Since Chris was on vacation this week I was able to take a day to travel into Philadelphia via regional rail with a friend who was also without child to explore some new and favorite places in the city. The Comcast Center is a brand new office building with a new marketplace in the "basement" that I have heard about frequently from my husband, who tells me about walking by the Termini Bros bakery every day on his way to the train. When I ask "where is my canoli?" of him each time he mentions it, he just shrugs his shoulders. So, I was determined to get a canoli. We did briefly pause in the lobby of the building to see the gianormous wall of TV screen that projects some beautiful images for a bit. It was quite clever. Here is a video of the screens at the building opening.
So we ordered one canoli to share, and watched as the bakery chick filled our canoli fresh with a ricotta and chocolate chip creamy mixture. It was as amazing as I anticipated.
Next on our stop was a walk over to Walnut Street to "have lunch" at the Naked Chocolate Cafe. I had been there once last summer when I was pregnant, but this time not having a baby kicking internally made it a bit more pleasant. We had Aztec Frozen Hot Chocolate drinks, which was like a giagantic frozen chocolate slushie with cinnamon and nutmeg. So yummy. We shared a black forrest cupcake (my favorite!) and a raspberry bar. On a sugar high, we walked back up Walnut to LUSH, a favorite bath/body products shop. I was good and only purchased a shampoo bar and one bath bubble bar. It was fun smelling everything. The one sales chick was extremely annoying, but apparently she was in training for the Houston store, so we won't have to deal with her again in Philly.
Then we explored the big beautiful Williams-Sonoma Store on Walnut and I drooled over the cool cupcake cake pan and other baking supplies. In the end, I decided the cupcake cake would be too small for Andrew's birthday party. I have their beehive cake, which is a similar size, and it makes a small cake--ok, not that small, but it just serves the family when all are over.
On our way home we stopped at our local Trader Joe's to pick up pizza dough. I made a yummy Thai pizza that night for dinner.