Vacations in Cape May, New Jersey are an annual thing for Graham’s family.. ok.. sometimes multiple times in a year, but predominantly in the summer. Graham and I missed out last year with wedding planning, but this year, we packed up the car and Huxley, our lazy greyhound, to spend a week at the shore with his parents and younger brother.
Sadly, Graham had to work during the first few days of our vacation.. and then we had to cut our time short since Hermine threatened to put the area in a state of emergency as well as making evacuation a possibility. We decided to head back to Philly Saturday morning to avoid the challenge of a slow-rolling mass traffic exodus. We were sad to leave, but it was nice to have a few days at home to recover. Continue reading →
I’ve been suffering from brain-melt the past few days thanks to the heat index pushing the temperature over 100 in Philly. We’ve been trying to spend as little time outside as possible. It’s been a good excuse for me to pull out my two favorite summer films. Just as winter never feels complete without watching A Christmas Story all the way through at least once, there are two films that have become a summertime tradition for me.Today, I got in my annual viewing of Take This Waltz (2011), Sarah Polley’s second feature length film as director. I love watching this film every year because it’s so… PRETTY. Continue reading →
Disclaimer: The photos below are all from July 2015.
Spruce Street Harbor Park Photo by Ashley LaBonde of Wide Eyed Studios
There’s two things Graham and I look forward to when it comes to summer in Philly: Spruce Street Harbor Park (SSHP) and Night Market. Both kicked off the season this month, but unfortunately, as I mentioned in the previous post, an injury leaving me with a herniated disc has kept me within a 6-foot radius of the house.
Hopefully, I’ll be better by next month’s Night Market, but knowing that Spruce Street Harbor’s pop-up park is basking in the warm sunshine and dripping in rainbow lights, lazy hammocks, and seasonal florals.. complete with food trucks.. I find myself a lot more peevish about being house-confined.
I’d seen “Coming Soon” signs for the pop-up park during my springtime jogs back in 2014, but it wasn’t until our fellow Greyhound parents Kim and Dave raved about their visit that we decided to make a stop. We missed out during its first year, but since we were on the lookout for a place to shoot our engagement photos and thought we’d add it to our list of possibilities.
The eco-friendly floating / beer garden from my cell phone.. thankfully, I’ve upgraded since.
Enchanted by the colors and all the fun activities like the arcade (in shipping containers!), gigantic Connect Four, shuffleboard, etc. we knew it was the right place for our photo shoot within a few seconds. The whole park is basically a gigantic playground! In fact, the sights and sounds gave me the idea to secretly email our photographer Ashley to conspire a water gun assault on Graham during our shoot. Totally paid off as can be seen by Exhibit A below:
We also wrangled a hammock! It was the first and only time since that we got to do that. Good news though, this year, SSHP added hammock lounges that takes reservations! Smart move! No more vulture-eyeing occupied hammocks from the picnic tables and anxiously trying to outrace (but you know, not look like you’re making an aggressively desperate attempt) other park goers when it looks like a hammock has even the merest potential of becoming vacant. It kinda made me feel like a 1st grader in a game of musical chairs.. I always lost then too. Luckily, Ashley and her assistant Rebecca were more eagle-eyed and pounced into action.
Those transition lights are at their best at sunset. Photo by Ashley LaBonde of Wide Eyed Studios
The park is definitely less crowded during the week, but a warning to the foodies, not all the food trucks are necessarily opened then. For anyone wanting to try out Franklin Fountain in Old City but have been intimidated by the lines, they do have a stand in SSHP, but I think the menu might be limited. Apologies for not having more info, but whenever Graham and I are there and in the mood for something sweet, we make a beeline for Port FedNuts (Federal Donuts).. YES, they’re there too!
The Independence Seaport Museum is basically right next door, both Race Street and Morgan’s Piers are up the block, AND Old City’s Ritz theaters are nearby, so you can basically spend the entire day in the area.
When my parents visited us for the first time last year, we took them straight to Spruce Street Harbor Park from the airport. Talk about a great first impression for Philly! My mother, ever the avid gardener, fell in love with what I think was New York Ironweed growing by the boardwalk, a flower she’d never seen before. She was so smitten, she actually started collecting the seeds – much to the embarrassment of my father. I did my best to keep a lookout.. because that’s what a good daughter does. She smuggled them into my shoulder bag, and by the end of the day, it looked like there’d been a party in my purse complete with organic electric magenta confetti. I am STILL finding stray seeds to this day.
A handful more of the photos from our engagement shoot below. All images are by Wide Eyed Studios.
With SSHP being open until Sept. 25 this year, I’ll hopefully have enough time to recuperate and be ready to beat Graham in a Skee-Ball rematch. You can find more information about the park on their website.
Oversized chair.. now Graham understands how the world feel to 5′ me. Photo by Ashley LaBonde of Wide Eyed Studios
And of course, any photo shoot involving me has to include the stereotypical Asian “V” sign.
Vacations in Cape May, New Jersey are an annual thing for Graham’s family.. ok.. sometimes multiple times in a year, but predominantly in the summer. Graham and I missed out last year with wedding planning, but this year, we packed up the car and Huxley, our lazy greyhound, to spend a week at the shore with his parents and younger brother. 
