10 years

It's been 10 years since I started this blog.

Still travelling...

Last week was another first for me in my travel adventures. It was actually my first time in a country on my own, that doesn't speak English, (or American!). I went to Barcelona, by myself.

I've been before; so I could remember where to go, and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do.
I've been craving a bit of a new adventure, and I certainly got it.

I'm writing about it over on my other blog, www.wormybamthoughts.wordpress.com as it is not an American Adventure, so it doesn't quite fit here.

I'm blogging regularly at the moment, roughly twice a week, but it is for work, rather than myself. I write the company blog here: www.portraitprofessional.com/blog.

Of course, as usual, if you want to follow my semi regular updates and know where I am, you can follow me for real on Twitter: @wormybam

Back to reality.

Trip of a lifetime!

This trip has been absolutely fantastic. It's a bit surreal coming back to normal  life. 

We landed yesterday morning, had hardly slept on the plane, so we were pretty tired all day.

One of the really strange things was seeing London from the air, and spotting all the things we recognised. 

We saw the Shard from the air, and later that afternoon, I went out for a walk, around Southwark and crossed Southwark Bridge and saw the Shard up much closer!

Returning to reality this morning was a bit strange. It was actually very comforting to be a commuter on a subway system I know.

Having seen so many exciting things this week, it's a good thing to remember how lucky I am to live in another amazing city. As much as I love America, I'm loving living in London too. I'm still adventuring.

There had to be a Mall Day

There had to be a mall day. No trip to the USA is complete without a trip to at least one Mall.

We've been getting up a little late, but the hard work of sightseeing is beginning to take its toll. You can't burn the candle at both ends, and put in a full days sightseeing, walking etc, without eventually crashing. And our accommodation is so comfortable here, it's hard to wake up.

We're sleeping in the basement, which is nicer than it sounds. In America, people often have very useful rooms in their basements. Even a bar and home cinema!  So the beds in the basement are very comfortable, and it's so lovely and dark down there, that our body clocks can't quite work out where we should be, but we're very tired. We've not quite switched to East Coast time, but we're doing pretty well. 

So after breakfast and everyone was up, (it is Saturday after all) we made a plan of what to do with our remaining hours left Stateside. 

First was a trip around the block, there was a yard sale happening in the estate. So of course we had to take a look. 

Another essential part of a holiday in this part of the US is a trip to the farmers market. 

It's got all kinds of things, far more than you'd imagine. There is food. But there are also furniture shops, fabric shops, second hand shops, a pet shop with puppies and kittens. 

I bought some fabric for my next quilting project, I already know what I want to do next, but I'm busy with a  New York / Americana themed bed runner for myself. It's something I've wanted to buy for a while, plus I wanted a small manageable quilting project. It's coming along quite well, but it's all hand sewing, so it's taking me a while. 

We picked up some groceries, and after a good rummage, we were hungry. There's a diner near the Farmer's Market, somewhere I'd not been before, and it was really quite authentic. Just what you imagine from the movies. A mixture of movie posters, local maps and photos of local sports teams on the wall, it had a very real American feel to it. 

I'm not sure how to define what I mean by real America, but I'll try. 

I mean a mixture of the idealistic view we get from the movies, and of the things that really do happen. There's a certain moment of realisation that what we see idealised in film is in fact drawn on reality. The American dream exists.  

There are so many things about America that we fail to perceive through media that can only be realised through living there, visiting family and friends who live there, and truly engaging with the people. That is real America for me. 

We drove to Cristiana, Delaware, to the big mall with the Apple Store. My objective was to buy an iPad mini, tax free of course in Delaware. 

Mission accomplished, we had a quick scoot around a couple of other shops and soon it was time to head back, unpack our shopping and repack our cases. 

We had a lovely tea of salad and last night's pizza. Pizzas here are huge remember, 3 pizzas fed 6 of us last night, and some of it fed us all again, accompanied with some salad and potato salad and home grown cherry tomatoes.  

Soon it was time to leave, say our goodbyes, and be on our way to the airport. 

It's Goodbye to Philly again, but I'm already looking forward to the next time! 

Free Birthday cake

Free birthday cake and pool day. - Friday

So it's our first really lazy morning waking up in a lovely comfortable bed, so of course we woke up late.  We've really worked hard at the sightseeing on this trip, so we deserve a bit of a break. 

