The City of Brotherly Love

Continuing on where we left off.... We left New York on Friday, on the China Town bus. That was an experience in and of itself. We started the day by barely making it to the bus and then almost getting on the wrong one. They have a very strange system of doing things. Who can complain? It only cost us $12 each to get there. Once arriving in Philly, we checked into our hotel. The plan was to get the rental car and go check out the super Successful Bounce U in Oaks, PA. During the bus trip Todd got a call from his flipping partner, Bill, about a potential buyer for their house. What a major blessing and answer to prayer. Even better than that was that they guy did not have an agent and wants to pay cash for the house. This added a little side trip into our plans. Since there was no agent involved, they were going to have to draw up the contracts etc. for themselves. Fortunately, Todd had recently finished his real estate courses and was familiar with what needed to be done. We needed access to a computer, printer and fax. Who knew that when you were paying a premium for your hotel that on top of that you had to pay for Internet access, a fortune to fax and $10 for the pool and workout facilities. We can get all that for free now at the Motel 6. Yes we were all a little miffed by this. Susan and I went to go get the rental car while Todd took care of what he needed to. We had an interesting lunch. We tried to buy an egg roll cheese steak, from a street vendor, but they were out. Susan ended up buying us a pizza egg roll instead. It was quite tasty. After an incredibly long wait, we headed north of Philly to Oaks to check out Bounce U and meet with the owner. He had a lot of good advice, so we will call it a trip well worth it. From there we went to Delaware. (yes that was 4 states in one day - NY, NJ, PA and DE. You could never do that from Texas)Todd has some really good friends that he has known from childhood that now live in Delaware. It was great meeting them as I have only talked to them on the phone or heard stories from Todd. They were extremely hospitable and made us a wonderful dinner. From there we headed back into Philly because my conference was starting early the next morning. We decided to return the rental that night so it wouldn't be a bother in the morning. However, when we got there, the place was already closed. We called the hotel to find out how much it was to park it. $36 - I don't think so. We drove the extra 4 or 5 blocks to the night return. During the course of the day Todd broke the handle off the passenger side door. I know. How does one do that? He is just so strong that he couldn't help himself:)So far we haven't been charged for it. Let's just hope it stays that way. We were going to take the subway back to our hotel, but the policeman advised us against that. He said we would be safer walking. It was a nice walk and we needed the exercise after all the wonderful we had for dinner.

** Saturday morning we went across to the Reading Terminal Market. Susan's friend had told her about this breakfast place. It was called "The Dutch Eating Place" It was run by the Amish, so if we wanted to eat there, then it had to be that morning as they are not around on S M or T. Susan and I had the blueberry pancakes and Todd had the apple-cin french toast. All of them came with fresh turkey bacon (not the kind like you get in the grocery stores). They food was fantastic and super cheap!! I went back and took a few classes while Susan went sight seeing and Todd worked on closing the house deal. We all met up for the afternoon and did some more sight seeing. The afternoon included the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. That evening we met up with the other chefs from my PC chapter and a few of their friends from other areas. We went to a place called Rae's. This had to be the most expensive meal I think I have ever eaten, but OH it was soooo good. There was so much food. It is just so hard to describe it all. We took a few pictures, but they just don't do it justice. Amanda set up a Chef's tasting for us. If you ever have a chance to do something like that you should. It is a very unique experience!!. During the dessert course we made special arrangements to celebrate Susan's b-day just a few weeks early. We were completely stuffed, and decided it would be best if we walked back to the hotel. This baby definitely got fed well on this trip!! I have been asked before if Susan and I were sister, which I suppose I can see, but there was one man that was just sure that we were twins.

**Sunday, Todd went with me to a class on the business of running your business. Definitely something that I need to work more on:)) He met up with Susan after Lunch and they did some more sight seeing - Philly Museum of Art (aka the Rocky steps, Macy's (where they filmed the movie mannequin)and a variety of other things. Susan had gone to get a cheese steak for lunch. Believe it or not, Todd and I never got around to it. Lunch was provided for us each day and we just never fit it in. According to Susan, if you have had a cheese steak from Texidelphia, then you've had one just as good, if not better, than in Philly. We will have to take her word for that. While they were doing all that, i took a class on the marriage of food and wine. I am sure the class would have been more fun if I could have drank the wine. Instead I just got to smell it, and oh did it smell good!!. I think that I might have actually learned a little more by not drinking the wine:) It was a great class!! Susan headed back to NY today and Todd and I went to the big gala event for the conference. The theme was American Bandstand. We missed them memo that it was a costume event, but had a good time anyway. I met a very nice girl at the conference, Terrie, so we sat with her and her husband. The food was fabulous!! The music was great and as we watched the people dancing, we remembered why people say that white men can't dance:))

**Monday, was the last day of the conference. I was able to take a few really great classes before lunch and then we spent the afternoon doing all those last minute things we hadn't done yet. We really wanted to go to the MINT. However, once we got there, we couldn't go in because we had a camera. Not a good experience. I waited outside and let Todd go in. He was very disappointed as none of the machines were running. While he was inside, I visited Benjamin Franklin's grave. Before heading to the airport, we went to the money in motion exhibit at the Fed Reserve bank. That was fun and very interesting. We got to the airport and waited through the longest checkin line that I think I ever have!!. We decided to wait outside because it was a little shorter. After the long wait, I wasn't able to check in, so we had to go inside. Fortunately, they did not make us wait in the super long line. Apparently, there is someone named Jennifer Gonzalez on the Federal Watch List. How fun is that!! So they had to verify my b-day to make sure it wasn't me. From there we encountered another extremely long line for security. Note to self... when traveling to Philly make sure to get to the airport about 3 hours early if you don't want to miss your flight. Apparently this is normal for them. We barely made it through. They were calling our names and making final call and we were still in the security line. Not thanks to the TSA people did we make it. The people in front of us were finally nice enough to let us go in front of them. I ran onto the plane in just my socks. That was definitely cutting it close!!

All in all we had a great time. Thanks so much to Dani and James for taking care our our baby Herculez while we where gone. He obviously had a blast because he has done nothing but sleep for the past 2 days:)