Philly Flower Show

Inga and I went down to visit our buddies from Albuquerque last weekend. We had a grand old time living it up in the city! We drove into the city Friday night with the aid of our now much beloved GPS. I am not sure we could have managed night time driving in the city without our new gadget. (I love my new gadget so much I named it, Ralph)

Saturday we went to see a Cezanne show at the art museum. Very enjoyable. Great museum. We did the audio tour which I could only tolerate part of the time since I always disagree with the commentary or at least a good fraction of the time I seem to think they are wrong. They always know what the artist "meant" to say don't they? Wannabees. Inga and I found all the emo paintings including her favorite, a still life with threatening forks. Cezanne did have his dark moody side. He wasn't all about light fluffy mountainscapes we discovered.

We zoomed over to Philadelphia's alternative street to buy hair dye and eat lunch. Dye is much cheaper there and we do buy a lot of dye! Punk rock clothing stores always love me. They are so polite. Go figure. We ate at lunch in a tiny Greek restaurant which was too perfect. The room was about 15 feet square and the NJ lady at the next table told us exactly what we should eat. We laughed and ordered something else. I tried something new and it wasn't my favorite so maybe I should have listened. Kibbeh kabobs I think it was. Wonderful lemonade though.

Liz and I went to Ikea. I believe that store is the only store I have ever been in that actually overwhelmed me. I just couldn't figure out what I needed. Couches? Chairs? Lamps? Curtains?
I kept putting things in my cart and then ditching them later. Help! Ikea is only for those with a plan. By the time we were checking out I was ready to move into a pup tent that would never need decorating.

We had Thai for dinner. Yummy as always. Inga still loves Phad Thai. She doesn't share. I guess I stuck to my usual too, Duck Panang. I did also steal some barbequed beef from Brad's plate! The waiter was so nice and perky and his nephew came out to entertain us for awhile. He was 4 which he showed us with his fingers of course.

Sunday we got up bright and early for the flower show. We wanted to make it down there by 8AM to beat the crowds which we did. The theme this year was Venice. I guess Venice is really dark because some of the show was so dimly lit I almost couldn't see the flowers. But oh, the flowers I could see were wonderful. Going to the flower show for upstate New Yorkers really should be covered by health insurance since we are often emotionally devastated by the weather we have to suffer with every year. All the colors and perfumes really do bring you back from the dead. I like all the wild and crazy exhibits. My favorite wild and crazy thing this year was the collection of shoes made from flowers. I wasn't the only one who loved them even at eight in the morning there was a huge crowd of admiring woman all around them secretly wanting to steal just one pair.

We snuck over to China Town for one more meal before leaving for home. We have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant that we discovered after last years flower show. They serve Bubble Tea which has nothing to do with tea or bubbles. It is like a fruit smoothie made with tropical fruits and poured over tapioca. The tapioca is not like the tiny stuff we are used to each pearl is about a quarter of an inch in diameter. I don't eat many tapiocas but the smoothie part is scrumptious. We always get vermicelli noddle bowls with spring rolls and they are always yummy.

Once we found all the parts to our GPS we navigated out of Philly just fine. ( Hint GPS's might drive you in circles if they are missing a vital part!) We beat the storm by a couple of hours and made it home by 8:30 pm. It was just in time to fall in bed totally exhausted.