A Philadelphia Welcome

on 3:58 PM

I arrived safely in Philadelphia, just about as close to on time as one can be without being on time. I took a brief look about The Gallery, the mall I considered "my mall", if such a place can be. My favorite gaming store remains, but both my bookstores are gone. Some aspects of Market East remain the same, and some have changed.

I got back to the neighborhood I grew up in and found my parents were still in church. So I got to walk around a bit. Our old barber Benny has moved out to Springfield. The restaurant across from my childhood home has completed a year of work and is now the Vietnam Cafe. Most of the other stores are still there, however. Not a Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts', Honey Dew or any other chain in sight. All family or individual run places. Which probably explains my preference for such places as an adult. When the my parents got home from church my mom made me hot chocolate (with Fluff - you can take the parents out of Boston, but you can't take Boston out of them) and dad made brunch. After that, I was gifted with my Christmas & Birthday gifts. I received a bag of Christmas M&Ms (my 2nd favorite candy), a copy of Faithful (which the Red Sox fans won't need me to explain - and the rest can look at when I put it on Goodreads.com), and a bottle of barleywine from Dock Street, out local brewery/brewpub. Most excellent, I'm told. I'll have to review it for BeerAdvocate.com! It's almost time to go to the Super Bowl party I came to Philly for so I'll just mention the snow here. It's certainly a good thick, deep snow, but I think it's not as bad as all that. Only 28 inches. My brother Jonathan down in DC, now I hear he has some snow. But still, New England has better storms. Usually.

Also, I have to play with our dog.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Posted via email from paulrharvey3's posterous

0 comments: