Philadelphia

After an enchilada dinner on our last evening with friends and family, we put on our backpacks, posed for pictures in front of the white pickett fence , said our goodbyes, gave hugs and got in the car with Jeff and Anne (Eric's dad and sister) to drive to the airport. Ryan and Al, two friends, met us at the airport for a final farefell and we checked in and walked towards the security check.

We were both in slight shock...not fully being able to believe that the day had finally arrived -- the day we had been dreaming and talking about for several years. We couldn't believe we were/are actually doing this, and still can't fully phathom the length of a travel year, or what it could possibly hold for us. Our canvas is blank -- wide open -- and ready to be slowly filled in as each new day arises.

After a 6 hour flight to Philadelphia, we arrived tired and weary at 5:20AM. Our bags were not in such a hurry -- no one at the Philly airport seemed to be in a hurry, or even to know what was going on for that matter. After 3o minutes, the baggage carosel finally started moving and we were relieved that ours did pop out. Our friend Kim picked us up and drove us to his house, where we proceeded to take a much needed nap in the hot humidly -- quite a change from the dry climate of the West Coast.

We've spent our first couple days enjoying the company of our friends Kim and Meegan touring around the local hotspots...we ate the famous Philly cheese steaks for lunch at Pat's AND Geno's steak places, shopped (or browsed - no buying allowed due to bag weight and size :), imagined what the city was like in its industrial prime, met a nice chef on break from a local restaurant feeding carp in a back canal who gave us a tutorial on the fish's eating habits and saw turtles basking in the sun. That's the best part about this kind of travel -- random conversations with those you encounter, no major tourist agenda, just along for the ride to take it all in, relax, enjoy and learn. During day 2, we visited all the tourist sites including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the LOVE statue. Our evenings have been spent going out to Sushi and having a BBQ at Kim and Meegan's place with tiki torches, good music and great food. Not a bad way to start the first leg of our journey!

Shortly, we will be boarding a bus to New York, where we will meet our friend Randi for 2-days of New York site seeing.

We have already started uploading photos from the trip, which you can view by clicking on the photo icon on the right side of the page or here: http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.cherniss/Philidelphia.