Back from Philly

The Sights and Sounds from the Birthplace of A Nation

Got back from Philadelphia late Sunday. Dad and I flew out with "The Uncle" and my aunt. It was beautiful (about 70 degrees and Sunny) when we got there. We were met at the airport by my aunt's friend, Gar Joseph, who's a newspaper columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News , and he drove us back to the hotel after we waited 1 1/2 hours for our luggage to be unloaded from the plane (thanks American Airlines).

We went out to dinner at Spasso's, at Gar's suggestion, and it was great. After, dinner Dad and I had a drink at the Penn View Bar & Grill, across the street from our hotel. On, Friday, we went to see Constitution Hall, the U.S. Mint, the Liberty Bell and the Building that initially housed the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court shared the building during this initial time period with Philadelphia Municipal Court so the courtroom had a jury box and a prisoner box.

I also had my first real Philly Cheesesteak at a hole in the wall convenience store located somewhere around 12th and Market. It was awesome!!

On Saturday, we went to the Army-Navy game at Lincoln Finanical Field. My cousin Tim is a cadet at West Point. It was very cool with all of the pagentry including Navy jets and Army helicopters buzzing the stadium, the cadets in their dress blues (Navy) and grays (Army), (attendance is mandatory), great bands and 70,000 of the best behaved most polite football fans you've ever seen. The only person who swore the whole day was me and that was only one "goddammit" when the Army QB let his 2nd interception fly (which was returned for a TD). It was a good game until there were about 10 minutes left. All in all, a very good time. On Sunday, we came back after getting a picture with "Rocky" at the Philedelphia Museum of Art. Our first flight was cancelled (thanks again, American Airlines) so it took a while to get back.

The football Hawkeyes are playing Texas in the Alamo Bowl. They're gonna their collective butts kicked.

Once again, Steve Alford's underacheiving basketball team (has their been any other kind since this asshole has been around?), achieved yet another "first": the first loss to UNI at home in 25 years, which if memory serves, makes it the first loss since Carver-Hawkeye was constructed.

On the cancer front, I felt okay this weekend, and felt real good yesterday(I actually did some Christmas shopping).

With fear and arrogance (or maybe it's ignorance?),

Tom