What We're Doing With Our First Free Weekend as Newlyweds

Last weekend was our first weekend at home as newlyweds, but unfortunately we had to go out of town (four hours away) for a funeral. This weekend is the first that Mr. Cupcake and I have been able to chill out as Mr. & Mrs. and do whatever our little hearts desire. So far, this has consisted of:

• dinner with friends Friday night
• sleeping in Saturday morning
• going fishing (Mr. Cupcake)
• watching Legally Blonde in pajamas while blogging (Mrs. Cupcake)
• venturing into the city together to conduct a Pat's vs. Geno's cheese steak tasting experiment (two huge cheese steak competitors in the City of Brotherly Love)
• attending a photography exhibit in our town and getting ice cream on the walk home
  

While watching tv one night last week, we saw something on the Travel Channel about Pat's vs. Geno's and we thought, "wouldn't it be fun to taste-test both places in one day?" We promptly added this adventure to our "after the wedding" list, and had nothing else to do yesterday (an absolutely beautiful October day), so we went for it.

Game faces on. This is serious business.

First up: Pat's.

Very un-flashy facade, but don't judge a book by its cover.

My order: "Provolone wit-out." (In Philadelphian, that means a cheese steak with Provolone cheese, without onions.) Mr. Cupcake ordered a "Provolone wit."

Mr. Cupcake is happy.

Mrs. Cupcake scarfing down the whole thing.

After Pat's, we headed directly across the street to Geno's, Pat's biggest competitor for 42 years.

Geno's has a much flashier facade.

It's all very.... orange.

We didn't get any photos of Geno's steaks.... we couldn't find a table so we had to stand and eat, and perhaps we were a little delirious from eating our second cheese steak (each) of the day, so we forgot. Oops.

So, yes, I ate two cheese steaks in a 30-minute time frame. No, I am not proud. But it was for the sake of research, people, and as a Philadelphian, I take my cheese steaks very, very seriously. The winner of the Cupcake household 2008 cheese steak survey: Pat's — King of Steaks.* Better steak, the line moved faster, there were more tables, and ruder service (it's a Philly thing). Plus, Pat's was there before Geno's, and we're all about loyalty to the original.

Dear hive, these are the silly things you do as newlyweds with lots of newfound free time. It is delightful. Today, we're going to go see a matinee showing of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Pre-wedding-chaos, we used to always see movies on Sunday afternoons, loving the fact that there are never any crowds and it's always cheaper. Neither of us can even remember the last time we did this.

This newlywed thing definitely suits us. Definitely.

Do any other newlyweds out there have fun newlywed-ish adventures to share? If you're not married yet, what are you most looking forward to doing once all of the wedding excitement is over?

*Opinion only.