You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Philly’ category.
Last year in our Christmas cards we included a letter that looked at the highlights from the previous year. Granted 2008 was filled with lots of changes with Vancouver to Missouri to Princeton and this year hasn’t been quite as exciting but still there are lots of things to remember. So I thought I would continue the tradition by looking back at 2009.
January
After having spent the holidays with family in Missouri we settled back into our normal schedules and enjoyed the winter weather.
February
In February I ended a 2+ year journey and cut my hair.
March
We enjoyed some local Philadelphia flavor when we headed down to Philly with some friends from church.
April
Lots of traveling happened in April. First to Ithaca, NY to visit some college friends, Matt & Tracy, along with their new baby Nadya…
And later in April we headed off to Vancouver…
May
May began our summer in the city with the visit of Lucas’ parents, Bonnie & Larry. We headed into NYC to show them around and explore some new things for ourselves.
At the end of May we headed back into NYC to meet up with my Aunt Dodo and Uncle Mike and to stay the night on Times Square.
June
Easily the most exciting thing of the year…
We found out we’re expecting! Granted the real event happened in May but the excitement began in June. :)
Also my Aunt Shirley and Cousin Carrie came for a visit…
July
More visitors in the form of my sister, Megan; my friend, Allie; my parents, Craig & Pat…
August
In August Lucas and I celebrated 6 years of marriage by taking a little vacation up to Vermont to get away from New Jersey for awhile.
September
Besides celebrating my birthday we also enjoyed a visit from Mandi & Jesse.
October
In October I headed home to Missouri to enjoy a wonderful Baby Shower with family and friends.
November
We bought a house!
December
The belly continued to grow as we await the arrival of our little one in February. We celebrated Lucas’ birthday and then enjoyed the holidays by ourselves in New Jersey by heading into NYC on Christmas Day.
-Shannon
This past Saturday our friends Mandi & Jesse came into town. I have known Mandi since high school days and she was also a bridesmaid in our wedding. Lucas and I met Jesse in college and Mandi and Jesse met right around the time we got married. So needless to say we’ve all been friends for quite some time. :) They are staying with us for the week while they enjoy NJ, some trips into NYC and a U2 concert today. They flew into Philadelphia so we thought we’d enjoy the day by showing them around. By now I feel like I’ve seen some of these places way too many times but it is always fun to show it someone for the first time.
Of course they had to see the Liberty Bell…
We went on one tour of the old buildings and while we were waiting we decided to have an impromptu photo shoot. First the girls…
And then the guys…
We headed down to South Street to enjoy some Philly Cheese Steaks…
They were totally worth the hour long line we had to wait in…
And some more Philly…
On Sunday we all went out to church together and Mandi & Jesse were quite the troopers when it came to spending 5 hours there. Once we were finally done with church we headed over to Lambertville for lunch.
We spent the evening at home enjoying our time together and watching some football. So great to have friends visit us…
-Shannon
One day after I dropped Lucas off for the train to NYC, I took my parents down to Philly for the day. I thought my dad would especially enjoy this because he loves history. We had thought about taking a side trip to Gettysburg but it just didn’t happen. So Independence Mall would have to do. After grabbing lunch at Pat’s Steaks, some the best cheese steaks in the city, we headed around town to explore…
We caught an afternoon tour of Independence Hall and I really enjoyed hearing about all the history in this place. We were even able to take a look upstairs since it was open.
Once we saw as much history as we could handle we headed back to Princeton and stopped at Babies R’ Us to look around. It was great to be able to share the baby excitement with my parents and it was surprising to see how excited my dad is. I loved showing them different things we are thinking about and getting their perspective. It turns out you really don’t need all the “stuff” to have a baby, just a lot of love and patience. I already knew this and Lucas and I don’t plan to go overboard with baby stuff but it was still fun to look around with my mom and dad…soon to be Grandma and Grandpa. :)
-Shannon
This past week my Aunt Shirley and cousin Carrie visited us as part of Carrie’s high school graduation trip! Neither one of them had ever been to NYC so I had fun showing them around and they even headed into the city on their own for a day. This past weekend the three of us girls stayed in the city at the New York Helmsley Hotel while Lucas enjoyed a weekend at home by himself. We all enjoyed dinner out on Friday night followed by the amazing experience of seeing The Lion King on Broadway.
On Saturday we headed out for the day and quickly came upon a little street fair…
We made our way up 5th Avenue stopping at the Library…
…St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Tiffany’s and eventually making our way to Central Park…
On Sunday morning we headed off to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. And even though I had just visited these places with Lucas’ parents I still enjoyed looking around and catching new views…
After our weekend in the city we headed down to Philadelphia for the afternoon on Monday.
After our quick stop at Independence Mall I dropped them off at their hotel for the night and then they flew back home to Missouri yesterday. It was such a great visit and I’m so glad I got to spend some extended time with them especially as Carrie heads off to Williem Jewell College this fall. I love you two!
