Philly Recap

I had to take a little break from posting. Traveling messes up my routine and it's taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things. Sorry to keep you all hanging.

My trip to Philadelphia was okay. The conference was productive, but very tiring. Those of you who have not had the pleasure of "working the booth" at a conference/meeting/trade show/etc. might find it hard to understand how standing around and talking to people can be exhausting. It's draining, let me tell you. Thank goodness the Market was next door to provide fuel and distraction.

I was disappointed to see that the Amish-owned businesses are only open Thursday through Saturday. No pumpkin rolls for me. But, somehow I overcame this small setback and ended up sampling a variety of yummy delights instead. The Original Turkey served up a most excellent lunch for me on Monday. I went for the platter with 2 sides, but the sandwich options looked mighty tasty as well. Lunch on Tuesday consisted of a most awesome roast beef sandwich from DiNic's. For snacks, I bought two decadent cookies (peanut butter chocolate chip and a dipped chocolate chip) from The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company and a few locally-grown organic apples from the Fair Food Farm Stand. I was very excited to try the Macoun variety. I had heard about them on TV, but never seen them in Atlanta. While it had a crisp, tart skin and nice flavor, the flesh was way too mealy for my taste. Wikipedia claims it has firm flesh. Perhaps I just got an old one?

Two of my coworkers and I took a cab to the famous Geno's Steaks. It was mighty tasty. I had "one whiz with" (delicious!) with a birch beer (refreshing) and cheese fries (too soggy). The couple who snagged our cab told us to go to both Geno's and Pat's King of Steaks, which is across the street. They had split a cheese steak at each place. The man preferred Pat's. The woman didn't favor one place over the other, but did reinforce my decision to order the cheese whiz instead of the provolone.

The food was great, but I was glad to get home Tuesday night. You may recall that Hurricane Ida was moving through the southeast that day. My flight home was delayed, but I was able to get a seat on an earlier flight that had been delayed. That had to be the bumpiest (like plane-falling-out-of-the-sky bumpy) flight I have ever experienced. I'll spare you the gory details, but know that pregnancy and turbulence do NOT mix. I'd like to give a big shout out to my favorite black cardigan for taking one for the team and to Gain detergent for getting us all back to normal.