Why Won't You Photo?!: 05.06

5.31.2006

More Phila. tourism

While wandering around the historic blocks of Philadelphia's historic areas, we saw many places that are extremely recognizable to people for both historical and mythological reasons. I don't know if Betsy Ross actually sewed the first flag recognized as the Stars and Stripes banner, but I do know that she lived in Philadelphia. Here is a picture of her house.

A few streets away from Betsy's home is Christ Church--one of the oldest and most important Episcopal Churches in the United States. Famous people like Ben Franklin and other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in the church's cemetery.

Jack had to go back to the car and feed the parking meter. While Raisinette, Cordelia and I waited in the shadowy cool of the trees around Christ Church, Raisinette read a Philadelphia ghost story.

After Jack returned, we headed off to see the Delaware River. It is the border between Philadelphia and New Jersey, which is on the other side of the bridge pictured. We didn't have the time or the desire to cross the bridge and visit the Garden State, so we headed back into town "Reservoir Dogs" style in search of food.

We found a restaurant that I hope was a local place suitable for getting authentic Philly Cheese Steaks. I kept my order simple--steak and onions with Cheese Whiz. It was good and I chowed down.

Day 2--Tourism

When we arrived in the historic area of Philadelphia, Jack T. found a great parking space a block from what is probably the most famous building in the city--and likely the second or third most historically famous building in the whole country--Independence Hall.

In order to get inside, you needed to get a ticket and we didn't really want to spend our only time on that day standing in lines.

So we convened on the other side of the building to discuss our options. (Here you can see a picture of Raisinette, Jack, and Cordelia considering options.)

Here is the reason why we decided not to try and see the Liberty Bell--surely the most famous broken bell in this country. The line for tickets into the swank new building that houses The Bell was pretty long. And remember that we had pledged not to spend our time standing in lines.

As a result, this is as close as I got to the Liberty Bell during the trip. I was told that the bell is inside this posh new structure, and that it is close to the big window. You can, I think, see some people standing around where the bell is set up. (In fact, this website confirms that the bell is, in fact, in that place.)

Day 1--Rehearsal Dinner

The first day in Philadelphia Jack Thunder, Cordelia, Raisinette, and I attended the rehearsal dinner for Spec and FuzzyBlu. It was held in the very nice suburb (?) of Chestnut Hill. We gathered at a local restaurant alongside many of the couple's family and friends. I knew absolutely none of them, but that didn't stop me from taking pictures, enjoying friends, enjoying food and drink.

Here, for instance, you can see Raisinette and Spec goofing it up as usual. He doesn't seem at all worried or concerned that his wildcatting days of singlehood are mere hours away from disappearing forEVER! But it's easy to get distracted from reality when hanging around with the likes of Raisinette. She's been known to wander moonily about. And why not? The whole weekend was pretty dreamy.

Here are the couple saying a few welcoming words to everyone. I don't remember what, exactly, they said. I'm sure it was something like "Hey, thanks for coming. We think you guys are all the best possible people in the whole world and if Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi, and Jesus all showed up, we'd tell them that they had to go find somewhere else to party, cause we've already got the best group of partiers that ever gathered to party. . . . And speaking of Lincoln, Ghandi, and Jesus, that reminds me of a joke. . . ."

Here is Raisinette posing beside a neon pig sign. "Why?" you ask? Well, it's because she's a good sport and allowed me to take the picture, but there is a slight story behind it. And that story goes like this:

While waiting for Spec and FuzzyBlu to arrive, we're standing around the upstairs portion of the restaurant. Raisinette and I are standing and chatting beside the partition wall that separates us from the flight of stairs going down to the main floor of the restaurant. While we innocently chat, suddenly we are bathed in harsh reddish light from the unnoticed pig sign turning on. We were a bit taken aback by the sign's "neonocity" and its piggish shape. So, we decided to commemorate the occurance with the picture. Great story, huh?

Here we have Cordelia, who tolerated us all weekend long, never complained that I kept inappropriately telling everyone and everything to "Suck it" if they earned my wrath, and always took pictures of me doing stupid things. You'll see a few of those before it's all over. This is the first picture of her on my blog. Yea!

5.25.2006

LOST season two finale FOOD

The DHARMA brand cake was mysteriously tasty . . . almost TOO good, if you know what I mean. You simply can't trust food that appears out of nowhere and tastes that good. Questions must be asked sometimes, even on THIS island.

Mysteries deepened when we realized that DHARMA was also supplying the wine. Was the Hanso Foundation trying to weaken our cognitive faculties? Did it think that we would be tricked so easily? We're not simply gonna take the "cheesy fish crackers" and go along on our merry, button-pushing way! We demand answers! Where's WAAALT!!! It's the viewer's right (DRINK!) to get some answers!

But, the food WAS that good . . . and soon question and mysteries faded away in favor of face-stuffing. The cake, fried plantain chips, exotic fruits (including several mangos), avocado fiesta salad (with optional gorgonzola), fish sticks, and shrimp/potato/leek soup (not pictured) were consumed with gusto. In our satiated state, we enjoyed the mysteries of the episode.