November 20 2000

Grandpa Posted
As part of my return trip to Benghazi, I stopped in for a few days in Philadelphia to visit with Christie, Brent and Li'l Bits. While I was home the weather was just wonderful the whole time, but on Saturday night (Nov 4) a major storm blasted into Calgary, to give me a send-off. Perfect timing for me, I guess. I understand it has been quite cold ever since. When I left on Sunday at 6:30 AM it was minus 11 C and icy on the streets from the new snow and sleet the night before.

Christie, Brent and Liza met me at the airport about 4:30 PM and we fought the late Sunday afternoon football traffic all the way home. After the requisite stop at the local MacDonalds on the way, we arrived at the Walls apartment for a relaxing evening of entertainment enjoying Liza's excitement for the visit. She is such a funny little character. She certainly has developed her own unique little personality.

On Monday morning, we were off to the Lancaster area to experience a bit of the Amish culture. A very unique experience. We visited an Amish farm where work and travel is still done by horse-drawn equipment and vehicles. There we had a tour of the old farmhouse with an introduction to the Amish culture, traditions and way of life. Liza loved to see the animals on the farm and I found their use of such things as waterwheels for powering pumps, etc. to be very interesting - no electricity or other modern conveniences are allowed. We then drove along a smaller highway where we saw work going on in the fields to harvest corn using horse-drawn harvesting equipment. We stopped for lunch and I had a traditional meal including German sauerkraut and sausage! When I told her what is was, Christie declined to even try any!! But it was delicious. Of course we had to end the meal with a traditional Sugar Pie. The restaurant offered free kids cookies at their affiliated bakery down the road so we had to go there and ended up with a Sugar Pie to take home. I don't think I shall forget the wonderful smell of baking and sweets and cinnamon that was wafting over the parking lot when we got out of the car.

We travelled on down the highway toward the town of Intercourse (that's honestly its name!!) where we toured around a lot of the traditional shops with handicrafts, quilts, deli-foods, carpentry, leathershops, etc. As we left there it was about time for children to be leaving school and as we drove down the road we encountered at least 15 horse and buggy carts travelling on the wide sholders. Most were Moms who had driven the family "car" to pick up the children from school. It was a really neat site. We drove a bit off the main road and into the countryside and saw more farm work going on using horses and had fun trying to identify the Amish farms as the ones without telephone lines or powerlines leading to them. Some even had double car garages with horse drawn buggies in them! It was a really neat day.

On Tuesday, Christie and 'Bits and I went to the docks in Philly to tour the shipping museum there. We purchased a pass that included a return boat trip across the river to the Aquarium in Camden N.J., tour of the shipping museum and a tour of a submarine and warship that were in dock near the museum. Th hit of the day for Liza was the boat trip! She was just thrilled by it and sat on the upper deck and waved at the people on shore. She later kept saying that she waved to the "kids" - they were actually some adult Japanese tourists, but I guess they looked small to her from way up there on that big boat so she assumed that those little people were "kids". We took the boat ride first and visited the aquarium for a couple of hours. It was really interesting and they had some tanks where kids could touch some of the sea life like starfish and urchins and even another one where you could touch live sharks!! Liza liked that and the big fish and the penguins and seals.

We took the boat back to the Philly side of the harbor (Liza was just thrilled to get back on the boat!) and toured the shipping museum for an hour or so. There are some really interesting exhibits of the ship building industry history in Philidelphia. I could have spent some more time there, but time was getting late so we went to tour the submarine that was docked nearby. It was a really neat experience to see the cramped insides of that sub especially since Shirley & I had recently watched the movie U571 (or whatever that number was!). It was really interesting to see the cramped little aisles in the sub and to try swinging through the little bulkhead hatches as the sailors in the movie did. (it wasn't as easy as it looked - by the way). We didn't get a chance to see the warship that was moored next to the sub as they were closing for the day. So we dragged ourselves home pretty tired, but fulfilled.

Despite our fatigue, we went out for a delicious supper that night at the Outback Restaurant. It was a fabulous prime rib meal - one that would even rival the Smugglers in Calgary - if you can believe that! Highly recommended.

On Wednesday we spent a little time to see the complex where the Walls live and the associated recreation facilities. After a final trip to the Golden Arches, we took the opportunity to stop in downtown Philly on the way to the Airport. I took the opportunity to take a quick look at the Liberty Bell there and heard a bit about its history before heading for the airport. It was a great three days in Philly. Thankyou very much - Christie & Brent!!

I left Philadelphia about 4 PM for Toronto then on to Zurich, Switzerland arriving aboout 10 AM. The weather there was cool and drizzley and not much opportunity for sightseeing. I had 13 hrs wait there so I took a day room in a small hotel near the airport where I was able to catch a few hours of sleep. I was not able to get much sleep on the plane so it was much needed. We left Zurich at 11 PM and arrived at our rooms in the Benghazi Guesthouse at 4 AM. A pretty tired bunch!!

I Commented:
We had a great time with Dad, and Now that he has advertized for us, all are welcome to come and see us. there is lots to do for everyone here in Philly. Great place for shoppers and non shoppers alike. Come and visit:-)