Well, actually I'll tell about two days in one, but since Tuesday was flight day, that doesn't really count.

Why doesn't it count?

Well, I don't fly well. Accumulated stress mixed with a plane flight made for an absolutely miserable take of in which I was very surprised I didn't throw up. It took me two Dramamine to cope with this flight--along with excessive amounts of music from Faramir's mp3 player. So I was pretty much woozy and out of it for the rest of the day.

I remember seeing the stadiums of the Phillies and the Eagles as we flew in. I also remember thinking that Philadelphia was really green. (My neck of the woods is rather brown right now.) Loved boathouse row. I also remember wondering just how Seamore knew where to go as there didn't seem to be a straight road in the place. She told me later that they bought a gps just to learn to navigate these lovely streets.

My very first, and continual impression of Philly was that it was old. So much older than my neck of the woods. Everything looked like it had a story to tell. Even the row houses were beautiful. I've never been sure exactly why my neck of the woods seemed to build the row houses in a stucco-ed puke brown color, and now that I've seen Philly, I'm still wondering. Builders here seem to have a huge lack of personality. It wouldn't be so bad to live in a duplex or a row house if it was actually beautiful. (Btw, Seamore tells me that the feeling I had is even more pronounced when one travels back to Merry Olde England. She would know. I wouldn't.) (Someday!)

We traveled from the airport back to Seamore's house and pretty much vegged for the rest of the afternoon/evening. I was out of it anyway. I remember asking The Guy a question about Obama's health care plan and then promptly telling him not to tell me because there was no way my dazed brain could comprehend the answer. We never got back to it, unfortunately. Maybe next time.

Wednesday morning we woke and up and got ready to go. We dropped Woof-Woof off at pre-school and headed out to Lancaster county. We stopped at the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum. I love Amish quilts. They are so beautiful in their simplicity. It's not a huge museum. Just one big room. It is housed in an old bank. (The vault hold the childrens interactive room.) I really enjoyed it. Beautiful quilts. Information. Quilting the likes of which we rarely see (and it was all hand done). I think the thing that I felt the most was peace. The lack of pattern (they never use prints in their quilting) and the lack of crazy piecing patterns (you'll never see a double wedding ring quilt) just began to exude calm. I couldn't afford anything in the museum store, but I sure wanted lots. . .

After the museum we headed out to a small town called Intercourse, PA. There I stopped at Zooks and bought some very un-Amish material. The store had Amish fabrics, and then just about everything else under the sun. I could have spent hundreds of dollars and many hours browsing.

I found it interesting how much the Amish way of life has come to depend on "tourism" per se. There were beautiful quilts for sale, but they were not Amish quilts, most of them. The fabric selection was very "English". The farms aren't needed as much, so a lot of the money to support themselves comes from the fabric work that they do. The farms are still used though. Seamore told me that Lancaster is becoming known for it's organic, local fresh products. Lancaster basically provides Philadelphia with these things. It's actually an advertising thing: "We have Lancaster fresh produce".

I did see several horse and buggy's. I even took a couple of pictures, but I didn't want to take a lot of pictures because I feel sort-of weird about being a tourist into a people's way of life. I don't mind buying or printing pictures they do themselves, but I didn't need to take my own or ask questions or be annoying. It's just who they are.

Lancaster county was beautiful. I took lots of pictures of the farms and the countryside. I was about a week to early for peak fall colors, but it was still amazing.

After our time in Lancaster we headed back to Philadelphia and decided to stop at Vally Forge. We had a difficult time trying to find what we wanted to see because we left the map in the car and we were there after touring hours. Valley Forge was also beautiful, but I definitely need to bone up on my American Revolutionary War history before I go again. It didn't mean as much to me as it should have, I think. (I wouldn't want to sleep in one of those bunks though.)

We saw many, many deer, and had more than one conversation about Deer Ticks. It's becoming a Pennsylvania problem. Seamore knows of two women who have gotten Lyme disease from the ticks. There aren't as many deer (or whatever) for the ticks to get on so they are getting on human beings more and more. In Pennsylvania, you don't go just wandering through the underbrush. No-one really knows how to solve the problem.

After Valley Forge we went on home. This would be the night when Seamore and I laughed ourselves to pain over the cakes.

Over all a very good day.