Travel Log Day 11

Well, it's goodbye to Philly today. My flight is supposed to leave later this afternoon. Off to Pitt again. Maybe I'll have a little better luck in my search for Big Ben. Keep your fingers crossed. The 4th was a bit disappointing here in Philly. It started off fine - we went out to Independence Hall and took the abbreviated tour - we weren't allowed up the stairs where they sing in the movie "1776" - it was all set up for the dignitaries who were outside rambling about things that had nothing to do with the day itself. Silly politicians. And then we went to the Betsy Ross House which is cute and interesting. Then we went out to South Philly and got cheesesteaks at Pat's. There's a corner in South Philly - for those of you who don't know - where two cheesesteak places have competed forever and both argue over who has the best. Pat and Geno's are the spots. Geno's was throwing a big bash with a band and everything so their corner was a bit crowded and that was why we ended up over at Pat's. But it was very good. Make sure that you read the sign and order the correct way - they get mad if you don't.

Anyway, it was after the marathon shopping expedition to IKEA that the day turned a bit soggy and yicky. We didn't end up going back out because of the rain. But we saw plenty of fireworks out of Ellie's giant picture window - they were small neighborhood fireworks but they sufficed. The fireworks - the official ones - were supposed to go off over by the art museum - which we cannot see from the swanky apt. They were cancelled and so everyone left - and then 10 minutes later they set them off for the tv audience. Silly Philly people in charge. Originally we had been told that they set them off from a barge here on the Delaware which we would have been able to see from the other side of the apartment building, but they didn't do it that way this year.

Yesterday, mom and I drove up to go shopping at the Reading outlets - one of her absolute favorite things to do. Considerably lower on my list, but I was a good dutiful daughter and went along. Passed a cute little yarn store on the way out of town that I did not make her go into. That was all the excitement for yesterday. We're still trying to figure out what to do before we have to go to the airport.

Wrote out the pattern for some "Jaywalker" socks from MagKnits. In reading other blogs, they seem to be quite popular, and seeing that I knitted some "Monkey" socks before I got into blogland and found out how popular they were, I figured I should work on the "Jaywalkers" next. Turned the heel - twice - yesterday on the second of Peggy's socks. Stupidity, thy name is Annie.