We had breakfast and a coffee, and when we were finally ready to go out, it was just about lunchtime, so the first stop was Panera for lunch. 

It's a lovely coffee shop that does fairly substantial lunch type things, sandwiches, salad, soups and cakes. It's where I used to go for breakfast when I was staying in the youth hostel in Chicago, so of course I have a loyalty card. 

As I handed over my loyalty card at the checkout, the lady told me, you have a free birthday cupcake this month, it's good now through the end of November. 

As today is our second last day, I asked for it now. 

I had a red velvet cupcake with white topping. 

After my mozzarella and tomato panini, I couldn't manage it for lunch, but as it was in a box, I could easily take it with me.

Our next stop was Target, just across the road, but as this is America, you have it drive around the car park, and across the road.  

I love this store! It's huge, it's got everything. It's like Walmart, but a better supermarket. It has always seemed to be cleaner, and have nicer products than Walmart. They have a vast range of toiletries, they've got electrical goods, their clothes are good and reasonable prices. 

We also enjoyed the stationery department before heading to check out. 

After such a long time in Target, we were all a bit tired, so we went home. 

Not wanting to waste a minute, and as Mike had said he'd kept the swimming pool open especially for us coming to visit, I decided it was time we made use of it. We'd intentionally brought swimwear, so it didn't take much for us both to get ready and try to get in the pool. 

The water felt cool. But underneath it was a bit warmer. There had been temperatures of 100 degrees F 2 days earlier, but the temperature had dropped to somewhere in the 80's. 

We eventually managed to get in, swimming for a short while. It gets easier to be in, once you get used to it. 

Afterwards, we sat in the sunshine, with a magazine, and for the first time on this trip, we had 5 minutes to rest, with no where to be rushing to, nothing calling us to hurry up. What we were doing, was exactly the activity we had planned. A little in shine and sunbathing. Back home it's turning Autumnal pretty quickly, so this is our last sniff of the summer.

Soon, Mike came to bring us some more activities. First up as part of the American experience, was the sit on law mower.

I've done this before, and it's good fun. Imagine having to mow 1/4 acre, it's quite a lot of lawn, so the truck is very useful. 

It makes for some good pictures too! 

Next up in the all American experience, a trip to the liquor store. I've been trying since my last trip to Milwaukee 2 years ago to obtain the gin from Great Lakes Distillery. 

It's called Rehorst, after the owner of the company.

It seems from the updates I see on their Facebook page, that they have come a long way since I visited 2 years ago. But unfortunately, I can't find a distributor that can ship to the UK. They can't ship to a delivery address in Pennsylvania. Liquor in Pennsylvania is state controlled. So I guess I'll have to plan a trip back to the Mid West to get my gin. But in the mean time, we visited a store to explore, and buy some beer. Plus, as we were out of luck on the gin I wanted, we bought some American gin anyway. Both of us bought a different one for a gift.  

On the way home we stopped to pick up pizza, and they were huge!! 

Independence Hall, Art Museum and a lot of walking

Independence, Betsy Ross, reading terminal and the art museum 

So after last night, I was worried that we wouldn't get everything done that I wanted us to see. We woke up late, and I went out to get us some breakfast. I went to the end of the street and walked 1 block and found a coffee shop. The coffee was good, and so were the bagels. Plain bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, well we are in Philadelphia! 

When I got back to the hostel, Cath was nearly ready, so we went out to get our tickets for Independence Hall. We had a quick look in the shop, and then went across to see the Liberty Bell. The hostel is only 3 blocks from Independence Hall, it's a great location in Old City. 

The tour we had of Independence Hall was my 5th, and I still enjoyed it. 

The woman who gave it was really interesting and informative.

Next we needed lunch, so we went to The Bourse, which I've just recently realised is a place we went on my first trip. We had some fast food Chinese that time, and this time we had fast food Mexican. We had a look around the tacky gift shops, and got some postcards, and then it was a walk up to Betsy Ross House, to see where the lady who sewed the first American Flag lived. After that we carried on walking towards Elfreth's Alley, the oldest, continuously occupied street in America.

We both took some great pictures and then decided we were so tired from all the walking that we needed to get the subway to get to our next destination.

Reading Terminal Market is a fantastic food market, there are places to eat serving all kinds of food from Cheesesteaks to breakfast. There are fish counters, and a whole counter entirely devoted to Jerky, of all different flavours! 

