Girl time in the 'City of Brotherly Love'

I spent Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.  My good friend Emily just moved to the Philly area and we were in real need for girl time!  It's been a long time since Emily and I spent that long together.  We have been friends forever.  We try to get together over holidays, at Christmas time, but it's gotten harder as we have gotten older.  That's how life is, isn't it?  The great thing about our friendship though, is that we pick up exactly where we left off.  Time goes by and our friendship remains.  It even grows and strengthens.  We don't have to talk every day or on any particular schedule but when we do talk, I know that it is a conversation with a true friend.  I'm lucky to have such good friends in my life!  I'm very grateful.  

This is us as kids, with Leah.  It's one of my most favorite pictures ever!  Childhood friendships are truly amazing...

So we decided that we needed a get together.  We needed to catch up - to have girl time.  And we made our plans.  Kind of.  We actually made no concrete plans.  We decided to figure it out as we go.  Slow paced, relaxed, fun.  Late night talks and early morning coffee.  Girl movies, wine and fireworks.  HGTV.  We were calling it a girls retreat weekend.  It was great!

Lots of laughter... TONS of constant talking... a little shopping, of course.  It was good for the soul, good for the mind.  Good for my heart.  Just good.

We started the weekend with the BEST apple cider donuts ever!  Apparently we aren't the only ones that think so.  We walked around a cute downtown area with some fun shops and restaurants, and an upcoming mushroom festival....hmm.

Yes, there is Chick-Fil-A in PA!!  Who would have ever thought?  YUMMM...

We visited Emily's garden, of course!  And the one Neal works at but I didn't take any pics there.  Both of them were amazing.  There are tons of gardens everywhere in PA.  The whole area is beautiful actually.  Gardens everywhere, farm stands, huge trees... green everywhere you look.  And beautiful old houses.

Em and her educational vegetable garden!  All her veggies were looking good!  They harvest every Thursday and take all the produce to the food bank.  Isn't that great?  In the meantime, she has signs posted throughout so that kids and families can learn about growing their own veggies.  I love how the garden can serve multiple purposes.

Lots of farm stands around too!  I love that!

Part of Em's deck!  Of course she had great potted plants EVERYWHERE!

It's true, I had never had the Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea.  Now I'm obsessed!  It is so yummy and every cap has a great 'grannyism' inside.  Love.  Good thing I found them in the store here at home.

Grannyisms....

Ah, Philadelphia.  The City of Brotherly Love.  But a city where I bonded more with one of my greatest friends.  A city where we relaxed and had some much needed girl time....