NINE YEARS AND COUNTING

Yesterday was my ninth wedding anniversary.  It was a lovely day.  I keep waking up at 4:30 a.m.  I have no idea why but it makes for a very long and tiring day.  I heard Joe up and moving around 7:00 a.m. so I went into the bedroom and he was sitting on the bed with a card and a package for me.  Inside were two jewelry boxes.  When I opened them up I found...

... a silver and diamond fish necklace.  Ever since I worked in the Fish Department at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia I have loved and collected fish jewelry.  This was perfect.  But there was more.  He also gave me...

 ...a cultured pearl necklace and earring set.  Beautiful!

I went to Rite Aid to get my medicine.  While I was there you know I had to look at the sale items.  I got Joe a gray t-shirt that was on sale.  I also got some Danish butter cookies and this cute little pumpkin to add to my fall collection.  Like I need more fall stuff.  But this was so cute and different.

It has a battery operated flickering candle inside and looks so nice at night time.

Then I ran to 7-11 and got us breakfast sandwiches and headed home.

After breakfast we got ready to go out.  We were headed to Strasburg to see the show "Joseph" at Sight and Sound Theater.  That was my anniversary gift to Joe.  But first I had to get gas, so it was back to 7-11.  While I was pumping gas, Joe went into the store and came back out with a dozen red roses for me.

We finally got on our way and made really good time out there.  We got there about 45 minutes early which gave us time to go to the restrooms and get some water and vanilla almonds which is their specialty.  The whole place smells of vanilla almonds when you open the door.

 The next show coming is "Samson" and the statue for it is already up in the lobby.  Can't wait to see it.

The show was fantastic!  I must have said "WOW!" a dozen times through it.  The music was good, the costumes were beautiful, and the sets were outstanding!

You can't take pictures of the performances, so I took these off of their website.

I got Joe a tie-dyed t-shirt with the Joseph logo on it.  Joe loves tie-dye and since his name is Joseph...  Well, you know I just had to.

We took a few pictures outside of the theater before heading for dinner.

Too bad the sun reflected in my glasses.

The trees behind Joe are starting to turn color!

The Lion and The Lamb statue.

This is the view from the parking lot.  Beautiful!

Route 896 was all torn up so we wanted to get away from the traffic tie up there.  Besides when we passed Hershey Farm and Katie's Kitchen, two of the places we were thinking of eating at, the parking lots were full.  So we went off the beaten track and went to Bird-in-Hand Restaurant.  That was crowded too and we had to give our names and wait, but it wasn't too long.  There were lots of Amish people there.  I always feel that if the locals eat at a restaurant, it's got to be good.  But having been there lots of times before I KNEW the food would be good.  We both had the smorgasbord.  Is there any other way to go?

The meal was great!  I had a salad and then broasted chicken, ham balls, baked corn, mashed potatoes and stuffing.  I even left room for dessert and had a piece of pumpkin pie.  I usually don't eat pumpkin pie out because of all the spices, but this was just right and so good!  I wished that I had room for a second slice.

We headed for home around 7:30 p.m. and got home around 9:00 p.m.  Riding through center city Philly with all the skyscrapers lit up was beautiful.  I really am a city girl.

It was a wonderful day.  Joe said he wanted to make it perfect for me, and he did.

Kathy