April 23, 2021 trip to Philadelphia. Dinner with Yoyo and Marty

 April 23, 2021 trip to Philadelphia. Dinner with Yoyo and Marty

Yesterday was a bad food day. I added sausage to the previous day’s Miso Pho noodle soup and it overloaded my system with fat and I had a bout of diarrhea.

I recovered by dinner and enjoyed the PPI salmon and baked Casarecce macaroni for dinner with a bottle of Aquino Chianti with Willy joining us for dinner

I was happy to hear that Willy has a new project to establish the location for a new fire station with a maximum drive time of four minutes from an designated service area.

At sunset we went out to look at the garden.  Everything is responding really well to the spring growing season.  Here are several photos.

We awakened this morning at 4:00 to get ready and make our 7:00 flight for the first of three legs of our trip to Philadelphia to stay with YoYo and Marty. We first flew to Houston, then from Houston to Orlando, and finally from Orlando to Philadelphia.  With the lay overs it took from 7:00 a.m. 

Last night I made toasted 8 bagel slices and spread them with cream cheese, and garnished them with slices of red onion and Gravad lax.

This morning at 5:30 we drove to Willy’s and he rode with us to the airport and drove Suzette’s Highlander home after helping us unload the six suitcases we packed with equipment and bedding for the van and our clothes for the trip.

The airport looked like it used to look with a mob of people traveling.  We tried to find a quiet unpopular place to sit and waited for our 7:00 departure to Houston.  Suzette drank a coffee and I drank a chai.

We had a several hour wait for the 2:10 departure from Houston to Orlando so Suzette bought herself a Bloody Mary and me an apple cider and we ate several bagels for our lunch.  They were delicious, especially with the drinks. The flight to Orlando was over the Gulf of Mexico and there were many interesting cloud formations.  Here are photos of several.

We only had a 45 minute wait in Orlando and then at 6:00 we departed for Philadelphia.  The sun was setting as we flew to Philadelphia. Here is a photo.

The Philadelphia airport was a madhouse but we had no problems fetching the suitcases and with a bit of logistical maneuvering, we took them to the curb.  Marty picked us up at 8:45 right on time.

So it was a remarkably uneventful trip.  In fact I would say it was stoic.  No one moved in the airplane.  There was no drink or food service. Everyone tried to sit quietly and read or play computer games.

Suzette bought magazines in Orlando and I read the April book club book, The Burglar who traded Ted Williams.

Marty drove us to their home in South Wilmington. When we arrived YoYo had set the table with two Amish cheeses and slices of prosciutto and salami for a light snack.  Yoyo is an artist so we looked at some of Yoyo’s art, which I liked and then Marty opened a bottle of Chianti and served us glasses of red wine with a bowl of thick green bean soup studded with chunks of ham.  We loved it.

We talked until midnight and then went to bed in their guest bedroom.

We had completed the first big leg of our vacation almost effortlessly.

Bon Appetit