We stopped for a drink, it was almost 5pm, and then we were on the next stage of our walking tour. From here we walked up through Chinatown, to JFK Plaza to see the statue, and again we caught the evening light absolutely perfectly.

We got some really lovely pictures again, and then walked all the way down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, to the Art Museum. Walking up the Rocky steps, following all the runners, running up and down, and turning back to look over my shoulder to see the view rising up behind me.

It's one of the many things I love about Philadelphia, its skyline is as beautiful and impressive as some of the more famous and recognisable skylines. It's skyscrapers are as interesting as New York or Chicago, although Chicago is definitely my favourite! 

We caught the evening light across the city, and had to move fast, the Art Museum was only open for another hour or so.

I've made it this far, it's the second time I've got as far as those steps. We had to be effective with our time. It's the Impressionists that I wanted to see, Van Gogh's Sunflowers. And of course some Monet, which I love.

We enjoyed the small section that we saw, grabbed a cup of tea and a snack, and went outside to catch a bus back to Old City. 

We returned to the hostel, via another sushi restaurant, and had a fairly tame, quiet evening. In bed by lights out! 

Travelling day, and a ghost tour in Philly

Tuesday morning we left New York, but before we could, we had to squeeze in one last thing. We have to see Bloomingdales! 

Fortunately it's quite close to the hotel, so it's easily walkable. We're up early, and packed, have breakfast, and taking our coffee with us, in true American style, we leave quite early. 

10 minutes walk, and we're there, and we're a little too early, it doesn't open until 10 am.  When the doors open, we can go in, and its really impressive. It's much brighter and cleaner than Macy's, and despite they have a British theme going on, we enjoyed our little wander through the really classy department store. Talk about 'coals to Newcastle' we came here for the American theme surely!?

Then it's back to the hotel to check out, and take the subway to Penn Station for the Amtrak back to Philadelphia.

I'm really looking forward to being back in Philly, I'm fairly confident that I know my way around the city, and I'm hoping to have a bit more time to explore. 

It's why I wanted to stay over in the city so much. Center city as it's known is such a beautiful place, it's vibrant and yet really chilled out.

From 30th Street station we took the subway to 2nd st. We were staying in the Hostel International  Youth hostel in Old City. 

I've stayed in HI before, in DC and for a week in Chicago, and both times it's been good. 

We checked in, and the receptionist was really friendly and helpful. We dragged our cases up the staircase to the female dormitory and sat down for 5 minutes. Finally arriving on the second section of our trip, we could relax a little now. 

After a little unpacking and resting, we went out to explore, first wandering along to Penn's Landing, and in search of an afternoon drink. We came across a nice bar that was part of the Hyatt hotel, and sat down for a refreshing cold glass of wine.  

It was nice to be able to sit and relax for a while, and enjoy the view across the river.  Soon we decided it was time to find something for evening meal, as we had plans to return to the hostel for the 8pm Ghost tour! 

We continued through the streets to catch a glimpse of South Street, decided to eat in a sushi restaurant a few doors down from the Hagen Dazs cafe that I remember from my first trip 10 years ago! 

Time was getting on, so we paid the bill, (the check) and went back to the hostel. A quick turn around to drop off some stuff we and went downstairs to meet the guide.  

It was already dark now, and there were 21 of us on this tour. The guide was informative and friendly and had some interesting ghost stories. Plus, we got a good view of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall all lit up at night. It's beautiful. 

Along the tour we got talking to some of the other people staying in the hostel. That was really the point of the ghost tour, the hostel is very friendly, and keen on promoting social activities. They do a really good job. On our return to the hostel, there was a free beer for anyone who had done the tour. 

I'm not really keen on beer, and I've had so much on this trip! I managed the one but we decided it was time we went back out for another drink somewhere else. 

It's what I really wanted to do on this trip, travelling with a friend means that we can really appreciate the nightlife, and enjoy the real city. 

With the German and Romanian guys we met on the tour, we asked the hostel for a recommendation on where was good nearby. 1 block over was the recommendation, so that's where we went. It was a bar with a wide range of beers. For me, time for a cider! 

We chatted, and we danced, and returned to the youth hostel around 2.30 am! 

I was worried we would be too tired to do any sightseeing the next day, but as you'll see, I needn't have worried.