at least once when I thought I was going to be buried alive in my car from all the rain. Haha... but seriously. 

This really creepy parking garage became even more so under the threat of drowning:

This is my "drowned rat" look. Cute, huh? Yeah, hopefully the people in the stores I visited thought so as well! Where's an umbrella when you need one??

First day in Philly

I am just only slightly obsessed with Philadelphia. I mean, it's call the city of brotherly love, so what's not to love about it? My first full day was a Sunday, and luckily church wasn't until later in the afternoon, so I had time to go scope out downtown. My first stop: the temple! Of course, it's still quite under construction (as in, it's currently just a hole in the ground), but it's being overseen by this guy:

Yeah, that statue is kitty-corner from where the temple will be built. Coincidence?

I don't know if you can see the sign in the background well, but this temple is going to be beautiful! It totally fits in with the architecture of the whole city. I'm definitely going to need to find an excuse to come back in 2015!

The hole:

This beautiful catholic cathedrale that's across the street:

Here's where my wandering began. I just love U.S. history and loved seeing it come alive in these streets. 

I especially love seeing things like this and being reminded of what the men who founded this country really believed. 

In front of Independence Hall:

Cute carriage. Don't mind my finger there...

I'm such a sucker for cobblestone.

So, yeah. If you've never been to Philly it's definitely worth the trip!

The Atlantic City buzz

Yesterday we flew from Denver to Newark. I saw the empire state building and the statue of liberty out the window--so cool! 

This was the greeting our bosses gave us at the airport-- "Welcome ZAGG-terns!" 

Cute, huh?

After getting all my bags and rental car and product and everything, I set out south--down the New Jersey turnpike. I don't know why this road has always been on my list of cool roads to drive down. Maybe they mentioned it a few times in Seinfeld, or maybe I'm just a weirdo. Either way, the drive was really pretty and green. So many trees!

 

I made the 2-hour drive down to Atlantic City. 

You may or may not know of my love for Gilmore Girls. There's one episode where Lorelei and Rory take a trip to Atlantic City for Rory's belated 21st-birthday party. They drink martinis at a blackjack table and play 21 while pretending Rory was turning 21 at midnight, win and buy 21 things with their winnings, and get 21 guys' phone numbers. Oh, and they also find Luke's cross-dressing doppelganger and see Tony Danza tap dance. 

 Now, the couple of hours that I spent in Atlantic City weren't quite as exciting as their trip, but I did my best. 

First stop: the boardwalk. Unlike Emily Gilmore's assertion, it wasn't anything like tipping an overflowing trash can onto your porch.  

There it is: THE boardwalk.

And UNDER the boardwalk:

The pier was so fun--basically a perma-carnival. 

Guys. Just pretend I didn't forget to go in and play video poker on the third machine in the second row of machines as you hit the entrance of Trump Taj Mahal, okay?

So so many seagulls there. And they were like kamikaze birds, too--flew straight at me several times. 

The entrance to the pier:

So, yeah. Ended the night inside Caesar's Palace... naturally.

Went and ordered a Shirley Temple. 

Bartender: How old are you?

Me: ... 26

Bartender: No, that's cute. 

Kill me. 

And then he gave me extra cherries. 

So what I should have realized, though, is that a Shirley Temple is just Sprite with like Grenadine syrup in it, right? More sugar than I've had in probably 9 months, right there. It kind of made me sick. Which is very Gilmore Girls-esque, though, so I'll just chalk it up to being part of the experience. 

All in all, I wish Megan had been there because I am confident that we'd have been able to get 21 guys' number without much difficulty.

Devil's head

We thought that we needed to do something really Colorado-ish while we were there, so hiking seemed like the natural choice. Luckily I got a good suggestion for a not-so-long hike just south of Denver, so once Dustin, Kylee, and I finished up for the day, we set out for the trailhead... not really expecting to have to drive 10 miles down a dirt road in my Altima, but oh well. We still made it!

So we were a bit pressed for time because Kylee had a flight to catch that evening, so we started out at a run. That lasted about a minute and a half. 

 The hike was beautiful, though!!

 

This rock looked a whole lot cooler in real life. Whatevs.

 

Thank you, iPhone, for your panoramic option. :)

Like our shirts? Gotta represent. We passed these kids on the trail--10 years old or so--and they go, "hey, Mormons!" Their mom was a little way behind them--also sporting a BYU shirt. Love it!

So the hike was to this cool fire lookout station.Obviously no one uses it anymore (except maybe that old man who lives in the house at the foot of the stairs... hmm...), but it's still super cool!

By the way, these are the steps to get to the top. At least we got in our cardio for the day!

We literally ran the whole way down--but luckily I was in front, so I got to choose the pace, which was slow. Twisted ankles never save anyone time. But here's a nice action shot from our run down the mountain:

If you're ever in Denver, I'd definitely recommend this hike!! So awesome.