Holding hands at our table at the Victor Cafe. Isn't my husband handsome all spiffed up?!?!I'm pleased to announce that our 2nd anniversary celebrations went off without a hitch! We went to the Victor Cafe and enjoyed a sweet evening together listening to the operatic stylings of the serving staff. We both had a filet mignon which was the special. It was very yummy with greens and cheese and garlic mashed potatoes and sauce. You may notice in the pic that I ordered a side of polenta - because I really had my heart set on polenta! It was nice and smooth, and I couldn't make up my mind whether I liked the potatoes or polenta better. Blame it on my Northern Italian heritage and a leftover love of mamaliga (Romania's version of polenta) from my mission! In case you were wondering, we weren't quite as tenderly teary as our FIRST anniversary, but when they played Jolson's Anniversary Song, we did look into each other's eyes and well up a bit. (By the way - when I looked up that link I found out that the song was originally a Romanian song. No wonder I like it so much! Tony and I also have memories of Jolson since we watched both of his biopics together on TCM).
Tony had somewhere special planned for dessert so we left and went back up into Philly, driving through some really fun areas (like South Street - kind of like Philly's Soho) and ending near the waterfront by Penn's Landing. We found parking (a difficult, daring and expensive thing to do downtown on a Saturday night) and walked around the block to The Franklin Fountain. This was Tony's surprise and it was a fun one! It was a popular place with a line out the door (I'm sure it helped that it was a hot and humid night and they were serving up cooooool delicious treats!) The Franklin Fountain is an old tyme ice cream store, complete with servers dressed in old tyme uniforms. Supposedly Ben Franklin invented ice cream. Do you think that's true?? As a loyal Philadelphian, I will stand proudly and accept this bit of historical lore as fact!
The Franklin Fountain - you stand in line, tell them what you want, and they bring it to you at the end of the counter where you pay.I decided to get a Black Raspberry ice cream cone. It was delicious and did not disappoint! Tony decided to branch out and get an egg cream (he had never had one, but a native New Yorker that he works with had really talked them up!) Sadly, it was not delicious and truly did disappoint. Sorry Tony and sorry to all New Yorkers that waste their time and money on egg creams! To give egg-cream-lovers the benefit of the doubt, we did get it "to go" and the girl said it was hard to make them "to go"... hmm... Oh well. You live and you learn, as my mom says!
Here I am enjoying my Black Raspberry ice cream. Try it sometime. Yum!There were no seats available, so we decided to take our treats to the streets. We were in a busy area and had a great time walking around looking at all the old buildings, restaurants and people enjoying themselves out on the town. It's definitely different than the suburbs! After a pleasant time enjoying the evening weather and the interesting sights, we drove back to our cute little home with the windows down and the moon roof open. It was the perfect end to our evening. I tried to take some photos as we went to remember the drive out of the city. None of the shots were great since they were all from the car, but I thought you might enjoy them. Thanks for such a fun, thoughtful and lovely evening, my Anthony. You make every place we go an adventure!
Here is a lovely lady in the window of Philadelphia Eddie's Tattoo Parlor in Chinatown. 
The fountain at Logan Square I believe. Tony was sweet and circled around the Square twice to help me get a decent shot.
My handsome and patient hubby.I LOVE YOU, TONY!
