Celebrating the Day at Ridley Creek State Park

Today is our 42nd wedding anniversary!  So, Marty took the day off, and we headed out to Ridley Creek State Park for a bit of an adventure. 

The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it holds a 1915 mansion, built over a 1789 farmhouse that still stands surrounded by a series of interesting gardens. 

The front door sports a very cute stone dog, of which I have absolutely no information, but it did make for a cute photo.

We stopped in the mansion office and picked up a map so that we could follow the trail out to the protected fly fishing area of the creek. Marty changed his shirt to the camouflage look. 

I'm not sure if the intention was to hide from the fish so that he could sneak up on them, but considering that I was sporting bright yellow,  that idea would be pretty far fetched. 

The grounds are beautiful, and there are a number of trails that you can hike.

Marty opted to try out this spot, which looked promising.

There were at least a dozen fish hanging out in clear sight.

But it seems that all they did was taunt Marty by swimming around his flies.

We decided to move on. About a mile and a half down the path, he decided to try his hand near this dam.

He did manage to catch a blue gill, which was a bit exciting.  The fellow in the distance caught a 12 inch trout, but he had waded out far into the creek, and hiking through water had not been on our list of things to do for the day.

We headed just a bit further down the stream where Marty gave it one more try.  He ended up catching a minnow, which I found to be quite funny.

As you can see, the view from this location was stunning.

Marty decided to call it a day regarding the fishing, so we headed out on one of the trails to make our way back to the car part. I had brought my new hiking boots, so that they could get broken in, and the trekking poles that Marty had given me for Christmas.

We decided to take the Yellow Trail, because it seemed to me that I was dressed appropriately.  There was no camouflage trail.....just saying.

We hiked for quite awhile, and, believe me, I was ready for some refreshment!

So, we headed into Broomall, to a restaurant called Roz and Rocco's.  It's a charming place, filled with family nostalgia.  

I was impressed with the "stamped" lemon that adorned my drink. How cute is that?

I ordered the Caprese "Toast", which is served with grilled bread that is made on the premises. 

It was delightful!  We were also served a complimentary toast that featured whipped Ricotta with honey on the same bread, and I had to close my eyes and savor the deliciousness. 

My dinner was a grilled chicken breast with a Marsala Mushroom sauce served on the side,  and I chose an arugula beet salad to go with it. 

Both of our dinners were top notch and we enjoyed every single bite!

I'll admit, that we were pretty full at this point, but considering that it was our wedding anniversary, how could we pass on dessert?  We chose the "cookie pile", which featured home made pizzelles, pistachio cookies and chocolate chip cookies. 

We opted to eat the pizzelles (fabulous), and box the remainder of the cookies to bring home to savor later.  

Which, believe me, will!  

If you live in the area, I highly suggest that you stop in and enjoy a meal at Roz and Rocco's.  I can assure that you will NOT be disappointed.  And, be sure to BYOB!

Lucky Change in the Weather

Look who was up early with Gramma!

What a fabulous way to start the day! 

And when we walked into the kitchen we spotted a note, instructing us to look in the fridge.  

And, look what we found!

Apparently a kitchen elf, by the name of Amy,  had been hard at work while we were sleeping!  

There were instructions, written in pink marker on a napkin, complete with baking temperature, time, and the easy to follow icing recipe.  

Needless to say, they were delectable!

The day had started out stormy, 

and so we spent the morning indoors, but, no worries, there's always entertainment to be found somewhere.

In the meantime, I put Maddie into making the Tres Leche (cheater's version, according to the recipe) cake.  She made the cake, poked the holes, mixed the milks, and carefully poured the mixture over the baked base.

When it was cool, she beautifully adorned the top with Cool Whip, and we popped the cake into the fridge so that it would have all day for the flavors to meld. 

It wasn't too long before the storm had passed, and we found ourselves with an absolutely glorious day!

How lucky is that?

The twins learned the art of beginner's boogie boarding

much to their delight!

Uncle Jim smoothed out a giant area for sand city construction, with some help, of course.

There was some flag football on the beach

which somehow involved a shovel at one point of the game.

And, once again, there was a trip out to the sand bar for even more fun.

While Aunt Heather distracted the little one, this crew began the construction of their sand creation

a beautiful city!

which, I will admit, the little one took great pleasure in destroying, bit by bit.

Once again, thanks to the weather, we were able to enjoy our time on the beach until dinner, which was a compilation of delicious leftovers.  Kind of like a smorgasbord.  No complaints there!

And, the evening ended with a slice of the delectable Tres Leche creation by Maddie.

It tasted even better than it looked!  

I'm not sure what's in store for today, but I did awake to this lovely sunrise.

The kids must be pretty tuckered out, as I haven't seen a glimpse of one yet this morning! 

It's our final day here at the beach before heading home tomorrow.   

I'm off to go make the most of it!

Thanks for following along!

A New Day

We awoke yesterday to an absolutely perfect day.  Not a cloud in the sky, perfect temperatures...and no biting flies!  How lucky was that?

And, believe me, we certainly made the most of that!  We were out there ALL day!  In fact, the Cabana boy, who puts up and takes down the umbrellas and chairs, pretty much kicked us out of them at 5:15, so that he could get his work done.  Actually, he was quite nice about it all.  He was probably surprised to see us still hanging out on the beach!

Of course, before all of the fun in the sand and surf, we started the morning in the kitchen.  This time, I put Finn in charge.  He was awake early, and eager to do some baking himself.  So he went to work on making the blueberry muffins.

The final touch involved sprinkling a bit of cinnamon sugar on the top, before baking.  He's smiling here because he accidentally dropped more than a "sprinkling" on one of the muffins, but I can assure you that we didn't hear anyone complain about that!

I was so busy immersed in a game of UNO that I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but you can see these three cuties enjoying the final result.

Then it was back to UNO.  

Then on to Baby Shark, with even the two oldest deciding to join in on the fun. 

Unfortunately, Finn is cut out of the photo, but you can be assured that he was enjoying the game with the rest of us.  In fact, there was so much excitement that some of the adults questioned what all of the commotion was about. 

We ended up with a 5 way tie!   We're pretty sure that doesn't happen much.  No winners.  No losers.  

Actually, all winners as it was great fun!

Then we headed to the beach where no time was wasted getting started on sand construction.

And while the crew was busy making a large sand creation, Marty was working on his Yinzer fishing video.

Then, I set out to help these two build a fort in the sand.

And this little guy found a deep hole that kept him pretty busy for hours.  

Who knew something so simple could result in such  entertainment? 

Marty caught a fish...actually, he caught several, but here are some photos that Amy captured.

Obviously, the mullet went back into the ocean, probably to be re-caught sometime in the future. (That's my own conjecture.)

As you can see, the evening was just perfect.

and the entertainment continued through the evening

finished off with some home made chocolate chip cookies and ice cream!

It certainly doesn't get much better than that, does it? 

More adventures today....I'll keep you posted!