-Shannon
This past Sunday after enjoying some time at church, we headed off to Philadelphia with some friends, Ryan & Jen (Ryan is our pastor) and Roger & Pat (Pat plays guitar with me every week on the worship team). We had been talking about going to this noodle house for quite some time and we were finally able to go there and enjoy it firsthand. First we made our way to Chinatown in downtown Philly thanks to Ryan’s superb driving…
Thankfully some of the group hopped out as we passed the place. They waited in line while we parked the van. Finally we made it to the place…
Ryan & Jen had been here several times before so they were able to help us out with the ordering. Lucas had noodles with peanut sauce for only $3! And if you know Lucas then you know he was pretty happy about the price. :)
I had seafood noodle soup (for $5.75…still a good deal) which had some shrimp, scallops and fish balls mixed in as well.
A group shot but Roger is too busy eating and Pat is absent because she took the picture. :) We were so excited to be there! From L-R…Roger, Ryan, Lucas, me and Jen…
Lucas and Ryan enjoying the food…
After our late lunch we walked through Chinatown and sipped on some bubble tea-like drinks as we walked around the city…Jen & Pat…
It was a lovely day to just stroll along so we did just that and enjoyed the city as well…
-Shannon
There is little doubt, dear reader, that you have come to this blog in hopes of engaging in a discussion regarding early American Methodism. Well, you are in luck! O happy day!
As many of you may or may not know, in recent years I have spent an inordinate amount of time with the early American Methodists. I have enjoyed learning about them even though bringing them up in normal conversation isn’t always advisable. Interestingly, not everyone on the street is as excited about Methodist happenings around the Revolution as you might think. So, if you boldly want to go where no one… I mean, few have gone before, read on.
Recently, I took a course on Methodist worship. The best part was that it was taught by the pastor currently serving at St. George’s UMC in Philly. St. George’s, to refresh your memory, is the oldest Methodist church building that has been in continuous use in the world. That sounds confusing, and it is a bit because John Street Methodist Church in NYC is the oldest but it moved locations. So, St. George’s has a unique, albeit complicated, claim to fame.
What is even more exciting to me is that the early Methodist Book Concern (which was the topic of my thesis at Regent) started at St. George’s. John Dickins and Ezekiel Cooper ran the Book Concern out of St. George’s from 1789 until 1803. Dickins died of yellow fever in Philly (he refused to leave town because he wanted to minister to the sick and dying—much like many monks in the medieval period when the bubonic plague came to town) where tradition says he is buried at St. George’s…who knows.
The cool thing is that St. George’s has an impressive museum and collection of primary sources. In fact, I think their collection of early American Methodist imprints is better than most collections I have seen including Harvard, Princeton, and dare I say Boston U’s… Duke’s collection may still be stronger (for some reason Duke hasn’t locked me in their rare books safe so I can’t be sure), but either way, St. George’s has a lot of unique and interesting materials.
Here are a few:
The sign on the church… I think it is pretty funny that there is an anachronism right on the church’s sign! If you are a real Methodist history geek you probably already have it spotted–there was no Methodist church before 1784. Though Methodist societies met before this, and this is how St. George’s started, they were not a church. In fact, St. George Methodists went down the road at an Anglican Church. Oh well, it is a nice looking sign.
These three pictures are of a hymnal at St. George’s that is written in JW’s own hand–it looked like a serious amount of work!
Here is old Francis Asbury himself. Quite a looker, eh?
This was a ordination certificate for a preacher signed by Asbury. In the bottom right you can see the original seal.
Here it is, my friends! The most exciting thing for me was to be in the place where the Book Concern started. The first thing Dickins printed was this sign…
Old Disciplines
This is an original receipt from the Concern. I really wish I would have had access to these materials before I finished my thesis. Most of the Book Concern’s records were destroyed in a fire in the mid-nineteenth century.
Finally, a pic of the sanctuary. Very colonial and surprisingly (or maybe not) similar to the Anglican Church down the street.
Well, my friend, if you have made it this far you are a trooper indeed. This was a nice day for me and I thought I would share.
Peace out homeys.
Lucas
*You would have to be a real Seinfeld fool to get the reference of the title. Any seinfeldians out there?
After a week of me going to work followed by spending time with mom in the late afternoons and evenings we finally said goodbye to her this past Saturday. She flew in and out of Philadelphia so we made a quick day trip of it and saw a few of the historic sights…of course we had to see Independence Hall, the place they signed the Declaration of Independence…
We weren’t able to go inside because all the tours were filled up for the day. But we were able to see the Liberty Bell…
We also enjoyed a tour of Congress Hall. This is the place where the House of Representatives and the Senate met from 1790-1800. Here is where the House of Representatives met…
And this platform is where John Adams was sworn in as the 2nd US President…
The on to the Senate chamber…
One of the other meeting rooms…
There was also an interesting exhibit that analyzed each president’s inaugural speech by what words they said the most…this one was for good ol’ George W…
They had them for every president and it was really interesting to try and figure out who the president was just based on some of the words they used…
After enjoying Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches for lunch we finally said goodbye to my mom…
-Shannon
