Day 1: July 27th

Although off to a late start, the old saying is true: better late than never.  So I headed to Elliot’s place in Bethlehem.  Elliot is a good friend and old roommate from my days living at Penn State University.  Although I was aiming to celebrate his birthday with him on the 26th, I couldn’t make it until the next day.

When I got in to Bethlehem I Yelped a sweet bottle shop called Abe’s Six Pack Shop, and picked up a mix-pack of beers for my man Elliot.   Once I made it over to his place, we decided that food was in order, so we picked up his friend Cody and shot over to downtown.

Although Elliot had planned on taking me to a place he really enjoys, the power was out so we were forced to go to another place up the street called Blue Sky Cafe.  As it turns out, this place is owned by a skydiving couple and is adorned with pictures of formation skydives and other skydiving memorabilia.  Even the name comes from a popular skydiving greeting, “blue skies and happy landings”.

Perhaps a good sign?

After we ate and shot the breeze a bit, Elliot had some work planned for the day ahead and so I headed down to Philadelphia.

In Manayunk, a friend of another one of my old PSU roommates has a house right on the Schuylkill River.  Although I don’t know Mike D. that well, it turns out he is one of the most welcoming and friendly people I’ve had the good graces to meet in my entire life.

At Mike D’s, even the garden foliage is welcoming.  The greens had really shot up since last I was there.

Mike and his girlfriend had been planning on going to a show that night and were glad to have me join.  We took the train from Manayunk into 30th Street station, where this magnificant monolithic sculpture stands tall:

We then shot over to World Cafe Live, where The Beekeepers played a great set of indie folk music.

After the show ended, I jumped on a bus and headed over to Infusion, a new lounge in Old City in which Jung, a dear friend of mine, is helping out with the opening.  Although it was great to see her for a moment, her workload kept us from enjoying much of the night together so I hit the road and enjoyed the scattered Philly artwork on my way back to Mike’s.

I was beat, so I crashed hard in preparation for the following day of driving and skydiving…