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Hi you lot,
Back on the road! We've just had a couple of hectic weeks back in England dancing the night away at Julie and John's wicked wedding, meeting the gorgeous baby joseph, sorting out our house and visiting our lovely families. It was great to see so many of you. But now......we are now stateside. Awesome dude, high five and all that malarky! It all started with a bang as we voluntarily got bumped from our original flight. For the sake of 2 hours longer waiting at heathrow we were given $400 cash each!!!....and an upgrade to premium economy. To be honest it was a well needed stroke of luck to boost our quickly diminishing travel fund.
Washington was a nice gentle way to reintroduce ourselves to the honeymoon. Slightly different from our arrival in Delhi back in January. We were only there for one whole day but we managed to see the main sights. The White House was the inevitable highlight, although our mate Mr Obama wasn't home so we had to go out for a Thai meal instead 😊
A couple of weeks ago we added Philadelphia to our itinerary so that we could come
and visit Em's friend (from Camp America) Amy. What a fantastic decision that was...the past two days have been absolutely belt bustingly hilarious. Amy lives on the outskirts of the city in 'the hood' with her son Zac and her husband...wait for it...Bubba! Yes, we have met a real life person called Bubba Nangel and it fills me with joy everytime I think about it. We were picked up from the train station after a really comfortable 2 hour ride from DC to Philly (we're so down with the lingo) and headed straight for the hippy/punky South Street. Em had warned me that I'd be 'made to have' a cheese steak sandwich (gutted!) and she was right. This thing is not just a sandwich, it's a Philadelphia institution.......kind of grated beef swimming in a sea of 2 different kinds of melted cheeses, fried onions and tommy sauce. I'm literally drooling just looking back at it. All this served up by a crazy dude with about 2 teeth, rambling constantly in an English that is nothing like we'd ever heard. I think we'd have been safe on our own but all the same it was nice to have Amy alongside us
when she suddenly adopted his language and shouted (and I quote) 'Gimme two wit' wizz an' American'....translation - Please could we have two of your delicious cheese and steak sandwiches with both cheese sauce and sliced cheese 😊 I can't imagine a better cheese steak sandwich but Bubba reckons we should have gone to Phil's not Jim's and trust me.....you don't wanna argue with Bubba!!!
We spent the rest of the day playing with Zac and the two mentalist pug dogs Brutus and Ruthie and had an early night on our lovely air bed. The Nangels made us feel so welcome we are already planning their visit to Ilkley.
As if that wasn't enough, yesterday was just awesome. Amy's dad, Don, came over and they took us out for the city tour to beat all city tours. We visited the famous Love Statue, the Liberty Bell, and we even saw the steps that Rocky runs up in the film as well as the statue of him. However, the hightlights were the food, which I'll get to in a moment, and the visit to Christ's Church in the centre of Philly. It's where Amy's mum and dad were married.
Unfortunately Amy's mum passed away 11 years ago. This was Amy's first visit to the church and it was emotional for both her and her dad. It's also the church attended by Ben Franklin and George Washington and lots of other dudes that signed the declaration of independence...quite apt seeing as it's 4th July tomorrow.
The food...oh my goodness the food. We started the day with home baked muffins and bagels before picking up some freshly baked pretzels to keep us going on our long (20 minutes) journey into the city. Don giving us a running commentery on the historical sights as we passed them. We drove around South Philadelphia for about an hour looking for Sarcone's Deli as it's supposed to be the best in the city....and worth the wait. Monstorously massive Hogies (sandwiches.....but gormet) filled to the brim with meat and peppers and more meat and cheese of course...then topped with my favourite bit.....more meat! So far everything we'd eaten had been savoury which was either a mistake or genious to mention. We jumped back in the car and were whisked off to The Termini Brothers Bakery for a Canole (like a sweet taco shell stuffed full
of sweet cream cheesey type stuff and chocolate chips). Just awsome! Finally when we got home (back to Bubba who'd been at work) we were given a 15 minute recess of purely beer drinking before the BBQ was sparked up! I am not sure we will ever eat again...that was last night and Em had a couple of sausages and a burger........I managed two burgers just trying to keep up with our hosts...as well as a couple of snags of course.
Think we're finished.....you're wrong! At 9.30 last night, Bubba drove over to Rita's (only the best will do) to grab a few 'water ices'....basically a nicer version of a slush puppy.
What a fantastic couple of days. We're off to Nashville this afternoon and looking forward to the celebrations for 4th July.
So the diet starts today......!
Hope you're all well and enjoying the fact that we finally have the right cable to put pictures on these blogs. Can't promise we'll be able to do this every time but we had the access so thought it would put a smile on your faces 😊
Love Chris and Em xx
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