Philly, Part 2

Ok, where was I? Oh, right, Sunday. What food is quintessential Philly? Philly Cheesesteaks, of course! We'd spent a bunch of money on dinner and the club the night before, so cheap was looking mighty attractive. We found one of the places that natives like the best and put ourselves at the end of a line of about 25 people. The smell of the cheesesteaks hit me as soon as the door opened, and I knew I was being really bad. But, upon reaching the front of the line where you order with the cook, I discovered he'd been using the same spatula to chop up the meat and scoop out mushrooms from a giant can; therefore, the cheesesteaks were a no go for me. Lucky for me! I probably would have ended up feeling horribly anyway! So, I ended up with a turkey hoagie (w/out the oil). We spent the rest of the night in front of the TV in the hotel watching my Florida Gators beat Villanova to reach the Final Four. Go Gators!

We woke up Monday morning with plans to go to the Down Home Diner in the Reading Terminal Market. I'd heard about this place on some Food Network show and was looking forward to the Southern style cuisine. I had eggs (which ended up being runny; yuck!), turkey sausage, grits, a biscuit and home fries. Because of the state of the eggs, I didn't eat more than a bite of them but finished the sausage and had a few bites of the grits, a bite of the biscuit and maybe 3 bites of potato. I felt horribly wasteful, but I knew there was no way I could or should eat all of that food.

We said goodbye to Philly for Kennett Square, PA and Longwood Gardens. I'd heard about Longwood Gardens years ago and had been wanting to visit for years. Thankfully, the hubby was amenable to the idea. I stepped one foot into the door of the conservatory (not much is blooming outdoors yet) and knew I was in heaven. I took 84 pictures in about 2 hours! I could have spent hours and hours there, but I knew we needed to get on the road. They had walls of orchids, for crying out loud! And, on the way out, I just had to stop in the gift shop. I picked out a magnet and two plants ... right up my alley!

We were almost ready to make our way homeward, but we had one more stop, Chick-fil-a! I ate about 3/4 of a chicken sandwich. I figured I'm not doing it very often, so it won't kill me to do it. Although, the scale wasn't kind to me Tuesday morning.

Oh, wait, one last stop, my parents' house to pick up the doggie. And, despite earlier plans not to be present, the hubby came with me and we chatted with my parents for a little while before finally heading home.

I had a fantastic time, and although I wasn't the best about making all the right food choices, I don't regret those that I did make. I was able to live the weekend to its fullest and enjoy myself without feeling guilty. I just didn't go beyond the limits I knew I had and listened to my stomach. On Tuesday morning, the scale did give me an 8/10 of a pound loss (my first week without at least a full pound), but since then, it's been creeping upward, the wrong direction dangit! So, now I'm back to my weight of last week, and I've been eating well. What's up with that?!