July 11, 2008
There’s some “guest blogging” that will happen because of stories that happen to my mom when I’m not around. There are 2 such stories today. I’ll paraphrase the stories b/c she isn’t a typist.
1st Mom story (in her voice, sort of): “I went to the lobby to get some breakfast. When I got to the toaster, this woman told me that she had her toast in one side because there was a piece of bread in the bottom of the other side. I tried to get it out, but it wouldn’t come, so I just put my bread on top. I pulled my bread out when it was done enough for me. I went to sit down and the lady in the lobby said, “The toaster’s smoking.” I said, “You’re toaster’s on fire.” The young kid in the lobby said, “Oh, someone open the door so I can throw it out.” I opened the door for the kid and he went and dumped the toasted upside down and shook the burning toast out. When I came back in, the smoke alarm was going off and the hallway door had closed as a safety thing. I thought, “I’m not going to stay here in the lobby, I’ll go back to the room.” I had to put my glass of milk in my mouth so I could get that heavy door open, but I got it and got back to the room.”
Back to Kimberly: We took off around 9am and headed the rest of the way into Philadelphia. I had reserved a hotel room on-line so we knew where we were heading. We stopped for lunch at Ruby Tuesdays b/c I was hoping that they would have good iced tea (I was disappointed:-( ), but they did have a good salad bar with non-iceberg lettuce and spinach (healthy, healthy:-)
We got into our room and ready to head into town around 3pm. We asked how to get there and it was suggested that we take the train into town. The shuttle from the hotel to the airport dropped us off at the train and I asked him if looping back through that station was part of his regular route. He said no, but gave us the number for the hotel to call and request that he come. We got on the train right away. I bought a roundtrip ticket for Mom and a one-way for myself b/c I was meeting up with a high school friend who lives in the city. We went into the Market East station and got off underground in a mall. We got up and out and walked over to the Liberty Bell. Sometimes I wonder why I think I’m smarter than the signs in a city I don’t know. I knew it was 1 block over from the street we were on, but when you turn your map 90 degrees to the left instead of 90 degrees to the right, you turn the wrong way!! We went one block over (the wrong way) and walked near Chinatown, but after a couple blocks, headed back to the main street. I guess my mental GPS is not as refined as it used to be!!
We walked by the outside of the Liberty Bell. You can see it through the glass and that was good enough for me. I couldn’t see the side with the crack, but I’ve seen that in pictures my whole life. I had actually never seen the side WITHOUT the crack!! It was around 4pm and I was meeting up with Julie Vandermay, a good friend from high school, at 5pm. My mom and I walked around and then found a little Italian restaurant for a snack and to wait for Julie. She met up with us
around 5 and then we walked my mom back to the mall/train station and then headed over to her house.
I had a wonderful time with Julie. We walked over to her and Tara’s home. It’s a beautiful 4-story, narrow home. There is a kitchen/dining room down one level from the street, up one level is a living room and outdoor patio, up another level is master bedroom and bath, and, on the top floor, are home offices. It is warm, cozy, and beautiful. I also met Lucy the poodle. She’s wonderfully sweet and my favorite trick was the fact that she rolls over to have her paws wiped off when she comes in from walking:-)
After a nice chat in the patio, we went to a fun Italian restaurant on the street by the Italian market. It’s a local place and there was even a picture of Rocky on the wall. Great food and more great conversation. For dessert, we went to a chocolate bar called the Naked Chocolate Café. Drinking chocolate, sipping chocolate, chocolates that would put See’s Candy to shame! Fortunately, one of the things you can order is a glass of cold milk to wash it down. We walked back to Julie’s house and chatted alone and with friends that came over until around 2:30am!! Julie brought me back to the hotel and we were both really glad we had reconnected.
Mom Story #2: When she got back to the station near the hotel she called the hotel for a pick up. After 2 more trains had come and gone, she called a second time. They again said they’d send someone. When no one came again, she called me. We were both having flashbacks of my Paris train experience, however, I knew we could just drive over and take her to the hotel and there were no language difficulties. I called the hotel and told them that my mom was there all by herself and that I needed someone to pick her up IMMEDIATELY. Mom called me a few minutes later and told me she was in the shuttle and on her way to the hotel. She told me later that the driver felt so bad that he gave her a free appetizer in the restaurant. She decided to get dessert instead, but was happy with that.
Well, after a very late night it was also a late start. We were only about 1 ½ hours from Craig’s parent’s house, though. We stopped for lunch at a Sonic Burgers. Apparently, it has newly opened in the area. My mom really liked the skating car hops and took some pictures. We arrived at the Dagen’s around 2pm and I was greeted by Craig’s dad, Nelson, with a big hug and a punch to my arm. His first words were something like, “I’m just following directions.” My response was, “You talked to Craig, huh?” He said they had just gotten off the phone earlier today. This is often how Craig greets me. The only thing missing was a head-butt. We got some of the luggage in, had a drink, and then we took off to go see the Ten Thousand Villages store. It was beautifully painted outside and HUGE! (I guess it’s one of the first ones.) It had a café and one whole room with handmade rugs from 
season.) It was SO sweet that the four of us finished 10 ears!! After dinner, we went outside and Barb gave us a tour of her herb garden and flowers. Neither my mom nor I can grow or know anything about plants, so it was interesting. Lots of wonderful sights and smells. We all sat out on the porch and watched lightning bugs and some distant personal fireworks as the local church bells rang out an evening tune. There is an Amish neighbor with horses and near sunset there was a colt that came out with its mom behind the white rail fence. We could still see it over the 5-6 foot corn, but the Dagens said it would not be seen when the corn got taller. It was the epitome of a bucolic moment. Definitely worth a contented sign.
