On the 28th of December, the day of our anniversary, we drove from Erie (where we spent Christmas with Nathan's family) to Pittsburgh. I experimented with my camera, taking pictures through the car window as we drove:
In Pittsburgh, we enjoyed an afternoon at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. These indoor gardens surpassed my expectations, and also proved to be a great place to get started learning to use a new camera.
There were beautiful hydrangeas:
Interesting cactus/cactuses/cacti (I believe all these plural forms are considered correct; aren't words interesting?):
Gorgeous orchids:
And all sorts of other flowers, from the everyday to the uncommon:
One whole room of the gardens was filled with electric trains:
The rainforest section of the gardens had many beautiful waterfalls:
And the whole place was decked out in grand style for Christmas!
[This is one reason I love that we got married at Christmastime -- the whole world just gets extra beautiful every December. When Nathan and I were planning our wedding, I remember little old ladies asking me, "But don't you want to be a 'June bride'?" And I was thinking, no, I really don't, because... Christmas!]
After we had seen every room and every plant at the conservatory, we checked in at The Renaissance Hotel (booked for a steal on priceline.com!) and then headed out to dinner at ELEVEN, a beautiful restaurant just a brisk walk from our hotel.
Dinner was fantastic. I started with the squash soup with hazelnuts, while Nathan ordered an appetizer of freshly made soft pretzels. Then for my entrée, I enjoyed a vegetarian pasta dish of spaghetti, brussels sprouts, golden raisins, squash, and pine nuts in a light sauce with a glass of chianti. Delicious! [Nathan had a burger and fries. Heh.]
[Having not taken the Nikon to the restaurant, these iPhone photos will have to suffice.]
Back in our hotel room, Nathan took a turn with my new camera and took some photos out our room window:
And that was day 1 of our anniversary trip, minus the kissy-kissy, smoochy-smoochy, stare-into-each-others'-eyes parts, which you can thank me for omitting.
Happy Anniversary!!! Gorgeous pictures - I think I am starting to get a bit of camera envy! You definitely look like you're figuring it out, congratulations. Thanks for sharing some of the results. And I agree, a Christmas wedding sounds ever so much better than June. Although I was married in March, which is not exactly anyone's favorite month... but it has the decided advantage of being in the off season for just about everything!
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