"You Want a Story? I've Got Stories!" – Our Waitress

Oh what a very Berry weekend it was! Lauren Berry arrived in Montgomeryville, PA on Tuesday evening, and since then it’s been a crazy wild ride of fun, friends, and FOOD! Here’s a short account of the week spent with camp’s favorite lower senior girls group leader…

On Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early to head to the office, making a brief stop at Wawa for breakfast sandwiches and coffees. There was lots to be done around the office, so Lauren kept busy chatting with camp friends and going through camp pictures! Wednesday night we got home and joined my mom for dinner and hung around the house.  On Thursday we woke up early for work again to stop at Wawa, but this time we were inspired as we walked past the baked goods, so we stopped at Yum Yum donuts and brought in 2 dozen donuts for the office! Eric Forti couldn’t control his excitement!!!

Forti shows us his favorites!

With bellies full of donuts the work day flew by and before we knew it we were hopping in Forti’s car to make a trip out to Port Washington. We sang Glee songs the whole way there, and Eric Forti belted out his best rendition of the Wicked Soundtrack on the ride home. We stopped for Pizza (since everything revolves around food) and ended up with WAY too much pizza (can you imagine that even being possible?) Forti had an argument with Lauren as we got in the car as he tried to make room for her feet in the back (our leftovers took up a lot of room!) and she insisted she was fine:

He's a multi-tasker!

We got home late, but were up again bright and early on Friday for another fun day in the office. There were still leftover donuts and with the addition of my Mini-Keurig to the office kitchen it was a funny and fabulous camp day. As the work week drew to a close, we changed out of our office apparel and into our Friday night outfits, and headed out to the train station to hop the R5 into Philadelphia. After meeting some of my friends for some appetizers, we arrived for our reservation at Buddakan! We had the most delicious dinner and by far one of the greatest desserts we had ever tasted. Lauren Berry was SILENT as she enjoyed each bite (yes, it was THAT good!!!). After a long a delicious Buddakan experience, we hopped the train back to my town and fell into our beds in a food coma.

Saturday morning FINALLY found us sleeping in, and just as we were getting up it was time to rush off to King of Prussia and meet Mel Sukonik, Mindy Rosenthal, and Alix Steerman for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We had the most INSANE waitress I have ever experienced – at one point she actually jumped out from a wall and exclaimed “BOO! Gotcha!!!” in an attempt to scare us. Needless to say, it was a lunch full of camp talk and laughing. After our 2.5 hour lunch (our crazy waitress talked A LOT!) we did a little shopping, and Lauren and I bought our new accessories for next year’s Pre-Camp:

Lauren Berry got the Owl!

I got the Raccoon!

We will be rocking our animal hats in the cold arctic tundra that is Canadensis Pre-Camp. After our mall experience we said goodbye to the girls and drove home to my house, where Dani had finally returned from her play rehearsal. We hung around for a little while, and then decided it was time for dinner (told ya it was all about the eating) and it was a unanimous vote to head out to La Campagnola. La Campagnola is famous for many reasons, most importantly that it’s the one restaurant I take my bus counselors to visit every summer, as well as most counselors who come home with Dani and I on our days off. The food is out of this world (ask Kenzie about the garlic bread…) and the portions are insane, we ALWAYS have a fridge full of leftovers after any trip. After our delicious meal we came home and once again fell victim to the food coma.

On Sunday we were running rampant with errands and and laundry, but we had time to stop for a quick lunch with Terri and Company. Once we got home we had some time to sit and play with Leo and Bella (only the world’s cutest dogs) and spend time hanging out. After all the brunching and lunching of the day, we were hardly hungry, but when our stomachs started to grumble around 9pm, we drug Dani out of the house and made a quick trip to TGIFridays for some appetizers. The restaurant was all decked out for halloween and our waiter actually jumped out and tried to scare us at one point. That would be the SECOND time that a waiter jumped out at us over the weekend. What is going on here?!?!

This morning we woke up with the sun for Lauren Berry’s last morning at the camp office. We loaded her bags into the car (Berry is an AMAZING packer) and drove in to work. One of the roads I typically take to get to the office was closed this morning, so we got to go on a small adventure through North Wales until we found our way back on the route to work. When we finally got to the office the day was full of visitors and fun, and before we knew it Lauren Berry was saying goodbye, giving hugs, and trying not to cry as we drove off to the train station. Berry will take the train into the city, hop another train to the airport, and then head off on the next leg of her trip. Watch Out Chicago!

Well, Halloween is finally arriving, I hope everyone will send in photos of their creative costumes, it always makes us laugh here in the winter office to see what you all come up with!