Waaaaaaaaaay back in April Steve and I took a trip to Philly to visit (most) of his Dad's side of the family. It was Grammy's 80th birthday and we had a ton of fun surprising and celebrating with her. Whilst there we enjoyed a day at Longwood Gardens. It was beautiful and I only just found the pictures. My camera died mid-trip, and while I have a back-up battery...it was also dead. And apparently I'm so horrible at charging my camera batteries that I only just got around to it last night. Whoops. The pictures and their memories made me smile so I thought I'd share.
My outfit for the day happened to match some flowers in the Orchid room, Steve's Mom wanted to know if I planned the matchy-matchy. I told her that yes, in fact I had called ahead and asked them to hurry up and plant some orange and fuchsia flowers before we arrived. Longwood happily obliged.
I was also reminded of the beautiful Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. All botanical gardens or conservatories remind me of Phipps. Phipps is my happy place. Steve and I went to college a mere forty-five minutes from Pittsburgh and we often visited for various reasons. Mostly we went to our favorite Sushi joint (Sushi Kims if you're ever in the area...challenge: try and order enough Sushi to get your order served on a giant boat platter. We saw it once, we accomplished it every time thereafter). Anyway, we would go to Sushi Kims and then we would meander around Phipps (Or vice versa).
Our Senior year we both had to go down to Pittsburgh a few times to take various tests to apply for graduate schools. One Saturday morning we awoke in our separate, across campus dorms at 5:00am. We met at Steve's car and headed on down to Pitt. Steve took a test, I slept in the backseat of his car. When he was finally done with the GMAT(I think that's what it was) we started the fun part of our day. We went to Robinson Town Center (one of the most amazing and giant shopping complexes I've ever seen) and did a lot of walking around and a little shopping. Sushi Kims and Phipps followed. Have I mentioned how much we love Phipps? Especially the Orchid room. We spent tons of time walking around the Orchid room that Saturday. More than normal. We came back to the room a few more times than usual. It was odd and Steve was acting funny. Only months later did I find out that he had taken his test, gone shopping, eaten, and walked around all day with a certain diamond ring in his pocket. If we weren't so people-phobic and if Phipps had been a bit less crowded that day we would have gotten engaged in the Orchid room.
Every beautiful garden reminds me of that day and our almost Orchid engagement.
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