Philly, et al.

Sunday morning started out with homemade quiche and more fresh fruit before we packed up and headed out of the Greencrest.  Apparently at breakfast (I'd left to get ready) my Dad goes on and on and on and on about how he hates Detroit.  It's the only place he's ever been that he couldn't wait to leave.  Nathan felt very uncomfortable because Shannon has family that lives there.  Hahaha.  Shannon's family graciously had us over to their house afterwards...there were probably 25+ there hanging out and eating wedding leftovers. 

At some point, we headed back to the Battle Creek/Kalamazoo airport to hop on the tiny, tiny prop plane to make our way to Detroit.  There was a man on that plane that was very scared to fly -- especially on this tiny plane.  It made me thankful that I have never feared flying!  When we landed in Detroit we saw our pilot get off the plane.  He didn't look a day over 15.  Yikes!  Made me feel very old.  When we were walking to our respective terminals,

Me: Hey dad, I heard you love Detroit...
Dad: Ugh...this town...
Mom: Clark! 
Dad: (silence)

Then we saw Jesse Jackson.  Jesse and I don't see eye to eye on much...but I took his picture anyway.

This is where I parted ways with my parents.  They headed Back to Charleston and I headed to Philly.  The plane ride to Philly was quite nice and I made a single serving friend, Dan.  He's 25, a vet, a murse, and lives in Brooklyn.  We talked about politics, religion, school, etc...  I love it when I make friends on planes!

Leigh picked me up from the airport and had a delectable surprise for me!  Cider ddoughnuts from Terhune Orchards.  Let me say that I am quite picky about doughnuts.  I grew up on Krispy Kreme and find them supreme; Dunkin Doughnuts do nothing for me.  I don't know if Terhune Orchards puts crack in these doughnuts or what, but they were amazing.  They are the only other store bought doughnuts that are as good as KK's.  I could have eaten a dozen of them by myself.  For some odd reason, their website does not showcase these delights...

We drove to Princeton and grabbed dinner at Wawa.  If I was a college student, this place would be dangerous.  You order your food from a computer system similar to an ATM.  Crazy.  Then we headed back to her super cute and well furnished apartment.  We ate our supper and watched some 30 Rock. 

Monday morning, Leigh and I got dressed and headed into Philly for the day.  But we took a pleasant detour at some neighboring towns.  We parked in Lambertville, NJ and walked across the bridge to New Hope, PA. 

These towns, along with Lawrenceville (where Leigh lives) are all small towns that remind me of Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls.  Everyone seems to know everybody, you can walk to local shops and such, and it wouldn't be at all surprising if a troubadour appeared at any moment.  New Hope is especially welcoming to the gay community and had rainbow signs that said "celebrate" everywhere.  I thought I took a picture, but apparently not. 

After our tour of small town, USA, we headed to Philly.  Since I planned this trip in May, I knew I wanted to eat a Philly Cheese steak in Philly.  So we did just that for lunch.  We went to Tony Lukes.

The line was crazy long

But I loved it



Leigh only ate about 3.5" of her Philly, but somehow I managed to devour all of my 8".  To put it into perspective, its like eating a rib eye covered in cheese wiz on a delicious and large hoagie.  But well worth it.  I enjoyed every bite.  We also got wiz fries = fries covered in cheese wiz.  Also yummy.  Not sure what the deal is with cheese wiz in Philly.

After lunch, we parked and walked around for hours.  I love being in cities and taking it all in.  Parts of Philly reminded me of Charleston: the history, the cobblestone, the tourists. 

One park had giant Sorry, Monopoly, Domino, and Chess pieces...

Philadelphia has tons of Murals...

As the "city of brotherly love" (which Leigh explained the Greek meaning of Philadelphia to me to further explain this.  haha.) it is also very gay friendly.  Some streets are even designated as gayborhoods.

The Rocky steps:



LOVE:

It was a fun day full of people watching and culture.  We drove back to Princeton, stopping at Sonic for Route 44's of course, and hit up the grocery store.  Wegman's.  It had so many awesome ethnic foods -- I want one in Charleston!  Leigh made supper for me that night -- what she considers to be the most NJ of foods: red cabbage, kielbasa cooked in beer with red peppers, and pirogi = dumpling stuffed with mashed potatoes.  She did a great job.  I'm still not the world's biggest fan of red cabbage, but I picked up a new love, the pirogi.

That night I also became addicted to another television show: Big Love.  HBO's take on polygamy.  By the end of my time in the Dirty Jerz, I'd watched all of seasons 1 and 2.  Monday I walked to the library over my lunch break to snag season 3...as of today, I'm halfway through the season.