SIDE TRIP VACATION TO PHILADELPHIA

 After my recent teaching trip to Easton MD, read about that here: Bayside Quilter of the Eastern Shore, I was able to take a vacation to my hometown, Philadelphia, with two old friends.

We left Easton and took a one hour drive to Chestertown, MD, where I met up with a great quilter friend I met 3 years ago teaching for the Virginia Consortium of Quilters. Read about that trip here: VCQ 2022.

Betty Dietz has a cute little quilt shop/store called Dream Castle Quilt Studio in the lovely town of Chestertown. It was so fun to meet up with her there, we picked up right where we left off, 3 years ago. Quilty friends are like that:

Betty Dietz and I in her shop

Look what I bought from Betty. An antique top, a bit tattered in places, but the price was right and it's a great selection of old fabrics, some pre-1900. My plan is to replicate this one in the future:

Another treat? In her lobby there is a brand new pastry shop, Brian's Best Pastries--it was his very first day, a soft opening. We can all testify to how GOOD those pastries are--worth a trip to Chestertown for these goodies alone:

Charles "Brian" Bennet, another Philadelphia native

Check him out next time you're in the area

Then it was on to Philadelphia, a city I haven't been to in at least 10 years, about a two hour drive from Chestertown. It is where I grew up, in the house my dad was born in. Judy and I met in 7th grade and have been friends ever since, she was my maid of honor almost 50 years ago.

Judy and Mark moved to a high rise condo in Center City 9 years ago and love their life there. The views from their 25th floor are breathtaking. I couldn't stop looking at all the sights. And at night there were people in many neighborhoods celebrating the 11th of July! Take a look at these views:

In the first photo, way in the distance, about center near the horizon, is a water tower. It's 10 miles away, in Burholme Park, less than 3 miles from my family home. Amazing to see it from so far away.

City life involves walking, right up my alley. Friday night we walked to a Mexican type restaurant for dinner. The food was good, my guacamole is better, find my recipe here: Guacamole ATX. Our meals:

Grilled Shrimp Soft Tacos

Mushroom Tacos

Mahi Fish Tacos

We walked past the Eastern State Penitentiary, no longer used as a prison, special events are held there:

The next morning Mark and I walked to Whole Foods early to pick up things for breakfast. I kept taking pictures:

After breakfast we walked to Reading Terminal Market, a must stop place for me. About a 1.3 miles from their building, we passed lots of famous places and I took lots of photos:

Skyline image

The Free Library, we have Ben Franklin to thank for libraries

I like that grid pattern, looks like quilting designs

Lots of public parks with water features for families to enjoy

City Hall in one direction

The Art Museum in the other direction

Judy and Mark at the famous LOVE statue in LOVE Park

The plaque 

Dilworth Park near City Hall 

This was cool--this camera is being broadcast to several countries around the world. We saw Dublin, Ireland, Cartagena Columbia, and Poland. This guy showed us you have to do something engaging to get the curious onlookers to respond--he had us all doing the Macarena! When people around the world joined us it was so special! It's a small world sometimes.

William Penn laid out the city in 1682. Each block is 1/8 mile long so 8 blocks is a mile. It's easy to know that going from 21st street to 12th street will be 1 1/8 miles. And the streets were really that straight. I learned that in 4th grade. 

Reading Terminal Market--I LOVE this place! It was the only thing I really had to do on this trip. So many different kinds of foods, some I have to have, like a Soft Pretzel, somethings I could never find in Huntsville, AL, and just sights, sounds and smells to overwhelm the senses:

Octopus, squid, eels, etc.

My FIRST STOP

Yummy!

So many cheeses

Who knew you can buy Kangaroo or Ostrich or Alligator meat?

Nothing to see here--we didn't buy any sweets though it was tempting

Mark got chicken for the Chicken Fricassee he was preparing for dinner so we hustled back home. Judy and I had a visit to make that afternoon so after a shower and a quick lunch we were off.

The day before I left home I was notified my sister had a stroke and was in the hospital. The good news is it was fairly mild and she was moved from ICU to Acute Care to the Rehab center in a matter of days. We drove the one hour to see her in the Rehab center. She is doing well, her daughters are a big help, and she is home by the time you read this. We visited for an hour, I got to talk with my nieces a bit and then my sister needed to sleep so we headed back to Center City.

Just to keep this a little "quilty" here is a fiber art piece that hangs in the lobby of Judy's building, with no signage of attribution to the artist, which is really too bad:

Good friends are worth their weight in gold and Judy is that friend for me. We love each other and I know there isn't anything she wouldn't do for me. We had a great meal Mark prepared for us, drank a bottle of Prosecco and talked about so many things, the past, the future, life in general. Good times.

The only bad part was my 6:30 am flight Sunday morning. We got up at 4 am, left the house at 4:25 and I was dropped off at 4:45 am. The airport was hopping! I was surprised, expecting nothing to be open. It took about 30 minutes to get my bags checked in and through Security, thank you TSA Pre-Check. Every food place was open and had long lines. I had my protein shake, banana and one remaining pretzel and I was good. Traveling mercies were with me on both the flight to Atlanta and then home, so I was back home by 1 pm, unpacking and doing laundry. 

All in all, it was a full trip and I enjoyed it. 

Let's quilt.